Our Special Relationship With Buckingham Palace, HRH whose 96th Birthday I celebrated with a May feature in the Tribune, and Why The Nigerian Army Launched “Operation Crocodile Smile”
Our Special Relationship With Buckingham Palace, HRH whose 96th Birthday I celebrated with a May feature in the Tribune and Why The Nigerian Army Launched “Operation Crocodile Smile”
Exclusive Report By Ben Edokpayi ©
Word Count 1564
Words on Marble ““Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Expose about White Supremacists in Honor of Our Queen seen in an Airport picture being received by my great Uncle Oba Akenzua in Benin City in 1959.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/queen-elizabeth-iis-beloved-balmoral-look-scottish-castle
On her first visit to Nigeria the father of my dear friend and Nigeria’s first daughter Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi General Thomas Umunakwe Ironsi aka Ironsides was chosen as the Queen’s Equerry.
I and My reporter friend who we nicknamed Ironsides like her father, whose wartime symbol was a Crocodile Stick ( Just like General MacArthur’s famous old and battered corn cob pipe was a familar fixture and symbol of authority during WWII) collaborated on the most in depth investigation of how Hakeem Olajuwon was discovered.
https://guardian.ng/news/armys-clarification-on-operation-crocodile-smile-heartwarming-says-huriwa/
I wrote about MacArthur and a Medal of Honor Recipient Bill Fairfield in a recent Dixon Tribune report. Click here. City of Dixon’s WWII Importance Recognized With Congressional Medal of Honor Award for Bill Fairfield and A Recall of the Heroics of Lt. Roy Adcock
https://twitter.com/BenjaminEdokpa1/status/1538516053524828161?s=20&t=-hBeDz5F7xLKFrcNBAdnGA
https://twitter.com/BenjaminEdokpa1/status/1565964329106624512?s=20&t=Bob_vnlLFfdEI87ZSIiW7w
Now you know why I have always been cocksure when I say I am unblemished and unscathed. How can I disappoint my special friend, co worker at Newswatch whose father was Nigeria’s first military ruler and an Equerry to the Queen.
Words on Marble ““Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Expose about White Supremacists in Honor of Our Queen seen being received by my great Uncle Oba Akenzua in Benin City in 1959. On her first visit to Nigeria the father of my dear friend and Nigeria’s first daughter Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi General Thomas Umunakwe Ironsi aka Ironsides was the Queen’s Equerry. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/queen-elizabeth-iis-beloved-balmoral-look-scottish-castle
My reporter friend who we nicknamed Ironsides like her father whose wartime symbol was a Crocodile Stick collaborated on the most in depth investigation of how Hakeem Olajuwon was discovered. https://twitter.com/BenjaminEdokpa1/status/1565964329106624512?s=20&t=Bob_vnlLFfdEI87ZSIiW7w
#OperationCrocodileSmile: https://www.army.mil.ng/
Nigeria’s First Daughter, Benny Is Okay! Her Father Was the Queen’s Equerry!
The picture shows I and Newswatch staffers, Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi and Sola Lufadeju. I and Louisa worked on a special story for Newswatch and Quality magazine chronicling the career of Hakeem in 1987. Louisa traveled to Houston to interview Hakeem for the Quality magazine story titled: The Million Dollar Dream: God’s Gift from Nigeria to America. She is the daughter of Nigeria’s first Two –Star General and First African to command United Nations forces. First compatriot to command the Army. First Private to rise to the rank of General in the Nigeria Army. First of our country men to serve as Equerry to Queen Elizabeth of England. First Military ruler of our country. Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi. OFR, MVO, MBE, PSC, IDC. So my dear Louisa I know you are concerned. I just want to reassure you and the Queen that your dear friend Benny is clean, unblemished and unscathed. There is now absolutely no cause for concern. Still the same Benny.
Read More!
Nigeria’s first military leader, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi “Ironside” Ironsi as a young Lieutenant with “The Queen’s Rifle’s” in the West African Frontier Force. An officer, a gentleman and a true incorruptible Nigerian nationalist ~ Arc. Eze Ojukwu.
Celebrating One of Nigeria’s Best Journalists, whose father was Nigeria’s Military Leader and Equerry to Queen Elizabeth
My good friend and “sister” Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi, one of my best friends at Newswatch I join you to mourn our dear queen.
Newswatch was once Africa’s leading news journal. Always heartwarming when I hear “Benny” on the line when I call her. I collaborated with “Ironsides” on several stories while at Newswatch. The ones I remember most are “The Children of Juju Messengers” on the Osu Outcaste system which is used to discriminate against albinos in certain parts of Nigeria. We also collaborated on what I consider the most authentic story on Hakeem Olajuwon’s humble beginnings. Louisa traveled to Houston to interview Hakeem for the Quality magazine story titled: The Million Dollar Dream: God’s Gift from Nigeria to America. I anchored that Quality Magazine article.
