Sixty Years Later: Fani-Kayode Recounts the “Morning of Carnage” that Reshaped Nigeria
Today marks exactly sixty years since the first military coup d’état in Nigeria’s history, an event that occurred in the early hours of January 15, 1966. In a poignant retrospective, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation and son of a prominent survivor of that night, has released a detailed account of the “barbarity and terror” that altered the nation’s trajectory.
Fani-Kayode, who was six years old at the time, describes the events as a “cycle of carnage” whose consequences continue to haunt the Nigerian state. He affirms the findings of the Police Special Branch report, identifying the core leaders of the mutiny, including Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, and Chris Anuforo, among others.
The 1966 mutiny resulted in the cold-blooded murder of the nation’s founding fathers and senior military officers. According to Fani-Kayode, the list of victims included:
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa: Prime Minister of Nigeria (Murdered).
Sir Ahmadu Bello: Premier of the Northern Region (Murdered).
Chief S.L. Akintola: Premier of the Western Region (Murdered).
Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh: Minister of Finance (Murdered).
Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun & Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari: (Murdered).
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The former Minister provided a chilling eyewitness account of the soldiers storming his family home in Ibadan. He recalled the lights being cut and the “loud engines” of military trucks as troops positioned themselves to arrest his father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, then Deputy Premier of the Western Region.
“My father courageously went out to meet them… he explained that he would rather go out to meet them and, if necessary, meet his death than let them come into the house to harm us all,” Fani-Kayode shared.
Despite the violence of the night, Fani-Kayode revealed a moment of “extraordinary compassion” when a soldier—later identified by the author as potentially Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi—placed a hand on his head and promised, “We won’t kill your father.”
The account details the final moments of Chief S.L. Akintola, who engaged the mutineers in a gun battle at his residence before being killed. Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, tied in the back of a military truck, was forced to witness the execution of his colleague and friend.
The Deputy Premier was later taken to Dodan Barracks in Lagos, where he was eventually rescued by loyalist troops under the command of Captain Paul Tarfa, acting on orders from Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon. Fani-Kayode described his father’s survival during the ensuing gunfight as the “Finger of God,” noting that three of the captors were killed while his father remained untouched by the hail of bullets.
Reflecting on the long-term impact, Fani-Kayode argued that the coup was “unjustifiable and utterly barbaric,” arresting Nigeria’s political evolution and setting off a chain of events that led to the Civil War.
“Had it not happened, our history would have been very different,” he concluded. “May we never see such a thing again.”
By PRNigeria
