He was the first Black African to win a gold medal at an international sports event when he won at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

Born in Onitsha,[3] he attended Dennis Memorial Grammar School in his home town and displayed the characteristics that would later define his life.

A jump of 6 feet 5.5 inches (1.97 m) meant Ifeajuna was chosen to represent his country at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, alongside Nafiu Osagie.

[4] The high jump had an African sweep of the medals that year, with Uganda's Patrick Etolu finishing behind Ifeajuna and Nigeria's Osagie taking third place.

[8] Ifeajuna received a hero's welcome upon his return to Lagos and was paraded through the streets before speaking at a civic celebration.

Uche Chukwumerije, a contemporary and later a senator, remembered Ifeajuna being active in political agitation, but also claims that he was less willing to be involved in the protests themselves.

[5] Dissatisfied with the direction his country had taken during the First Nigerian Republic under Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Ifeajuna became a conspirator in a plot to overthrow the government.

Given his studies, Ifeajuna has been regarded as one of the intellectual drivers of the conspiracy and he wrote an unpublished manuscript on the reasoning for the 1966 Nigerian coup d'état attempt.

Official police reports into the circumstances of his death (which remain redacted) claim Ifeajuna shot Balewa while driving to Abeokuta and abandoned the body by the road.

Some claim that Balewa was not deliberately killed (given that he was not one of the coup's stated assassination targets), but rather died of an asthma or heart attack during the ordeal.

[4] Following Ironsi's move against the coup, Ifeajuna's friend Christopher Okigbo helped him cross the border into Dahomey (now Benin) and through to Ghana where he was welcomed by its leader Kwame Nkrumah.

[13] Nkrumah's regime was overthrown shortly afterwards and Ifeajuna returned to Nigeria after assurances from Emeka Ojukwu that his life would not be at risk.

He again became involved in the military, this time within the Biafran Army – the Republic of Biafra declared its secession from Nigeria, beginning the Nigerian Civil War.

The manuscript is seen as a possible historical source for assessing both the racial element to the coup and Ifeajuna's role in it, which ranges from co-conspirator to intellectual leader.

While fellow 1966 coup maker Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu has been decorated as a war hero and had a statue erected in his hometown, Ifeajuna has received little posthumous recognition.