Naked Truth With Agha Egwu: Biafra, Israel, And
The Dream Of An African Taiwan
As the soulful classic of the Biafran National
Anthem filtered through the transistor radio, its
charming uplifting serenade pierced through my
heart. I stood at attention in total affirmation of
the Biafran creed, ready to die in defence of my
nation without a doubt. Then Ojukwu’s inspiring
deep voice beamed out with a deep sadness.
“My people, I have to travel in search of
peace…” Even as a ten year old I knew the game
was over. My mum rushed through the door
wailing, hands outstretched. “My children, my
children, we will all die…”
The death of the dream of Africa’s Israel had
come…
Ojukwu had to go. He just had to go, so we
wouldlay down our arms and prepare for the
great massacre we had all been fighting a raging
war to prevent. He had to go because if he
stayed we would not stop fighting. We would not
stop fighting, not because of ourselves, but
because of him, to defend him, to protect him,
who had defended and protected us. We were
expendable. We were used to death. Many died
everyday from hunger and disease at the nearby
refugee camp and were buried in trenches, but
we did not mind our death. It was our sacrifice
for our motherland. But his death? That we
could not bear. His death would excavate from
us our very spirit and banish us to damnation.
His capture will spell to us our final humiliation.
We were crushed but we were not defeated.
Our spirits were high, still ready to fight on with
bare hands and bare bodies and bare souls, to
fight till each man was mowed down like the
martyrs of Masada, the Jews, our brethren. We
were ready to die, but we were not ready for
him to die. He had to go.
And we faced the death of the dream of Africa’s
Israel…
None could tell him. None could say the
unspeakable word … Cowards die many times
before their death, but the brave die but once.
Death had no fear for us but the unspeakable
word was impossible to speak, and left us with a
dread so great we wilted at the very thought of
it. Spartans never SURRENDER – that’s it, the
unspeakable word. We would not surrender, we
did not surrender. We were Spartans, we never
surrender! We were Greeks, the only democratic
islandsurrounded by a sea of Monarchical slave
owners and empire builders. We were children
of the most high, we were building Israel, and
like our brethren, the Jews, we would triumph
over impossible odds and build our land of milk
and honey, on the ruins of the land of the rising
sun. Like a phoenix, we shall rise from our
flames and ashes and pierce the noon day sky.
But in all manners of men, when the
unspeakable is also the undoable, we devise
ways to comfort ourselves, to let the
unspeakable speak without being spoken and
the undoable do without being done. So we
devise ways to make illogic, logical and the
crooked straight.
And so died the dream of Africa’s Israel…
They devised a means. Ojukwu had to go to a
conference to find peace. He had to leave so we
could lay down our arms, and die in a last wave
of genocide. The end was nigh. Ojukwu boarded
a constellation and disappeared into the night
Sky. Our hero was gone. We heaved a collective
sigh of relief and got ready to die in peace.But
they did not kill us and let us go in a blaze of
glory. Britain, their sponsor made sure of that.
They did something worse, they humiliated us.
They raped our women, they whipped us at will,
they commanded us at their pleasure and they
mocked our manhood. Yet, when we agreed to
lay down our arms, we did not surrender. We
were war weary, they were war weary but we
did not surrender. They were tired of killing us
and dying on our land. It is on record that far
more Federal troops were mown down by
Biafran soldiers. Nigerians troops were tired of
dying in the killing fields of Biafra. They were
tired of dying for an unjust cause they knew was
unjust. Conscripting more young men in Nigeria
to die in Biafra was becoming too difficult. We
were on our land, defending our lives. They
were on our land hungry for Oil, the black gold
that oozed from the land of the Ijaws, the Ogoni
and the Ikwere. Three million of us, mostly
women and children were already dead from
the blockade, but more were willing to die.
And so we died with the dream of Africa’s
Israel…
The war just ended by unspoken mutual
consent. There were really no victors and no
vanquished. It was getting near Christmas and
the Nigerians delivered Christmas presents of
food and other things to the Biafrans. There was
a lull in the fighting for Christmas - a kind of
unspoken ceasefire. They stopped firing at each
other. It was Achuzie and Akinrinade that
brokered the end of the war.Achuzie was
virtually in charge of the entire Biafra operations
and had captured a huge contingent of Nigerian
troops. Achuzie was a Midwest Igbo from
present day Delta State. He fought with our Kith
and Kin for the dream of Biafra. There was still
a lot of fight left in Biafrans, but after Ojukwu
left, some of the Biafran leaders met Achuzie
and pleaded for the end of the war on
humanitarian grounds to save more children
from dying. They no longer believed that the
Biafra dream was worth the death of millions of
innocent children. Achuzie met with Akinrinade,
and they all agreed no one was winning and
that they should bring the madness to an end.
The Federal troops and the Biafrans were
already mixing freely practically refusing to fight.
Obasanjo then waded in and persuaded Phillip
Effiong to travel to Dodan Barracks and end the
war. Pictures were taking. There was really no
victor nor vanquished. Gowon said the truth.
But when we laid down our arms, Nigerian
propaganda took over and what was a mutual
consent to end an unnecessary carnage was
declared as victory and the Igbos were silenced.
When they finally declared the war over, and
that we had to return to Nigeria, we were
aggrieved, because it smells like surrender to us,
we wanted the war to go on, we wanted the
Biafran dream to live, and the young men
buried their arms and ammunition in the ground
waiting for when the war would resume. But the
war was truly over, peace broke out like a rash.
Obasanjo rode into the centre of town
unopposed, and was later to claime he won the
war. What a deception!
As they claimed victory over the dream of
Africa’s Israel…
Phillip Effiong from the present day Akwa-Ibom
was the second in command. They went to
Dodan Barracks on January 15th 1970. They
made sure that it was the same day that
Nzeogwu and his cohorts first pulled the trigger
that snuffed out the life of the Sarduana. To
them Sarduana was the hero, a statesman, a
father. But to us he was a vandal, a tribal bigot
who wanted our people killed and driven from
Northern Nigeria. They were not grateful we
were their teachers and civil servants but saw
us as impostors, vermin and infidel that needed
to be driven from the land in blood. They could
have planned their Northernisation policy and
still said thank you to us for all we did for
them, but no, we gave our best but they
planned our death. As they planned a Jihad for
17th January 1966, Nzeogwu and his fellow
coupists struck on January 15th 1966, to stop a
corrupt and hideously tribalistic government.
And so began, the birth of the dream of Africa’s
Israel…
The counter coup came swiftly and hideously.
They did not blame Nzeogwu and his fellow,
hausa, Yoruba, and other tribes that attacked
the Sarduana that night, they singled out the
Igbo and blamed the entire Igbo tribe for the
crimes of the coup plotters. We did not know
who Nzeogwu was. He did not ask our
permission for his hideous act. But they blamed
us and descended on us. They wiped out 300
Senior Igbo Officers but that was not enough
vengeance. They and the demons that drive
them had to drink more blood. The vandals
descended on the Igbo population and within a
month wiped out 30,000 of us. The people they
called Igbo was not just Igbo, they were those
that came from Eastern Nigeria – the Ijaws, the
Efiks, the Anangs, the Ibibios – we were all
called Igbos and buried in an orgy of slaughter.
As they slaughtered we realised that what
Nzeogwu said was true. That he struck to pre-
empt a Jihad and that the Jihad was unfolding
before us in a mass murder that makes today’s
Boko Haram seem like kindergaten. Where Boko
Haram killed 15,000 in 5 years and Nigeria is
reeling from its effects, the vandals of 1966
slaughtered 30,000 in one month. Nzeogwu
became a prophet, a prescient uncommon seer.
Nzeogwu became our hero, greater in praise
and love than even Ojukwu.
And we defended the birth of the dream of
Africa’s Israel…
We all ran home to our father’s land and
Ojukwu drew an imaginary line in the sand
saying, if you can reach our line of NO Return
we will protect you. We thought we were safe in
our land then sought to leave the people that
massacred us. But to our greatest surprise they
did not want us to go. On the one hand they
hated and killed us and droves us away. On the
other hand they held us back and said we could
not leave them.Till today we remain confused
with people that hate us and mock us and
abuse us and yet are awed by our achievements
and refuse to let us go. The first bullets of the
Civil War was shot on the 6th July 1967 by 5am
at Gakem. We had no weapons. We began the
war fighting with machetes and dane guns an
Abriba Warriors chanting to their deaths in the
rat-tat-tat of blazing machine guns. Nzeogwu
was gunned down at the Nsukka Sector in the
early morning of the war, playing warrior in a
battle tank; Christopher Okigbo, our greatest
poet followed – as the dreamers died, the
dream was born. The dream lit a fire. The fire
burned our bellies, sparked our burning
imagination and ignited our indomitable will.
The fire was the dream of Africa’s Israel…
The fire fired our souls and burnt our spirits
with the will to live and triumph. Without guns
to defend ourselves we turned to propaganda to
halt the enemy in its tracks. Oko Oko Ndem, the
voice of Biafra, was from the present Akwa-Ibom
State. Oko Oko Ndem will make mince meat of
today’s Nnamdi Kalu, the mouse of Radio Biafra.
I call the veritable Nnamdi a mouse for he is
indeed a mouse besides the vitriol of Oko Oko
Ndem the Lion of Radio Biafra for when he
roared the Federal soldiers quivered in their
boots..Oko Oko Ndem’s venom was vicious. He
poured out a vicious, vitriolic venom that will
make even Nnamdi squirm in his pants. Zoo as
a description of Nigeria is mild compared to the
flamboyant descriptions of Oko Oko Ndem who
left nothing to the imagination. He was so
graphic.
His fire was the voice of the dream of Africa’s
Israel…
Oko Oko Ndem taught us how to call the
vandals, vandals. Nigerians swore to cut out the
tongue of Oko Oko Ndem. Many a time this man
saved Biafra from certain death by painting a
picture saw horrible and revolting, the Federal
troops would not dare to advance, and yet there
would be no defence. Once we were running as
refugees from Umuahia. For a whole night as we
were all massed and choked up before the Imo
River bridge there was not a single soldier
anywhere but the voice of Oko Oko Ndem kept
them at bay. He claimed Ojukwu had appeared
with massive, gallant Biafran soldiers who had
volunteered from all over Biafra to come and
defend Umuahia our latest Capital City. The
Federal troops were only five miles away from
the bridge. They could overtake us in an hour.
Tracers went up in the night and lit up the sky.
The Saracens Tanks supplied by Edward Heath,
Prime Minister of Great Britain barked in the
night like demented jackals. Nothing was more
hideous. It is a noise I will never forget till my
dying day. They could have finished us that
night but the voice of Oko Oko Ndem fought our
war for us. At the end of the war, it was
rumoured that Oko Oko Ndem was caught and
that tongue was cut off. I never heard of Oko
Oko Ndem again. And today people from South
South say they were never part of Biafra. They
don’t know history. They only hear the Nigerian
propaganda of history. I wonder what happened
to Oko Oko Ndem. I shall forever be grateful to
him.
His fire was the tongue of the dream of Africa’s
Israel…
The Igbos were persecuted like the Jews of
Israel, our cultural brethren. We share so much
in common. The spirit of trade, the 7 year
apprenticeship system, eighth day circumcision,
a religious democracy superintended by the high
priest of Nri as Israel was guided by the high
priest in Jerusalem – we have so much in
common that the symbol found at Nri became
the symbol embossed on the Nigerian penny. It
was a five-pointed star. The same as the Jewish
Star of David. There are many stories about this
uncanny relationship. Equiano (probably
Ekwuano), an Igbo boy was captured and
enslaved but later bought his freedom and
settled in England and wrote the book Equiano’s
Travels. For the first time British people knew an
African could be so intelligent.In the book he
said he marvelled at the number of customs
that were like the culture of ancient Israel. My
theory, based on all the literature I have read is
as follows: There were the lost tribes of Israel
when Babylon sacked Israel and again when
Rome sacked Israel in 79 AD. To avoid
persecution the Jews scattered allover the world.
Some ran to Europe, others went to Asia and
Africa. Many settled in North Africa which was
then Christian. A group, the Lemba, ended up in
South Africa. With the wave of the Islamic
Almoravid invasions, the Jews were driven from
North Africa and many settled in Timbuctoo and
North West Africa. Another wave of Fulani Jihads
drove the Jews into the rain forests were their
horses could not go. Some settled in Igbo land,
some in Dahomey. It
seems a large contingent settled in Igboland,
intermarried and influenced Igbo culture and
traditions. The people of Nri, Aguleri and
Umuleri have a tradition that they ae the
children of Eri, the son of Gad, one of the lost
tribes of Israel.
This blood became the engine that fired the
dream of Africa’s Israel…
The assimilation of the Jewish dream into the
Biafran dream became a constant theme in
Biafra. We were by the rivers of Babylon, in our
land of milk and honey fleeing the Egypt of
Nigeria. We sought the ingenuity of the Jews and
manufactured our weapons, tapped and refined
our crude oil and invented new ways of doing
things. As Murtala Mohammed attempted to
cross the River Niger to invade Biafra, we
developed our shore batteries that blew their
gunboats out of the water. As the Nigerian
second division in their great self-confidence,
rumbled down the road from Enugu to Onitsha,
they met their waterloo at Abagana and all their
tanks and trucks were destroyed. Murtala, the
future Nigerian hero, the mass murderer of the
Asaba genocide was recalled in shame from the
war front. The Biafrans invented the Ogbunigwe,
the mass killing mine that mowed down Federal
troops in huge numbers. More than anything
else the Ogbunigwe prolonged the war because
it terrified the Nigerians and made them
reluctant to advance. We built our tanks and
modified aircraft. We researched, we created,
we built.
This genius of necessity transformed the engine
of the dream of Africa’s Israel…
But what encapsulated the Spirit of Biafra more
than anything else was our patriotism and
ideology. Ingredients sadly lacking in today’s
Nigeria and which means that many Biafrans
still hanker for the dream of Biafra. Ojukwu,
Achebe, Ibiam, Zik, Mbanefo were some of the
high flying intellectuals that crafted the dream
of Biafra. The Biafran ideology of communal
capitalism was written into the Ahiara
declaration that laid out the values and dreams
of Biafra. Biafrans never surrender. Biafrans are
their brothers keepers. Biafrans are patriotic.
Biafrans never bow. We were Spartans, we were
Greeks and true democrats, we were Jews.

