Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi - Military Career

Military Career

Aguiyi-Ironsi enlisted into the Nigerian Army on 2 February 1942 and was admitted and excelled in military training at Eaton Hall, England and also attended Royal Army Ordnance Corps before he was later commissioned officer as an infantry officer in the rank of Lieutenant on 12 Jun 1949. He soon returned to Nigeria to serve as the Aide de camp to John Macpherson, Governor General of Nigeria and he was assigned the equerry to Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Nigeria in 1956, assignment for which he was sent to the Buckingham Palace to train for. During the Congo Crisis of the 1960s, the United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, appealed to the Nigerian government to send troops to Congo. Lieutenant Colonel Ironsi led the 5th battalion to the Kivu and Leopoldville provinces of Congo. His unit proved integral to the peacekeeping effort, and he was soon appointed the Force Commander of the United Nations Operation in the Congo.