Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu

Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu was born on 26 February 1937 in Kaduna, Colonial Nigeria. The city was the capital of the Northern Region at the time. Born into an Anioma family, he attended two Christian schools in Kaduna for his elementary and secondary education, the Saint Joseph's Catholic Primary School and the Saint John's College. At the second school, Nzeogwu became close friends with Christian Anufuro.[3]

In March 1957, Nzeogwu enlisted as an officer-cadet in the Nigeria Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force and proceeded on a 6-month preliminary training in the Gold Coast. He completed his training there in October 1957 and proceeded to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England where he was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1959. He later underwent a platoon officer's course in Hythe and a platoon commander's course in Warminster.[4] Nigerian historian Max Siollun described Nzeogwu as a "devout catholic, a teetotaler, a non-smoker, and despite being a bachelor, did not spend much time chasing women".[5]

On his return to Nigeria in May 1960, Nzeogwu was posted to the Nigeria Regiment's 1st Battalion in Enugu where Major Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi was the second-in-command under a British officer.[6] He was later posted to the 5th Battalion in Kaduna where he became friends with Olusegun Obasanjo.[6] His Hausa colleagues in the Nigerian Army gave him the name "Kaduna" because of his affinity with the town.[7] After serving in the Congo in 1961, Nzeogwu was assigned as a training officer at the Army Training Depot in Zaria for about 6 months before getting posted to Lagos to head up the military intelligence section at the Army Headquarters where he was the first Nigerian officer.[8]

The forerunner of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps (NAIC) was the Field Security Section (FSS) of the Royal Nigerian Army, which was established on 1 November 1962 with Captain PG Harrington (BR) as General Staff Officer Grade Two (GSO2 Int). The FSS was essentially a security organization whose functions included vetting of Nigerian Army (NA) personnel, document security and counter intelligence. Major Nzeogwu was the first Nigerian Officer to hold that appointment from November 1962 to 1964. As a military intelligence officer, he participated in the treasonable felony trial investigations of Obafemi Awolowo and other Action Group party members. According to Olusegun Obasanjo, "Chukwuma had some scathing remarks to make about [Nigeria's] national security, and about those who were being investigated. If he had his way, he said, his treatment of the whole case would have been different".[9] Nzeogwu reportedly antagonised some army colleagues in his capacity as a military intelligence officer and even clashed with the Minister of State for the Army, Ibrahim Tako.[8] Consequently, he was posted to the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna where he became Chief Instructor.[8]

On 30 May 1967, Biafra declared its independence from Nigeria; this was spurred by the incessant killing of Igbos in Northern Nigeria and the refusal of then military head of state General Yakubu Gowon to mobilize security personnel to stop the killings.[14] On 29 July 1967, Nzeogwu - who had been promoted to the rank of a Biafran Lt. Colonel - was trapped in an ambush near Nsukka while conducting a night reconnaissance operation against federal troops of the 21st battalion under Captain Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi.[15] He was killed in action and his corpse was subsequently identified;[16] however his sister insisted he killed himself to avoid being humiliated by the federal troops.[17] After the defeat of Biafra orders were given by the Nigerian military head of state General Yakubu Gowon, for him to be buried at the military cemetery in Kaduna with full military honours.[18]

Some viewpoints have romanticized Nzeogwu as a revolutionary however his actions along with those of the 15 January 1966 coup conspirators constituted a putsch against a democratically elected Nigerian government. The coup resulted in the murder of top government officials and gave way to a 13-year stretch of military rule (1966 to 1979), punctuated by a democratic Nigerian government from 1979 to 1983, which was stopped by another military intervention that lasted an additional 16 years until 1999.[15]