At the end of the war, when we laid down our arms, we entered into a Nigeria that welcomed us with propaganda and deception as they still do today. Those that committed the crimes of genocide in Biafra, who raped our women, that opened the vaults of banks and stole millions became our hedonistic leaders. They became our only heroes, our role models. Their values became our values as many of them without proper education or even certificates became our Military Governors and Heads of States. And they killed the Spirit of the dream of Africa’s Israel… They had honed their insatiable taste for easy sex on the defenceless and hungry women of Biafra. And having left the theatre of War they carried their megalomania, their bloodlust, their orgy lust, back into Nigeria, and unleashed this ugliness upon Nigeria. They had no dreams, no ideals, no education, just an insatiable lust for power, blood and Oil. Their sexual hunger never left them. They invaded our universities with their craven tastes and spread their corruption and decadent tastes nationwide and turned our student girls into prostitutes. Military men will go to campuses and carry loads of girls for parties of debauchery. They still parade today as our Presidents and elder statesmen. Presidents who can hardly speak the English language are the inheritors of the oratorical flights of Nnamdi Azikiwe, the national inspiration of Herbert Macaulay and the efficient statescraftsmanship of Obafemi Awolowo.O! How have the mighty fallen and the daughters of Zion scattered in the streets of Ashkelon. And so they buried the Spirit of the dream of Africa’s Israel… Nigeria is the opposite of Biafra in every way. Corrupt, depraved, uncaring, resistant to creativity and enterprise, bigoted, tribalistic, dream killers. We suffered in Biafra but we suffered for an energising dream, to create the first truly independent African Nation. Ojukwu rejected all efforts to swap the Oil for help. We will drill it ourselves, refine it ourselves and market it ourselves. Our attitude to Oil went to all other things. We believed in ourselves and in our abilities and that is a gift from the killing fields of Biafra. That idealism was inspirational but it lost us the friendship of the great powers as for the first time communist Russian and capitalist stood shoulder to shoulder against Biafra. At the end of the war they exchanged all our currency for £20 per adult to start life. Ekene Dili Chukwu and his brothers from Nnewi went to their former business colleagues around the world and began their trade again. Jointly they made the decision to build their factories in Nnewi, and slowly but surely they transformed the indefatigable will of the Igbo. As the old dream died, a new phoenix rose from its ashes to blaze a new trail a new dream for the Igbo people. Today, Innoson is building vehicles and Igbos own factories in China and Europe. But as they killed the dream of Africa’s Israel, they gave birth to the dream of Africa’s Taiwan. That is why we want to go it alone. To leave Nigeria that celebrates genocides, calls mass murderers heroes and grants amnesty to wanton killers they call misguided brothers. That iswhy we want to go it alone, to avoid a Nigeria that kills trade for tribalism and imports Shoprite and Walmart to kill their home grown traders and call it development. That is why we want to go it alone, to allow our numerous Innosons to flourish without artificial socio- economic ceilings imposed on our creativity. O! Pharoah, let my people go. Free us from your tribal shackles. Igbo-Israel wants to go home and build our dream of an African Taiwan.

