At long last, after series of unfounded rumours and insinuations about his death, especially within the past one year, revered ex-warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Ikemba of Nnewi, finally bowed out of the earth yesterday. It was after eventful 78 years, 22 days.

It was without doubt, the end of an era in the annals of not only Nigeria in its entirety, but that of the Igbo people for whom he lived and toiled until the cold hands of death finally caught him pants down after a protracted illness.

The ex-warlord did not just rise one day to become an enigma. At a tender age of 11, he had begun to exude elements of a steely personality that later turned a template of his lifestyle. It was in 1944, when he reportedly gave one of his school masters, an English man, a dirty slap.

In 1952, his father, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, a Hope Waddell Institute educated-parliamentarian in Nigeria’s First Republic, who obviously wanted the best for him, sent him to Oxford University to study law. Of course, he must have chuckled within him. He left. But rather than heed his father’s instruction, he opted for History!

Not a few in his ilk would jump at an offer to take over his father’s vast businesses. But no; Ojukwu embraced administration in the Civil Defence. It was at Udi in the present Enugu State where he was District Officer. From there, in 1957, he sprang another surprise as he joined the Nigerian Army and was posted to the Army Depot, Zaria. Thus, he became the first graduate soldier in the country. Then, all his father could do was to siddon look, hoping that some day, young Ojukwu would come back to his senses.

However, he had barely spent four years when he scored another first. Having been promoted a Major, he became the first Nigerian soldier to attend the Joint Service Staff College (JSSC), England. And in 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel, again he made history as the first indigenous Quarter Master-General of the Nigerian Army. His duty was to command the fifth Battalion in Kano till 1966 when he became the military governor of the old Eastern Region.

The patriotism in him came to the fore in the fallout of the January 15, 1966 coup de tat that consumed the former Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Sir Tafawa Balewa. Then the Ibos were being ruthlessly killed in the northern part of the country.

Naturally, the spirit of Ojukwu revolted against the development. He therefore asked his embattled people to leave the North for safety back home. Consequently, he declared a state of Biafra over the Eastern Region on July 30, 1967 and became the ‘Head of State and Commander-in-Chief.’

The evolving scenarios made finding urgent solution to the crisis a desideratum. Consequently, meetings were held upon meetings in and outside the country. Such efforts later led to what is now known as the Aburi Accord in Ghana. But Ojukwu, a man of principle, remained intransigent owing to a misconception by the federal government. “On Aburi we stand,” he had proclaimed.

Ensuing developments later precipitated the civil war that upset the entire nation between 1967 and 1970. At a point, Ojukwu could not stand the pressures being mounted by the federal troops who succeeded in capturing some areas in the Eastern region. Eventually, he fled to Cote d’ Ivoire where he was in hibernation for 13 years.

His sojourn in exile came to a close on June 18, 1982 when he returned into the country amid heroic welcome. It was after earning a state pardon from the Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led government.

Observers were quick to read political meanings to the pardon. Alas, they were proved right when Ojukwu joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Not a few who had thought he would pitch his tent with the Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) were shell-shocked. 

Those who had expected him to join the NPP to give the East an electoral advantage went indignant, pouring all sorts of vituperations on the warrior. To them, NPP was enjoying absolute loyalty of Igbo people. However, such virulent tongue-lashing meant nothing to him. He firmly stood his ground.

It did not take eternity for him to find himself in a maze of intrigues in the party. His enigmatic influence failed to work for him as he was rigged out in an election where he lost a senate seat to a relatively obscure Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe. Onwudiwe was then a commissioner in Governor Jim Nwobodo’s cabinet. 

Even back home, troubles continued to mount for him. For instance, he was not allowed access to his father’s house located at 25, Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos. His offence: Waging a rebellion against the government. 

With unflinching support by Nigerians and the series of legal battles that followed, he got the property back. His military pension which was also among of the conditions for the state pardon he was given didn’t come until 41 years after the end of the civil war.

Ever since, on national issues, his voice had always been that of the entire Igbo people who saw in him a dependable leader. 

Spurred by his readiness to contribute his quota to national development, Ojukwu threw his hat into the nation’s political ring again in 2003 with the birth of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He became the party’s flag bearer and his bid was to become the president of the country through the presidential election held that year. He lost the bid.

Those that are close to the ex-Biafran leader are always quick to mention contentment as one of his cardinal virtues. When an interviewer once addressed him as Chief, he reportedly replied, emphasising: “I am not a Chief; it rhymes with thief.”

Ojukwu’s father, Sir Ojukwu, was not only a business mogul, he was reportedly the richest man in Nigeria while he lived. History has it that he was also pioneer president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE). 

Besides being the president of the African Continental Bank (ACB), Ojukwu senior was said to be on the boards of most of the big British companies in Nigeria in his time. But all that did not get into younger Ojukwu’s head because he believed in himself. as a Master‘s Degree in History. But Ojukwu would downplay these academic acquisitions, and tell you that “Education is not elitism, education actually, to me, is more a question of sharpening one’s choices and consciousness. The value in it is the effect one has on one’s people.” 

A multilingual, Ojukwu is a hugely talented being who can speak various Nigerian languages. Renowned English author Frederick Forsyth once recollected his encounter with him on air en route Nigeria that Ojukwu freely cracked jokes and interacted with all the delegations sent to receive him in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo languages. He also reportedly interacted fluently in French language with the Ivorian delegation sent by his host, the late President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast. Perhaps not many know that Ojukwu learnt how to speak Yoruba language first before his own native Igbo. 

How did little Ojukwu grow to the defender of the weak against injustice and oppression the like? Reports say it dates back to when he was only 11. He paid dearly for it as he was briefly imprisoned by the colonialists for assaulting a British colonial teacher, who had humiliated a black woman at King’s College, Lagos. Local newspapers fed fat on the incident. 

Again, at age of 13 at Epsom College in Surrey, United Kingdom, where a naughty white boy caused Ojukwu’s African accent to amuse his colleagues who burst into wild laughter. 

One day, he was on his way to the chapel when he heard one of them call him “monkey’. Another student shoved him, making his books to scatter on the floor. Little did the boy realise that he was scratching his nose with cobra’s head. Ojukwu beat him black and blue, forcing the boy into a three-day tenancy on the hospital bed. 

Quite unbelievably, Ojukwu was among his colleagues who were ultimately at the boy’s bedside to wish him quick recovery. Alas, they later became friends again! 

Ojukwu, who was born on November 4, 1933 in Zungeru, thus sharing the same month and home town with the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, first Nigerian president, tried unsuccessfully to ensure a better Nigeria, especially all in the interest of his kinsmen – the Igbo people. 

His delectable wife, Bianca, a University of Nigeria Nsukka-educated lawyer and daughter of a former Anambra State governor, the late Christian C. Onoh, once attested to his love for Igbo people in an interview.

“Ojukwu does nothing other than live and breathe the Igbo cause. Sometimes he would hear of some injustice somewhere and he would stay awake all night, trying to find how it can be redressed…. Any time an Igbo man suffers any form of injustice, it makes his blood boil, even in situations when he feels helpless,” Bianca, an ex-beauty queen was quoted as saying. 

Also, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi once described him as “a unique personality that will always advise on what will be for the good of the Igbos without seeking, as many other people do, his entitlements or any form of gratification.” 

“The last thing he said to me was to remain an Igbo man in all its ramifications and to continue to do whatever is possible for the ultimate good of Igbo people without expectation of payment, but out of love for the Igbos.” 

Before boarding the Biafran-built aircraft that took him to exile then, the American Newsweek quoted him to have sworn thus: “Whilst I live, Biafra lives.”

Now, the falcon has finally flown away, thus putting the lid on his eventful life which for long, will remain a human reference point for historians.

View the original here:
Rebel, soldier, leader

Biafra is coloured yellow Photo source

The Republic of Biafra came about when a secessionist state situated in south-eastern corner of the country broke away from Nigeria, and tried to go it alone. At that time Biafra was inhabited mostly by the Igbo people and was in existence from 30th May 1967 to 15th January 1970. The secession was declared due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various people of Nigeria, brought on by many complex causes during the Nigerian Civil War that later became known as the Nigerian-Biafra War.

During 1960, Nigeria gained its independence from the United Kingdom. However, its borders were not drawn up according to earlier accepted maps, but primarily along ethnic lines which meant that the northern desert region of the country was made up of the semi-autonomous feudal Muslim states containing the Hausa’s and Fulani tribes. While the southern part of the country’s population was predominantly Christian and Animist. To mix the country up even further the south western corner contained the Yoruba people, while the south eastern side of the country housed the Igbo tribes (sometimes referred to as the Ibo’s). To add to the country’s problems, Nigeria's primary source of income at that time was oil, and it was only found in the southern part of the country.

