By Hart RexLawson Atemie

Before Biafra, there was the Niger Delta Republic led by Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro. Boro was one of the early people who began the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He challenged the exploitation and deprivation of the region as the resources were being channeled to develop other regions of the country.

It was the culmination of the injustice, political frustration and suffocation that the Ijaw and other Niger Delta people suffered in an independent Nigeria. As a bubbling, brilliant young secondary school leaver, Boro, after a three-month stint as a teacher, joined the Nigeria Police as a cadet in 1958 with a lot of fire in him to bring about change. But he received a shock when he found that he was alone in a police force that was already corrupt and was subsequently dismissed due to ill luck, maybe, the call of destiny. Heartbroken, he dusted up his certificate and went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he suffered various degrees of injustice as a student politician. He came to the realization that the Ijaw were heading for extinction if the tide of the national politics being controlled by the big three (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) did not change.
Boro and other Ijaw students watched with bewilderment as the Ijaw politicians failed to break into the top echelons of Nigerian and regional politics controlled by the easterners. Boro was provoked how Year after year, the Ijaws were clenched in tyrannical chains and led through a dark alley of perpetual political and social deprivation. Strangers in our own country! Inevitably, therefore, the day would have to come for us to fight for our long-denied right to self-determination.
Boro lamented the exclusion and alienation from power, How the Ijaw withered in bitterness and regret. For a then estimated two million people, he was angered there were no adequate educational opportunities, no infrastructure, no empowerment, no openings. The only fishery industry which ought to be situated in a properly riverine Ijaw area is sited about 80 miles inland at Aba, the boatyard at Opobo had its headquarters at Enugu. Personnel in these industries and also in the oil stations are predominantly non-Ijaw but more of the Igbo’s from Eastern Nigeria.

The lamentations of Boro and other prominent Ijaw leaders like Chief Harold Dappa Biriye lead to the agitation for the creation of a Niger Delta State and formation of the Niger Delta Congress. But Igbo-dominated National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which ruled the East was not interested in the creation of Niger Delta State for obvious reasons.

Niger Delta congress (NDC) could not do much as out of the nine representatives of the area, eight were from NCNC. And in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, the Niger Delta had only 5 against 110 other representatives. In the Midwestern House of Assembly, Niger Delta had 2 representatives against 58 others. “Given these prevailing circumstances,” lamented Boro…..“an Ijaw nationalist finds that a state for his people is more of a necessity than a mere desire, Such a demand becomes all the more compelling when the area is so viable yet people are blatantly denied development and the common necessities of life.”

In October 1962, Boro, then an undergraduate of UNN, began the movement that would, in 1966, start the violent campaign to end the marginalization of the Niger Delta which he tagged “to discuss the political future of our people”. They became known as the Internal Caucus. Boro was elected the secretary-general. “Our primary objective was to organize ourselves into a strong political force to struggle for our self-determination as soon as we graduated,” Boro explained.

In 1963, Boro and his Internal Caucus took their campaign to the embassies of some countries whom they considered advocates of freedom. They did not get the desired support. In 1964, Boro and Samuel Owonaru, later to be his second in command in DVS, toured West African countries to conscientise Ijaws living in the West Coast about the plight of the their people in independent Nigeria. They visited Dahomey (Benin Republic), Togo and Ghana. In Ghana, they visited the Cuban Embassy where they hoped that Fidel Castro’s country would be keen to support the freedom of Ijaws. The ambassador gave them 60 minutes to vacate the embassy.

After graduation, Boro was employed as a technical officer in the Faculty of Science, University of Lagos. Again he, Owonaru and other youths formed Integral WXYZ “to prepare the minds of the Ijaw youths for the ripe moment”.

That ripe moment was the killing of Balewa on January 15, 1966. He resigned his job, cashed his emoluments, sold his property and with £150, returned to Kaiama, his hometown, set up camp at the Taylor Creek and began recruitment.

“Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a very long time. This is not because we are going to bring the heavens down, but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression… Remember your 70-year-old grandmother who still farms before she eats; remember also your poverty-stricken people; remember, too, your petroleum which is being pumped out daily from your veins; and then fight for your freedom.” – Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro.

