Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi

Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was born on 3 March 1924 in Umuahia, Southern Region, British Nigeria. He joined the Nigerian Regiment in 1942 as a private and rose through the ranks to become a company sergeant major in 1946. He received officer training in England and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1949. He served in various capacities in the Nigerian Army, including as an equerry for Queen Elizabeth II in 1956, for which he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order. He also participated in peacekeeping missions in Congo and Tanzania. He was promoted to major general in 1965 and became the General Officer Commanding of the Nigerian Army. On 15 January 1966, a group of young army officers staged a coup d'etat that killed many senior politicians and military officers, including the prime minister, the premier of the Northern Region, and the premier of the Western Region. Aguiyi-Ironsi, who was in Lagos at the time, took control of the situation and assumed the leadership of the country as the head of the Supreme Military Council. He suspended the constitution, dissolved the parliament, and banned all political parties. He also appointed military governors for the four regions of the country. One of his most controversial decisions was to issue the Unification Decree on 24 May 1966, which abolished the federal system and replaced it with a unitary system of government. This decree was seen by many northerners as an attempt to impose Igbo domination over the rest of the country, especially after the bloody pogroms against the Igbo people in the north following the January coup. Aguiyi-Ironsi also faced opposition from some of his fellow officers, who accused him of being too lenient with the coup plotters and failing to address the grievances of the army. On 29 July 1966, while on a state visit to Ibadan, Aguiyi-Ironsi was captured and killed by a group of northern officers led by Major Murtala Mohammed, who staged a counter-coup against his government. The counter-coup ushered in a period of instability and violence that eventually led to the Nigerian Civil War. Aguiyi-Ironsi was buried in Ibadan with full military honors. He was posthumously awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic in 1978. He is remembered as the first military head of state of Nigeria and a pioneer of the Nigerian Army.