In January 1966, a group consisting of eastern Igbo tribesmen led a military coup during which 30 political leaders including Nigeria's Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Northern premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello were killed.

In retaliation Northern officers and army units staged a successful counter-coup. Surprisingly Muslim officers named a Christian from a small ethnic group (the Anga) in central Nigeria, Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu "Jack" Gowon, as the head of what they called Federal Military Government (FMG). The two coups worsened Nigeria's ethnic tensions throughout the country. To the point that by September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo people living in the north had been killed.

In January 1967, the F.M.G. military leaders and senior police officials of each region met in Aburi, Ghana, and agreed on a loose confederation of regions. However, the northerners were at odds with the Aburi Accord, as it became known. While Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Western Region warned that if the Eastern Region seceded, then the Western Region would also, this persuaded the northerners to say the same. The end result was a stale mate.

However, after the federal and eastern governments failed to reconcile. On 26th May 1967 the Eastern region voted to secede from Nigeria. Then on the 30th May, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Eastern Region's military governor, announced the Republic of Biafra, citing the Easterners killed in the post-coup violence. To make matters worse the large amount of oil in the region created conflict throughout the whole country, as oil was a major component of the Nigerian economy. Biafra was poorly equipped for war, being out manned, and out gunned by the F.M.G. However, they had the advantage of fighting in their homeland, and the support of most Easterners.

The following is the statement declaring the secession. I, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles, recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters shall henceforth be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of "The Republic of Biafra".

In response to the declaration, on 6th July, 1967 the F.M.G. launched what they called "police measures" to annex the Eastern Region now calling its self Biafra. Their initial efforts were unsuccessful, as Biafra successfully launched their own counter offensive, and by August 1967 they had taken land in the Mid-Western Region of Nigeria. However, by October 1967 the Nigerians had regained the land after intense fighting.

Biafra was quick to realise that air power was to play a major part in the confrontation that lay ahead, and were secretly publicise to the world that they were looking for aircraft and mercenary pilots to fly them. Being isolated they had realised that they would need transportation to supply their new country with food as well as weapons. Word also went out that they were looking for high profile mercenary leaders to help the fighting on the ground and soldiers like Frenchman Bob Denard were approached, but with no luck. Mike Hoare is reported to have visited both sides, but was unable to offer assistance to either, As the famous 5th Commando that he had led successfully in the Congo a couple of years earlier had just been disbanded. Other names thrown around was Alister Wicks who was in Rhodesia at the time, Peters who was in London and Schroeder who was in South Africa, all three had been serving officers during the Congo Conflict.

Later Frenchman Captain Robert Faulques who had also served in the Congo arrived in Biafra as an advance party for a further 100 strong contingent of French mercenaries. It started to look like the old military rivalry between Britain and France was once again starting to rear its ugly head. Britain, although not openly acknowledging the fact, were supporting Nigeria, with both military hardware and political advice. While France was throwing its weight behind Biafra, by secretly supplying arms and trying to recruit a large mercenary army to fight against them, but the army never materialised. After many false starts and then with a samll group of mercenaries already signed up, for reasons unknown it was later cancelled.

From 1968 onward, the war fell into a lengthy stalemate, with Nigerian forces unable to make significant advances into the remaining areas of Biafran control. The blockade of surrounded Biafra led to a humanitarian and propaganda disaster when it emerged that there was widespread civilian hunger and starvation in the besieged Igbo areas. An over used tactic of the Nigerian forces had been the sabotage of farmland, and this was now beginning to affect Biafra’s population. Images of starving Biafran children went around the world. The Biafran government claimed that Nigeria was using hunger and genocide to win the war, and sought aid from the outside world.

Many world organised volunteer bodies organised blockade-breaking relief flights into Biafra, carrying food, medicines, and sometimes (it was claimed) weapons. Nigeria also claimed that the Biafran government was hiring foreign mercenaries to extend and lengthen the war.

In September 1968, the F.M.G. planned what General Gowon described as the "final offensive." However, initially the final offensive was held back by the Biafran troops. Although in the latter stages, a Southern F.M.G. offensive managed to break through the fierce resistance.

The Biafrans were swift to understand the importance of air power and to start organizing a rag-tag air force, as well as using transport aircraft for brining supplies of weapons into the country. Regular flights of Air Trans Africa DC-7s from South Africa were undertaken already since the summer of 1966: other aircraft operated from Portugal, via Portuguese Guinea (today Guinea-Bissau), and Cameroon. In October 1966, for example, a Royal Air Burundi DC-4M Argonaut, flown by a mercenary Henry Wharton alias Heinrich Wartski, crash landed at Garoua, in Cameroun, while carrying a load of army equipment from Rotteerdam. The same pilot supposedly flew also the Transportes Aereos Portugueses (TAP) Super Constellation (5T-TAF), impounded with a load of weapons at Malta, in September 1967. More aircraft were to become involved subsequently, including time-expired Constellations (some wearing bogus Nigerian registrations like 5N83H, 5N84H, and 5N86H), DC-4s, DC-6s, and a AirTrans-Africa DC-7 (VP-WBO/ZP-WBO), flown by Ernest Koenig, Rhodesian Jack Malloch, and British mercenaries Alistair Wicks.

On 23 April 1967 a Nigerian Airways Fokker F.27 (5N-AAV) was hijacked while underway from Benin to Lagos, and forced to land in Enugu. The aircraft was later equipped as makeshift bomber. A second transport, a DC-3 (9G-AAD) of Ghana Airways, was added on 15th June, after being hijacked from Port Harcourt. From early July also an ex-French Douglas B-26R Invader (41-39531) was operational from Enugu, after being delivered to Biafra by Jean Zumbach (also known as Johnny Brown or Kamikaze Braun). A second B-26 (41-34531) was to follow in August. In July also a US-registered Riley Dove (N477PM) was delivered to Port Harcourt from Switzerland, by Andre Juillard/Girard/Gerard, carrying a load of 2.000 Hungarian-manufactured rifles.

By this time the Biafrans had managed to set up a small yet effective air force. The B.A.F. commanders were Chude Sokey and later Godwin Ezeilo, who had trained with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Early inventory included two B-25 Mitchells, one B-26 Invader (piloted by Polish pilot Jan Zumbach, known also as John Brown), a converted DC-3 and one Dove. In 1968 the Swedish pilot Carl Gustaf von Rosen suggested the MiniCOIN project to General Ojukwu. By the spring of 1969, Biafra had built five MFI-9Bs in Gabon, calling them "Biafra Babies". They were coloured green, were able to carry six 68 mm anti-armour rockets and had simple sights. The six airplanes were flown by three Swedish pilots and three Biafran pilots. In September 1969, Biafra acquired four ex-Armee de l'Air North American T-6Gs, which were flown successfully to Biafra the following month, with another aircraft lost on the ferry flight. These aircraft flew missions until January 1970, flown by Portuguese ex-military pilots.

On 30 June 1969, the Nigerian government banned all Red Cross aid to Biafra; two weeks later it allowed medical supplies through the front line, but restricted food supplies. Later in October 1969, Ojukwu appealed to United Nations to mediate a cease-fire. The federal government then called for Biafra's surrender.

By this time food was very short in Biafra and they were having major problems trying to save the starving civilian population. Many countries and church agencies were offering food, but the planes trying to fly it in had to run a gauntlet of fire usually during the night, which made it harder for the pilots to see where they were going. At one time each cargo plane had a fighter with it to try and mislead the troops below. Many flew at tree top level to evade being in the Nigerians line of fire, cutting down their exposure time to just a few seconds.

In December, the F.M.G. managed to cut the country of Biafra in half, primarily by the efforts of 3 Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian Army, led at that time by Colonel Benjamin Adekunle who was popularly called 'The Black Scorpion' and later Olusegun Obasanjo.  

Ojukwu fled to the Ivory Coast, leaving his chief of staff, Philip Effiong, to act as the "officer administering the government". On the 12th January Effiong called for a cease-fire and submitted it to the F.M.G. By this time more than one million people on both sides had died in battle or from starvation.

At the beginning of the war Biafra had started out with only 3,000 troops, but by the end their numbers had swelled to well over 30,000. There was no official support for the Biafran army by another nation throughout the war, although arms were clandestinely acquired. Because of the lack of official support, the Biafrans had manufactured many of their weapons locally.

Military wise Biafra was holding its own and was certainly a force to be reckoned with. They were dishing out as good as they got and when you consider that they had no military help or back up from the outside world this was quite an achievement. Especially when you realise that they were fighting against a Nigeria that was backed up very heavily by the British government. Most of the top Nigerian military officers had been trained in the UK, even the Soviet Union was backing Nigeria. While Biafra was being lead by a few very good black leader and just a small hand full of white mercenaries.