With these electrifying words, 27-year-old Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, general officer commanding, the Niger Delta Volunteer Service, DVS, declared an independent Niger Delta Peoples Republic in February 23, 1966, 40 days after the historic January 15 coup. It was 3pm and the three divisions of the DVS, made up of 159 troops, were going into action at 5pm with the objective of dislodging the federal police and taking over Yenagoa at 12 midnight. It was code-named “Operation Zero”.
It marked the beginning of the “12-Day Revolution” during which Boro, an ex-police inspector, former president of Students’ Union Government of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a fresh graduate of Chemistry, called “the attention of the world to the fact that the inhabitants of the Niger Delta were feeling very uncomfortable” with their fate in Nigeria. That was an understatement for some of the observers of the time.
12 days later, the revolution was foiled by federal superior fire power; the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable. Boro and all his commanders were jailed and condemned to death for treason by General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (From the Igbo extraction) military administration. But fate favored them and General Yakubu Gowon’s government freed them and created Rivers State and Lieutenant Commander Diete Spiff, an Ijaw, was made governor. It was dream come true, the revolution had failed and yet succeeded.

“My men and I, with the creation of our state (Rivers-State), are now free to help not only our people, but also Nigeria, to peace, unity, stability and progress,” - Boro enthused in 1967.

But this was not to be. The civil war started and Boro gladly became a major in the Nigerian Army. During the period leading to the Nigeria/Biafra civil War, Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro had informed and warned the Eastern Region Governor, Odimegwu Ojukwu that the Ijaws will not be a part of the Biafran Secessionist Movement. On declaration of the BIAFRAN Republic (With the Niger Delta Occupied), Adaka Boro was made Commander of 19th Brigade under Col Benjamin Adekunle (Of Blessed memory) who as at that time was the GOC 3rd Div. Boro led the Military under him, mostly Ijaws from the Niger Delta Volunteer Services (DVS) to clear the Niger Delta of Biafran Rebels, Which he successfully did within a record short period.

He was killed on April 20, 1968, near Port Harcourt and that muted the radical voice of the Ijaw Nation. The circumstance surrounding Boro's death is still not clear, Opinions was divided as to the Conspirators. While some alleged that Col. Benjamin Adekunle had a hand, however Roy Tomo-Spiff, who was among Boro's Force that fought against the Biafran Rebels at that time disputes it, claims Boro was ambushed by fleeing BIAFRAN Forces.

When stories are recounted about Nigeria and how the General Ojukwu’s declaration of the Republic of Biafra which led to the 18 months civil war on grounds of deprivation and marginalization of the eastern region, not much is said about the declaration of the first Republic within Nigeria called the “Niger Delta Republic” which also premised on deprivation, alienation and marginalization of Ijaw people. Rather the new agitator, Grand Commander Nnamdi Kanu and cohorts are trying every means possible to cajole the Niger Delta People into another antics for advance colonist theory, the labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain.

Following

Only if they taught history in schools

Nice piece and very timely reminder to the IPOB hopefuls. Not even the so called Delta Igbos would be willing to join any future (real or imagined) state of Biafra. Enough of this madness.

You the OP must be a tribalist using a tribalistic words against the Igbos, don't just start online war.

Hmmm

You don't know your history oga

No time to read. Una no fit summarize?

Beremx:
No time to read. Una no fit summarize?

e be like sey dem ban u b4

Beremx:
No time to read. Una no fit summarize?

Reading it would do you good. By the way, who's side are you on? You've been quiet lately.

In essence after Isaac Boro was given the go ahead to fight the Biafrans, by Col. Benjamin Adekunle, He was still backstabbed and killed by Benjamin Adekunle....
No be today.

wesley80:

Reading it would do you good. By the way, who's side are you on? You've been quiet lately.

reading it irrelevant as nothing good comes from op.

Anything to paint the FG right is welcomed. Wether you people like it or not the method being employed by the FG is totally wrong. You can't kill innocent unarmed civilians and cover it with long epistle as the op is writing.
If the FG see nnamdi KANU as a threat,they should arrest him,try him in court and jail him but mind you it does not bring the ultimate solution until the issue of marginalization is addressed.
A people has right for self determination. Is either the country is properly restructured or this kind of situation keeps coming up every now and then.

wesley80:

Reading it would do you good. By the way, who's side are you on? You've been quiet lately.

I remain quiet my brother. I read everything on nairaland as a guest anyway. No more interest to post any longer.

Well to be candid, i have developed a dying love for Nnamdi Kanu. He has my full support.

God bless ndi Igbo

otitokoroleti:
e be like sey dem ban u b4

Na me ban myself o! Nothing do me

Beremx:
Na me ban myself o! Nothing do me

that's good jare maami, there's life outside nairaland.

