‘‘They killed my mother.

They took our magic.

They tried to bury us.

Now, we rise!’’

— Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone.

‘‘There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder the firm resolve of a determined soul.’’
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

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It is always difficult, if not impossible, to stop a man with a dogged mind from achieving his dreams. Such a man epitomizes William Shakespeare's legendary quote, thus: ‘‘It is not in the stars to determine our destiny; it is in our hands.’’ The man believes that, until he takes his last breath, he must not give up. There is hope.

It is exactly fifty years since the bloody Civil War in Nigeria that claimed millions of lives, particularly those of the Igbos. Before I proceed with the rest of the article, it is pertinent to take us down memory lane to see the events that reshaped the face of 'Giant of Africa.'

After the bloody coup of January 15, 1966, spearheaded by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna, which led to the death of 22 people, including the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, top Nigerian politicians, army generals and sentinels on duty, the Northerners believed that the Igbos were desperate to be in power and pilot the affairs of Nigeria. Their fears were based on two facts: the coup plotters were of Igbo origin, and Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, who took over the mantle of leadership of Nigeria in the wake of the upheaval, was an Igbo, too.

And so, on the July 28, 1966, Nigerian Army, masterminded by Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed and some Northern military officials, launched a counter coup that led to the death of Major General Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt. Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi( who was hosting a visiting Aguiyi-Ironsi) in Ibadan. This counter coup is, otherwise, known as ‘July Rematch.’

The counter coup that led to the death of the first military Head of State, Aguiyi-Ironsi, orchestrated the enthronement of Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon as the new Head of State by the coup conspirators.
This counter-coup would later culminate into the Civil War that claimed millions of lives, mainly those of Igbo origin.
While the Igbos saw the Northerners as dictators who did not tolerate opposition at all, the Northerners saw Igbo’s as a threat to the very foundation laid by the colonial masters — the amalgamation cum unity of Nigeria. The leaders of both regions saw a war looming and, in order to avert the impending doom, a consensus was reached at Aburi, Ghana, which consensus is popularly known as ‘the Aburi Accord.’

Those that attended the meeting were Gowon, who was then the leader of the Supreme Military Council; his Vice, Commodore Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey; Governors of the four regions and Lagos State: Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; Lt. Colonel David Ejoor; Lt. Colonel Hassan Katsina; Colonel Robert Adebayo; and Major Mobolaji Johnson.

At the meeting, Gowon conceded to all the suggestions made by Ojukwu, a reaction that cast doubts in the mind of the Igbo leader on whether Gowon truly conceded to the agreements reached.

True to Ojukwu's doubts, the agreements fell apart upon the representatives' return to Nigeria. As a result of this, on 26 May, 1967, the Eastern Region, at a referendum, voted to secede from Nigeria. Four days later, Ojukwu unilaterally declared the independence of the Republic of Biafra, citing the Igbos that were killed in the counter coup as one of the reasons for the secession.

In reaction, the Federal Military Government  attacked Biafra on the 7th of July, 1967, and the war, which had been caged for long, was finally unleashed.

The Civil War favored only Nigeria, for, as many sources say, Britain assisted their once-colonized entity by providing them with sophisticated arms and ammunition, while the Biafran soldiers made do with their makeshift weapons.

The war midwifed pogrom, famine, diseases and destruction of properties. It was not until the 15th of January, 1970 that Biafra finally surrendered to Nigeria, after losing millions of her soldiers and civilians to massacre and famine. Ojukwu fled to Ivory Coast ( now Cote d'Ivoire) on voluntary exile where he was granted asylum.

Many years after the war, with the renaissance of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, a movement was formed by an Igbo man, believed to be Ojukwu's successor, to propagate the need to for the Igbos to be free from the domination of Nigeria where they are marginalized. The leader of this group is Ralph Uwazuruike, and the name of his movement is Movement for the Emancipation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). It is worthy of note that Uwazuruike's cause was not without a sacrifice: he has been charged for treason and incarcerated several times.

Another group, known as Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), later overtook MASSOB in the freedom cause. The leader of this group is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a British-Nigerian political activist who attended London Metropolitan University, and the Director of a UK-registered radio station known as ‘Radio Biafra,’ a medium through which he preaches the urgent need for freedom from marginalization and domination, using peaceful dialogues and protests as tools to achieve this goal.

The actual date for the formation of IPOB is not exact. While some sources, like the Amnesty International, say that IPOB was formed in 2012(Amnesty International, 24 Nov., 2016), other sources state that IPOB was formed in 2014( BBC, 5 May, 2017; Turnbull, 30 August, 2017).

Like Uwazuruike, Kanu was charged for treason and incarcerated. His house, one time, was invaded by men of the Nigerian Armed Forces and razed. It was rumoured that the IPOB leader was killed in the attack, but, some months later, some reports indicated that he was sighted in Israel! The IPOB leader was hale and hearty.

After 50 years of the Nigerian Civil War, the struggle for the secession of Igbo tribe from Nigeria still continues. There had been fierce suppression of this struggle by anti-Biafra groups and the Nigerian government, but, when the heated atmosphere seemed to have cooled down, the pro-Biafra activists resurfaced again with other strategies to fight the cause. It is difficult to stop a man with a strong will. He may be stopped for some time, but, like the Phoenix, he must resurrect to continue the struggle from where he stopped because he is strong-willed. Don’t rejoice yet when you stop a man or a group of people with such trait. They are not dead yet; they only took a break.

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