Mercenaries like the German born Rolf Steiner who was a Lt. Colonel and assigned to the 4th Commando Brigade, and Welshman Taffy Williams who served as a Major until the very end of the conflict. Marc Goosens who was Flemish and an ex Belgian Regular Army Officer.

While it’s not known if Nigeria actually employed mercenaries. What is now known is that  the British government sent out what they called military advisors to help train the Nigerian army, but at the time this was all hushed up.

With starvation becoming a worldwide publicity problem, the end was insight for Biafra. The final nail in the coffin was when the British advised the Nigerians to change their currency. Money was the one thing Biafra had plenty of, but if the currency was changed, then overnight they would be broke. There are several tales of how Biafra tried to beat the Nigerian plan, by flying plane loads of paper money out of the country, but as is human nature some people are always tempted to take an opportunity to become rich.

One flight to Switzerland where new bank accounts had been organises, never arrived and it can only be assumed that the pilot an ex Congo mercenary landed at another destination where the money went into his own account. While another flight piloted by Rhodesian Jack Mallock and accompanied by Alister Wicks landed in Togo to refuel. Where upon both were arrested and imprisoned for eighty four days. The bank notes were confiscated probably to Biafra’s benefit, as Mallock was working for the French secret service and although Togo was by then independent, the French were like a big brother watching over them.

File photos

Dear OP.

how do u expect me to read all dat....

Meanwhile Am so hungry here.

More pic

More pic[/quote]

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, 6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970, was a war fought to counter the secession of Biafra from Nigeria. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960–1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over oil production in the Niger Delta played a vital strategic role.

Within a year, the Federal Military Government surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockade imposed during the ensuing stalemate led to severe famine—accomplished deliberately as a war strategy and described by some as a genocide. Over the two and half years of the war, two million civilians died from forced famine and fighting.

This famine entered world awareness in mid-1968, when images of malnourished and starving children suddenly saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause célèbre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Britain and the Soviet Union were the main backers of the Federal Military Government in Lagos, while France and some independent elements supported Biafra. France and Israel provided weapons to both combatants.

Background
Ethnic division
Like most other African countries, British Nigeria grouped people together for governance without respect for their religious, linguistic, and ethnic differences.[12] Nigeria, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, had at that time a population of 60 million people consisting of nearly 300 differing ethnic and cultural groups.

More than fifty years earlier, the United Kingdom had carved an area out of West Africa containing hundreds of different ethnic groups and unified it, calling it Nigeria. Although the area contained many different groups, the three predominant groups were the Igbo, which formed between 60–70% of the population in the southeast; the Hausa-Fulani, which formed about 65% of the peoples in the northern part of the territory; and the Yoruba, which formed about 75% of the population in the southwestern part. Although these groups have their own homelands, by the 1960s they were dispersed across Nigeria, with all three ethnic groups represented substantially in major cities. When the war broke out in 1967 there were still 5,000 Igbos in Lagos.[13]

The semi-feudal and Islamic Hausa-Fulani in the North were traditionally ruled by a feudal, conservative Islamic hierarchy consisting of Emirs who, in turn, owed their allegiance to a supreme Sultan. This Sultan was regarded as the source of all political power and religious authority.

The Yoruba political system in the southwest, like that of the Hausa-Fulani, also consisted of a series of monarchs, the Oba. The Yoruba monarchs, however, were less autocratic than those in the North, and the political and social system of the Yoruba accordingly allowed for greater upward mobility based on acquired rather than inherited wealth and title.

The Igbo in the southeast, in contrast to the two other groups, lived mostly in autonomous, democratically organised communities, although there were monarchs in many of these ancient cities such as the Kingdom of Nri. In its zenith the Kingdom controlled most of Igbo land, including influence on the Anioma people, Arochukwu (which controlled slavery in Igbo), and Onitsha land. Unlike the other two regions, decisions among the Igbo were made by a general assembly in which men could participate.[14]

The differing political systems among these three peoples reflected and produced divergent customs and values. The Hausa-Fulani commoners, having contact with the political system only through a village head designated by the Emir or one of his subordinates, did not view political leaders as amenable to influence. Political decisions were to be submitted to. As with other highly authoritarian religious and political systems, leadership positions were taken by persons willing to be subservient and loyal to superiors. A chief function of this political system was to maintain Islamic and conservative values, which caused many Hausa-Fulani to view economic and social innovation as subversive or sacrilegious.

In contrast to the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbo often participated directly in the decisions which affected their lives. They had a lively awareness of the political system and regarded it as an instrument for achieving their own personal goals. Status was acquired through the ability to arbitrate disputes that might arise in the village, and through acquiring rather than inheriting wealth.[15] Igbos were substantially victimized in the Atlantic slave trade; in the year 1790 it was reported that of 20,000 people sold each year from Bonny, 16,000 were Igbo.[16] With their emphasis upon social achievement and political participation, the Igbo adapted to and challenged colonial rule in innovative ways.

These tradition-derived differences were perpetuated and perhaps even enhanced by the British system of colonial rule in Nigeria. In the North, the British found it convenient to rule indirectly through the Emirs, thus perpetuating rather than changing the indigenous authoritarian political system. As a concomitant of this system, Christian missionaries were excluded from the North, and the area thus remained virtually closed to European cultural imperialism, in contrast to the Igbo, the richest of whom sent many of their sons to British universities. During the ensuing years, the Northern Emirs thus were able to maintain traditional political and religious institutions, while reinforcing their social structure. In this division, the North, at the time of independence in 1960, was by far the most underdeveloped area in Nigeria, with an English literacy rate of 2% as compared to 19.2% in the East (literacy in Ajami (local languages in Arabic script), learned in connection with religious education, was much higher). The West enjoyed a much higher literacy level, being the first part of the country to have contact with western education in addition to the free primary education program of the pre-independence Western Regional Government.[17][18]

In the South, the missionaries rapidly introduced Western forms of education. Consequently, the Yoruba were the first group in Nigeria to adopt Western bureaucratic social norms and they provided the first African civil servants, doctors, lawyers, and other technicians and professionals.

In Igbo areas, missionaries were introduced at a later date because of British difficulty in establishing firm control over the highly autonomous Igbo communities.[19] However, the Igbo people took to Western education actively, and they overwhelmingly came to adopt Christianity. Population pressure in the Igbo homeland combined with aspirations for monetary wages drove thousands of Igbo to other parts of Nigeria in search of work. By the 1960s, Igbo political culture was more unified and the region relatively prosperous, with tradesmen and literate elites active not just in the traditionally Igbo South, but throughout Nigeria.[20] Therefore, by 1966, the ethnic and religious differences between Northerners and Igbos had combined with additional stratification of education and class.[21]

Politics and economics of federalism
The British colonial ideology that divided Nigeria into three regions—North, West and East—exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social differences among Nigeria's different ethnic groups. The country was divided in such a way that the North had a slightly higher population than the other two regions combined. On this basis the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the colonial authorities. Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo, respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and based on ethnic allegiances: the Northern People's Congress (NPC) in the North; the Action Group in the West (AG); and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the East. These parties were not exclusively homogeneous in terms of their ethnic or regional make-up; the disintegration of Nigeria resulted largely from the fact that these parties were primarily based in one region and one tribe. To simplify matters, we will refer to them here as the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo-based; or Northern, Western and Eastern parties.

The basis of modern Nigeria formed in 1914, when Britain amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates. Beginning with the Northern Protectorate, the British implemented a system of indirect rule according to which they exerted influence through alliances with local forces. This system worked so well, colonial governor Frederick Lugard successfully lobbied to extend it to the Southern Protectorate through amalgamation. In this way, a foreign and hierarchical system of governance was imposed on the Igbos (along with many other smaller groups in the South.)[22] Intellectuals began to agitate for greater rights and independence.[23] This size of the intellectual class increased significantly in the 1950s, with the massive expansion of the national education program.[24] During the 1940s and 1950s the Igbo and Yoruba parties were in the forefront of the fight for independence from Britain. They also wanted an independent Nigeria to be organised into several small states so that the conservative North could not dominate the country. Northern leaders, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the perpetuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions with the North having a clear majority. Igbo and Yoruba leaders, anxious to obtain an independent country at all costs, accepted the Northern demands.[25] Northern–Southern tension manifested on 1 May 1953, as fighting in the Northern city of Kano.[26] The political parties tended to focus on building power in their own regions, resulting in an incoherent and disunified dynamic in the federal government.[27]

