Category: Military
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Al-Mustapha Hamza; Major in the Nigerian army, an otherwise unknown soldier who played a pivotal role in determining the country’s direction and future. Born July 27, 1960 in Ngiru, Yobe State, Al-Mustapha was appointed Chief Security Officer to the Head of State with a Special Strike Force Unit during General Abacha‘s military regime (November 17,…
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KATSINA Hassan Usman; Nigerian Army General, born 1933 in Katsina. Hassan Usman Katsina belonged to the generation of generals who handled the affairs of the Nigerian republic in 1966 when the military made the maiden incursion into politics. A Sandhurst trained officer, Katsina was appointed the military governor of the old Northern Region at a relatively…
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Odumegwu Ojukwu; Army officer, listed in the Nigerian Army in 1957 and rising through the ranks to become the military governor of the Nigeria Eastern Region in 1966. Ojukwu was the chief secessionist of the defunct Republic of Biafra, which he declared shortly after failed effort to broker peace with Head of State, Yakwubu Gowon…
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Theophilus Danjuma; Military general who played crucial roles in the shaping of post-independence Nigeria. Danjuma who made huge fortunes in Nigeria’s extractive industry announced his foundation with the sum of $100 million in 2009[i]. The one-time Chief of Army Staff, COAS, and Minister of Defence is generally regarded as a doyen of military professionalism[ii]. Born…
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Third Marine Commando; Nigerian military unit and a major player in the Nigerian civil war, representing an important portion in the Nigerian history, especially between 1967 and 1970. Benjamin Adekunle, who was trained at Sandhurst, an excellent global military training institution located in the United Kingdom, raised and moulded into a credible fighting force the…
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Ebitu Okoh Ukiwe; Nigeria’s first chief of general staff. Ukiwe was military governor of Niger State, 1977-78, military administrator of Lagos State, 1978-79 and chief of general staff, 1985-86. A war generalissimo, Ukiwe pitched tent with the Biafran side during the 30-month-old Nigerian civil war, proving his mantle on the battlefield. However, after the war.…
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Muhammadu Buhari; Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria Armed Forces from December 31, 1983, to August 26,1985, before he was overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida. Buhari was also chairman, Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF. After futile effort at attaining presidency under the flagships of the All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP, in the 2003 and 2007 and…
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Azikiwe Nnamdi; First Nigerian governor- general and later ceremonial president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Before this, Zik became the Premier of the Eastern Region in 1954. His party, the National Council Nigeria and the Cameroons, NCNC dominated the politics of Eastern Nigeria, winning for the Region internal self-rule in 1956. Zik was at…
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Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi; First military Head of State of Nigeria. General Aguiyi-Ironsi was described in Major Ademola Ademoyega, a revolutionary Yoruba officer and one of the key actors in the famed “Igbo coup” later, in his memoirs, Why We Struck, as a reactionary who mobilised his men to abort the January 1966 revolution in…