http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20808106



21 December 2012 Last updated at 11:08 GMT Help It is more than four decades since the end of the civil war in Nigeria which saw the army fighting to stop the east of the country, known as Biafra, from breaking away.

The war left more than a million people dead.

But even today there are still many in the east who would like their part of the country to secede.

Will Ross reports.

Moni iran yoruba ati igbo amo iyan ki ma sope eyan buruku ni Awolowo

How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

confusion247: How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

wait for the notorious mmanu nri bigots to come and say why they are afraid of biafra.

Ben Okafor remembers the Biafran war

It is 45 years since Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria declared independence, sparking a bloody civil war that lasted two and a half years and left more than a million people dead. Ben Okafor was just 12 years old when it began and told the BBC's Witness programme what happened.

"When the declaration of independence was made, everybody surrounded the radiogram at home, all the streets were emptied. People just went to the nearest radio and stood there listening until the broadcast was over.

There was a massive explosion of joyful noises. There were dances in the streets. We were all celebrating, but my father was cautiously happy - that was the kind of person that he was. He wasn't sure that it would not lead to a war.

Everybody hoped that that was going to be the end of the oppression, that we were now an independent nation, so to say - no longer part of Nigeria - and that the troubles were over, that the rest of Nigeria would just accept that and move on.

But, six days later, the war began.

I was in my first year of secondary school and we had compulsory holidays, everything had stopped because the Nigerian air force started bombing indiscriminately.

It was unbelievably terrifying with buildings crumbling and limbs everywhere. Cars on fire. Schools, hospitals, being bombed. And shortly after that the Nigerian troops entered my city


My father wasn't at home that day. He was working as an adviser to the new Biafran government. It fell to my older brother to get the family out of the city.

He didn't have a driver's licence. He said: 'OK, everybody in the car,' and I said to him: 'Who's going to drive?' And he said: 'I am going to drive'. So we all piled into this car and took off.

There were hundreds and thousands of cars on the roads. I was quite small and, to be honest, quite scared to see women throwing away their high-heeled shoes and tearing their pencil skirts just so as to be able to run, and some of them being caught by shrapnel. Cars were ramming into each other. My brother just kept his cool and carried on driving.




A really significant thing happened to me there. There was an air raid, and I was sitting in the courtyard with my father. He grabbed me by the hand and ran with me. And we ran into the forest, and these jets were strafing the place with bullets.

I looked in my father's face and I saw fear. And this was something I had never associated with him, ever, in my life, fear. Basically, this turned everything over, and I thought: 'No, I don't really want to hang around to watch this. So I decided to enlist in the army.


With no support from the outside world, the Biafran government was under-resourced, and the army was using children, known as the Boys' Company, as spies behind federal government lines to gather intelligence.

I began to train with the Boys' Company, but didn't tell my parents. I told my family only when my platoon was due to go on its first mission the next day.

My mother was basically beside herself, so the next morning as I was preparing to leave, my older brother came to me and said: 'Look, you can't leave mum like this,' and that was when I went back and started to console her, and tell that I would be back, and that everything would be OK.

Then I looked at the clock and realised that I was getting really really late for my rendezvous. I ran as fast as I could but it was too late, the platoon had gone without me.


A few hours later, we heard on the radio that they had been caught. Someone in the government had switched sides and given the Nigerians information about the Boys' Company.

The boys had their eyes dug out and were sent back to Biafra. The boys were all about my age - 12 or 13 - and even the captain was only 15.

At that time, there was so much pain and fear. The soldiers would arrive in a village and kill everybody - men, women and children, and sometimes their cattle. And everybody had to do something for the war effort. Everyone.

The Nigerian government had already imposed a complete blockade. This meant that food, medical supplies, clothing, and everything needed for survival, could not get through to the Biafran people.



A few individuals and organizations (mainly from mainland Europe) risked their lives to bring food supplies to Biafran refugees, but it was not enough to prevent widespread starvation.

My sister and I were lucky to find work - in a refugee camp.

My job was to ride a baker's bike to a nearby town where the Red Cross had their depot, collect food and take it back to my refugee camp.

People basically lived off the land. They hunted.

You learned to eat all kinds of leaves that you would not normally look at, and hope to survive.

Many did not. I saw them every day that I worked in that refugee camp. Every day. Sometimes you'd see them, and know they would be dead by the next day."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18707808

confusion247: How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

Wont it be better if you should ask Nigeria and niGERians to let BIAFRA be?

berem: wait for the notorious mmanu nri bigots to come and say why they are afraid of biafra.