In 1946, the British divided the Southern Region into the Western Region and the Eastern Region. Each government was entitled to collect royalties from resources extracted within its area. This changed in 1956 when Shell-BP found large petroleum deposits in the Eastern region. A Commission led by Jeremy Raisman and Ronald Tress determined that resource royalties would now enter a "Distributable Pools Account" with the money split between different parts of government (50% to region of origin, 20% to federal government, 30% to other regions).[28] To ensure continuing influence, the British promoted unity in the Northern bloc and discord among and within the two Southern regions, as well as the creation of a new Mid-Western Region in an area with oil potential.[29] The new constitution of 1946 also proclaimed that "The entire property in and control of all mineral oils, in, under, or upon any lands, in Nigeria, and of all rivers, streams, and water courses throughout Nigeria, is and shall be vested in, the Crown."[30] Britain profited significantly from a fivefold rise in Nigerian exports amidst the postwar economic boom.[31]

First Republic
Nigeria's First Republic came into being on 1 October 1960. The first prime minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was a northerner and co-founder of the Northern People's Congress. He formed an alliance with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, and its popular nationalist leader Nnamdi "Zik" Azikiwe, who became Governor General and then President. The Yoruba-aligned Action Group, the third major party, played the opposition role.[32]

Workers became increasingly aggrieved by low wages and bad conditions, especially when they compared their lot to the lifestyles of politicians in Lagos. Most wage earners lived in the Lagos area, and many lived in overcrowded dangerous housing. Labor activity including strikes intensified in 1963, culminating in a nationwide general strike in June 1964. Strikers disobeyed an ultimatum to return to work and at one point were dispersed by riot police. Eventually, they did win raise increases. The strike included people from all ethnic groups.[33] Retired Brigadier General H. M. Njoku later wrote that the general strike heavily exacerbated tensions between the Army and ordinary civilians, and put pressure on the Army to take action against a government which was widely perceived as corrupt.[34]

The 1964 elections, which involved heavy campaigning all year, brought ethnic and regional divisions into focus. Resentment of politicians ran high and many campaigners feared for their safety while touring the country. The Army repeatedly deployed to Tiv Division, killing hundreds and arresting thousands of Tiv people agitating for self determination.[35][36]

Widespread reports of fraud tarnished the election's legitimacy.[35] Westerners especially resented the political domination of the Northern People's Congress, many of whose candidates ran unopposed in the election. Violence spread throughout the country and some began to flee the North and West, some to Dahomey.[37] The apparent domination of the political system by the North, and the chaos breaking out across the country, motivated elements within the military to consider decisive action.[38]

Britain maintained its economic hold on the country, through continued alliance and reinforcement of the Northern bloc. In addition to Shell-BP, the British reaped profits from mining and commerce. The British-owned United Africa Company alone controlled 41.3% of all Nigeria's foreign trade.[39] At 516,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had become the tenth biggest oil exporter in the world.[40]

Military coups
On 15 January 1966, Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and other junior Army officers (mostly majors and captains) attempted a coup d'état. The two major political leaders of the north, the prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of the northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello were executed by Major Nzeogwu. Also murdered was Sir Ahmadu Bello's wife. Meanwhile, the President, Sir Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, was on an extended vacation in the West Indies. He did not return until days after the coup. The coup, also referred to as "The Coup of the Five Majors", has been described in some quarters as Nigeria's only revolutionary coup.[41] This was the first coup in the short life of Nigeria's nascent second democracy. Claims of electoral fraud were one of the reasons given by the coup plotters.

The majors sought to spring Action Group leader Obafemi Awolowo out of jail and make him head of the new government. From there, they would dismantle the Northern-dominated power structure. However, their efforts to take power were thwarted by Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo and loyalist head of the Nigerian Army, who suppressed coup operations in the South. The majors surrendered, and Aguiyi-Ironsi was declared head of state on 16 January.[42][43]

Aguyi-Ironsi suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. He appointed Colonel Hassan Katsina, son of Katsina emir Usman Nagogo, to govern the Northern Region, indicating his willingness to maintain cooperation with this bloc.[44] He also preferentially released northern politicians from jail (enabling them to plan his forthcoming overthrow).[45] Aguyi-Ironsi rejected a British offer of military support but promised to protect British interests; however … Britain participated in overthrow?[46]

Ironsi did not bring the failed plotters to trial as required by then-military law and as advised by most northern and western officers. The coup, despite its failure, was wrongly perceived as having benefited mostly the Igbo because most of the known coup plotters were Igbo. However Ironsi, himself an Igbo, was thought to have made numerous attempts to please Northerners. The other event that also fuelled the so-called "Igbo conspiracy" was the killing of Northern leaders, and the killing of the Colonel Shodeinde's pregnant wife by the coup executioners. Despite the overwhelming contradictions of the coup being executed by mostly Northern soldiers (such as John Atom Kpera, later military governor of Benue State), the killing of Igbo soldier Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Unegbe by coup executioners, and Ironsi's termination of an Igbo-led coup, the ease by which Ironsi stopped the coup led to suspicion that the Igbo coup plotters planned all along to pave the way for Ironsi to take the reins of power in Nigeria.

Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu became military governor of the Eastern Region at this time.[47] On 24 May 1966, the military government issued Unification Decree #34, which would have replaced the federation with a more centralized system. The Northern bloc found this decree intolerable.[48]

In the face of provocation from the southern-dominated media which repeatedly showed humiliating posters and cartoons of the slain northern politicians, on the night of 29 July 1966, northern soldiers at Abeokuta barracks mutinied, thus precipitating a counter-coup, which have already been in the planning stages. The counter-coup led to the installation of Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon as Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Gowon was chosen as a compromise candidate. He was a Northerner, a Christian, from a minority tribe, and had a good reputation within the army.

It seems that Gowon immediately faced not only a potential standoff with the East, but secession threats from the Northern and even the Western region.[49] The counter-coup plotters had considered using the opportunity to withdraw from the federation themselves. Ambassadors from Britain and the United States, however, urged Gowon to maintain control over the whole country. Gowon followed this plan, repealing the Unification Decree, announcing a return to the federal system.[50]

Persecution of Igbo
From June through October 1966, pogroms in the North killed tens of thousands of Igbos and caused millions to flee to the Eastern Region.[51][52] 29 September 1966, was considered the worst day.[53]

Ethnomusicologist Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted:

The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria (late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by months of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowan could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologized for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Ibos.

The Federal Military Government also laid the groundwork for the blockade of the Eastern Region which would go into full effect in 1967.[54]

Breakaway
On 27 May 1967, Gowon proclaimed the division of Nigeria into twelve states. This decree carved the Eastern Region in three parts: South Eastern State, Rivers State, and East Central State. Now the Igbos, concentrated in the East Central State, would lose control over most of the petroleum, located in the other two areas.[55][56]

On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu declared independence of the Republic of Biafra.

The Federal Military Government immediately placed an embargo on all shipping to and from Biafra—but not on oil tankers.[54][55] Biafra quickly moved to collect oil royalties from oil companies doing business within its borders.[55] When Shell-BP acquiesced to this request at the end of June, the Federal Government extended its blockade to include oil.[57] The blockade, which most foreign actors accepted, played a decisive role in putting Biafra at a disadvantage from the beginning of the war.[58]

Although the very young nation had a chronic shortage of weapons to go to war, it was determined to defend itself. Although there was much sympathy in Europe and elsewhere, only five countries (Tanzania, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia and Haiti) officially recognised the new republic. Britain supplied amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to the Nigerian side because of its desire to preserve the country it created. The Biafra side on the other hand found it difficult to purchase arms as the countries who supported it did not provide arms and ammunition. The heavy supply of weapons by Britain was the biggest factor in determining the outcome of the war.

Several peace accords, especially the one held at Aburi, Ghana (the Aburi Accord), collapsed and the shooting war soon followed. Ojukwu managed at Aburi to get agreement to a confederation for Nigeria, rather than a federation. He was warned by his advisers that this reflected a failure of Gowon to understand the difference and, that being the case, predicted that it would be reneged upon. When this happened, Ojukwu regarded it as both a failure by Gowon to keep to the spirit of the Aburi agreement, and lack of integrity on the side of the Nigerian Military Government in the negotiations toward a united Nigeria. Gowon's advisers, to the contrary, felt that he had enacted as much as was politically feasible in fulfillment of the spirit of Aburi.[59] The Eastern Region was very ill equipped for war, outmanned and outgunned by the Nigerians. Their advantages included fighting in their homeland, support of most Easterners, determination, and use of limited resources.

The UK-which still maintained the highest level of influence over Nigeria's highly valued oil industry through Shell-BP-[60] and the Soviet Union supported (especially militarily) the Nigerian government.