Godblessbiafra:
At
the end of the war, when we laid down our
arms, we entered into a Nigeria that welcomed
us with propaganda and deception as they still
do today. Those that committed the crimes of
genocide in Biafra, who raped our women, that
opened the vaults of banks and stole millions
became our hedonistic leaders. They became
our only heroes, our role models. Their values
became our values as many of them without
proper education or even certificates became
our Military Governors and Heads of States.
And they killed the Spirit of the dream of
Africa’s Israel…
They had honed their insatiable taste for easy
sex on the defenceless and hungry women of
Biafra. And having left the theatre of War they
carried their megalomania, their bloodlust, their
orgy lust, back into Nigeria, and unleashed this
ugliness upon Nigeria. They had no dreams, no
ideals, no education, just an insatiable lust for
power, blood and Oil. Their sexual hunger never
left them. They invaded our universities with
their craven tastes and spread their corruption
and decadent tastes nationwide and turned our
student girls into prostitutes. Military men will
go to campuses and carry loads of girls for
parties of debauchery. They still parade today as
our Presidents and elder statesmen. Presidents
who can hardly speak the English language are
the inheritors of the oratorical flights of Nnamdi
Azikiwe, the national inspiration of Herbert
Macaulay and the efficient statescraftsmanship
of Obafemi Awolowo.O! How have the mighty
fallen and the daughters of Zion scattered in the
streets of Ashkelon.
And so they buried the Spirit of the dream of
Africa’s Israel…
Nigeria is the opposite of Biafra in every way.
Corrupt, depraved, uncaring, resistant to
creativity and enterprise, bigoted, tribalistic,
dream killers. We suffered in Biafra but we
suffered for an energising dream, to create the
first truly independent African Nation. Ojukwu
rejected all efforts to swap the Oil for help. We
will drill it ourselves, refine it ourselves and
market it ourselves. Our attitude to Oil went to
all other things. We believed in ourselves and in
our abilities and that is a gift from the killing
fields of Biafra. That idealism was inspirational
but it lost us the friendship of the great powers
as for the first time communist Russian and
capitalist stood shoulder to shoulder against
Biafra. At the end of the war they exchanged all
our currency for £20 per adult to start life.
Ekene Dili Chukwu and his brothers from Nnewi
went to their former business colleagues around
the world and began their trade again. Jointly
they made the decision to build their factories in
Nnewi, and slowly but surely they transformed
the indefatigable will of the Igbo. As the old
dream died, a new phoenix rose from its ashes
to blaze a new trail a new dream for the Igbo
people. Today, Innoson is building vehicles and
Igbos own factories in China and Europe.
But as they killed the dream of Africa’s Israel,
they gave birth to the dream of Africa’s Taiwan.
That is why we want to go it alone. To leave
Nigeria that celebrates genocides, calls mass
murderers heroes and grants amnesty to
wanton killers they call misguided brothers. That
iswhy we want to go it alone, to avoid a Nigeria
that kills trade for tribalism and imports
Shoprite and Walmart to kill their home grown
traders and call it development. That is why we
want to go it alone, to allow our numerous
Innosons to flourish without artificial socio-
economic ceilings imposed on our creativity.
O! Pharoah, let my people go. Free us from your
tribal shackles. Igbo-Israel wants to go home
and build our dream of an African Taiwan.