Beremx:
I remain quiet my brother. I read everything on nairaland as a guest anyway. No more interest to post any longer.

Well to be candid, i have developed a dying love for Nnamdi Kanu. He has my full support.

God bless ndi Igbo

Lost that interest some time ago but maybe I'm developing new interests. Too many things are being left unsaid and the air around here is choking noxious.
On your love for Kanu, erm.. well, good luck with that.

lastmessenger:
Anything to paint the FG right is welcomed. Wether you people like it or not the method being employed by the FG is totally wrong. You can't kill innocent unarmed civilians and cover it with long epistle as the op is writing.
If the FG see nnamdi KANU as a threat,they should arrest him,try him in court and jail him but mind you it does not bring the ultimate solution until the issue of marginalization is addressed.
A people has right for self determination. Is either the country is properly restructured or this kind of situation keeps coming up every now and then.

The earlier Buhari dirty ass licker realize the meaning of IDEOLOGY the better for them.

They are free to rant, spread hate speech, write long epistle, it can't change people ideology.

Biafra issue is more than Nnamdi KANU but they failed to realize that.

maclatunji:
By Hart RexLawson Atemie

Before Biafra, there was the Niger Delta Republic led by Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro. Boro was one of the early people who began the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He challenged the exploitation and deprivation of the region as the resources were being channeled to develop other regions of the country.

It was the culmination of the injustice, political frustration and suffocation that the Ijaw and other Niger Delta people suffered in an independent Nigeria. As a bubbling, brilliant young secondary school leaver, Boro, after a three-month stint as a teacher, joined the Nigeria Police as a cadet in 1958 with a lot of fire in him to bring about change. But he received a shock when he found that he was alone in a police force that was already corrupt and was subsequently dismissed due to ill luck, maybe, the call of destiny. Heartbroken, he dusted up his certificate and went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he suffered various degrees of injustice as a student politician. He came to the realization that the Ijaw were heading for extinction if the tide of the national politics being controlled by the big three (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) did not change.

Boro and other Ijaw students watched with bewilderment as the Ijaw politicians failed to break into the top echelons of Nigerian and regional politics controlled by the easterners. Boro was provoked how Year after year, the Ijaws were clenched in tyrannical chains and led through a dark alley of perpetual political and social deprivation. Strangers in our own country! Inevitably, therefore, the day would have to come for us to fight for our long-denied right to self-determination.
Boro lamented the exclusion and alienation from power, How the Ijaw withered in bitterness and regret. For a then estimated two million people, he was angered there were no adequate educational opportunities, no infrastructure, no empowerment, no openings. The only fishery industry which ought to be situated in a properly riverine Ijaw area is sited about 80 miles inland at Aba, the boatyard at Opobo had its headquarters at Enugu. Personnel in these industries and also in the oil stations are predominantly non-Ijaw but more of the Igbo’s from Eastern Nigeria.

The lamentations of Boro and other prominent Ijaw leaders like Chief Harold Dappa Biriye lead to the agitation for the creation of a Niger Delta State and formation of the Niger Delta Congress. But Igbo-dominated National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which ruled the East was not interested in the creation of Niger Delta State for obvious reasons.

Niger Delta congress (NDC) could not do much as out of the nine representatives of the area, eight were from NCNC. And in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, the Niger Delta had only 5 against 110 other representatives. In the Midwestern House of Assembly, Niger Delta had 2 representatives against 58 others. “Given these prevailing circumstances,” lamented Boro…..“an Ijaw nationalist finds that a state for his people is more of a necessity than a mere desire, Such a demand becomes all the more compelling when the area is so viable yet people are blatantly denied development and the common necessities of life.”

In October 1962, Boro, then an undergraduate of UNN, began the movement that would, in 1966, start the violent campaign to end the marginalization of the Niger Delta which he tagged “to discuss the political future of our people”. They became known as the Internal Caucus. Boro was elected the secretary-general. “Our primary objective was to organize ourselves into a strong political force to struggle for our self-determination as soon as we graduated,” Boro explained.

In 1963, Boro and his Internal Caucus took their campaign to the embassies of some countries whom they considered advocates of freedom. They did not get the desired support. In 1964, Boro and Samuel Owonaru, later to be his second in command in DVS, toured West African countries to conscientise Ijaws living in the West Coast about the plight of the their people in independent Nigeria. They visited Dahomey (Benin Republic), Togo and Ghana. In Ghana, they visited the Cuban Embassy where they hoped that Fidel Castro’s country would be keen to support the freedom of Ijaws. The ambassador gave them 60 minutes to vacate the embassy.

After graduation, Boro was employed as a technical officer in the Faculty of Science, University of Lagos. Again he, Owonaru and other youths formed Integral WXYZ “to prepare the minds of the Ijaw youths for the ripe moment”.

That ripe moment was the killing of Balewa on January 15, 1966. He resigned his job, cashed his emoluments, sold his property and with £150, returned to Kaiama, his hometown, set up camp at the Taylor Creek and began recruitment.

“Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a very long time. This is not because we are going to bring the heavens down, but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression… Remember your 70-year-old grandmother who still farms before she eats; remember also your poverty-stricken people; remember, too, your petroleum which is being pumped out daily from your veins; and then fight for your freedom.” – Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro.

With these electrifying words, 27-year-old Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, general officer commanding, the Niger Delta Volunteer Service, DVS, declared an independent Niger Delta Peoples Republic in February 23, 1966, 40 days after the historic January 15 coup. It was 3pm and the three divisions of the DVS, made up of 159 troops, were going into action at 5pm with the objective of dislodging the federal police and taking over Yenagoa at 12 midnight. It was code-named “Operation Zero”.
It marked the beginning of the “12-Day Revolution” during which Boro, an ex-police inspector, former president of Students’ Union Government of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a fresh graduate of Chemistry, called “the attention of the world to the fact that the inhabitants of the Niger Delta were feeling very uncomfortable” with their fate in Nigeria. That was an understatement for some of the observers of the time.
12 days later, the revolution was foiled by federal superior fire power; the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable. Boro and all his commanders were jailed and condemned to death for treason by General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (From the Igbo extraction) military administration. But fate favored them and General Yakubu Gowon’s government freed them and created Rivers State and Lieutenant Commander Diete Spiff, an Ijaw, was made governor. It was dream come true, the revolution had failed and yet succeeded.

“My men and I, with the creation of our state (Rivers-State), are now free to help not only our people, but also Nigeria, to peace, unity, stability and progress,” - Boro enthused in 1967.

But this was not to be. The civil war started and Boro gladly became a major in the Nigerian Army. During the period leading to the Nigeria/Biafra civil War, Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro had informed and warned the Eastern Region Governor, Odimegwu Ojukwu that the Ijaws will not be a part of the Biafran Secessionist Movement. On declaration of the BIAFRAN Republic (With the Niger Delta Occupied), Adaka Boro was made Commander of 19th Brigade under Col Benjamin Adekunle (Of Blessed memory) who as at that time was the GOC 3rd Div. Boro led the Military under him, mostly Ijaws from the Niger Delta Volunteer Services (DVS) to clear the Niger Delta of Biafran Rebels, Which he successfully did within a record short period.

He was killed on April 20, 1968, near Port Harcourt and that muted the radical voice of the Ijaw Nation. The circumstance surrounding Boro's death is still not clear, Opinions was divided as to the Conspirators. While some alleged that Col. Benjamin Adekunle had a hand, however Roy Tomo-Spiff, who was among Boro's Force that fought against the Biafran Rebels at that time disputes it, claims Boro was ambushed by fleeing BIAFRAN Forces.

When stories are recounted about Nigeria and how the General Ojukwu’s declaration of the Republic of Biafra which led to the 18 months civil war on grounds of deprivation and marginalization of the eastern region, not much is said about the declaration of the first Republic within Nigeria called the “Niger Delta Republic” which also premised on deprivation, alienation and marginalization of Ijaw people. Rather the new agitator, Grand Commander Nnamdi Kanu and cohorts are trying every means possible to cajole the Niger Delta People into another antics for advance colonist theory, the labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain.

Fake news frosted with deliberate illogicalities.

lastmessenger:
Anything to paint the FG right is welcomed. Wether you people like it or not the method being employed by the FG is totally wrong. You can't kill innocent unarmed civilians and cover it with long epistle as the op is writing.
If the FG see nnamdi KANU as a threat,they should arrest him,try him in court and jail him but mind you it does not bring the ultimate solution until the issue of marginalization is addressed.
A people has right for self determination. Is either the country is properly restructured or this kind of situation keeps coming up every now and then.

Your cognitive dissonance is alarming.

wesley80:
Nice piece and very timely reminder to the IPOB hopefuls. Not even the so called Delta Igbos would be willing to join any future (real or imagined) state of Biafra. Enough of this madness.

This statement is uncalled for since the Biafran agitators insist on referendum to determine who is part of Biafra and who is not.

maclatunji:
By Hart RexLawson Atemie

Before Biafra, there was the Niger Delta Republic led by Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro. Boro was one of the early people who began the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He challenged the exploitation and deprivation of the region as the resources were being channeled to develop other regions of the country.

It was the culmination of the injustice, political frustration and suffocation that the Ijaw and other Niger Delta people suffered in an independent Nigeria. As a bubbling, brilliant young secondary school leaver, Boro, after a three-month stint as a teacher, joined the Nigeria Police as a cadet in 1958 with a lot of fire in him to bring about change. But he received a shock when he found that he was alone in a police force that was already corrupt and was subsequently dismissed due to ill luck, maybe, the call of destiny. Heartbroken, he dusted up his certificate and went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he suffered various degrees of injustice as a student politician. He came to the realization that the Ijaw were heading for extinction if the tide of the national politics being controlled by the big three (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) did not change.
Boro and other Ijaw students watched with bewilderment as the Ijaw politicians failed to break into the top echelons of Nigerian and regional politics controlled by the easterners. Boro was provoked how Year after year, the Ijaws were clenched in tyrannical chains and led through a dark alley of perpetual political and social deprivation. Strangers in our own country! Inevitably, therefore, the day would have to come for us to fight for our long-denied right to self-determination.
Boro lamented the exclusion and alienation from power, How the Ijaw withered in bitterness and regret. For a then estimated two million people, he was angered there were no adequate educational opportunities, no infrastructure, no empowerment, no openings. The only fishery industry which ought to be situated in a properly riverine Ijaw area is sited about 80 miles inland at Aba, the boatyard at Opobo had its headquarters at Enugu. Personnel in these industries and also in the oil stations are predominantly non-Ijaw but more of the Igbo’s from Eastern Nigeria.

The lamentations of Boro and other prominent Ijaw leaders like Chief Harold Dappa Biriye lead to the agitation for the creation of a Niger Delta State and formation of the Niger Delta Congress. But Igbo-dominated National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which ruled the East was not interested in the creation of Niger Delta State for obvious reasons.

Niger Delta congress (NDC) could not do much as out of the nine representatives of the area, eight were from NCNC. And in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, the Niger Delta had only 5 against 110 other representatives. In the Midwestern House of Assembly, Niger Delta had 2 representatives against 58 others. “Given these prevailing circumstances,” lamented Boro…..“an Ijaw nationalist finds that a state for his people is more of a necessity than a mere desire, Such a demand becomes all the more compelling when the area is so viable yet people are blatantly denied development and the common necessities of life.”

In October 1962, Boro, then an undergraduate of UNN, began the movement that would, in 1966, start the violent campaign to end the marginalization of the Niger Delta which he tagged “to discuss the political future of our people”. They became known as the Internal Caucus. Boro was elected the secretary-general. “Our primary objective was to organize ourselves into a strong political force to struggle for our self-determination as soon as we graduated,” Boro explained.

In 1963, Boro and his Internal Caucus took their campaign to the embassies of some countries whom they considered advocates of freedom. They did not get the desired support. In 1964, Boro and Samuel Owonaru, later to be his second in command in DVS, toured West African countries to conscientise Ijaws living in the West Coast about the plight of the their people in independent Nigeria. They visited Dahomey (Benin Republic), Togo and Ghana. In Ghana, they visited the Cuban Embassy where they hoped that Fidel Castro’s country would be keen to support the freedom of Ijaws. The ambassador gave them 60 minutes to vacate the embassy.

After graduation, Boro was employed as a technical officer in the Faculty of Science, University of Lagos. Again he, Owonaru and other youths formed Integral WXYZ “to prepare the minds of the Ijaw youths for the ripe moment”.

That ripe moment was the killing of Balewa on January 15, 1966. He resigned his job, cashed his emoluments, sold his property and with £150, returned to Kaiama, his hometown, set up camp at the Taylor Creek and began recruitment.

“Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a very long time. This is not because we are going to bring the heavens down, but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression… Remember your 70-year-old grandmother who still farms before she eats; remember also your poverty-stricken people; remember, too, your petroleum which is being pumped out daily from your veins; and then fight for your freedom.” – Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro.

With these electrifying words, 27-year-old Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, general officer commanding, the Niger Delta Volunteer Service, DVS, declared an independent Niger Delta Peoples Republic in February 23, 1966, 40 days after the historic January 15 coup. It was 3pm and the three divisions of the DVS, made up of 159 troops, were going into action at 5pm with the objective of dislodging the federal police and taking over Yenagoa at 12 midnight. It was code-named “Operation Zero”.
It marked the beginning of the “12-Day Revolution” during which Boro, an ex-police inspector, former president of Students’ Union Government of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a fresh graduate of Chemistry, called “the attention of the world to the fact that the inhabitants of the Niger Delta were feeling very uncomfortable” with their fate in Nigeria. That was an understatement for some of the observers of the time.
12 days later, the revolution was foiled by federal superior fire power; the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable. Boro and all his commanders were jailed and condemned to death for treason by General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (From the Igbo extraction) military administration. But fate favored them and General Yakubu Gowon’s government freed them and created Rivers State and Lieutenant Commander Diete Spiff, an Ijaw, was made governor. It was dream come true, the revolution had failed and yet succeeded.

“My men and I, with the creation of our state (Rivers-State), are now free to help not only our people, but also Nigeria, to peace, unity, stability and progress,” - Boro enthused in 1967.

But this was not to be. The civil war started and Boro gladly became a major in the Nigerian Army. During the period leading to the Nigeria/Biafra civil War, Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro had informed and warned the Eastern Region Governor, Odimegwu Ojukwu that the Ijaws will not be a part of the Biafran Secessionist Movement. On declaration of the BIAFRAN Republic (With the Niger Delta Occupied), Adaka Boro was made Commander of 19th Brigade under Col Benjamin Adekunle (Of Blessed memory) who as at that time was the GOC 3rd Div. Boro led the Military under him, mostly Ijaws from the Niger Delta Volunteer Services (DVS) to clear the Niger Delta of Biafran Rebels, Which he successfully did within a record short period.

He was killed on April 20, 1968, near Port Harcourt and that muted the radical voice of the Ijaw Nation. The circumstance surrounding Boro's death is still not clear, Opinions was divided as to the Conspirators. While some alleged that Col. Benjamin Adekunle had a hand, however Roy Tomo-Spiff, who was among Boro's Force that fought against the Biafran Rebels at that time disputes it, claims Boro was ambushed by fleeing BIAFRAN Forces.

When stories are recounted about Nigeria and how the General Ojukwu’s declaration of the Republic of Biafra which led to the 18 months civil war on grounds of deprivation and marginalization of the eastern region, not much is said about the declaration of the first Republic within Nigeria called the “Niger Delta Republic” which also premised on deprivation, alienation and marginalization of Ijaw people. Rather the new agitator, Grand Commander Nnamdi Kanu and cohorts are trying every means possible to cajole the Niger Delta People into another antics for advance colonist theory, the labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain.

Unity beggars now turning to divide n rule experts...

attackgat:


This statement is uncalled for since the Biafran agitators insist on referendum to determine who is part of Biafra and who is not.

Well, there's no need for a referendum - I just told you the stand of Delta Ibos. We have important things to do with money and time.

@OP

Thank you so much but permit me to add one or two words...

Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro (of blessed memory) was a just man, an Ijaw Nationalist per excellence and a man that believe in the emancipation of Ijaw nation. He was the true personification of Ijaw spirit... His struggle was key to the creation of Old Rivers state (Rivers and Bayelsa)... Ken Saro Wiwa called Boro his mentor...

Isaac Adaka Boro ensured that Biafra troops were kicked out of Old Rivers and was given a State burial in Lagos after he was ambushed by fleeing Biafran forces in OKRIKA.

The Kaiama declaration by Ijaw Youths in 1998, which led to the formation of Ijaw Youth Council Is one of the legacies of Boro, as it encapsulated all hr stood and fought for and all the Ijaw nation demand from the Nigeria State.. They are nonnegotiable.

May his soul continue to rest in Peace

wesley80:

Well, there's no need for a referendum - I just told you the stand of Delta Ibos. We have important things to do with money and time.

Well if you decide to speak on behalf of all the hundreds of villages that make up Delta Igbos then it means you are worse than IPOB.

At least IPOB wants them to be heard via referendum. You on the under hand, has already decided for all of them.

maclatunji:


Your cognitive dissonance is alarming.

yes your love for pictures of dead people and blood of the innocent is well understood.

attackgat:


Well if you decide to speak on behalf of all the hundreds of villages that make up Delta Igbos then it means you are worse than IPOB.

