Lifestyle
PHOTOS: Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi (1923–2021)
Nigeria’s first military First Lady held the role for just six months, January to July 1966.
Born in 1923 in Umuahia, Victoria married a young army officer, Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, in 1953. By 1965, he had risen to become the Nigerian Army’s top commander.
On 16 January 1966, after Nigeria’s first coup toppled the civilian government, he assumed power as Head of State. With that, Victoria became First Lady.
Her time in the role was brief and mostly ceremonial. But it coincided with one of Nigeria’s most turbulent moments — the collapse of the First Republic, the introduction of military rule, and growing regional tensions.
On 29 July 1966, a counter-coup claimed the lives of Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi and Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi in Ibadan. Widowed at 42, Victoria witnessed the violence that paved the way for decades of military governments and, soon after, the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970).
She never returned to public life, instead raising her eight children through years of upheaval. Her widowhood lasted 55 years, across both military and civilian eras.
Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi died on 23 August 2021, aged 97.
Her life remains a reminder that behind Nigeria’s political history are families and individuals who bore its deepest costs.
FOLLOW US ON:
