THE LONDON CONFERENCE
JANUARY 31, 1966: LONDON
Major Wilson had made the final changes to his report, just before boarding the plane to London. There were still many loose ends
in the report, many unanswered questions. Major Dede
and his men had nearly succeeded. How they had managed to escape his radar he could guess but he was not about
to reveal that in his report or mention the now moribund Buba�s
coup.
The Majors had hatched their plans
using the much talked about Northern Nigerian Premier�s planned coup as a smokescreen. They as it were had flown
below the radar and had avoided detection. How brilliant! Dede
and company deserved respect even from his jaundiced heart.
January 31, 1966, was the date for the London conference. He boarded the BOAC aircraft
in Lagos on the night of January 30. The aircraft
made one brief stop in Kano, Northern Nigeria, before proceeding to London. They landed at the Heathrow airport in the early hours of the morning and he picked a cab and
went straight to the Hotel Marigold, very close to the Oxford Circus. Going straight to his room he showered and
dressed for his meetings at MI6 headquarters. He knew it was going to be a very long day. Two things he hated most
� debriefings and the scrutiny of his reports by his superiors; for him the two things were akin to disrobing in
public. The seemingly meaningless questions � from men who may have cut their teeth in the colonial struggles and
the cold war but seemed not to appreciate the complexities of gathering and running agents in these apparently
independent entities with uncut umbilical cords to Her Majesty�s government � were a nuisance.
There was nothing like being in charge,
he loved it in Lagos. He could walk into any place and be treated differentially, well almost. Major Dede and his tribesmen were the only exceptions.
They thought of themselves as being equal or even superior to the white man.
The Ibos considered themselves as
being republican, intelligent, and hard working. It was that confidence that had made successive British administrators
and policy makers to undermine them. They would continue to be second-class citizens in Nigeria unless they changed their attitude.
Major Wilson hailed a cruising taxi.
He loved the London social life but hated being in London because his superiors always made him feel little. London held many fond memories even though he had been born and brought up in Northampton, north of London. He had his elementary and secondary
school education in Northampton before joining the British Army in 1953.
Becoming a second lieutenant in 1954,
his rise in the army had not been meteoric but he had to admit that he had actually done well for himself. He had
never been a star student and had never laid claim to possessing an Einstein-type grey matter. What he lacked in
the brain department he more than made up with his cunning, patience, and determination. He must also admit that
his good looks were the envy of many a man.
It had been while on an assignment
to Ghana during that country�s independence celebrations in 1957 that he had run into one of his former
classmates in the secondary school. His classmate was working in the British Secret Service but he had not known
it at the time. He had given him a name and a number to call when he got back to London after he had complained that he was
thinking of quitting the army.
His meeting with his former classmate�s
London contact changed the course of his
career. He had expected to meet someone close to his age, not a grey-haired old man who seemed to have trouble
getting up when they had met at Hyde Park on that autumn evening in 1957. The man had asked questions like one who had known him very intimately.
Apparently satisfied with his answers,
he had suddenly asked, �How would you like to work for Her Majesty�s Secret Service?�
The question had taken him by surprise.
He had thought for a moment and then asked what that entailed and the old man had given him a little history of
the British Secret Service.
Within three months of that interview,
even though it did not look like that at the time, his commanding officer had summoned him to his oak paneled office
and informed him of his transfer to the Special Forces Division in Southampton. He was to report to a Major Sloan on arrival in Southampton.
Going to his quarters, after saluting
his commanding officer for what he hoped was the last time, he had packed and arranged for the transportation of
his personal effects to Southampton.
He recalled departing his regiment
in the south of Scotland with mixed feelings on that early January morning eight years ago; while he had loved the atmosphere
and the general camaraderie in the mess, he had hated the regimentation of military life. Arriving Southampton late on that Monday evening, he had
decided not to go to the base that late and had taken a cab from the train station to a bed and breakfast hotel
close by.
Within five minutes of arrival at
the military base the next morning, he had been ushered into Major Sloan�s office.
�Captain, you are to proceed to Sandhurst immediately where you have been registered for the �Captain to Major course� that commenced yesterday.
The attendees to this course are of particular interest to us. More than two thirds of the participants are from
our colonies, past and present. You must interact with each and everyone and we expect your report on each one
on a weekly basis.
