Time does not heal all wounds. Much as memory recedes and human beings move on, engaged by other distractions and activities that are unavoidable parts of living, some experiences in life leave wounds that subsist through time and seasons.

When an experience involves a combination of psychological and physical injury, delivered in a most traumatic knock, healing often becomes extremely difficult. It is worse when the environment inhabited by the victim(s) of such painful experience is a place that consciously or unconsciously aggravates pain.

The Nigerian state Is too immersed in an unending crisis of its existence to be a good healer of wounds in its citizens. As a matter of fact, so much about Nigeria and its inherent challenges aggravate rather than lessen the trauma of many seeking for a soothing therapy for different injuries. As many citizens who have received raw deal in Nigeria, in one way or another, easily realize, there is hardly a soothing balm from the Nigerian state, or from the hands of government officials.

So much has been written and narrated over the years about the national tragedy of 1966 that will haunt Nigeria for ever. A lot of stories have been told about the incidents of January 15 1966, the first burst of calamity that set the stage for subsequent calamities that have come to define Nigeria till this day.

To many Nigerians, both the older citizens who were alive in 1966 and the younger generation that came much later, the incidents that exploded into the crisis that engulfed the country that very year, were simply historical incidents told and retold without any direct personal touch. Of course, the crisis eventually affected the political and economic life and history of the country, but it remains a distant event to many.

To a very small number of persons, however, the tragedy of January 15 1966 was not a tale from a distant place. The incidents deeply affected and perpetually defined the life, the existence and the future of some individuals, families and family lineages that suddenly found themselves in disaster they neither foresaw nor could do much about. For these affected persons and families, the horrors of January 15 1966 will never go away. The pain is the type that will last for ever.

The family of Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun, the Brigade Commander of the 1st Brigade of the Nigerian Army Kaduna, as at that time, is one such family that has found itself condemned to a life of pain that will not go away. Ironically, the life of the family until January 15 1966, had seemed bright, with good prospects, under the family leadership of the respected soldier who was highly regarded in the military circles and beyond. The peaceful family life and good prospects for the family of Brigadier Sam Ademulegun suddenly got shattered in one midnight. January 15,1966.

On that eventful day in 1966, having retired to bed after the day’s activities, Brigadier Ademulegun was recoiling on the bed with his wife, Latifat, who was eight months pregnant, oblivious of what was unfolding across the city of Kaduna and indeed in some other locations across the country. The home of the Ademuleguns in the reserved area of Kaduna was not only an upper-class environment, their residence was guarded by military personnel.

When therefore, a team of young officers, junior to the Brigade Commander, stormed his bedroom, led by Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu who was a friend and frequent visitor to the Ademuleguns, Sam Ademulegun reportedly asked an impulsive question, although it would have dawned on him that there was trouble. He was said to have asked Major Onwuatuegwu,” Tim, how did you find yourself in my bedroom and what the devil do you think you are doing?

As at that moment, the coup of January 15 1966 was on and what Major Onwuatuegwu and his team wanted was for Brigadier Ademulegun to hand over the keys of the armoury to them, to further their coup enterprise. The demand was, obviously, not a request the hard-core professional soldier in Sam Ademulegun would grant.

Registered as officer number 3 in the Nigerian Army, following closely after Wellington Bassey (No.1) and Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (No.2), Ademulegun’s professionalism and patriotic flavour were solidly etched in him. He was Sandhurst- trained and had served variously in Burma, Congo and Tangayika among others. He was not about to hand over the keys of the armoury to anybody, not to junior officers.

The attempt by the heavily pregnant Mrs. Latifat Ademulegun to soften the situation by planting herself between her husband and his friend, Major Tim Onwuatuegwu, did not achieve the result she expected. It ended fatally. Mrs. Ademulegun was fatally shot, pregnancy and all. Her husband, refusing to release the armour keys was instantly killed too, both in their bedroom. He was barely 42 years old, and his wife 38 years old.

The horror played out in the presence of their six-year-old daughter, Solape, even as a younger child, four-year-old Adegoke also witnessed, both horrified by the bursts of guns, but could not have understood what had happened. The oldest of the children, 13-year-old Bankole who hear some noise and tried to come out to see what the commotion towards his parents’ bedroom was all about, rushed back on seeing soldiers everywhere at that unholy hour.

The life of the six offspring of Brigadier Ademulegun instantly changed for ever on the night of annuary 15 1966. After the bodies of their parents were loaded into a military vehicle and taken away in the morning after they were killed, the children never saw their parents again and never knew where they ended up.

While the event of January 15 1966 shattered whatever remained of the peace and innocence of Nigeria, six years after it won political independence, the events also threw the Ademulegun children into a life of instability and uncertainty. They commenced a long journey of being harboured and catered for by one relation and friend of their parents after another.

Of the six offspring of Brigadier Sam Ademulegun, three are no more, including Francis Bamidele, his first son that joined the military and rose to the rank of Group Captain in the Nigerian Airforce, as well as Bankole and Adekunle. That leaves Gbenga, Solape Ademulegun-Agbi, the only female and Adegoke.

Sixty long and tortuous years after, the Ademulegun children have, by God’s grace and the help of their parents’ friends, moved on in life, respectively establishing themselves in their respective fields of endeavour. But the pain will not go away. For the Ademulegun children, Nigeria’s attitude to her heroes remains a source of bewilderment.

Nigeria has dedicated January 15th every year as Armed Forces Remembrance Day. That is fair and good. Over the years, beyond January 15th, the Ademuleguns have continued to make a plea that the Nigerian state has curiously paid little heed to. Where was Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, former Brigade Commander of 1st Brigade of Nigerian Army in Kaduna, buried, alongside his wife, Latifat, both killed on January 15 1966?

Attempts by the Ademuleguns to raise the matter with relevant military and government officials have always received no serious attention. Sixty years after the Brigade Commander was killed for an act of patriotism and commitment to his country, his children seek a closure. They desire a proper burial, even if a formality. Where exactly were their parents buried in Kaduna?

Nations that honour their cherished service men, especially those who gave their lives for country, are known to rebury such patriots, even after hundred years. It is all about honour and showing appreciation for sacrifice. Why does Nigeria expect its citizens to be loyal and patriotic, but consistently fail to honour sacrifice by citizens?

In the 60th anniversary of the killing of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun and his wife for his act of sacrifice to country at a very critical juncture, the time could not be more appropriate to honour the Brigadier with a proper burial. This is the plea of his children to President Bola Tinubu, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. This is the plea to the military high command. This is a plea to the nation. Several private efforts have been made over the years to get the ears and attention of the government, but to no avail.

Brigadier Ademulegun laid down his life for his country. Everything that is known and testified about him indicate that he could not have contemplated doing any other thing than what he did in securing the interest of the country. A less patriotic person would have considered his life and that of his eight-month pregnant wife with him at the juncture he sacrificed their lives.

Ademulegun deserves to be properly honoured and buried. His burial place needs to be properly identified and where necessary, he should be formally reburied with the dignity he deserves. Doing that will transmit encouraging message to servicemen still on duty and the future generations, that sacrifice to country will never be treated with disdain and negligence.

The pain and nightmare of the killing of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun and his pregnant wife will never depart from their children who watched them gunned down and left in the pool of their blood. What they ask for now is a closure of sorts at the 60th anniversary of the tragedy. While those toddlers of those days are still alive, they want to know where their parents were buried. Nigeria owes her heroes such a simple honour. (The Nation)

Update news