Picture shows yours truly with Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi and Sola Lufadeju in the Newswatch newsroom in Lagos, Nigeria. It is a testament to our late assassinated boss DG (Dele Giwa), Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed and Olusoji Akinrinade for assembling the best breed of investigative journalists Nigeria has ever known.
Although the magazine is now defunct because it was sold, we are all still making impacts in different parts of the world, including Dele Olojede who is a fellow of the Aspen Institute and Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, former UN Staff and Deputy of Nigeria’s Central Bank, who is now a law professor at Tufts Fletcher School of Law. Moghalu, who was once the Deputy Director of the Global Fund in Switzerland visited the family in Fairfield in 1994, and contributed op-eds about the Global Fund while I was editor of the Dixon Tribune.
He also contested to become President of Nigeria. Although he was not picked by his party I still think Kingsley (seen with Senator Hillary Clinton) will be President of Nigeria sometime soon.
Press Freedom: Local Importance of the Queen’s 96th Birthday And The Unsolved Murder Of A Key Editor and former New York Times Newsroom Staff
By Ben Edokpayi, Special Report in the Dixon Tribune
On Thursday April 21, 2022 the longest reigning monarch HRH Queen Elizabeth of Britain and symbolic head of the Commonwealth of Nations turned 96. From Canada to Cameroon, the Commonwealth spans every geographical region, religion and culture across the World. #CHOGM2022. An important milestone for this reporter who in 2000 with his ex wife Debra Mackbee and son Ime, whose best friend at Vaca High was named Harry, visited Buckingham Palace to witness the traditional Change of Guards Ceremony. Interestingly I and Nigeria’s first daughter Louisa Aguiyi-Ironsi, an ex who worked with me at Newswatch, a news journal, also have the distinction to be linked to the Palace through her Dad Major General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first Military Head of State, who was also the Queen’s Equerry during her visit to Nigeria in 1959. Among the many investigative and journalism enterprise features that I and Louisa worked on was an exclusive story on how Houston Rockets Hakeem Olajuwon was discovered at a Championship in Angola, a Central African nation and an investigative report on discrimantion in Africa for Albinos titled feature article titled Children of Juju messengers. Albinism occurs when one of several genetic defects makes the body unable to produce or distribute melanin.
Popularly known as Ironsides, Louisa’s father Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi MVO, MBE was the first Military Head of State of Nigeria. He seized power amidst the ensuing chaos following the 15 January 1966 military coup, which led to a civil war in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, with a population of 212 Million people.
He ruled from 16 January 1966 until his assassination on 29 July 1966 by a group of mutinous Northern Nigerian officers and men who were led by Major Murtala Mohammed and included Captain Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari (who is now Nigeria’s Democratically elected President) Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida and Lieutenant Sani Abacha in a revolt against his government. Muhammadu Buhari Nigeria’s current President will hand over power to a successor in the next elections scheduled for 2023.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Commonwealth-association-of-states
https://www.rct.uk/visit/buckingham-palace
https://www.royal.uk/queens-birthday
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcllJjSs30h/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcmqbqJsr-8/
The Tribune Lead Photo: Ben Edokpayi and Louisa the daughter of Nigeria’s first leader in the Newswatch newsroom a few months before their editor was assasinated in a parcel bomb by terrorists. The 1986 murder of the former New York Times Staff (He attended Fordham University) is still unsolved and the subsequent death threats to this reporter, who was on a journalistic team that included Gani Fawenhimi, civil rights attorney, investigated his assasination is one of the reasons the US Embassy in Lagos facilitated an Einstein Visa through Carole Wilder in the State Department.
NIGERIA SEEKS THE SLAYERS OF AN EDITOR https://nyti.ms/29BvRmm
https://cpj.org/2009/10/nigerian-editor-dele-giwas-unsolved-murder/
Historically the Queen’s Christmas Broadcast in ’96 was important for key reasons. It addressed the theme of hope for the future. https://www.royal.uk/christmas-broadcast-1996
Lastly, in honor of Prince Phillip absent for the first time in seven decades this special feature!
this is the land rover hearse prince philip designed for himself #1996 think Richmond Cemetery and how a body was removed illegally!
https://www.designboom.com/design/land-rover-hearse-prince-philip-04-19-2021/
A Version of This Special Report Appeared in the Earth Day edition of The Dixon Tribune. The Tribune is the newspaper of record for the city of Dixon (formerly known as Dickson.)
#OperationCrocodileSmile: https://www.army.mil.ng/