we did not know who nzeogwu was
kaduna nzeogwu was denied by his own, killed by his own. So sad!

When Kaduna nzeogwu was killed his body was taken to the north but before that his eyes were plucked so that he would never see the north again.

nke001:


we did not know who nzeogwu was
kaduna nzeogwu was denied by his own, killed by his own. So sad!

shut up,the op used a figure of speech, you illitrate,it is called ''exerggeration''he used it to express how strange the coup was to the entire eastern region.

yawns

Did I just hear that kaduna committed suicide.

Fash20:
Did I just hear that kaduna committed suicide.

he used the granade he has with him to kill both himself with his captors.

SOUNDKING:
he used the granade he has with him to kill both himself with his captors.

he was shot in a biafran made APC vehicle. He didn't commit suicide he was even buried with full military honors in kaduna. Don't lie abeg

PROUD AND COURAGEOUS BIAFRANS, FELLOW COUNTRY MEN AND WOMEN, I salute you. Today, as I look back over our two years as a sovereign and independent nation, I am overwhelmed with the feeling of pride and satisfaction in our performance and achievement as a people. Our indomitable will, our courage, our endurance of the severest privations, our resourcefulness and inventiveness in the face of tremendous odds and dangers, have become proverbial in a world so bereft of heroism, and have become a source of frustration to Nigeria and her foreign masters. For this and for the many miracles of our time, let us give thanks to Almighty God. I congratulate all Biafrans at home and abroad. I thank you all the part you have played and have continued to play in this struggle, for your devotion to the high ideals and principles on which this Republic was founded. I thank you for your absolute commitment to the cause for which our youth are making daily, the supreme sacrifice, and a cause for which we all have been dispossessed, blockaded, bombarded, starved and massacred. I salute you for your tenacity of purpose and amazing steadfastness under siege. I salute the memory of the many patriots who have laid down their lives in defence of our Fatherland. I salute the memory of all Biafrans - men, women and children - who died victims of the Nigerian crime of genocide. We shall never forget them. Please God, their sacrifice shall not be in vain. For the dead on the other side of this conflict, may their souls rest in peace. To our friends and well-wishers, to the growing band of men and women around the world who have, in spite of the vile propaganda mounted against us, identified themselves with the justice of our cause, in particular to our courageous friends, officers and staff of the Relief Agencies and humanitarian organisations, pilots who daily offer themselves in sacrifice that our people might be saved; to Governments, in particular Tanzania, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Haiti. I give my warmest thanks and those of our entire people.