War
Shortly after extending its blockade to include oil, the Nigerian government launched a "police action" to retake the secessionist territory.[61] The war began on 6 July 1967 when Nigerian Federal troops advanced in two columns into Biafra. The Nigerian Army offensive was through the north of Biafra led by Colonel Mohammed Shuwa and the local military units were formed as the 1st Infantry Division. The division was led mostly by northern officers. After facing unexpectedly fierce resistance and high casualties, the right-hand Nigerian column advanced on the town of Nsukka which fell on 14 July, while the left-hand column made for Garkem, which was captured on 12 July. At this stage of the war, the other regions of Nigeria (the West and Mid-West) still considered the war as a confrontation between the north (mainly Hausas) against the east (mainly Igbos).[citation needed]

Biafran offensive
The Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when, on 9 August, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger river, passing through Benin City, until they were stopped at Ore (in present day Ondo State) just over the state boundary on 21 August, just 130 miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos. The Biafran attack was led by Lt. Col. Banjo, a Yoruba, with the Biafran rank of brigadier. The attack met little resistance and the Mid-West was easily taken over.


Flag of the Republic of Benin.
This was due to the pre-secession arrangement that all soldiers should return to their regions to stop the spate of killings, in which Igbo soldiers had been major victims.[17][62] The Nigerian soldiers that were supposed to defend the Mid-West state were mostly Mid-West Igbo and while some were in touch with their eastern counterparts, others resisted. General Gowon responded by asking Colonel Murtala Mohammed (who later became head of state in 1975) to form another division (the 2nd Infantry Division) to expel the Biafrans from the Mid-West, as well as defend the West side and attack Biafra from the West as well. As Nigerian forces retook the Mid-West, the Biafran military administrator declared the Republic of Benin on 19 September, though it ceased to exist the next day. (The present country of Benin, west of Nigeria, was still named Dahomey at that time.)

Although Benin City was retaken by the Nigerians on 22 September, the Biafrans succeeded in their primary objective by tying down as many Nigerian Federal troops as they could. Gen. Gowon also launched an offensive into Biafra south from the Niger Delta to the riverine area using the bulk of the Lagos Garrison command under Colonel Benjamin Adekunle (called the Black Scorpion) to form the 3rd Infantry Division (which was later renamed as the 3rd Marine Commando). As the war continued, the Nigerian Army recruited amongst a wider area, including the Yoruba, Itshekiri, Urhobo, Edo, Ijaw, etc.

Nigerian offensive
Four battalions of the Nigerian 2nd Infantry Division were needed to drive the Biafrans back and eliminate their territorial gains made during the offensive. Nigerian soldiers under Murtala Mohammed carried out a mass killing of 700 civilians when they captured Asaba on the River Niger. The Nigerians were repulsed three times as they attempted to cross the River Niger during October, resulting in the loss of thousands of troops, dozens of tanks and equipment. The first attempt by the 2nd Infantry Division on 12 October to cross the Niger from the town of Asaba to the Biafran city of Onitsha cost the Nigerian Federal Army over 5,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing. Operation Tiger Claw (17–20 October 1967) was a military conflict between Nigerian and Biafran military forces. On 17 October 1967 Nigerians invaded Calabar led by the "Black Scorpion", Benjamin Adekunle while the Biafrans were led by Col. Ogbu Ogi, who was responsible for controlling the area between Calabar and Opobo, and Lynn Garrison a foreign mercenary. The Biafrans came under immediate fire from the water and the air. For the next two days Biafran stations and military supplies were bombarded by the Nigerian air force. That same day Lynn Garrison reached Calabar but came under immediate fire by federal troops. By 20 October, Garrison's forces withdrew from the battle while Col. Ogi officially surrendered to Gen. Adekunle.

Control over oil production

Control over petroleum in the Niger Delta was a paramount military objective during the war.
Towards the end of July 1967 Nigeria captured Bonny Island in the Niger Delta, thereby taking control of vital Shell-BP facilities.[63] Operations began again in May 1968, when Nigeria captured Port Harcourt. Its facilities had been damaged and needed repair.[64] Production and export continued at a lower level. The completion in 1969 of a new terminal at Forçados brought production up from 142,000 barrels/day in 1958 to 540,000 barrels/day in 1969. In 1970, this figure doubled to 1,080,000 barrels/day. The royalties enabled Nigeria to buy more weapons, hire mercenaries, etc. Biafra proved unable to compete on this economic level.[65]

International involvement
Britain
The British planned to maintain and expand their supply of cheap high-quality oil from Nigeria. Therefore they placed a high priority on maintenance of oil extraction and refining operations. They backed the Federal Government, but when the war broke out cautioned them not to damage British oil installations in the East. These oilworks, under the control of Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company (jointly owned by Shell and British Petroleum), controlled 84% of Nigeria's 580,000 barrels per day. Two-thirds of this oil came from the Eastern region, and another third from the newly created Mid-West region. Two-fifths of all Nigerian oil ended up in Britain.[57]

Shell-BP therefore considered carefully a request by the Federal Government that it not pay the royalties demanded by Biafra. Its lawyers advised that payment to Biafra would be appropriate if this government did in fact maintain law and order in the region in question. The British government advised that paying Biafra could undermine the goodwill of the Federal Government. However, the payment was made, resulting in a blockade on oil.[57] Forced to choose a side, Shell-BP and the British government threw in their lot with the Federal Government in Lagos, apparently calculating that this side would be more likely to win the war.[66] As the British High Commissioner in Lagos wrote to to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs on 27 July 1967:

Ojukwu, even victorious, will not be in a strong position. He will require all the international help and recognition he can get. The Federal Government would be much better placed both internationally and internally. They would have a cast iron case for the severest treatment of a company which has subsidized a rebel, and I feel fairly convinced they would press their case to the lengths of cancelling the Company's concessions and nationalizing their installations. I conclude, therefore, if the company does change its mind and asks the British Government for advice, the best that could be given is for it to clamber hastily back on the Lagos side of the fence with cheque book at the ready."[66]

Shell-BP took this advice.[66] It continued to quietly support Nigeria through the rest of the war, in one case advancing a royalty of £5.5 million to fund the purchase of more British weapons.[67]

During the war, Britain covertly supplied Nigeria with weapons and military intelligence and may have also helped it to hire mercenaries.[68] After the decision was made to back Nigeria, the BBC oriented its reporting to favor this side.[69] Supplies provided to the Federal Military Government included two vessels and 60 vehicles.[70]

In Britain, the humanitarian campaign around Biafra began on 12 June 1968, with media coverage on ITV and in The Sun. The charities Oxfam and Save the Children Fund were soon deployed, with large sums of money at their disposal.[71]

France
France provided weapons, mercenary fighters, and other assistance to Biafra and promoted its cause internationally, describing the situation as a genocide. Charles de Gaulle referred to "Biafra's just and noble cause".[72] However, France did not recognize Biafra diplomatically.[73] Through Pierre Laureys, France had apparently provided two B-26s, Alouette helicopters, and pilots.[74] France supplied Biafra with captured German and Italian weapons from World War II, sans serial numbers, delivered as part of regular shipments to Côte d'Ivoire.[75] France also sold Panhard armored vehicles to the Nigerian federal government.[76]

French involvement in the war can be viewed in the context of its geopolitical strategy (Françafrique) and competition with the English in West Africa. Nigeria represented a base of British influence in the predominantly French-aligned area. France and Portugal used nearby countries in their sphere of influence, especially Côte d'Ivoire under President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, as waystations for shipments to Biafra.[72][77] To some extent, also, France repeated its earlier policy from the Congo Crisis, when it supported the secession of the southern mining province Katanga.[78]

Economically, France was significantly incentivized by oil drilling contracts for the Société Anonyme Française de Recherches et d'Exploitation de Pétrolières (SAFRAP), apparently arranged with Eastern Nigeria in advance of its secession from the Nigerian Federation.[79][80] SAFRAP laid claim to 7% of the Nigerian petroleum supply.[57] In the assessment of a CIA analyst in 1970, France's "support was actually given to a handful of Biafran bourgeoisie in return for the oil."[81] Biafra, for its part, openly appreciated its relationship with France. Ojukwu suggested on 10 August 1967, that Biafra introduce compulsory French classes in secondary, technical and teacher training schools, in order to "benefit from the rich culture of the French-speaking world".[82]

France led the way, internationally, for political support of Biafra.[80] Portugal also sent weapons; Czechoslovakia sent weapons until its priorities were adjusted by the 1968 Soviet invasion. These transactions were arranged through the "Biafran Historical Research Centre" in Paris.[83] French-aligned Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire recognized Biafra in May 1968.[84] On 8 May 1968, De Gaulle personally contributed 30,000 francs to medicine purchases for the French Red Cross mission. Fairly widespread student-worker unrest diverted the government's attention only temporarily. The government declared an arms embargo but maintained arms shipments to Biafra under cover of humanitarian aid.[85] In July the government redoubled its efforts to involve the public in a humanitarian approach to the conflict. Images of starving children and accusations of genocide filled French newspapers and television programs. Amidst this press blitz, on 31 July 1968, De Gaulle made an official statement in support of Biafra.[86] Maurice Robert, head of Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE, the French foreign intelligence service) African operations, wrote in 2004 that his agency supplied the press with details about the war and told them to use the word "genocide" in their reporting.[87]

