The January 1966 Military Revolt in Nigeria and the Ethnic Conundrum

Abstract

There have been conflicting accounts over the motives and goals of the conspirators of the January 1966 military coup that toppled Nigeria’s first civilian regime. What is more worrisome is the ethnic interpretation of the coup and the lingering enemy image it has created in the country. The coup generated a stark fault line that led to the July 1966 countercoup, series of massacres of Eastern Nigerians and the eventual outbreak of the Nigeria-Biafra War in 1967. Despite its importance in Nigeria’s political history, scholars have failed to adequately interrogate the January 1966 coup. This paper aims to deconstruct the ethnic interpretation of the revolt. It argues that the coup was neither motivated by ethnic chauvinism nor an ambition to privilege any ethnic group over the other. It was, in fact, precipitated by the insensitivity of the political class to national issues and their failure to deliver political goods to the citizenry.