THE STRUGGLE Fellow country men and women, for nearly two years we have been engaged in a war which threatens our people with total destruction. Our enemy has been unrelenting in his fury and has fought our defenceless people with a vast array of military hardware of a sophistication unknown to Africa. For two years we have withstood his assaults with nothing other than our stout hearts and bare hands. We have frustrated his diabolical intentions and have beaten his wicked mentors in their calculations and innovations. Shamelessly, our enemy has moved from deadline to deadline, seeking excuses justifying his failures to an ever credulous world. Today, I am happy and proud to report that, all the odds notwithstanding, the enemy, at great cost in lives and equipment, is nowhere near to his avowed objective. In the Onitsha sector of the war, our gallant forces have kept the enemy confined in the town which they entered 15 months ago. Despite the fact that this sector has great strategic attraction for the vandal hordes, being a gate-way, as it is, to the now famous jungle strip of Biafra, and the scene of the bloodiest encounters of this war, it is significant that the enemy has made no gains throughout this long period. In the Awka sector of the war, the story remains the same. The enemy is confined only to the highway between Enugu and Onitsha, not venturing north or south of that road. In the Okigwe sector, from where the enemy made the thrust that brought him into Umuahia, the situation remains unchanged, with our troops making the entire enemy route from Okigwe to Umuahia no joy ride. In Umuahia town itself, fighting has continued in the township. In the Ikot Ekpene, Azumini and Aba sectors of the war, the vandals, whilst maintaining their positions in Ikot Ekpene and Aba with our troops surrounding them, have continued to suffer heavy casualties in their attempt to hold firmly on to Azumini. We now come to the Owerri/Port Harcourt sector. After the clearing of Owerri township and our rapid move towards Port Harcourt, our gallant forces are holding positions in Eleele town, in the outskirts of Igirita and forward of Omoku. Across the Niger, the successes of our troops have been maintained despite numerous enemy counter-attacks. Our Navy has continued to support all operations along the Niger with good results. Our guerrillas have continued their magnificent work of harassing the enemy and giving him no respite on our soil. I salute them all. In the air, the Biafran Air Force has made a most dramatic re-entry into the war, and in a brilliant series of raids has all but paralyzed the Nigerian Air Force. In four days’ operations, eleven operational planes of the enemy were put of action, three control towers in Port Harcourt, Enugu and Benin were set ablaze, the Airport building in Enugu, and the numerous gun positions were knocked out. The refinery in Port Harcourt was set on fire. And, more recently, three days ago, the Ughelli Power Station was put out of action. The brilliance of this performance, the precision of the strike, the genius of target selection, have left Nigeria in a daze and her friends bewildered. Another way of looking at this is that in four days of operation, the Biafran Air Force has destroyed more military targets than what the Nigerian Air Force has been able to do for two years. In cost, probably twice what the Nigerian air raids have cost us in military equipment and installations. The only superiority left in the record of achievement of the Nigerian Air Force is the number of civilians and civilian targets their cowardly raids have destroyed. Proud Biafrans, I have kept my promise. Diplomatically, our friends have increased and have remained steadfast to our cause; and despite the rantings of our detractors, indications are that their support will continue. At home, our sufferings have continued. Scarcity and want have remained our companions. Yet, with fortitude, we seem to have overcome th once imminent danger of mass starvation and can now look forward to a period after the rains of comparative plenty. Our efforts in the Land Army programme give visible signs all over our land of imminent victory in the war against want. Fellow countrymen and women, the signs are auspicious, the future fills us with less foreboding. I am confident. With the initiative in war now in our own hands, we have turned the last bend in our race to self-realisation and are now set on the home straight in this our struggle. We must not flag. The tape is in sight. What we need now is a final burst of speed to breast the tape and secure the victory which will ensure for us, for all time, glory and honour, peace and progress. Fellow compatriots, today, being our Thanksgiving Day, it is most appropriate that we pause awhile to take stock, to consider our past, our successes notwithstanding; to consider our future, our aspirations and our fears. For two long years we have been locked in mortal combat with an enemy unequalled in viciousness; for two long years, defenceless and weak, we have withstood without respite the concerted assault of a determined foe. We have fought alone, we have fought with honour, we have fought in the highest traditions of christian civilization. Yet, the very custodians of this civilization and our one-time mentors, are the very self- same monsters who have vowed to devour us. Fellow Biafrans, I have for a long time thought about this our predicament - the attitude of the civilized world to this our conflict. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that our disability is racial. The root cause of our problem lies in the fact that we are black. If all the things that have happened to us had happened to another people who are not black, if other people who are not black had reacted in the way our people have reacted these two long years, the world’s response would surely have been different. In 1966, some 50,000 of us were slaughtered like cattle in Nigeria. In the course of this war, well over one million of us have been killed; yet the world is unimpressed and looks on in indifference. Last year, some blood- thirsty Nigerian troops for sport murdered the entire male population of a village. All the world did was to indulge in an academic argument whether the number was in hundreds or in thousands. Today, because a handful of white men collaborating with the enemy, fighting side by side with the enemy, were caught by our gallant troops, the entire world threatens to stop. For 18 white men, Europe is aroused. What have they said about our millions? 18 white men assisting the crime of genocide! What does Europe say about our murdered innocents? Have we not died enough? How many black dead make one missing white? Mathematicians, please answer me. Is it infinity? Take another example. For two years we have been subjected to a total blockade. We all know how bitter, bloody and protracted the First and Second World Wars were. At no stage in those wars did the white belligerents carry out a total blockade of their fellow whites. In each case where a blockade was imposed, allowance was made for certain basic necessities of life in the interest of women, children and other non-combatants. Ours is the only example in recent history where a whole people have been so treated. What is it that makes our case different? Do we not have women, children and other non- combatants? Does the fact that they are black women, black children and black non- combatants make such a world of difference? Nigeria embarked on a crime of genocide against our people by first mounting a total blockade against Biafra. To cover up their designs and deceive the black world, the white powers supporting Nigeria blame Biafrans for the continuation of the blockade and for the starvation and suffering which that entails. They uphold Nigerian proposals on relief which in any case they helped to formulate, as being “conciliatory” or “satisfactory”. Knowing that these proposals would give Nigeria further military advantage, and compromise the basic cause for which we have struggled for two years, they turn round to condemn us for rejecting them. They accepted the total blockade against us as a legitimate weapon of war because it suits them and because we are black. Had we been white the inhuman and cruel blockade would long have been lifted. The mass deaths of our citizens resulting from starvation and indiscriminate air raids and large despoliation of towns and villages are a mere continuation of this crime. That Nigeria has received complete support from Britain should surprise no one. For Britain is a country whose history is replete with instances of genocide. In my address to you on the occasion of the first anniversary of our independence, I touched on a number of issues relevant to our struggle and to our hope for a prosperous, just and happy society. I talked to you of the background to our struggle and on the visions and values which inspired us to found our own State.

