Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi: Difference between revisions

Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi
2nd President of Nigeria
In office January 16, 1966 – July 29, 1966
Preceded by	Nnamdi Azikiwe
Succeeded by	Yakubu Gowon
Personal details
Born	March 3, 1924 Umuahia, Nigeria
Died	July 29, 1966 Lalupon, Nigeria
Political party	None (military)

Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (March 3 1924, Umuahia - July 29, 1966, Lalupon, Oyo State) was a Nigerian soldier. He served as the Head of State of Nigeria from January 16, 1966 until he was overthrown and killed in a coup d'état on July 29, 1966.

Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was born to Mazi and Ezugo Aguiyi on March 3,1920, in the Umuahia, present day Abia State, Nigeria. When he was eight years old, Ironsi was moved in with his older sister Anyamma, who was married to Theophilius Johnson, a Sierra Leonean diplomat in Umuahia. Ironsi subsequently took the last name of his brother-in-law, who became his father figure. At the age of 22, Ironsi joined the Nigerian Army against the wishes of his sister. ^[1]

Aguiyi-Ironsi excelled in military training at Eaton Hall, England and became a commissioned officer in June, 1949. Ironsi returned to Nigera to serve as the Aide de camp to, John Macpherson, Governor General of Nigeria. During the Congo_Crisis of the 1960s, the United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld appealed to the Nigerian government to send troops to Congo. Ironsi, a Lieutenant Colonel at the time, led the 5th batallion to the Kivu and Leopoldville provinces of Congo^[1]. His batallion proved integral to the peacekeeping effort, and he was soon appointed as the Commander of the United Nations Operation in the Congo. Ironsi returned from Congo in 1964 during the post-independence "Nigerianization" of the country's institutions of government. It was decided that the British General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Nigerian Army, Major General N. L. Foster, would step down for the government to appoint an indigenous GOC. Ironsi led the pack of candidates jostling for the coveted position. A consensus was reached by the ruling Northern People's Congress (NPC) and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) coalition government, and Ironsi became General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Army on February 9, 1965 [1].

The military coup of 1966 brought him into limelight as the first military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, but was killed seven months later on July 29, 1966 in another coup d'etat.^{[citation needed]}

He was the Chief of Staff of the Nigerian Military when the January 16, 1966 coup occurred. Ironsi never took part in the coup, but in fact frustrated and stopped it. It was left to him to pick up the pieces of government and carry on. He sought to run the country as a unified entity, like the military.^{[citation needed]} However, this led to another coup and his death while in the seat of power.

His son, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, was appointed to the position of Nigeria's Defence Minister on August 30, 2006.^[1]

• Ironsi was not a politician, but a professional soldier in the Nigerian army. He enlisted in the defunct British colonial army, the Royal West African Frontiers Force, after primary school as a private. He rose steadily to the rank of a general in the Nigerian army after Nigeria's independence from Britain. Nigerian First Republic

• LATE MAJ GEN JTU AGUIYI IRONSI