These young men are going to play
very important roles in their respective countries. It is important that we learn as much as we can about people
who would likely rise to head the armies of their respective countries and who might be required to perform some
services that would benefit British interests from time to time. The immediate one, of course, being recommendations
that would favor purchases of British made military hardware.
Captain, I need not emphasize that
your assignment is more important than passing the actual exams. In fact, come to think of it, it might be more
advisable to play the role of the underdog. This might more likely help you gain the confidence of your less endowed
classmates. You should deliver your reports to the janitor responsible for your quarters. There must be no familiarity
between the two of you. Both of you will arrange the time and place from which he will be collecting your reports
every Sunday. He will also deliver comments and instructions that might come up, from time to time, from others
and me. Good luck.�
With that, Major Sloan had dismissed
him. That had been ages ago. So much had happened since then. He must concentrate on the matters at hand.
MI6 HEADQUARTERS
Major Wilson arrived the nondescript building housing the offices of MI6 by 9.00 a.m. and went straight to the general
office where he was sure there was a desk waiting for him.
There was always a desk for a field
officer coming in from the �Hot� or the �Cold.� The agent uses the facilities there for as long as he was in �residence.�
MI6 had five sections namely: political, economic, agitation and propaganda, technologies, and culture.
On his desk were instructions to send
copies of his report through �the funnel� to the Heads of the sections. This would be the first time the service
had asked him to do that in his career. The implication was not lost on him; the bosses of MI6 were going to make
very important decisions on this trip.
Going to the central registry, he
pressed a button marked �Personnel use only.� A whirring sound followed and the tray with the letter P representing
the first letter of the Political section appeared. Dropping a copy of the report into the tray, a funnel-like
aperture opened up, sucked in the envelope and closed automatically. It was then he understood why they called
the contraction �the funnel.� He repeated the process and delivered the other four copies the same way. The Admin
officer had told him that only Heads of sections could retrieve mail dropped into their mailboxes using their personalized
access codes.
At 11.00 a.m., the door on his left opened and
a shapely-legged woman came over to his desk to take him to the conference room. They went through many doors and
many winding passages before reaching the door to the conference room, which automatically opened at their approach
and shut as soon as he had entered. He sensed his companion had not come in. Looking ahead now, he saw five impassive
faces staring in his direction.
�Welcome Major, I hope you had a pleasant
flight,� said the white-haired one facing him directly.
As he cleared his throat to reply,
he heard the stilted voice belonging to the man on his immediate left say, �Please sit down.�
�We have gone through your report,�
said the man with the stilted voice. �The situation in Nigeria worries us. Nigeria has become for us the most important country, apart from South Africa, in Africa. We have received a secret report
prepared jointly by London Oil and Cowrie
Petroleum on the estimated petroleum reserves in Nigeria. It appears that the land mass encompassing Eastern and Midwestern regions of Nigeria is sitting on an ocean of oil. The
report gives out even the more tantalizing possibility that the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from the
Bight of Benin through the Bight of Biafra and continuing to the shores of Angola contains so much oil that one
of their geologists used the term �Oily Waters� to describe the area.
Our interest has always been in a
united Nigeria under the control of elements from Northern Nigeria. This arrangement has worked well until now. The attempted coup, with the consciousness raised
in the citizenry by Major Uba�s
coup speech, is capable of provoking a mass uprising if the situation is not contained.
You indicated in your report that
General Aga
would likely restore order with time and we have no reason to doubt that but what would happen after the General
has conducted a new census and held a general election as he had promised? To those of us on this table, we know
the answer to that.
I will go into history to bring you
up to speed. You may not know it but the population of Southern Nigeria is more than that of Northern Nigeria and a new census would reveal this fact. The British government went to great lengths to make sure
that the population of Northern Nigerian was greater than that of Southern Nigeria in the 1953 census despite the fact that the actual count showed the population of Southern Nigerian
to be greater by more than five million.
From the time of Lugard, we had determined that the Fulanis of Northern Nigeria, lighter in color
than the other tribes and with a system of monarchical government that resembled ours, would most serve British
interests in Nigeria and help us to maintain perpetual control.
