Guess who was behind Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, acting as his aide-de-camp (ADC)?

That person was Brigadier Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi (as he then was), then the Military Attaché at Nigeria’s High Commission in London. 

This photo was taken on Tuesday, July 17, 1962, as Sardauna inspected a Guard of Honour comprised of Nigerian cadets at the Mons Officer Cadet School. Three and a half years later, in the early hours of January 15, 1966, the Sardauna was murdered by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, and the next day, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi became Military Head of State after the Sardauna’s protégé, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, was killed by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. 

Almost exactly three years to the day this photo was taken, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi was himself killed in Ibadan on July 29, 1966. May this photo remind those agitating for coup, secession, and war that history does not repeat itself. History is an inanimate conceit incapable of asserting its will. It is men who repeat history and accuse history of repeating itself. 

Credit for the photo goes to Getty Images. #TableShaker