France declared "Biafra Week" on 11–17 March 1969, centered on a 2-franc raffle held by the French Red Cross. Soon after, de Gaulle terminated arms shipments, then resigned on 27 April 1969. Interim president Alain Poher fired General Jacques Foccart, the lead coordinator of France's Africa policy. Georges Pompidou re-hired Foccart and resumed support for Biafra, including cooperation with the South African secret service to import more weapons.[88]

United States of America
The United States declared neutrality, with US Secretary of State Dean Rusk stating that "America is not in a position to take action as Nigeria is an area under British influence,"[60] but nevertheless provided military assistance to the Nigeria government.[60] Formally, the United States was neutral in the civil war. Strategically, its interests aligned with the Federal Military Government. The US also saw value in its alliance with Lagos, and sought to protect $800 million (in the assessment of the State Department) worth of private investment.[89]

This had not been publicized, while Senator Ted Kennedy led a movement for relief to the millions dying.

On 9 September 1968, United States presidential candidate Richard Nixon stated:

Until now, efforts to relieve the Biafra people have been thwarted by the desire of central government of Nigeria to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now – and starvation is the grim reaper.[72]

Gulf Oil Nigeria, the third major player in Nigerian oil, was producing 9% of the oil coming out of Nigeria before the war began.[57] Its operations were all located offshore of the federally controlled Mid-Western territory; therefore it continued to pay royalties to the Federal Government and its operations were mostly undisrupted.[66]

Soviet Union
The Soviet Union strongly backed the Federal Military Government, emphasizing the similarity with the Congo situation. It consistently supplied Nigeria with weapons, with the diplomatic disclaimer that these were "strictly for cash on a commercial basis". In 1968, the USSR agreed to finance the Kainji Dam on the Niger (somewhat upriver from the Delta). Soviet media outlets initially accused the imperialist British of cynically supporting the Biafran secession, then had to adjust these claims later when it turned out that Britain was supporting the Federal Government.[90]

One explanation for Soviet sympathy with the Federal Military Government was a shared opposition to internal secessionist movements. Before the war, the Soviets had seemed sympathetic to the Igbos. But Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin stated to their chagrin in October 1967 that "the Soviet people fully understand" Nigeria's motives and its need "to prevent the country from being dismembered."[91]

Reportedly, the war substantially improved Soviet-Nigerian diplomatic and trade relations, and Moskvitch cars began to make appearances around Lagos. The USSR became a competitive importer of Nigerian cacao.[90]

Israel
From early on, Israel perceived that Nigeria would be an important player in West African politics, and saw good relations with Lagos as an important foreign policy objective. Nigeria and Israel established a linkage in 1957. In 1960 Britain allowed the creation of an Israeli diplomatic mission in Lagos, and Israel made a $10 million loan to the Nigerian government. Israel also developed a cultural relation with the Igbos based on possible shared traditions. These moves represented a significant diplomatic success given the Muslim orientation of the northern-dominated government. Some northern leaders disapproved of contact with Israel and banned Israelis from Maiduguri and Sokoto.[92] df

Israel did not begin arms sales to Nigeria until after Aguyi-Ironsi came to power in January 1966. This was considered an opportune time to develop this relationship with the federal government, because Aguyi-Ironsi was Igbo. Ram Nirgad became Israeli ambassador to Nigeria in January. Thirty tons of mortar rounds were delivered in April.[93]

The Eastern Region began seeking assistance from Israel in September 1966. Israel apparently turned down their requests repeatedly, although they may have put the Biafran representatives in contact with another arms dealer.[94] In 1968, Israel began supplying the Federal Military Government with arms—about $500,000 worth, according to the US State Department.[95] Meanwhile, as elsewhere, the situation in Biafra became publicized as a genocide. The Knesset publicly debated this issue on 17 and 22 July 1968, winning applause from the press for its sensitivity. Right-wing and left-wing political groups, and student activists, spoke for Biafra.[96] In August 1968, the Israeli air force overtly sent twelve tons of food aid to a nearby site outside of Nigerian (Biafran) air space. Covertly, Mossad provided Biafra with $100,000 (through Zurich) and attempted an arms shipment. Soon after, Israel arranged to make clandestine weapons shipments to Biafra using Côte d'Ivoire transport planes.[97]

Other countries
Biafra appealed unsuccessfully for support from the Organisation of African Unity, whose member states generally did not want to support internal secessionist movements.[98]

The Federal Military Government received support from Egypt, which provided pilots to fly the aircraft procured by the Soviet Union.[99]

Biafra surrounded

A makeshift airport in Calabar, Nigeria, where relief efforts to aid famine victims were deployed by helicopter teams.
From 1968 onward, the war fell into a form of stalemate, with Nigerian forces unable to make significant advances into the remaining areas of Biafran control due to stiff resistance and major defeats in Abagana, Arochukwu, Oguta, Umuahia (Operation OAU), Onne, Ikot Ekpene, etc.[100] But another Nigerian offensive from April to June 1968 began to close the ring around the Biafrans with further advances on the two northern fronts and the capture of Port Harcourt on 19 May 1968. The blockade of the surrounded Biafrans led to a humanitarian disaster when it emerged that there was widespread civilian hunger and starvation in the besieged Igbo areas.[101]

The Biafran government reported that Nigeria was using hunger and genocide to win the war, and sought aid from the outside world. Private groups in the US, led by Senator Ted Kennedy, responded. No one was ever held responsible for these killings.

In September 1968, the federal army planned what Gowon described as the "final offensive." Initially the final offensive was neutralised by Biafran troops by the end of the year after several Nigerian troops were routed in Biafran ambushes. In the latter stages, a Southern FMG offensive managed to break through. However in 1969, the Biafrans launched several offensives against the Nigerians in their attempts to keep the Nigerians off-balance starting in March when the 14th Division of the Biafran army recaptured Owerri and moved towards Port Harcourt, but were halted just north of the city. In May 1969, Biafran commandos recaptured oil wells in Kwale. In July 1969, Biafran forces launched a major land offensive supported by foreign mercenary pilots continuing to fly in food, medical supplies and weapons. Most notable of the mercenaries was Swedish Count Carl Gustav von Rosen who led air attacks with five Malmö MFI-9 MiniCOIN small piston-engined aircraft, armed with rocket pods and machine guns. His Biafran Air Force consisted of three Swedes: von Rosen, Gunnar Haglund and Martin Lang. The other two pilots were Biafrans: Willy Murray-Bruce and Augustus Opke. From 22 May to 8 July 1969 von Rosen's small force attacked Nigerian military airfields in Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin City and Ughelli, destroying or damaging a number of Nigerian Air Force jets used to attack relief flights, including a few Mig-17's and three of Nigeria's six Ilyushin Il-28 bombers that were used to bomb Biafran villages and farms on a daily basis. Although the Biafran offensives of 1969 were a tactical success, the Nigerians soon recovered. The Biafran air attacks did disrupt the combat operations of the Nigerian Air Force, but only for a few months.

In response to the Nigerian government using foreigners to lead some advances, the Biafran government also began hiring foreign mercenaries to extend the war.[102] Only German born Rolf Steiner a Lt. Col. with the 4th Commandos, and Major Taffy Williams, a Welshman would remain for the duration.[103] Nigeria also deployed foreign combatants, in the form of Egyptian pilots for their air force MiG 17 fighters and Il 28 bombers. The Egyptian conscripts frequently attacked civilian rather than military targets, bombing numerous Red Cross shelters.[104]

More pic

Humanitarian crisisEdit
Further information: Biafran airlift

A child suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition as a result of the blockade. Pictures of the famine caused by Nigerian blockade garnered sympathy for the Biafrans worldwide. It was regarded in the Western press as the genocide of 2 million people, half of them children and fund raising for relief was carried out at the time, with the help of Senator Ted Kennedy.
Awareness of a mounting crisis rose in 1968. Information spread especially through religious networks, beginning with alerts from missionaries. It did not escape the notice of worldwide Christian organisations that the Biafrans were Christian and the northern Nigerians controlling the federal government were Muslim.[105]

Many volunteer bodies organised the Biafran airlift which provided blockade-breaking relief flights into Biafra, carrying food, medicines, and sometimes (according to some claims) weapons.[104] More common was the claim that the arms-carrying aircraft would closely shadow aid aircraft, making it more difficult to distinguish between aid aircraft and military supply aircraft.[104]

One of the interesting characters assisting Count Carl Gustav von Rosen was Lynn Garrison, an ex-RCAF fighter pilot. He introduced the Count to a Canadian method of dropping bagged supplies to remote areas in Canada without losing the contents. He showed how one sack of food could be placed inside a larger sack before the supply drop. When the package hit the ground the inner sack would rupture while the outer one kept the contents intact. With this method many tons of food were dropped to many Biafrans who would otherwise have died of starvation.