We are afraid of Nigeria because nobody known where and when the next BOMB will go off? Why cant you and your cohorts fight the issues that are making everybody afraid of niGERia first?

confusion247: How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

If your fathers were not afraid of biafra,why did they oppose it vigorously?.

Biafra and Biafrans need a CLOSURE.
Let's all discuss the Biafran Issue millions were wasted in the name of One Nigeria, their Blood is still crying for Justice. This is the Truth.

c

confusion247: How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

Why are you pretending that you are not afraid of losing Igbo from Naija?

c

Chima_Adeoye:

Why are you pretending that you are not afraid of losing Igbo from Naija?

Who's afraid? I'd rather see you people go. I think the North would as well. The crime rates would drop significantly. Please go and make this Biafra and stop talking our ears off.

'Willing to fight'

But to this day, many Igbos complain that they were punished economically after the war and still speak of being marginalised. The fact that no Nigerian president has come from the east is a source of much rancour.

The prospect of an independent Igboland now seems impossible, especially as secessionists would want the area's lucrative oil fields.

While those publicly clamouring for independence are a very small minority, it is not hard to find young people who feel they would be better off as a separate nation. This ought to be of great concern to the government of Nigeria.


"If this present government does not have the solution for us upcoming youth here, I'd rather the nation breaks," said one young man playing football in Enugu near a statue referred to as "The Unknown Soldier" holding a gun aloft.


"We are willing to fight for our rights. Without sacrifice there will be nothing like freedom. We have to pay the price if we want independence and we are ready to do that again," he added.


"Islams (sic) don't want the east to rule the country and our opportunities and rights are denied so we are better off as an independent Biafra sovereign nation. Nothing is impossible," another man in his 20s added.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20801091

There's a new generation in the eastern part of nigeria who never experienced the wrath of war. They don't have clue of what war is like. If the present situation of things nigeria continues,this new generation will rise again to take up arms.

confusion247: How I wish igbos will have this biafra so that we can have peace. From the day biafra was born and rejected by Gowon and Nigeria, Nigerians have known no peace and progress. Who is afraid of biafra? Who is afraid of division and why.

Hahaha, I wonder why u bother urself. Have u not looked well to notice that the people calling for biafria are either the ones who have most to gain from it or those who are too hungry to feed themselves. The working middle class Igbos who have to work everyday to feed their families don't give a shit about the so called biafria

na today? Since 1966!
Biafra or no biafra, George Orwell had said it all in animal farm.
Nigerian leaders prior to independence collectively fought for independence. but now what is the situation?
What about the case of two brothers that fought collectively against an uncle's claim of their father's property. They won the battle. They then had to fight the next and greater stage of the battle which is haw they were going to share the property within themselves.
Biafra republic! I bet the ebonyi will stil gat a cultural and moral disparity from anambra leading to incessant dispute likewise will be in other biafran places.
A kii so fun omode ki o ma dete, ti o ba ti le da igbo gbe (person no dey tell pikin make he no gat leprosy if e fit stay for inside bush alone)

drnoel:
Hahaha, I wonder why u bother urself. Have u not looked well to notice that the people calling for biafria are either the ones who have most to gain from it or those who are too hungry to feed themselves. The working middle class Igbos who have to work everyday to feed their families don't give a shit about the so called biafria

that's not true. So uwazuruike is hungry? So for You biafra issue ends with those street rallies?

AMA-ALA ALAIGBO NILE KWENU. OGA ADI MMA. CHUKWU NO

centje: that's not true. So uwazuruike is hungry? So for You biafra issue ends with those street rallies?

for me its just history, something to learn from, not something to follow irresponsible politicians who don't have the people's interest at heart about...
Besides let them do biafra rallies all they want, nothing will come out of it. If u guys are wise, u look for solutions and not chasing long dead ghosts. If the biafra thing would lead our people forward into the next generation, i would be one of the first people to support it and would give my hard end resources to do so but am sorry i don't have faith in the caliber of people spare heading the stuff cos they have shown repeatedly that their interest lies only in their personal needs and not for the people they claim they are fighting for.

Are YOU now the one that has Igbo interests at heart?

drnoel:
for me its just history, something to learn from, not something to follow irresponsible politicians who don't have the people's interest at heart about...
Besides let them do biafra rallies all they want, nothing will come out of it. If u guys are wise, u look for solutions and not chasing long dead ghosts. If the biafra thing would lead our people forward into the next generation, i would be one of the first people to support it and would give my hard end resources to do so but am sorry i don't have faith in the caliber of people spare heading the stuff cos they have shown repeatedly that their interest lies only in their personal needs and not for the people they claim they are fighting for.

Even Nigeria is tired of Nigeria