Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, Nigeria’s first de facto vice president, was born this day in 1924. Brigadier Ogundipe served during General Aguiyi Ironsi’s 1966 military regime. Prior to this position, he served during the World War II in Burma between 1942 to 1945 after joining the Royal West African Frontier Force in 1941.
Critics have against him his refusal to succeed General Ironsi who was murdered during the 1966 coup, blaming the resulting massacres as the consequence of his refusal. However, Brigadier Ogundipe who, though was the most senior military officer and logically the most eligible, was only a Christian south westerner with no troops at a time when the country was at the peak of an ethnic and religious discord.
After the coup, he left Nigeria for the United Kingdom where he was Nigeria’s representative at the 1966 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and thereafter, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom until August 1970.
He died in London on November 20, 1971.
Reference: en.wikipedia.org
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