Bernard Kouchner was one of a number of French doctors who volunteered with the French Red Cross to work in hospitals and feeding centres in besieged Biafra. The Red Cross required volunteers to sign an agreement, which was seen by some (like Kouchner and his supporters) as being similar to a gag order, that was designed to maintain the organisation's neutrality, whatever the circumstances. Kouchner and the other French doctors signed this agreement.

After entering the country, the volunteers, in addition to Biafran health workers and hospitals, were subjected to attacks by the Nigerian army, and witnessed civilians being murdered and starved by the blockading forces. Kouchner also witnessed these events, particularly the huge number of starving children, and when he returned to France, he publicly criticised the Nigerian government and the Red Cross for their seemingly complicit behaviour. With the help of other French doctors, Kouchner put Biafra in the media spotlight and called for an international response to the situation. These doctors, led by Kouchner, concluded that a new aid organisation was needed that would ignore political/religious boundaries and prioritise the welfare of victims. They formed le Comité de Lutte contre le Génocide au Biafra which in 1971 became Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).[106][107]

The crisis brought about a large increase in prominence and funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).[108][109]

End of the warEdit
With increased British support the Nigerian federal forces launched their final offensive against the Biafrans once again on 23 December 1969 with a major thrust by the 3rd Marine Commando Division the division was commanded by Col. Olusegun Obasanjo (who later became president twice) which succeeded in splitting the Biafran enclave into two by the end of the year. The final Nigerian offensive, named "Operation Tail-Wind", launched on 7 January 1970 with the 3rd Marine Commando Division attacking, and supported by the 1st Infantry division to the north and the 2nd Infantry division to the south. The Biafran town of Owerri fell on 9 January, and Uli fell on 11 January. Only a few days earlier, Ojukwu fled into exile by flying by plane to the Ivory Coast, leaving his deputy Philip Effiong to handle the details of the surrender to General Yakubu Gowon of the federal army on 13 January 1970. The war finally ended a few days later with the Nigerian forces advancing in the remaining Biafran held territories with little opposition.

After the war Gowon said, "The tragic chapter of violence is just ended. We are at the dawn of national reconciliation. Once again we have an opportunity to build a new nation. My dear compatriots, we must pay homage to the fallen, to the heroes who have made the supreme sacrifice that we may be able to build a nation, great in justice, fair trade, and industry."[121]

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 Comparing Igbos With Yorubas - Politics - Nairaland

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Igbos Want To Settle With Yorubas In Lagos, Read What They want / Muslims Living With Yorubas Is a Ticking Time Bomb (tick* tock* tick* tock) / Comparing Legacies - Obasanjo Vs Goodluck Jonathan (1) (2) (3)(4)

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Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 1:31am

MOD Pls steer clear!


After the post below princdebola201 ran like matd out of his own post.

princdebola201, you had the guts to brag against Igbos. You and your Yoruba tribe should be ashamed of yourselves for dare comparing Igbos with Yorubas. 

You should be ashamed of yourselves for being in the habit of using other regions to shield your cowardly mien. It's shameful that a typical Yoruba person cannot make his stand known without dragging some other tribes along. If it is not distorting history, it is ass-licking your slave masters by propagating lies of how your slave masters have always been peace-loving and accommodative and that it is the Igbos who provoke their host! Yet the Christian minorities and other Southerners in the North and in the Middle-belt continue are being maltreated and relegated to the background.
It is so disgusting and pathetic already!

You mentioned curse, what kind of curse are you referring to?
Is it the curse Alaafin of Oyo placed on the young braggard, Bode Thomas, for arrogantly insulting his office? Bode Thomas barked and barked like a dog till he kicked the bucket! Is that not the same way many Yorubas are barking on Igbo matter?

Is it the curse that made your god, Awolowo, to die in a miserable way?

Is it the curse that made your warrior, Benjamin Adekunle, a.k.a the scorpion, to eat his own excrement before he chose death in 2014? The was same Adekunle who mocked the pope, Red Cross, Caritas, World Council of Churches, UN etc.

What about your Field Marshall, MKO Abiola, who sunk containers of Christian materials and paid off the importer just to impress his slave masters in the North? Was it not this atrocious deed amongst many others that brought curse upon him which led him to his Waterloo? 

So, what curse are you referring to? 
Is it the curse on your slave masters or yourself? 

Despite Awolowo’s free education, is the South-West not the worst hit by illiteracy in the South? 
Whose region is being ravaged by internationally acclaimed drug peddlers, high-profile assassinations, frequent ritual-killings and treasury lootings?

Whose region is being ravaged by carnage, blood letting, terrible and strange diseases, abject poverty and penury?

I'm just trying to be as modest as possible with my choice of words. 

Let's go down memory lane.

After the civil war, your god, Awolowo, defrauded the Igbo Nation, robbing her of her enormous wealth and transferring same to you parasites. As the Finance Minister, Awo, gave a paltry £20 to Igbo men who proved they had an account in the bank. That was all the Igbo man started life with!

And in 1971/72 Awo and his criminal gang colluded and issued the indigenisation decree which compelled the British companies to give up ownership of their companies.
With the stolen money from Igbo men's sweat at their disposal Yorubas in conjunction with their Northern co-travellers were able to acquire the companies in Nigeria.

Igbos started life from ground zero after the civil war with just £20, with their lands devastated, farmlands destroyed, markets destroyed, schools levelled, hospitals broken-down, with hunger ravaging her people and the children at the mercy of kwashiorkor. Inspite of these debilitating factors Igbos being a resilient people exerted themselves and within a short while they are at the top, competiting only with themselves.

As if the bank robbery was not enough and inspite of the 3Rs strategy mapped out to rehabilitate the Eastern region, Gowon and the subsequent regimes diverted the crude oil revenue from the East to develop Lagos State into a mega-city. And here you are bragging about same Lagos cum SW. Is Lagos State your father's land? Common migrants making noise as if they own Lagos. FYI, Lagos was built with the blood and sweat of every ethnic group in Nigeria! Take it or leave it! Nigeria or no Nigeria, you and your ilks CAN NOT do ANYTHING about it!

So far the Igbos have done well for themselves. The Igbos now boast of the best middle class, the most educated, the most enterprising, the most ambitious, goal getters and achievers.

Igbos survived the policy of strangulation imposed on them them by Gowon and Awolowo. And they are still surmounting some other criminal policies put in place by the criminal gang to checkmate the progress of the Igbos - quota system, federal character, admission catchment areas in schools, cut off marks for admission, fraudulent census figure, false voters register, lopsided local government areas and the likes.

And now Igbos are more than equal to the Yorubas and their co-travellers who were bequeathed with Nigeria's wealth on a plater of gold. The criminal gang acquired virtually all oil wells. They cornered over 85% of the oil wells as their prize for the war they prosecuted against the Eastern region.

princdebola201, and you're here comparing yourself with that same man you robbed his wealth; the same people who would need to get higher scores than the Yorubas to gain admission into schools.

Just by being Igbo by birth, Igbo standards have become too high even amongst themselves, but that has not made them lose heart and in fact it brought out the best out of them. 

Inspite of the tortuous journey the Igbo man passed/passes through to achieve success the criminal system in place and the gang will not allow the Igbo man be. The gang is bitter and angry at the success of the Igbo man, that they use any given opportunity at their disposal to remind Igbos that they are the ones who accommodated them and therefore they should abide by their dictates, whims and caprices, including being coerced to vote the candidate of the host's choice in election.
But the Igbo man's resolve remains strong.

And you are here boasting of Folorunso Alakija who acquired her wealth from the commonwealth, from the crude oil in another man's backyard! It's a shame!

Before the 1967-70 civil war, an average Yoruba man did not measure up to the ever industrious Igboman. Even in the South-West Igbos were in the lead. Igbos were the first Black Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, the first VC of the University of Lagos and the first Nigerian Rector of the then Yaba College of Technology in the South-West; the police was run by an Igbo IG; the military as a professional institution was run by brilliant Igbos; the first president of Nigeria and the first military ruler of Nigeria.

