OPINION
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| Femi Fani-Kayode |
(Culled from The Herald)
Fifty years ago today, on July 29th
1966, a man by the name of Major General Francis Adekunle Fajuyi gave his life
in defence of our country and the then Head of State, General Johnson Thomas
Aguiyi-Ironsi.
His killers were a group of
northern army officers who participated in the so-called northern “revenge
coup” of July 29th 1966. No less than 300 Igbo army officers were slaughtered
that night together with a handful of Yoruba soldiers, including Fajuyi.
Major General Fajuyi was a Yoruba
man who opted to die in defense of an igbo Head of State. This was not only
honorable and courageous but it was also unique and unprecedented. He was a
selfless hero and a man that we shall honor and immortalise in the new Nigeria
that is to come.
Those that murdered him, General
Aguiyi-Ironsi and the famous 300 in cold blood that night are still running the
affairs of our country till today. They determine who is who and who gets what.
They decide who our President will be and how long he will remain in power.
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| Late Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, first Military Governor of the defunct western Region. |
As a matter of fact their hateful
hegemony and evil intentions are even more pronounced and frightful today than
they were in 1966 and their grip on the levers of power in our country is even
stronger. Today they are fully in charge and some of those that actually shot
Fajuyi are fully behind them.
Yet despite their intention to
dominate, silence, break and destroy the rest of us one thing remains clear:
the Fajuyi spirit of courage, unity, selflesness and sacrifice has been imbued
by millions in the southern and Middle Belt regions of our country.
These are men and women that are
prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed of our nation,
whether they be Niger Deltans, Igbos, Yorubas, Middle Belters or anything else.
These are men and women that are
prepared to resist the perfidious religious and ethnic agenda of the “born to
rule” in our midst and that recognize the fact that they regard the rest of us
as nothing but slaves.
When it comes to southern rights
and interests we the Yoruba particularly must learn a lesson from our own son,
Fajuyi, and emulate his example.
Like him, if necessary, we must be
ready to sacrifice our lives and liberty in defense of any or all of our
southern and Middle Belt brethren that are facing persecution, genocide and
injustice at the hands of our collective slave masters.
It is also time for us to
appreciate the fact that if we truly want to be free we must extend our hand of
friendship across the River Niger to the Igbo and we must see their bitter
travails as being ours as well.
We must also feel the pain when an
Igbo or Niger-Deltan youth is slaughtered by President Buhari’s army in the
name of “crushing all opposition and dissent” and “keeping Nigeria one”.
We must acknowledge the fact that
Nigeria cannot remain one as long as there is ethnic and religious bigotry,
oppression and injustice. We must appreciate the fact that there can never be
southern, or indeed, Middle Belt, emancipation without southern unity.
Fajuyi understood that point 50
years ago. Consequently he opted to resist the evil in the end die for it. He
was, indeed, a true martyr. He paid the supreme price for his fellow southerner
and he stood against northern adventurism, oppression, domination and hegemony.
50 years later it is time for the
rest of us to do the same. It is time for us to acknowledge and honor his
sacrifice and come together as one. It is time for us to stand up, look at our
collective oppressors in the eye and say “no more”.
No longer should we bow our heads
in submission, servility and shame. It is time for us to rise up, invoke the
power of the Living God and be men.
May the gallant and beautiful soul
of Major General Fajuyi continue to rest in eternal peace and may those that
murdered him 50 years ago be brought to justice.
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