THE JANUARY 15 COUP: THE BEGINING OF MARGINALIZATION IN IGBO LAND

JANUARY 15 1966 COUP: THE BEGINING OF MARGINALIZATION OF NDI IGBO

Whenever I see Soldiers in their neatly pressed uniforms performing parade during the Armed forces remembrance day ,I remember with sadness the bitter aftermath of the first bloody coup of January 15 1966, which brought more harm than good to the Igbo race.
  Its conspirators mostly of Igbo stock and a Yoruba officer, overthrew the incumbent Abubakar Tafawa Balewa's   government ,killing the Prime Minister, The Premier of the western region, The Premier of the Northern region ,The Minister of finance and others. According to the conspirators, the men at the helm of affairs were running Nigeria around with their corrupt ways. Most of these men were murdered right in front of their families (an inhuman act one would do to a fellow man)
 I have never seen such an ill-timed ,unorganized ,pointless and prejudiced coup(This is because most of the corrupt Igbo politicians were not killed or were they saints?) in the history of this nation and its effect is greatly felt by Ndi Igbo today. The coup further intensified corruption which they erroneously thought they fought against and also started the marginalization of Ndi Igbo.
     I hope the conspirators of the coup (most of them dead )would be sober reflecting in their graves the aftermath of their stupidity in staging such a pointless coup. The aftermath brought upon harsh irreparable casualties in the helm of things.
   First was the mass murder of senior Igbo officers during the counter coup of Yakubu Gowon and the pogrom against Igbo settlers living in the north, in which lives and properties worth millions were lost(such incessant killings against Ndi Igbo still persists till date in the north.) The Economic setback on the Igbo nation immediately after the civil war (leading to most Igbos not owning key companies in the country because of the ruse of the indigenization policy) and the crux of it all the Nigerian civil war (popularly known as the Biafra war amongst easterners) in which atrocities committed still sends horror chills to the spines of both those that saw it and those that read or heard about it.(youths are still being killed because of the Biafra struggle in the east till date).
    I would say that the conspirators of the coup, sowed the ill wind of woes  that is still blowing nobody any good in Igbo land. We are still reaping the whirlwind of it till date. The stirred the hornet's nest and left when the sting of the of the hornets became unbearable . I wish they were still alive to see the great harm they have done to our people for such a stupid action.