How Nzeogwu Kept Me In Dark About Nigeria’s First Coup — Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted how the late Kaduna Nzeogwu, kept him in the dark about the first coup in Nigeria despite being his roommate and intimate friend.

Obasanjo disclosed this in a recently granted interview that has gone viral on the internet stressing that he knew nothing about the coup until hours after the execution of prominent politicians marked for elimination by Nzeogwu and his gang.

The former Head of State also noted that he had just returned from a military course he attended in India when the hot-headed young military officers struck.

He stressed that some stewards at the officers’ mess canteen let him in on the development adding that that was when he realized that something was amiss.

“I came back from a military course in India two days before the coup. And the man who spearhead the coup happened to be my friend and roommate. We were best of friends; we were in the Congo together. I have written about him. I woke up on that morning and Chukwuma told me that they were doing some exercise. He never told me the exercise they were doing was a coup. So, I woke up and I did not see Chukwuma or any other person.” Obasanjo said.

He continued, ” I went to the mess canteen for single officers. I saw stewards in fatigues, they were dressed as if they were going on exercise. One of the stewards said, “Oga you no hear say premier (Sardauna) don die, Brigade commander (Ademulegun) don die…”

Obasanjo said he had to travel to meet Nzeogwu at the Brigade Commander’s office that day.

Recounting the conversation that transpired between the two of them when he met his late friend, the former president, said, “Chukwuma had been dressed by a doctor. I think he had shrapnel remove from his neck.”

Obasanjo continued, “When I saw him, I asked, ‘Chukwuma what’s all this?’. He replied, ‘I was wounded in that bloody man’s house’, I inquired further by asking, ‘What bloody man?’ He said, ‘Sardauna’. ‘

Obasanjo asked his friend, ” What the hell are you doing there?” To which he added that Chukwuma said, “Shut up! Don’t ask me stupid question.

The former president to diffuse the building tension he asked Nzeogwu if he had eaten and the late soldier responded by asking Obasanjo to prepare him breakfast as he would the food prepared by Obasanjo alone.

Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his fellow young soldiers executed the first coup in the history of Nigeria on January 15, 1966 killing the premier of the Northern region, Ahmadu Bello who doubled as the Sardauna of Sokoto, his political ally, Tafawa Balewa, who was Nigeria’s Prime Minister. Also killed in the coup was Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola who was the premier of the western region at the time.

Chukwuma would later be killed at the battlefield during the civil war that lasted for almost three years.

Obasanjo wrote about his friendship with Chukwuma in his book eponymously titled, “Nzeogwu”