The Burden of Historical Accuracy Has Always Been Too Heavy for You.
Dear FFK,
Your tribute is emotionally powerful, but it is also historically careless, and that is where the problem lies. Sentiment, however noble, is not a substitute for evidence.
To begin with, there is no credible historical testimony, from Major T.Y. Danjuma, who is still alive, or from any principal actor in the July 29, 1966 counter-coup, that supports the claim that Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi (not a Major General) was executed for insisting on protecting the Head of State. That version of events, repeated endlessly in popular discourse, has hardened into folklore, not fact.
What has been consistently acknowledged in serious accounts is far more troubling and far less heroic. But
the one uncontested fact is that it was Fajuyi himself who persuaded General Aguiyi-Ironsi to remain another night at Government House, Ibadan, despite the obvious volatility of the situation following the January coup and the growing hostility within the army. That single decision placed Ironsi directly in harm’s way.
When Major T.Y. Danjuma and the Northern officers arrived in Ibadan, Odogbo Barracks (which has now been renamed Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi) they did not expect to find Ironsi there, without resistance. They came to take the Command as part of their coup strategy.
It was Fajuyi’s men who received them, ushered them in, and only then did it become apparent that the Head of State was present. General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi had two Aides-de-Camp (ADCs) with him on the night of the July 29, 1966 counter-coup, Colonel Sani Bello and Captain Andrew Nwankwo. Both men survived and their own accounts of what happened are in the public domain.
For Bello:
“About that time, something extraordinary happened. After some time there was a Land Rover coming in but because of where the two superiors were sitting, they could see it. Fajuyi called his ADC, A B Umaru, to see who was coming in because it was late in the night; and he quickly did that….. We couldn’t see Ironsi and Fajuyi, but we could talk to them because we were at separate wings. After some time Fajuyi said we should send for vehicles. As we were jumping into the Land Rover, we heard a machine gun fire. Dada rushed back. The sergeant-major said “he was trying to run away and we shot him. They killed Fajuyi while we were there. I did not see the body but we heard the shot and they told Dada that they killed him. That was the last I heard of Ironsi.”
The links to Nwankwo’s and Bello’s account can be found at the end.
So, far from a dramatic standoff in defence of Ironsi, what followed was shock; shock that a regional military governor could expose his Supreme Commander so casually, so recklessly, and without any evident security foresight.
There is no evidence, none, that Fajuyi drew a moral line, issued an ultimatum, or demanded to be arrested alongside Ironsi as an act of defiance.
That narrative is a later embellishment, constructed to retrofit nobility onto a tragedy born largely of misjudgment.
Crucially, Fajuyi was not executed because he tried to save Ironsi. He was executed because the murderous coup plotters came for him as they easily walked through his security.
Fajuyi’s conduct appeared, at best, grossly negligent and, at worst, politically irresponsible in a moment of extreme military tension.
The counter-coup was already in motion, and once Ironsi was discovered, events became irreversible.
This does not mean Fajuyi was plotting a coup, nor that he intended betrayal. By all accounts, carelessness and misplaced confidence were part of his nature, not conspiracy.
But history must tell the truth: good intentions do not erase catastrophic errors.
As for Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke, that story too suffers from a lack of verifiable primary evidence and relies heavily on oral repetition rather than documented military testimony.
Heroism deserves commemoration; but only when it is anchored in fact, not when it is sustained by emotionally satisfying myths.
Nigeria’s tragedy has never been a shortage of martyrs; it has been a shortage of honesty about how and why those tragedies occurred.
When we sanctify history instead of interrogating it, we do not promote unity; we promote illusion.
If we are serious about national healing, then revered narratives must be open to scrutiny, especially when they concern events as consequential as the coups of 1966.
Femi, Ichọzi kwa ịkọ ọnụ, eche m gi with general ghaghagha. Stop creating your own imaginative narratives as history. These things don’t work like that.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Ikem Umealo
Links:for Bello
Col Sani Bello: How I escaped as Fajuyi, Aguyi-Ironsi were murdered
Link for Nwankwo
Special branch report: How Ironsi was killed. ~ By his ADC Captain Andrew Nwankwo.