MYTH ABOUT THE NEGRO On this occasion of our second anniversary, I shall go further in the examination of the meaning and import of our revolution by discussing the wider issues involved and the character and structure of the new society we are determined and committed to build. Our enemies and their foreign sponsors have deliberately sought by false and ill-motivated propaganda to becloud the real issues which caused and still determine the course and character of our struggle. They have sought in various ways to dismiss our struggle as a tribal conflict. They have attributed it to the mad adventurism of a fictitious power- seeking clique anxious to carve out an empire to rule, dominate and exploit. But they have failed. Our cause is transparently just and no amount of propaganda can detract from it. Our struggle has far-reaching significance. It is the latest recrudescence in our time of the age-old struggle of the black man for his full stature as man. We are the latest victims of a wicked collusion between the three traditional scourges of the black man - racism, Arab-Muslim expansionism and white economic imperialism. Playing a subsidiary role is Bolshevik Russia seeking for a place in the African sun. Our struggle is a total and vehement rejection of all those evils which blighted Nigeria, evils which were bound to lead to the disintegration of that ill- fated federation. Our struggle is not a mere resistance - that would be purely negative. It is a positive commitment to build a healthy, dynamic and progressive state, such as would be the pride of black men the world over. For this reason, our struggle is a movement against racial prejudice, in particular against that tendency to regard the black man as culturally, morally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically inferior to the other two major races of the world - the yellow and the white races. This belief in the innate inferiority of the Negro and that his proper place in the world is that of the servant of the other races, has from early days coloured the attitude of the outside world to Negro problems. It still does today. Not so long ago the fashion was to question the humanity of the Negro. Some white theorists attributed the creation to the Devil, others even identified the Devil as the first Negro. Later they derived the Negro from the accursed progeny of Ham. Nearer to us still in time, it became a topic for serious debate in learned circles in Europe whether the Negro was in fact a man; whether he had a soul; and if he had a soul, whether conversion to christianity could make any difference to his spiritual condition and destination. By the nineteenth century it had been reluctantly conceded that the Negro is in fact human, but a different kind of man, certainly not the same kind of man as the white. Pseudo-intellectuals went to work to prove that the Negro was a different kind of man from the white. They uncovered the abundant so-called anthropological evidence from archaelogy which “proved” to them conclusively that the Negro was no more the same kind of man as the European than a rat was a rabbit. It is this myth about the Negro that still conditions the thinking and attitude of most white governments on all issues concerning black Africa and the black man; it explains the double standards which they apply to present-day world problems; it explains their stand on the whole question of independence and basic human rights for the black peoples of the world. These myths explain the stand of many of the world governments and organisations on our present struggle. Our disagreement with the Nigerians arose in part from a conflict between two diametrically opposed conceptions of the end and purpose of the modern African state. It was, and still is, our firm conviction that a modern Negro African government worth the trust placed in it by the people, must build a progressive state that ensures the reign of social and economic justice, and of the rule of law. But the Nigerians, under the leadership of the Hausa-Fulani feudal aristocracy preferred anarchy and injustice. Since in the thinking of many white powers a good, progressive and efficient government is good only for whites, our view was considered dangerous and pernicious: a point of view which explains but does not justify the blind support which these powers have given to uphold the Nigerian ideal of a corrupt, decadent and putrefying society. To them genocide is an appropriate answer to any group of black people who have the temerity to attempt to evolve their own social system. When the Nigerians violated our basic human rights and liberties, we decided reluctantly but bravely to found our own state, to exercise our inalienable right to self- determination as our only remaining hope for survival as a people. Yet, because we are black, we are denied by the white powers the exercise of this right which they themselves have proclaimed inalienable. In our struggle we have learnt that the right of self- determination is inalienable, but only to the white man.

SELF-DETERMINATION
The right to self-determination was good for the Greeks in 1822, for the Belgians in 1830, and for the Central and Eastern Europeans and the Irish at the end of the First World War. Yet it is not good for Biafrans because we are black. When blacks claim that right, they are warned against dangers trumped up by the imperialists - “fragmentation” and “Balkanization”, as if the trouble with the Balkans is the result of the application of the principle of self-determination. Were the Balkans a healthier place before they emerged from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire? Those who sustained the Ottoman Empire considered it a European necessity, for its Eastern European provinces stood as a buffer between two ambitious and mutually antagonistic empires - the Russian and the Austrian. For the peace and repose of Europe, it therefore became a major cncern of European statesmen to preserve the integrity of that empire. But when it was discovered that Ottoman rule was not only corrupt, oppressive and unprogressive, but also stubbornly irreformable, the happiness and well-being of its white populations came to be considered paramount. So by 1918 the integrity of that ancient and sprawling empire had been sacrificed to the well-being of the Eastern Europeans. Fellow Biafrans, that was in the white world. But what do we find here in Negro Africa? The Federation of Nigeria is today as corrupt, as unprogressive and as oppressive and irreformable as the Ottoman Empire was in Eastern Europe over a century ago. And in contrast, the Nigerian Federation in the form it was constituted by the British cannot by any stretch of imagination be considered an African necessity. Yet we are being forced to sacrifice our very existence as a people to the integrity of that ramshackle creation that has no justification either in history or in the freely expressed wishes of the people. What other reason for this can there be than the fact that we are black? In 1966, 50,000 Biafrans - men, women and children - were massacred in cold blood in Nigeria. Since July 6, 1967, hundreds of Biafrans have been killed daily by shelling, bombing, strafing and starvation advised, organised and supervised by Anglo-Saxon Britain. None of these atrocities has raised enough stir in many European capitals. But on the few occasions when a single white man died in Africa, even where he was a convicted bandit like the notorious case in the Congo, all the diplomatic chanceries of the world have been astir.; the whole world has been shaken to its very foundations by the din of protest against the alleged atrocity and by the clamour for vengeance. This was the case when the Nigerian vandals turned their British-supplied rifles on white Red Cross workers in Okigwe. Recently this has been the case with the reported disappearance of some white oil technicians in the Republic of Benin. But when we are massacred in thousands, nobody cares, because we are black. Fellow countrymen and women, the fact is that in spite of their open protestations to the contrary, the white peoples of the world are still far from accepting that what is good for them can also be good for blacks. The day they make this basic concession that day will the non-Anglo-Saxon nations tell Britain to her face that she is guilty of genocide against us; that day will they call a halt to this monstrous war. Because the black man is considered inferior and servile to the white, he must accept his political, social and economic system and ideologies ready made from Europe, America or the Soviet Union. Within the confines of his nation he must accept a federation or confederation or unitary government if federation or confederation or unitary government suits the interests of his white masters; he must accept inept and unimaginative leadership because the contrary would hurt the interests of the master race; he must accept economic exploitation by alien commercial firms and companies because the whites benefit from it. Beyond the confines of his state, he must accept regional and continental organisations which provide a front for the manipulation of the imperialist powers; organisations which are therefore unable to respond to African problems in a truly African manner. For Africans to show a true independence is to ask for anathemization and total liquidation.