Subsequently our administrators ensured
that the 1959 Federal elections went in favor of Northern Nigeria, after all the voters register derived from the census figures. It was not by accident that the
now overthrown civilian government made two attempts to count its citizens in 1962, 1963, and had failed both times.
Southern Nigerian politicians refused
to accept the results citing many irregularities, some of which included the counting of cows, and the refusal
by the heads of households to allow census enumerators enter the �purdah,�
a place in which Northern Moslem women are secluded from prying eyes, to count the women. The enumerators had to
accept any figure given them by the Head of a household.
Nigeria has been using the 1953 census figures
we had organized, a poll that gave the advantage to Northern Nigeria, for preparing the voters register and for other development plans since then. For power to return
to Northern
Nigeria
after the next elections there must be no new census.
The General, being Ibo and from Southern Nigeria, would most likely refuse to go along
with our long-term interests. He cannot possibly accept to rig any new census in favor of Northern Nigeria and neither do we see him agreeing
to ensure the next election favors a Northerner. We know he is a straight arrow � incorruptible with no skeletons
in the cupboard that we can put flesh on. The aim of this meeting is to chart Nigeria�s future direction bearing in mind
our long-term interests and the unwelcome possibility that Northern Nigeria�s tenuous hold on the country might be over.�
It was clear to Major Wilson that
the man who spoke was the Head of the Political section. As he looked, he saw the man sitting to his immediate
right hand out copies of a one-page document to the other section heads. They briefly looked at it before the man
who had passed the document started to speak.
�The document in your hands outlines
what Agitation and Propaganda has done so far and our recommendations on the way forward. One of the reasons for
the surrender of Major Uba
was our very effective propaganda that ships from the Royal Naval Fleet were steaming down to the Lagos port while Royal Air Force planes
were on standby to attack the troops he was assembling preparatory to his planned march to the South.
We propose to use an unintended consequence
of the coup to create disaffection in Northern Nigeria as well as give the northerners a common cause to launch a military strike that will topple General
Aga�s government. MI6 knows that Major
Uba�s coup was not an Ibo-sponsored coup,
not when the mutineers had planned to kill General Aga
but for the warning by our Major Wilson. In addition, one Ibo colonel died also.
However, the Hausa-Fulani lost a Premier,
the Prime Minister of Nigeria and a brigadier general and the Yoruba lost a Premier and a brigadier general while
the minority tribes lost the Federal Minister of Finance.
Using the disproportionate number
of casualties, we should create doubt in the minds of the other tribes by blurring the facts. None of us can afford
to be squeamish about the plan I have outlined. Our agents in the BBC and in the University of Northern Nigeria should spread the word that it was
an �Ibo coup,� whose aim was the Ibo domination of Nigeria. They should also organize the agitation that would follow using our local civilian and military
agents.
The Lagos and Western Nigerian regional press
would not need much prompting to join the bandwagon for the vilification of the Ibos; after all, they lost their
Premier and a top army officer. Our overall aim is to create enough dissatisfaction thereby preparing the grounds
for our local military agents to take over the reigns of government when given the green light.�
The man had spoken so coldly and dispassionately.
�What timeline are we talking about?�
asked the Head of the Political section.
�Oh, not more than six to eight months,
three to four months for propaganda and two to three months for agitation,� came the instant reply from the Head
of �Agiprop,� as Agitation and Propaganda section
was sometimes called.
�We could have a problem there since
a Northern Nigerian coup can only take place after local agitation has galvanized the necessary opposition. The
coup could be ten or more months away. Our agents in London Oil and Cowrie
Petroleum are almost certain that the highly secret information could leak out within six months. They were firm
in their conviction that the find was so monumental the French and the Americans, who have been sniffing around
for decades, might soon stumble onto the same fact. The Soviets might catch on too, muddying the waters further.
We must, therefore, reduce the timeline even if we have to use extreme measures.�
Major Wilson concluded that the last
speaker was the Head of the Economic section. Each section brought its own perspective and proposals on the way
forward to ensure continued British domination of Nigeria�s political and economic interests through their Northern Nigeria surrogates.
The discussions continued to go back
and forth for the next two hours. For Major Wilson, it was very informative; he had thought before then that he
knew everything there was to know about Nigeria. He felt humbled even as he was elated to be attending a meeting with all the five heads in one
room, attending a meeting with even one head was a thing of great honor.
