Adekunle, Niger Delta and Igbo Biafrans

The ruthless and inhuman operation carried out by the now late Col. Benjamin Adekunle, the half Yoruba, half Bachama commander of the 3rd Marine Commandos have been justified on the grounds that the ill-armed Biafran forces/civillians were dealt with for occupying Niger Delta territory.

I have read this lie told overtime even on this NL forum with the effect that some riverine peoples despite high inter-marriage and cultural fusion with the Igbo still see Igbo as enemy. Let me make it clear like many people, that I do not support a return to the geo-political 'one East'. For the peace, security and comfort of the various groups in Nigeria, the six geo-political zones must stand. The hypocrisy of one region where a particular group lords it over the others, massacres the minorities, try to convert them against their religious beliefs by force, claim their fertile lands, deny them political power, infrastructure etc as is happening in parts of Nigeria especially North, have never and can never happen among the liberal, stateless ethnic groups on the eastern side.

So the fallacy that the Igbo went after ND oil? Nothing can be farther from the truth. It is part of the barefaced distortions of historical facts. Such lies are responsible for Nigeria's continuing backwardness, inter-group suspicion, violence, political, economic and social chaos.

This lie has been used to justify the now equally devious and rapacious occupation and squandering of the same Niger Delta oil by far-flung ethnic groups from Nigeria's multifarous and diverse ethnic constituents as part of either war booty against the peoples of the former Eastern region and Mid-West or as a 'shared national asset'. Agriculture and solid minerals on their side have been abandoned. Agitations for more constituents of the sharing is increasing and corruption has reached a crescendo.

If the truth must to be told to those who keep repeating this deception: 1)the ND was part of the Eastern region before the civil war. And Igbo was the largest ethnic group in the region followed by the Efik-Ibibio, then the Ijaw, Ogoja-Bekwarra, Ogoni etc. News broadcast in the East was in this order. So there was no issue of this occupying that, otherwise can you tell me the differences culturally among the eastern groups.

2)The peoples of Eastern Region through the Constituent Assembly, which had been in place since the colonial rule in 1967, following the despicable bloodbath in Nigeria, mandated the establishment of an eastern seperate republic from Nigeria 'as soon as practicable', the practicability being adequate weapons, men, materials, international support, home mobilisations etc. Whether all these were available before Ojukwu's 30th May, 1967 announcement is now history.
3) That the pre-war killings in Nigeria did not spare any ethnic group of the East being mainly christians and the sentiments for seperation from Nigeria were virtually the same except that the enemy manipulated the fear factor against these groups vis-a-vis the Igbo.

In the book, 'In Biafra Africa Died' the author factually showed what happened in the period. The truth is the Biafra lost that war because of Ojukwu's purely narrow conception of the war as a war of survival from the pogrom that was going on against easterners in Nigeria under Gowon's watch. By the time he realised the economic dimension (sending adequate troops to secure the coastal areas), which would have secured him international support (he who has the oil has the supply of weapons etc), Gowon has occupied the oil fields of Bonny and the Bight of Biafra. The difficulties of the riverine terrain also compelled Ojukwu to strike a deal with the obviously pro-Biafran leaders of the ND to use whatever weapons they could to defend their areas or declare for the federal side to save their lives in the interim, while the few troops he could muster would try to push the federals away from the Igbo mainland. This was exactly what happened. You may read further details below:

(In the course of its existence, Biafra was believed to have symbolised a prototype of an ideal multination state in Africa. People used to listen to Biafran news in Igbo, Ibibio, Efik, Ijaw and Ogoja beginning with Igbo. Every person in Biafra was accomodated in the structure of the state. The name Okoko Ndem, non Igbo, dominated the air and most people did not know whether he was Efik, Ijaw, Ogoja or Igbo.

While the minorities Rivers area of Biafra was being threatened by Nigerian troops, Col. Ojukwu asked the tribal (ethnic) chiefs of the two southern provinces of Yenogoa and Degema, to come and see him. He told them the nature of the terrain they lived in was unsuitable for defence, that he could not offer great hopes of the Biafran Army being able to prevent the Nigerians from overrunning them. Therefore he offered the Chiefs the chance that if they wished to opt for Nigeria and save themselves from eventual reprisals, he would draw up his defensive line north of the two provinces and cede the remainder to Nigeria. The chiefs wished to reply at once, but Ojukwu told them to go back home and talk it over in council. The next day, a messenger arrived with the Rivers people's answer. THEY WANTED TO STAY WITH BIAFRA. They hoped for every defence possible and would help all they could. They realised this would bring reprisals and were ready for them.

If the above was the true representation of what actually transpired between the Biafran Head of State and the minority leaders of the southern provinces, it may be hard to sustain the argument about Igbo coercion of the minorities against their will to be part of Biafra. Perhaps one of the objective methods which could have settled this question beyond doubts was Emeka Ojukwu's call for a plebescite: "If Nigeria believes that she is really defending the true wishes of the minorities, she should accept our proposal for a PLEBESCITE in the disputed areas of Nigeria and Biafra) page 88.

I do not believe in the so-called Adekunle heroics. It was just a matter of circumstancial coincidence that he was in the terrain even when die-hards like Isaac Adaka Boro had started rebelling against Biafra. Mind you Biafra was not fighting only westward but also northward, and later southwards from the coast which must distract and polarise any strong army. If you fight me from my back, as Adekunle and other Yoruba fighters did, then you are a coward. These men coming through the coast suffered thousands of losses to their troops for their foolish gambit.

In conclusion, there were no heroes in that war, all were cowards. After claiming the oil booty, Gowon declared: 'No victor, no vanquished'; the half-Igbo, half Edo Col Alabi Isama called it 'The Tragedy of Victory'. And if we are wise, we must avoid a repeat of that folly even if oil resources survive for years longer than expected to run out of relevance.

Yawn.
Do not rewrite history.
If you want more I will drop them here for you

http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=jora
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Institue%20of%20African%20Studies%20Research%20Review/1969v5n2/asrv005002005.pdf