The Coups and Massacres of 1966
Two military coups and mass killings of Igbo in the North destroy trust between Nigeria's regions and set the stage for civil war.
- Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966–1976) — Max Siollun, Algora (2009)
- A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
- Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide: The Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 — Lasse Heerten and A. Dirk Moses (eds.), Routledge (2018)
On 15 January 1966 a group of mostly Igbo army majors, led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, killed the prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Northern premier Ahmadu Bello, the Western premier Samuel Akintola and several senior officers. The coup failed in Lagos, and the army commander, Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, took power. His decree abolishing the regions in May fed northern fears.
- Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966–1976) — Max Siollun, Algora (2009)
- A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
On 29 July northern officers struck back, killing Ironsi and many Igbo officers; Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon became head of state. Through 1966, and above all in late September, mobs and soldiers in northern cities killed Igbo and other easterners. Estimates range from several thousand to 30,000 or more. Perhaps a million or more easterners fled home to the East.
- Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide: The Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 — Lasse Heerten and A. Dirk Moses (eds.), Routledge (2018)
- Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966–1976) — Max Siollun, Algora (2009)
- A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
The killings shattered the belief, held by many Igbo who had settled across the country as traders, civil servants and professionals, that they could be at home anywhere in Nigeria. Eastern leaders now demanded guarantees of safety and a looser federation, and the federal and eastern governments drifted toward war.
- A History of Nigeria — Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, Cambridge University Press (2008)
- There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra — Chinua Achebe, Allen Lane (2012)
The January coup killed the North's premier Ahmadu Bello and the federal prime minister, both northerners, while most leading Igbo politicians were spared, and the new Igbo-led government ended the regions. To many northerners it looked like a plot to dominate the country.
- Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966–1976) — Max Siollun, Algora (2009)
- Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto: Values and Leadership in Nigeria — John N. Paden, Hodder and Stoughton (1986)
The coup plotters were driven by national, not ethnic, motives, and its leader Major Nzeogwu was killed on the Biafran side. Whatever the coup's causes, ordinary Igbo traders and families in the North were slaughtered in their thousands while the state failed to protect them.
- There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra — Chinua Achebe, Allen Lane (2012)
- Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide: The Nigeria-Biafra War, 1967–1970 — Lasse Heerten and A. Dirk Moses (eds.), Routledge (2018)
Why it matters today
How 1966 is remembered still divides Nigerians. Many northerners recall the January coup, which killed their leaders, as an "Igbo coup"; many Igbo recall the massacres that followed as the start of a genocide. Both memories feed mistrust that politicians can still stir up.