By Bolaji Akinyemi
Now praise we great and famous men,
The fathers named in story;
And praise the Lord, Who now as then
Reveals in man His glory.
Praise we the glorious names we know,
And they whose names have perished,
Lost, in the haze of long ago,
In silent love be cherished.
In peace their sacred ashes rest,
Fulfilled their day’s endeavor;
They blessed the earth, and they are blessed
Of God and man forever.
Author: W. G. Tarrant
Since 1987, I had promised myself that I was going to write two tributes, one for Colonel Francis AdekunleFajuyi, the first Military Governor of Western Nigeria and the other for Captain Thomas Sankara on the anniversaries of their assassinations and for forty-nine years in the case of Colonel Fajuyi, and twenty-nine years in the case of Captain Sankara, the Military Head of State of Bourkina Faso (1983-1987) the anniversaries came and went without fulfilling the promise I made to myself.To be explicit, Colonel Fajuyi was killed on July 29, 1966, on the murderous and treacherous night that refused to give birth to a bright new day, while Captain Sankara was killed on October 15,1987.
This tributeis for Colonel Fajuyi. God willing, I will pen the tribute for Captain Sankara on the anniversary of his death.
You may be wondering why I have finally be aroused to fulfil my vow on this anniversary of his death. Early this year, specifically on January 15, on the fiftieth anniversary of the January coup, the Nigerian press was awash with reminiscences and tributes from family members, political associates and friends of the victims of the coup. The reminiscences, in themselves, were very educative. But what was spectacularly startling were the contradictions in the narratives. It was obvious that facts, interpretation and falsehoods were muddling this aspect of Nigerian history. So this tribute is my own contribution to contain the violence being done to the truth in Nigerian history.
I met Colonel Fajuyi only once in 1961. I was then an upper six student at Christ School Ado-Ekiti and he came to address our class. He was on leave from the army. He was dressed simply in the Yoruba buba and sokoto attire. His presentation was jovial and simple to understand. We were very interested in how soldiers could understand commands on parade grounds. He made life in the army sound so much fun that if he had made the military equivalent of an altar call, I would have enthusiastically led the others in signing up. Whether my enthusiasm would have survived my first encounter with the drill Sergeant is another matter entirely.
On a lighter note, I once made reference in the presence of Generals Babangida and Abacha to the fact that if I had joined the army in 1960 after my secondary education at Igbobi College,Yaba, Lagos, I would be their senior and therefore a Field Marshall since they were both full Generals by then. General Babangida turned to General Abacha and said “Did you hear that?” General Abacha simply said “we would have shot him.” Presumably, it was all in jest. I hope. But many a true word is spoken in jest.
Back to Colonel Fajuyi.On that occasion of his lecture to us students in Ado-Ekiti, he never for once made any allusion to the fact that he had been honoured twice by the British for acts of courage. In 1954, as a Sergeant, he was awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for supressing a mutiny in his unit over food rations. He never made mention of the fact that he had been awarded the Military Cross (MC) by the British Government for showing exceptional bravery during the Congo operations. The MC is usually granted for “an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land.” The MC is not awarded lightly.
One of the recipients during World War II was a Captain Sam Manekshaw, Indian Army (who eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal). Giventhe fact that I have not been able to come across anything recording that another Black African had won the Military Cross, I might not be completely off the mark if I assert that Fajuyi is the only Black African officer to have won the British Military Cross. (If I am wrong, I hope this article will give someone somewhere the opportunity to set the record straight and complete the record). Given the well known racism exhibited towards colonial troops, I have no doubt if Fajuyi’s heroism that led to the Military Cross had been done by a British officer, it would have been a Victoria Cross, the highest British military honour.
I once watched a film “LION OF THE DESSERT” on the Libyan resistance movement against Italian occupation in Libya during the Second World War. The head of the resistance Sheik Omar Mukhtar was captured, sentenced to death and executed, on 16 September 1931. On the eve of his execution, he was visited by General Rodolfo Graziani who asked him if he had any last requests. He first said no. But as the General got to the door, the Sheik said “Don’t lie that I begged for my life because I did not”. The General was later to say of Omar “he was the bravest and most honourable man that I ever met.”
Of all the conflicting accounts of the events of that murderous and treacherous night which gave birth to a dawn when the sun refused to shine, and there were and I suppose there will continue to be conflicting narratives, all the narratives agreed on one thing: Colonel Francis Fajuyi never begged for his life, never tried to escape, never hid under a bed or hid in a cupboard. “Faith of our father, holy faith, I will be true to thee till death”.
The narrative about Colonel Fajuyi’s behaviour that dawn soon became mired in the propaganda war between the Federal side and the Biafran side. The Federal side maintained that Fajuyi did not volunteer to die with Ironsi and that he was marked down for execution by the July coupists for being complicit in the January coup. The Biafran side insisted that Fajuyi volunteered to die with his guest and Supreme Commander. He was portrayed as a gallant officer, full of valour and honour. The Federal side dismissed the Biafran narrative as a ploy to secure Yoruba support during the war, while the Biafran side dismissed the Federal narrative as a disingenuous attempt to justify the brutal and unwarranted murder of an honourable officer.
Where is the truth? Fifty years after the event, and forty-seven years after the end of the civil war, Mrs Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, the widow of General Ironsi, confirmed what her son, who was with the father in Ibadan that day, told her on July 30, 1966 that Fajuyi volunteered to go with his father—an act of bravery. The war had been long over and Mrs Ironsi had nothing to gain from parroting civil war propaganda. Secondly, the Police Special Branch (the predecessor of what is now the Department of State Security) wrote a report on the January 1966 coup (published in Kirk-Greene, CRISIS AND CONFLICT IN NIGERIA, pp. 115-124) and nowhere was Fajuyi’s name mentioned. The name also did not crop up in either Ruth First, or John de St. Jorre or any book for that matter that dealt with the January 1966 coup.
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