Nigeria’s Five Majors: Coup d’etat of 15th January 1966, first inside account

The coup d’etat of January 15, 1966, which has had a fundamental and permanent impact on the political and social life of Nigeria, has generated a good deal of literature. Much, if not all, of such literary output has been based mostly on second-hand accounts and/or mere half-truths often coloured by prejudice and misguided sentiments. In Nigeria’s Five Majors, Captain Ben Gbulie – one of the key planners and executors of the coup – gives the first ever “factual, first-hand, inside account” of that most eventful putsch that put an end to Nigeria’s First Republic. In this very revealing, decidedly readable narrative, the author brings fresh insights into what made that critical operation necessary, why and how it failed to achieve the goals of its architects, besides describing in full, its detailed planning and execution.