This thread contains facts about the Nigerian Civil War
that young Nigerians may not know about. This post is
not exhaustive in anyway and no post ever will, but
attempts will be made to post more 'little-known'
facts about the Civil War later. The initial plan was to create states in the Eastern
Region only. The plan was shelved because it
considered unwise, and 12 States were created
throughout the country on 27 May 1967. Prior to the war, the North had the absolute majority
within the rank and file of the Army because of the
ethnic quota system. The letters of the name of Head of state of Nigeria,
GOWON, came to mean "Go On With One Nigeria" during the war. The Biafra Army conducted a training exercise
codenamed “Exercise Checkmate”. This exercise
was so realistic as the Nigerian Army reacted exactly
the way Biafrans expected them to. Their enemies
were not new to them; many Biafran officers were in
the Nigerian Army before the war. "Red Devil" tanks were the improvised armoured
vehicles of the Biafran Army. They were created by
the ingenuity of Biafran engineers. They were
dangerous and cumbersome. They were easy targets
for anti - tank recoilless weapons during the war.
Patrick Chukwuma ‘Kaduna’ Nzeogwu, the leader of the first military coup in Nigeria, was killed by
Nigerian forces while using one during the war. The Nigerian soldiers enjoyed rapid promotion and
pay increase throughout the war. The Nigerian Government imported some pretty
sophisticated weapons that could not be maintained.
Many had to be discarded only after a few months. Lt. Col Steiner was a ‘mercenary’ (put in quotation
marks because he reportedly fought without pay) for
Biafra. He had confrontations with his Biafran
commanders, and he was arrested and deported. Logistics was poor, especially on the Nigerian side.
After the war, the Army School of Logistics was
upgraded to produce highly skilled logisticians. Wole Soyinka (would later become a Nobel laureate)
visited the Eastern Region Military Governor
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Enugu in August
1967 to try to avert war. The Gowon regime put him in
solitary confinement for nearly two years because of
this. He was released after the war. In 1966, a plane carrying weapons allegedly ordered
by Eastern Region Military Governor Lt. Col. Ojukwu
crashed over the Cameroun Mountains. General de Gaulle of France openly acknowledged
ongoing support that his country had been giving
Biafra. Many Russian MIG jets of the Nigerian Government
were flown by Egyptian pilots during the war. Akanu Ibiam, Governor of Eastern Region from
December 1960 to January 1966, returned his
knighthood in protest against the British government's
support of the Nigerian federal government during the
civil war. He also changed his name from Francis
Ibiam to Akanu Ibiam.

Incase

who knows!