Nigeria economy assumed a downward trend when the gang acquired all Nigerian companies by virtue of indigenization decree of 1972. But they could not manage the companies instead they ruined, defrauded, liquidated, bankrupted and destroyed all the companies - that was the mother of destruction of Nigerian economy! The swindlers indeed bastardized the Nigerian economy. 
And to divert attention from their ineptitude and crass looting of the treasury they would use illogical reasoning to attempt to bamboozle other people while pointing accusing fingers elsewhere!

After more than 40 years, despite the stolen wealth, the respective regions of the criminal gang cannot be said to be transformed and be one of the enviest in the world. None of their cities could be likened to, say the least, Johannesburg!

With all the disadvantages Igbos faced and still face they rose from grass to grace and you are not even ashamed to compare them with treasury looters. 

It's not how far but how well!

Time shall tell...

By Xtrorse

12 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by CUM4WHAT(m):1:34am

Seun, lalasticlala is d ban button on holiday or it got an hangover from last9t party

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 1:39am

CUM4WHAT:
Seun, lalasticlala is d ban button on holiday or it got an hangover from last9t party


How come u are how when u are not upto 18.

3 Likes 1 Share

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Txonyi(m):1:41am

what a write up......... the igbo man has proven every hater wrong, the only thing remaining is to kill THE IDIOTS that shot our IPOB members in onitsha.

5 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Sall: 1:42am

At the op you must be a mad cow doe daring to compare the east to the west Or (Igbo to Yoruba).

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Olril18: 1:42am

u Igbo are probably the joke of the century..
I mean u are all bunch of comedians ,really funny lots..
its not even clear wat u guys want , sometimes ago,u owned and develop Lagos, recently lts Biafra u guys are shouting about on social media..
confused people.

2 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by CUM4WHAT(m):1:44am

Zinicc:


How come u are how when u are not upto 18.

if only u could write a correct english sentence... NONSENSE

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by knightsTempler:1:44am

You guys ain't tired of this Igbo - Yoruba ish? Damn!!! It is getting boring, you guys are pathetic to put it mildly.

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 1:50am

Sall:
At the op you must be a mad cow doe daring to compare the east to the west Or (Igbo to Yoruba).


Are u still awake, Bus CONDUCTOR!

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by coolitempa(f):1:53am

Zinicc is a lunatic......  ...full of lies......fake conjectures and mental disfunctionality ..........pleas give thieves clowns Biafra... 

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 1:54am

CUM4WHAT:
if only u could write a correct english sentence... NONSENSE


Every child I know has already slept...still surprise you are there.

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by coolitempa(f):1:56am

Also no comparison between ibo (Igbos) and Yorubas..... ...light (Yoruba)......is different from darkness (ibos).... 

5 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by CUM4WHAT(m):1:58am

Zinicc:


Every child I know has already slept...still surprise you are there.

luking at ur signature... If u can't display yur sthupidity, Then it can't be......

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 1:59am

coolitempa:
Zinicc is a lunatic......  ...full of lies......fake conjectures and mental disfunctionality ..........pleas give thieves clowns Biafra... 


I would rather prefer strong konji to kill me than to look your side for a sec.
Attention seeker.. 
See anger , just don't kill your bf.

2 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 2:09am

coolitempa:
Also no comparison between ibo (Igbos) and Yorubas..... ...light (Yoruba)......is different from darkness (ibos).... 


You very correct, just continue bleaching.
I have seen you ''light indeed''

5 Likes

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas bynochildsplay(m): 2:20am

I must say this OP zinicc with all you just spit on the mic like a mofo rapper new in the game and looking for chances to be elivated, is full of HATE 

These are reasons why news associated with ibos or Biafrans never make fp. 

Everyone ibo move around with HATE , TRIBALISM and An opportunity for VIOLENCE

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Tkester: 2:25am

@OP,

Very epic write-up!

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 2:29am

nochildsplay:
I must say this OP zinicc with all you just spit on the mic like a mofo rapper new in the game and looking for chances to be elivated, is full of HATE 

These are reasons why news associated with ibos or Biafrans never make fp. 

Everyone ibo move around with HATE , TRIBALISM and An opportunity for VIOLENCE



So whats your point..
I guess you go around looking for someone to like you for you to feel good with yourself.

Scratched face, You can't decieve me, you don't even like urself.
I don't need ur like.

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas bynochildsplay(m): 2:34am

Bla! Bla!! Bla!!! Bla!!! 

Sincerely this ibos are just confused with grieve and hate. They won't stop dwelling on what have died and burried even turned to red clay 

FYI.......... The last time I checked Lagos is part of the Zoo this Hatefull soul is claiming to be developed by every tribe, then I ask, are they also trying to claim that Lagos will become part of Biafra state or what ?

If these Ibos want to go, I think they know the door ......... GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The yorubas don't need you, neither
The Hausa.

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas bynochildsplay(m): 2:37am

Zinicc:


So whats your point..
I guess you go around looking for someone to like you for you to feel good with yourself.

Scratched face, You can't decieve me, you don't even like urself.
I don't need ur like.

another one that Nanamdi Kunu brainwashed.

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 2:38am

nochildsplay:
Bla! Bla!! Bla!!! Bla!!! 

Sincerely this ibos are just confused with grieve and hate. They won't stop dwelling on what have died and burried even turned to red clay 

FYI.......... The last time I checked Lagos is part of the Zoo this Hatefull soul is claiming to be developed by every tribe, then I ask, are they also trying to claim that Lagos will become part of Biafra state or what ?

If these Ibos want to go, I think they know the door ......... GET OUT OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The yorubas don't need you, neither
The Hausa. 


Green snake in green grass, who will believe you now.

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas bynochildsplay(m): 2:41am

Zinicc:


So whats your point..
I guess you go around looking for someone to like you for you to feel good with yourself.

Scratched face, You can't decieve me, you don't even like urself.
I don't need ur like.

another one that Nanamdi Kunu brainwashed with violence words and tribalism 


FYI....... My evevryday thinking is vast than yours ..... What you and your brothers out there think about of lately is an avenue for civil war 2 to pop 

Am sure you don't expect me to like someone that :-
Think violence
Act violence
Type violence 
Cherish Tribalsim 
Has no respectful culture 

Guy Abeg Park straight. I NO LIKE YOU

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Zinicc: 2:41am

nochildsplay:
another one that Nanamdi Kunu brainwashed. 


Are u crazyy or what, who is that, 'Nanamdi kunu' 
Do you want introduce me to ur grandpa.

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas bynochildsplay(m): 2:46am

Zinicc:


Are u crazyy or what, who is that, 'Nanamdi kunu' 
Do you want introduce me to ur grandpa.

Zinicc:

Green snake in green grass, who will believe you now.

Zinicc:

So whats your point..
I guess you go around looking for someone to like you for you to feel good with yourself.
Scratched face, You can't decieve me, you don't even like urself.
I don't need ur like.

Guy buy sense and Grow up. 
Your Media warrior dey abroad una dey die for here.

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by DaBullIT(m):3:27am

Mods stop to dey stalk me, na me first comment for this thread una don commot am again

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by Tkester: 3:38am

nochildsplay:
another one that Nanamdi Kunu brainwashed. 


Mumu detected!

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by new2020:4:12am

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by zuchyblink(m):6:17am

OP,the Yorubass have gone gaga.an ethnic group that cannot beat the achievement of Anambra alone is bragging for the Igbos. I laugh in pidgin French

1 Like

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by ak47mann(m):6:21am

yoruba people are still leaving in the past.I get am before no be achievement 

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by zuchyblink(m):6:28am

this is the answer to Yoruba mediocrity worship called greatness. https://www.nairaland.com/2532569/great-igbo-achievers-pride-africa

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by zuchyblink(m):6:28am

this is the answer to Yoruba mediocrity worship called greatness. https://www.nairaland.com/2532569/great-igbo-achievers-pride-africa

Re: Comparing Igbos With Yorubas by KingsWillRoyal:6:31am

this is war zone ooo

just saw it here .......

This is a good personal opinion of the life and times of Dim Ojukwu. Please compile this and his photographs at different stages of his life for future generations of politicians and patriotic nationalists to study and use.

Op Germany which fought the Jews and Europe at large in the first world war lost and was maltreated in all of Europe and then later fought more aggressive than the first, now treated fairly among European nations

More pic

[quote author=Closecall post=37590826][/quote]

Please beware Scammers are out using British airways cargo to cheat.BEWARE They may get to you.This guys are scammers this are some of the things they will claim they have send to you,asking you to pay local delivery charges.DON'T cos they are real cheats(41

Buhari said everybody is entitled to self determination.

So if it does not apply to Nigeria


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH8f03aPb6Y

junk post
nsibidi and akagu must be used and guess where that would happen
b................................................................................................a