Prominent Nigerians have marked the 50th anniversary of the murder of Adekunle Fajuyi, the 1st Executive Governor of Old Western Nigeria and the then Head of State General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi.
They were brutally killed in the first counter coup witnessed in the nation’s history.
The brutal killings occurred as Fajuyi played host to Aguiyi-Ironsi.
The consensus amongst speakers who attended the golden anniversary of the incident was that Col Fajuyi was a patriot who rarely gets attention despite laying down his life in order to avert a bloody national dislocation.
With the present always in constant dialogue with the past, speakers reechoed the urgent need to reshape the national psyche and remold people’s attitude in the search for a national identity.
They reasoned that such goals can not be achieved when a gallant soldier like Lt Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi who chose to voluntarily sacrifice his life in the counter coup of 29th January 1966 when cornered with his guest and then prime target, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi, does not get due credit.
The speakers insist that true Nigerian heroes who made extraordinary sacrifice can be immortalised when history as a subject is included in the nation’s education curriculum, using indigenous language as the medium of communication.
