By Ezeakukwu Emmanuel Nsoedo
Every January 15 is significant in the life of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The very much cherished and honored day was the Armed Forces Day. It is the day we remember patriots who gave so much for the country’s unity. Some of these great men and women were not necessarily dead soldiers. Still, some were brilliant civilians who not only served the country but may be significant in the continued corporate existence of Nigeria.
The Right Honourable Akwaeke Nwafor Orizu was a patriot whom history beckoned; he obliged and performed his role flawlessly as the time warranted. Akwaeke Nwafor Orizu was the acting President who handed over power to the military junta that forced themselves into power.
Recall that yesterday, January 15, 2024, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Ahmed Tinubu, played the sacred role of laying the wreath on the unknown soldier’s grave. Between October 1965 and January 1966, the Rt Honourable Nwafor Orizu was the acting President of Nigeria. In that capacity, he, too, performed the sacred duty of laying the wreath during Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
As a consequential figure during a momentous period, Nwafor Orizu had the distinctive role of adjourning the Parliament sine die when the military struck against the elected government in January 1966.
In periods when constitutional mandates take effect, it evokes the memory that there is willful amnesia to erase permanently the period Rt Honourable Nwafor Orizu held the reign of the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It should be about time the Senate President took the initiative to normalize the governance sequences of Nigeria’s presidency just as Shoneka’s interim government remains a bonafide era in Nigeria’s history.