At least IPOB wants them to be heard via referendum. You on the under hand, has already decided for all of them.

IPOB is an unrecognised contraption that wasn't given any mandate to agitate on anyone in the Niger Delta's behalf. If you in the South East see them as your freedom fighters, then by all means let them lead you to the polls.

maclatunji:
By Hart RexLawson Atemie

Before Biafra, there was the Niger Delta Republic led by Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro. Boro was one of the early people who began the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He challenged the exploitation and deprivation of the region as the resources were being channeled to develop other regions of the country.

It was the culmination of the injustice, political frustration and suffocation that the Ijaw and other Niger Delta people suffered in an independent Nigeria. As a bubbling, brilliant young secondary school leaver, Boro, after a three-month stint as a teacher, joined the Nigeria Police as a cadet in 1958 with a lot of fire in him to bring about change. But he received a shock when he found that he was alone in a police force that was already corrupt and was subsequently dismissed due to ill luck, maybe, the call of destiny. Heartbroken, he dusted up his certificate and went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he suffered various degrees of injustice as a student politician. He came to the realization that the Ijaw were heading for extinction if the tide of the national politics being controlled by the big three (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) did not change.
Boro and other Ijaw students watched with bewilderment as the Ijaw politicians failed to break into the top echelons of Nigerian and regional politics controlled by the easterners. Boro was provoked how Year after year, the Ijaws were clenched in tyrannical chains and led through a dark alley of perpetual political and social deprivation. Strangers in our own country! Inevitably, therefore, the day would have to come for us to fight for our long-denied right to self-determination.
Boro lamented the exclusion and alienation from power, How the Ijaw withered in bitterness and regret. For a then estimated two million people, he was angered there were no adequate educational opportunities, no infrastructure, no empowerment, no openings. The only fishery industry which ought to be situated in a properly riverine Ijaw area is sited about 80 miles inland at Aba, the boatyard at Opobo had its headquarters at Enugu. Personnel in these industries and also in the oil stations are predominantly non-Ijaw but more of the Igbo’s from Eastern Nigeria.

The lamentations of Boro and other prominent Ijaw leaders like Chief Harold Dappa Biriye lead to the agitation for the creation of a Niger Delta State and formation of the Niger Delta Congress. But Igbo-dominated National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which ruled the East was not interested in the creation of Niger Delta State for obvious reasons.

Niger Delta congress (NDC) could not do much as out of the nine representatives of the area, eight were from NCNC. And in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, the Niger Delta had only 5 against 110 other representatives. In the Midwestern House of Assembly, Niger Delta had 2 representatives against 58 others. “Given these prevailing circumstances,” lamented Boro…..“an Ijaw nationalist finds that a state for his people is more of a necessity than a mere desire, Such a demand becomes all the more compelling when the area is so viable yet people are blatantly denied development and the common necessities of life.”

In October 1962, Boro, then an undergraduate of UNN, began the movement that would, in 1966, start the violent campaign to end the marginalization of the Niger Delta which he tagged “to discuss the political future of our people”. They became known as the Internal Caucus. Boro was elected the secretary-general. “Our primary objective was to organize ourselves into a strong political force to struggle for our self-determination as soon as we graduated,” Boro explained.

In 1963, Boro and his Internal Caucus took their campaign to the embassies of some countries whom they considered advocates of freedom. They did not get the desired support. In 1964, Boro and Samuel Owonaru, later to be his second in command in DVS, toured West African countries to conscientise Ijaws living in the West Coast about the plight of the their people in independent Nigeria. They visited Dahomey (Benin Republic), Togo and Ghana. In Ghana, they visited the Cuban Embassy where they hoped that Fidel Castro’s country would be keen to support the freedom of Ijaws. The ambassador gave them 60 minutes to vacate the embassy.

After graduation, Boro was employed as a technical officer in the Faculty of Science, University of Lagos. Again he, Owonaru and other youths formed Integral WXYZ “to prepare the minds of the Ijaw youths for the ripe moment”.

That ripe moment was the killing of Balewa on January 15, 1966. He resigned his job, cashed his emoluments, sold his property and with £150, returned to Kaiama, his hometown, set up camp at the Taylor Creek and began recruitment.

“Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but also in the history of the Niger Delta. Perhaps, it will be the greatest day for a very long time. This is not because we are going to bring the heavens down, but because we are going to demonstrate to the world what and how we feel about oppression… Remember your 70-year-old grandmother who still farms before she eats; remember also your poverty-stricken people; remember, too, your petroleum which is being pumped out daily from your veins; and then fight for your freedom.” – Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro.

With these electrifying words, 27-year-old Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, general officer commanding, the Niger Delta Volunteer Service, DVS, declared an independent Niger Delta Peoples Republic in February 23, 1966, 40 days after the historic January 15 coup. It was 3pm and the three divisions of the DVS, made up of 159 troops, were going into action at 5pm with the objective of dislodging the federal police and taking over Yenagoa at 12 midnight. It was code-named “Operation Zero”.
It marked the beginning of the “12-Day Revolution” during which Boro, an ex-police inspector, former president of Students’ Union Government of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a fresh graduate of Chemistry, called “the attention of the world to the fact that the inhabitants of the Niger Delta were feeling very uncomfortable” with their fate in Nigeria. That was an understatement for some of the observers of the time.
12 days later, the revolution was foiled by federal superior fire power; the unity of Nigeria was not negotiable. Boro and all his commanders were jailed and condemned to death for treason by General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (From the Igbo extraction) military administration. But fate favored them and General Yakubu Gowon’s government freed them and created Rivers State and Lieutenant Commander Diete Spiff, an Ijaw, was made governor. It was dream come true, the revolution had failed and yet succeeded.

“My men and I, with the creation of our state (Rivers-State), are now free to help not only our people, but also Nigeria, to peace, unity, stability and progress,” - Boro enthused in 1967.

But this was not to be. The civil war started and Boro gladly became a major in the Nigerian Army. During the period leading to the Nigeria/Biafra civil War, Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro had informed and warned the Eastern Region Governor, Odimegwu Ojukwu that the Ijaws will not be a part of the Biafran Secessionist Movement. On declaration of the BIAFRAN Republic (With the Niger Delta Occupied), Adaka Boro was made Commander of 19th Brigade under Col Benjamin Adekunle (Of Blessed memory) who as at that time was the GOC 3rd Div. Boro led the Military under him, mostly Ijaws from the Niger Delta Volunteer Services (DVS) to clear the Niger Delta of Biafran Rebels, Which he successfully did within a record short period.

He was killed on April 20, 1968, near Port Harcourt and that muted the radical voice of the Ijaw Nation. The circumstance surrounding Boro's death is still not clear, Opinions was divided as to the Conspirators. While some alleged that Col. Benjamin Adekunle had a hand, however Roy Tomo-Spiff, who was among Boro's Force that fought against the Biafran Rebels at that time disputes it, claims Boro was ambushed by fleeing BIAFRAN Forces.

When stories are recounted about Nigeria and how the General Ojukwu’s declaration of the Republic of Biafra which led to the 18 months civil war on grounds of deprivation and marginalization of the eastern region, not much is said about the declaration of the first Republic within Nigeria called the “Niger Delta Republic” which also premised on deprivation, alienation and marginalization of Ijaw people. Rather the new agitator, Grand Commander Nnamdi Kanu and cohorts are trying every means possible to cajole the Niger Delta People into another antics for advance colonist theory, the labor of our heroes past shall never be in vain.

God bless u OP. God bless Boro too for fighting against the injustice meted to the Niger Delta in the Old Eastern region. And someone somewhere wants the Niger Delta region to make the same mistake again. We are wiser now. May the soul of Major Isaac Adaka Boro rest in peace.

wesley80:

IPOB is an unrecognised contraption that wasn't given any mandate to agitate on anyone in the Niger Delta's behalf. If you in the South East see them as your freedom fighters, then by all means let them lead you to the polls.

Lord Lugard had no mandate to create the colonial contraption called Nigeria, but today you are a Nigerian.

Well, some of us believe in letting the people decide their country via referendum.

attackgat:


Lord Lugard had no mandate to create the colonial contraption called Nigeria, but today you are a Nigerian.

Well, some of us believe in letting the people decide their country via referendum.

Lord Lugard died nearly a hundred years ago. Here you are still in mourning.

wesley80:
Lord Lugard died nearly a hundred years ago. Here you are still in mourning.

But you are answering the name his wife cane up with and claiming the country he created as your own?

That is how we will one day answe the name of our own country but the only difference is that it will be by choice

Not like you the Nigerian who had no choice.

one Zombie just write trash here o O lawd