ARAB-MUSLIM EXPANSIONISM
The Biafran struggle is, on another plane, a resistance to the Arab-Muslim expansionism which has menaced and ravaged the African continent for twelve centuries. As early as the first quarter of the seventh century, the Arabs, a people from the Near-East, evolved Islam not just as a religion but as a cover for their insatiable territorial ambitions. By the tenth century they had overrun and occupied, among other places, Egypt and North Africa. Had they stopped there, we would not today be faced with the wicked and unholy collusion we are fighting against. On the contrary, they cast their hungry and envious eyes across the Sahara on to the land of the Negroes. Our Biafran ancestors remained immune from the Islamic contagion. From the middle years of the last century Christianity was established in our land. In this way we came to be a predominantly Christian people. We came to stand out as a non-Muslim island in a raging Islamic sea. Throughout the period of the ill-fated Nigerian experiment, the Muslims hoped to infiltrate Biafra by peaceful means and quiet propaganda, but failed. Then the late Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto tried, by political and economic blackmail and terrorism, to convert Biafrans settled in Northern Nigeria to Islam. His hope was that these Biafrans on dispersion would then carry Islam to Biafra, and by so doing give the religion political control of the area. The crises which agitated the so-called independent Nigeria from 1962 gave these aggressive proselytisers the chance to try converting us by force. It is now evident why the fanatic Arab- Muslim states like Algeria, Egypt and the Sudan have come out openly and massively to support and aid Nigeria in her present war of genocide against us. These states see militant Arabism as a powerful instrument for attaining power in the world. Biafra is one of the few African states untainted by Islam. Therefore, to militant Arabism, Biafra is a stumbling block to their plan for controlling the whole continent. This control is fast becoming manifest in the Organisation of African Unity. On the question of the Middle East, the Sudanese crisis, in the war between Nigeria and Biafra, militant Arabism has succeeded in imposing its point of view through blackmail and bluster. It has threatened African leaders and governments with inciting their Muslim minorities to rebellion if the governments adopted an independent line on these questions. In this way an O.A.U that has not felt itself able to discuss the genocide in the Sudan and Biafra, an O.A.U. that has again and again advertised its ineptitude as a peace-maker, has rushed into open condemnation of Israel over the Middle East dispute. Indeed in recent times, by its performance, the O.A.U. might well be an Organisation of Arab Unity.

AFRICA EXPLOITED
Our struggle, in an even more fundamental sense, is the culmination of the confrontation between Negro nationalism and white imperialism. It is a movement designed to ensure the realization of man’s full stature in Africa. Ever since the 15th century, the European world has treated the African continent as a field for exploitation. Their policies in Africa have for so long been determined to a very great extent by their greed for economic gain. For over three and half centuries, it suited them to transport and transplant millions of the flower of our manhood for the purpose of exploiting the Americas and the West Indies. They did so with no uneasiness of conscience. They justified this trade in men by reference to biblical passages violently torn out of context. When it became no longer profitable to them to continue with the depopulation and uncontrolled spoilation of Negro Africa, their need of the moment became to exploit the natural resources of the continent, using Negro labour. In response to this need they evolved their informal empire in the 19 th century under which they controlled and exploited Negro Africa through their missionaries and monopolist mercantile companies. As time went on they discarded the empire of informal sway as unsatisfactory and established the direct empire as the most effective means of exploiting our homeland. It was at this stage that with cynical imperturbability they carved up the African continent, and boxed up the native populations in artificial states designed purely to minister to white economic interests. This brutal and unprecedented rape of a whole continent was a violent challenge to Negro self-respect. Not surprisingly, within half a century the theory and practice of empire ran into stiff opposition from Negro nationalism. In the face of the movement for Negro freedom the white imperialists changed tactics. They decided to install puppet African administrations to create the illusion of political independence, while retaining the control of the economy. And this they quickly did between 1957 and 1965. The direct empire was transformed into an indirect empire, that regime of fraud and exploitation which African nationalists aptly describe as Neo-Colonialism. Nigeria was a classic example of a neo- colonialist state, and what is left of it, still is. The militant nationalism of the late forties and early fifties had caught the British imperialists unawares. They hurried to accommodate it by installing the ignorant, decadent and feudalistic Hausa-Fulani oligarchy in power. For the British, the credentials of the Hausa-Fulani were that not having emerged from the Middle Ages they knew nothing about the modern state and the powerful forces that now rule men’s minds. Owing their position to the British, they were servile and submissive. The result was that while Nigerians lived in the illusion of independence, they were still in fact being ruled from Number 10 Downing Street. The British still enjoyed a stranglehold on their economy. The crises which rocked Nigeria from the morrow of “independence” were brought about by the efforts of progressive nationalists to achieve true independence for themselves and for posterity. For their part in this effort, Biafrans were stigmatised and singled out for extermination. In imperialist thinking, only phoney independence is good for blacks. The sponsorship of Nigeria by white imperialism has not been disinterested. They are only concerned with the preservation of that corrupt and rickety structure of Nigeria in a perpetual state of powerlessness to check foreign exploitation. I am certain that if tomorrow I should promise that Biafra is going to be a servile and sycophantic state, these self-appointed upholders of the territorial integrity of African states will sing a different tune. No...I shall not oblige them. Biafra will not betray the black man. No matter the odds, we will fight with all our might until black men everywhere can, with pride, point to this Republic, standing dignified and defiant, as an example of African nationalism triumphant over its many and age-old enemies. Fellow countrymen and women, we have seen in proper perspective the diabolical roles which the British Government and the foreign companies have played and are playing in our war with Nigeria. We now see why in spite of Britain’s tottering economy Harold Wilson’s Government insists on financing Nigeria’s futile war against us. We see why the Shell-BP led the Nigerian hordes into Bonny, pays Biafran oil royalties to Nigeria, and provided the Nigerian Army with all the help it needed for its attack on Port Harcourt. We see why the West African Conference Lines readily and meekly co-operate with Gowon in the imposition of total blockade against us. We see why the oil and trading companies in Nigeria still finance this war and why they risk the life and limb of their staff in the war zones.

