NGScorecard

Ironsi took power on 16 January 1966 after suppressing the coup that killed Prime Minister Balewa, the Northern Premier Ahmadu Bello and others, pledging to steady the country and prepare a return to constitutional rule.

He held office 194 days. His decisions deepened rather than eased the crisis, and he was assassinated with his host, Lt-Col Adekunle Fajuyi, in the counter-coup of 29 July 1966 — after which Nigeria slid toward civil war.

To bring the January 1966 coup's organisers to account and reassure all regions that the takeover was not sectional.

Ironsi detained but never tried Major Nzeogwu and the other plotters. Because the January coup had killed northern and western leaders but no senior Igbo figures, the failure to prosecute hardened a northern belief that it had been an 'Igbo coup' — a grievance that fed the July counter-coup and the anti-Igbo violence that followed.