Nigeria was indeed very important for the
five heads to spend this appreciable amount of time fine-tuning the plans for the re-conquest of Nigeria. There was no doubt that he would
lead this battle or why would they have allowed him to be in the war room where very few field operatives had ever
entered. He considered himself very fortunate indeed.
The Head of the Political section
who was obviously chairing the session cut his reverie short.
�Major Wilson, we want to know what
you think of our plans as you would, to a large extent, be implementing most of them.�
As he stood up and cleared his throat,
the white-haired man who had asked about his flight at the start of the meeting spoke, �No need to stand on formalities
here, my boy. You should sit down, relax, and then give it to us.�
���There are enough local military
agents to take over the government once we have created the enabling environment. I have worked with most of them
since my days at Sandhurst
and they are easy to manipulate. The plan to spread the word that it was an Ibo coup is a masterstroke and it will
resonate very well in Northern Nigeria and for that matter in other parts of the country with the exception of Eastern Nigeria. We should add that it was anti-Moslem
also since most of those killed were Moslems. This will draw sympathy from the Western and Midwestern regions where
there are significant Moslem populations. I will use my relationship with the General to misdirect him and keep
him off balance. I believe a coup could be successfully executed within six months.�
They all looked at him and nodded
their heads. He caught their glances and was elated with what he saw. These men rarely showed their emotions.
�Major, you will be in London for one week. Use the time to prepare
the working documents, identifying resources, and everything each section has to provide to ensure a successful
coup not traceable to us, now or in the future. The Americans are sending a very high-level delegation for the
meeting tomorrow, so you will not be attending.
We are pleased with the report on
the Ghana project. You have the �go� signal for it since we cannot afford to take any chances now that Nigeria is having its difficulties. Nkrumah
is a man who likes to fish in troubled waters. The proposed February 23 date for the military coup in Ghana is confirmed unless operational details
dictate otherwise.�
The shapely-legged woman materialized
from nowhere to usher him out as the Head of the Political section finished speaking.
His thoughts were on General Aga as he went back to his desk. A man
of very limited education and unquestioned courage, he had been the pawn that saved the day for British interests
in Nigeria. Now that government was ready to dump him; worse still, he would have to die. Would it not have
been better if Major Dede
and company had killed him two weeks ago? However, that would have worked against British interests.
Had it not been for the General, Major
Dede�s coup would have succeeded and the
plans they would have been making in the meeting he had just left would have been how to run with their tail between
their legs without losing the tail.
�Permit me to say that you have me
at a disadvantage as you never did tell me your name.�
The shapely-legged woman smiled and
he could see the pretty gap between the two upper front teeth.
�Mandy is the name and I am in general
administration.�
�I seem to miss my way whenever I
come to London these days, so, I am forced to take a cab. It would be nice to have someone who is very familiar
with the city show me the sights.�
�Major, I know the perfect person
with excellent credentials and who would be a great help to you.�
Looking up very expectantly, he asked,
�Could you kindly tell me who?�
�I know for a fact that there is a
security detail attached to admin whose job function includes showing the sights to our esteemed agents whenever
they drop by.�
�Mandy, thanks for the tip but I would
be delighted to have you show me the sights beginning from this evening.�
�Major, what exactly do you have in
mind?�
�A drink this evening and a chance
to get to know you better,� came the ready reply.
�I will be at the Marigold by 8.00 p.m.,� Mandy said.
He raised an eyebrow and was at the
point of asking how she knew where he was staying and then decided against it. Of course, they knew his movements.
That was standard procedure.
Mandy�s question, �Major, anything
bothering you?� broke into his thoughts.
�Oh no, my mind just strayed a bit.
I seem to have acquired this habit of late.�
He had to bite his lips as he had
been about to add, �It might not be unconnected with the upheavals in Nigeria�.
Luckily, he had caught himself on
time.
�Mandy, I look forward to our meeting
this evening.�
Her departure gave him a chance to
mull over the events of the day.
Mandy could be a plant by the service
to determine his continued suitability for the assignment in Africa. The stakes were much higher now. Much as he was trusted, he knew that his bosses scored him very
low in the IQ department. Brilliant agents went either to the Soviet Union, China, and the Eastern block countries or to the NATO member countries while the dregs went to Africa and Asia.