RUSSIAN IMPERIALIS
And now, Bolshevik Russia. Russia is a late arrival in the race for world empire. Since the end of the Second World War she has fought hard to gain a foothold in Africa recognising, like the other imperialist powers before her, the strategic importance of Africa in the quest for world domination. She first tried to enter into alliance with African nationalism. Later finding that African nationalism has been thwarted, at least temporarily, by the collusion between imperialism and the decadent forces in African society, Russia quickly changed her strategy and identified herself with those very conservative forces which she had earlier denounced. Here she met with quick success. In North Africa and Egypt, Russian influence has taken firm root and is growing. With her success in Egypt and Algeria, Russia developed even keener appetite for more territory in Africa, particularly the areas occupied by the Negroes. Her early efforts in the Congo and Ghana proved still-born. The Nigeria-Biafra conflict offered an opportunity for anther beach-head in Africa. It is not Russia’s intention to make Nigeria a better place for Nigerias or indeed any other part of Africa a better place for Africans. Her interest is strategic. In her challenge to the United States and the Western World, she needs vantage points in Africa. With her entrenched position in Northern Nigeria, the Central Sudan of the historians and geographers, Russia is in a position to co- ordinate her strategy for West and North Africa. We are all familiar with the ancient and historic cultural, linguistic and religious links between North Africa and the Central Sudan. We know that the Hausa language is a lingua franca for over two-thirds of this area. We know how far afield a wandering Imam preacing Islam and Bolshevism can go. When Russia gives the Nigerians Illyushin jets to bomb us, the MiGs to strafe and rocket us and AK-47 rifles to mow us down, we should see all this in proper light that Russia, like other imperialist powers, has no regard for the Negro. To her, what is important is to gain a vantage point in Negro-land from which to challenge American and Western European world power and influence. The Arabs also in this find further attraction in that it gives to them a back-door entry eventually into Israel. In this jungle game for world domination and black man’s life, let alone his well-being, counts for nothing. Fellow Biafrans, these are the evil and titanic forces with which we are engaged in a life and death struggle. These are the obstacles to the Negro’s efforts to realise himself. These are the forces which the Biafran Revolution must sweep aside to succeed. ANGLO-SAXON GENOCIDE
If the white race has sinned against the world, the Anglo-Saxon branch of that race has been, and still is, the worst sinner of all. The Anglo-Saxon British committed genocide against the American Indians. They committed genocide against the Caribbs. They committed genocide against the Australian Blackfellows. They committed genocide against the native Tasmanians and the Maoris of New Zealand. During the era of the slave trade, they topped the list and led the genocidal attempt against the Negro race as a whole. Today, they are engaged in committing genocide against us. The unprejudiced observer is forced in consternation to wonder whether genocide is not a way of life of the Anglo-Saxon British. Luckily, all white people are not like the Anglo-Saxon British. NEGRO RENAISSANCE Luckily too, all African states not like Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, sworn enemies of the Negro, willing tools of white racism, white economic imperialism and Arab-Muslim expansionism. We salute the shining and enduring examples of Negro renascence throughout the world. To Tanzania, to Gabon, to the Ivory Coast, to Zambia and Haiti, we wish more success in their soldiering for all that is right, just and honourable. We do not claim that the Biafran Revolution is the first attempt in history by the Negro to assert his identity, to claim his right and proper place as a human being on a basis of equality with the white and yellow races. We are aware of the Negro’s past and present efforts to prove his ability at home and abroad. We are familiar with his achievements in prehistory; we are familiar with his achievements in exploring and taming the African and American continents; we are familiar with his achievements in political organisations; we are familiar with this contributions to the world store of art and culture. The Negro’s white oppressors are not unaware of all these. But in spite of their awareness they are not prepared to admit that the Negro is an man and a brother. This is why we in Biafra are convinced that the Negro can never come to his own until he is able to build modern states (whether national or multi-national) based on a compelling African ideology, enjoying real rather than sham independence, able to give scope to the full development of the human spirit in the arts and sciences, able to engage in dialogue with the white states on a basis of transparent equality and able to introduce a new dimension into international statecraft. In the world context, this is Biafra - the plight of the black struggling to be man. From this derives our deep conviction that the Biafran Revolution is not just a movement of Igbo, Ibibio, Ijaw and Ogoja. It is a movement of true and patriotic Africans. It is African nationalism conscious of itself and fully aware of the powers with which it is contending. From this derives our belief that history and humanity are on our side, and that the Biafran Revolution is indestructible and eternal. From here derives the support we enjoy from the brave and proud peoples of Tanzania, Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Zambia and Haiti who share these ideals and visions with us and who are already engaged in realising them. We have indeed come a long way. We were once Nigerians, today we are Biafrans. We are Biafrans because on 30th May, 1967, we finally said no to the evils and injustices in which Nigeria was steeped. Nigeria was made up of peoples and groups with very little in common. As everyone knows, Biafrans were in the fore-front among those who tried to make Nigeria a nation. It is ironic that some ill-informed and mischievous people today will accuse us of breaking up a united African country. Only those who do not know the facts or deliberately ignore them can hold such an opinion. We know the facts because we were there and the things that happened, happened to us.

This is worth reading and saving. Thank you and God bless.
Biafra shall rise again.

NIGERIAN CORRUPTION
Nigeria was indeed a very wicked and corrupt country in spite of the glorious image given her in the European press. We know why Nigeria was given that image. It was her reward for serving the economic and political interests of her European masters. Nigeria is a stooge of Europe. Her independence was and is a lie. Even her Prime Minister was a Knight of the British Empire! But worse than her total subservience to foreign political and economic interests, Nigeria committed many crimes against her nationals which in the end made complete nonsense of her claim to unity. Nigeria persecuted and slaughtered her minorities; Nigerian justice was a farce; her elections, her census, her politics - her everything - was corrupt. Qualification, merit and experience were discounted in public service. In one area of Nigeria, for instance, they preferred to turn a nurse who had worked for five years into a doctor rather then employ a qualified doctor from another part of Nigeria; barely literate clerks were made Permanent Secretaries; a university Vice-Chancellor was sacked because he belonged to the wrong tribe. Bribery, corruption and nepotism were so widespread that people began to wonder openly whether any country in the world could compare with Nigeria in corruption and abuse of power. All the modern institutions - the Legislature, the Civil Service, the Army, the Police, the Judiciary, the Universities, the Trade Unions and the organs of mass information - were devalued and made the tools of corrupt political power. There was complete neglect and impoverishment of the people. Whatever prosperity there was, was deceptive. Unemployment was growing. Thousands of young school-leavers were drifting away from the villages which had nothing to offer them into towns with no employment openings. There was despair in many hearts and the number of suicides was growing every day. The farmers were very hard-hit, their standard of living had fallen steeply. The soils were perishing from over- farming and lack of scientific husbandry. The towns like the soils were wastelands into which people put in too much exertion for too little reward. There were crime waves and people lived in fear of their lives. Business speculation, rack-renting, worship of money and sharp practices left a few extremely rich at the expense of the many, and these few flaunted their wealth before the many and talked about sharing the national cake. Foreign interests did roaring business spreading consumer goods and wares among a people who had not developed a habit of thrift and who fell prey to lying advertisements. Inequality of the sexes was actively promoted in Nigeria. Rather than aspire to equality with men, women were encouraged to accept the status of inferiority and to become the mistresses of successful politicians and business executives, or they were married off at the age of fourteen as the fifteenth wives of the new rich. That was the glorious Nigeria, the mythical Nigeria, celebrated in the European press. Then worst of all came the genocide in which over 50,000 of our kith and kin were slaughtered in cold blood all over Nigeria, and nobody asked questions, nobody showed regret, nobody showed remorse. Thus, Nigeria had become a jungle with no safety, no justice and no hope for our people. We decided then to found a new place, a human habitation away from the Nigerian jungle. That was the origin of our Revolution.