Major Kaduna Nzeogwu: 10 facts you need to know about the 29-year-old who masterminded Nigeria’s first military coup  

Before History as a subject was expunged from the curriculum of secondary schools in Nigeria, the name of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu constantly appeared first when the topic ‘Military Incursion in Nigerian Politics’ was being discussed in History classes.

Nzeogwu was reputed to have masterminded Nigeria’s first military coup in January 1966, intending to overthrow the democratic government barely six years after the country gained independence from the British colonialists.

On January 15 1966, Nzeogwu led a group of soldiers on a supposed military exercise to attack the residence of the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the bloody coup also led to the death of the Premier of Western region, Sir Samuel Ladoke Akintola. The Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a federal minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh, and top army officers from the Northern and Western regions of the nation were also brutally murdered. Those spared in the coup include the premier of the Eastern region Michael Okpara, the President of the Nigerian Federation Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Igbo Army Chief Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi.

The coup failed the planner but it opened the door for Ironsi to become Nigeria’s first military Head of State and it was also perceived by many as an ‘Igbo coup’ because many of the casualties were Hausa and Yoruba while the Igbo survivors were believed to have been deliberately spared. This led to a bloody revenge coup six months later in July 1966.

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Here are 10 facts you need to know about Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu

1. He was born on February 26, 1937 in Kazaure road, Kaduna State. He attended Saint Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Kaduna and later Saint John’s – now Rimi College- Kaduna.
2. Contrary to reports that he was from the Southeast, he hailed from Okpanam Town in Anioma, the Igbo speaking part of Delta State.
3. He started showing signs of rebellion while in secondary school. Emeritus Professor Augustine Esogbue who was his junior in school said in 1956, Nzeogwu led a protest against the decision of the school management to allow his juniors register and write the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in form five instead of form six. The protest led to Nzeogwu’s expulsion as well as other students. Other students apologised and were readmitted except Nzeogwu and one of his friends who left the school without writing the WASCE.
4. In March 1957, a year after his expulsion from school, Nzeogwu enlisted as an officer-cadet in the Nigeria Regiment of the West African Frontier Force and proceeded on a six-month preliminary training in Ghana and completed training in October 1957. He thereafter proceeded to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst where he was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1959.
5. He returned to Nigeria in May 1960 and was posted to the 1st Battalion in Enugu where. He was later posted to the 5th Battalion in Kaduna where he became close friends with former President Olusegun Obasanjo (who later wrote a biography about him).
6. He was the first Nigerian officer to head the military intelligence section at the Army HeadQuarters in Lagos
7. His Hausa colleagues in the Nigerian Army gave him the name ‘Kaduna’ because of his affinity with the town and his fluency in Hausa language.
8. As a military intelligence officer, he participated in the treasonable felony trial investigations of Obafemi Awolowo and other Action Group party members and also clashed with the Minister of State for the Army, Ibrahim Tako Galadima which led to his posting to the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna where he became Chief Instructor.
9. In January 1966, a month to his 29th birthday, Nzeogwu colluded with others like – Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Christian Anuforo, Adewale Ademoyega, Humphrey Chukwuka, Donatus Okafor, Timothy Onwuatuegwu; Captains Ben Gbulie, Emmanuel Nwobosi and Oji to carry out the country’s first military coup. The coup failed, and Nzeogwu was later arrested in Lagos in the company of Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo, on January 18, 1966.
10. His younger sister,  Susan Uwechie, in an interview with The Sun, said contrary to reports that Nzeogwu was killed by the Nigerian forces during the civil war in July 1967, he injected himself and threw a grenade thereafter when he realised he’d been surrounded by his captors.