₦airaland Forum

blink182: honestly, I see people in the medical field as inexperienced when it comes to dealing with Scd. I've had the thought once or twice to go back to school to study medicine and be a sickle cell specialist. Knowledge in the field is too shallow. Sometimes doctors with private hospitals try not to admit patients in crisis. Its really pathetic. I hate it when you are in crisis and the Dr says 'give him folic acid'.

Everyday I keep thanking God for cellod s, if not for that drug I'm sure I will be dead by now, dying a painful death as family and friends watch helplessly.

Training in the medical field differs from institution to institution. Some are lax, while others are strict. Sickle cell disease is a rapidly evolving field. New informations are added to its database everyday, and doctors are struggling to cope. I have to advise you to hook up to a haematologist in any tertiary health centres. They are the doctors who are better equipped to manage the condition to the patient's satisfaction.

FKBZ: Hello house,
I was forced to sign into NL today because of this topic,normally am just a guest who come to read and go.

Welcome!

I am an SC patient but not differnt from the SS,the crisis is something else, I cry my hearts out whenever the pains come.
I have checked the website you guys prescribed and I would be ordering the drug.
It not easy been a ss paient but with GOD faithfulness I have been able to overcome the pain but luckily for me most of my pains last max of 1week,I hardly go to the hospitals cos the doctors r just theives who give you the same drug at ridculous prices,and I have noticed any time am in crisis no matter the drug I take, its wen d pain decides to go down that it does.

It's ok! It can only get better.

But I have a question pls wat do u guys use to curb pains wen dey come,

Pain in sickle cell anaemia is often severe an excruciating. The pain is comparable to those with terminal cancer. Just like the control of pain in terminal cancer; pain in sickle cell anaemia can be controlled with morpnine or morphine-like drugs. The drugs is not freely available in the market because of its potential for abuse. WARNING! Morphine is used with caution. It can be addictive. Overdose can cause paralysis of respiratory muscles leading to respiratory depression and death. I will advise you to hook up to a haematologist in any teaching hospital for proper management of your condition. Rehydration is of utmost importance too.

Also does the disease affect a female monthly period

Yes it does! In fact sickle cell anaemia is a wide topic in gynaecology. It affects females in many ways ranging from delayed puberty to menstrual irregularities.

Amynamerica: "In the latter
study the HbS carrier state was found to be
negatively associated with all potentially lethal
forms of P.falciparum malaria, whereas the
negative associations of the carrier states of HbC
and α-thalassemia were limited to cerebral
malaria and severe anemia, respectively. These
findings strongly suggest that, under conditions of
intense P.falciparum transmission, young sickle-
cell heterozygotes (AS) survive better than those
with normal hemoglobin (AA), whereas sickle-cell
homozygotes (SS) survive least well of all three
genotypes." Culled from Wikipedia en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_resistance_to_malaria

Thank you!
I missed the comment.

Sickle cell trait(AS) confers some level of immunity to malaria in children between the ages of 1 to 5yrs!

The immunity is lost after 5yrs!

There is no evidence that sickle cell anaemia(SS) confers any form of immunity to malaria. In fact they suffers from malaria frequently and are prone to severe form of malaria. Anti-malarial drug is one of their routine drugs in addition to folic acid.

Pls let's not miseducate the casual observers!

Abali1: I believe you mixing up things. It is even the heterozygous AS that has a resistant to malaria and not a homozygous SS OR AA. Thank you

This is why I said that you are more knowledgeable than some doctors on this condition. I wanted to respond to him, but I deliberately left it to know if someone could detect the error in the information he disclosed. You did! Bravo!

Abali1: I believe I have answered your question. Am revealing a lot of Personal info in this thread and they are verifiable infos.
Have an Open Mind. Beautyful things are sometimes hidden in ugly places.

You are right and I respect your choice.

Gracious10: I know why I asked. I found myself at that point and yes, I didn't really know if I could carry on with the risk of dealing with this issue. So maybe someone who is SS can tell us if the tables were turned, would they marry someone in such situation having being through the hurdles and even continuous hurdles of this disease?

I have to be frank with you. As a male with normal genotype, I can't marry a sickler. Sickler females are frought with mind-boggling obstetric complications.
But, if I'm a female with normal genotype; I can marry a sickler male. This is my personal decision and has nothing to do with stigmatization.

Gracious10: If you were AA, would u date or marry an SS person having experienced the Challenges of of living with SCD? Be honest.

Your question is tricky. I must confess

Abali1: Please, if you have an advance knowledge of it you can share it with us. Am really interested in knowing all I can about the SCD. It may not seem of benefit now, but it maybe useful later. Thanks.
(I can put my email here, if you wouldn't want to share it with the public)

The advanced knowledge of the condition is mostly for academic purposes. Like I wrote earlier, it is of no benefit to you. You already know everything you need to know about the condition. You seems to have done your research thoroughly. In fact you know more than some doctors.
Another point which I would want you to know is that sickle cell trait(AS) confers some protection against malaria in the first five yrs of life. The protection against malaria is equal to that of a normal genotype after 5yrs. You are absolutely right! Sickle cell anaemia confers no protection against malaria. In fact, the immunity against plasmodium infection is diminished.

^
Did you read the interview at all? There is a saying that if you want to hide something from a blackman; hide it inside the book.
Your question was well-addressed there. Why are Nigerians so mentally lazy?

johnsonerhis: @Abali and @ All pls can u pple share light on wot AS pple go tru. I have AS friend and he seems to experience some of d things u ve described so far, pls share some light

AS or sickle cell trait people can only experience a mild symptoms of sickle cell in areas with low oxygen tension like high altitude, rooms with poor ventilation, etc or they may not have any symptom at all.

@Abali,
You are doing a great job in exorcizing the spirit of ignorance which makes people to believe certain stereotypes or stigmatize against SCA patients.
I must tell you that sickle cell disease(SCD) is all encompassing term which includes AS, SC, SThal; while sickle cell anaemia(SCA) is solely reserved for sicklers(SS). Pls note the correction. You did justice to the general knowledge of sickle cell. I wouldn't want to labour you with the advanced knowledge of it, because it's of no benefit to you in the management of your case.
Bravo!

free_soul: do you have a job at all
you and all your brothers that live here
you all must be full time criminals

Oh yes! I can't agree more. They are bloody internet scammers. Spending nine months and counting on nairaland is no ordinary feat.

So hilarious

nku5: Check vanguard, I think his email and phone numbers should be within reach

Thank you!
I hope they will publish those personal informations

I want to pay General Madiebo a visit. Can anyone link me to the general? I would want to discuss a whole range of issues with him. Our elders knows a lot, but chose to keep mum. Now, they are dying with the truth. Since information abhors vacuum; other tribes are cashing in to fill the information gap with their revisionist version.

I learnt last week that Awolowo was secretly negotiating with NPC while he was in active negotiation to form a coalition government with NCNC. Can you imagine that depraved character?! Yorubas including Katsumoto were telling us that Awo offered Zik the position of Prime minister but he chose to align with NPC. Now we've seen that Awo was a split personality and bold-faced liar who cannot be trusted.

Dede1 recently exposed Katsumoto by quoting a British document on 1957 constitutional conference which negates their claim that Zik threw away the seccession clause and chose to wait for the north to be ready before the independence.

I'm bewildered on why Ndigbo chose to sit on top of the truth and allow Yorubas to assign us many damaging roles in the historical events. I'm disappointed with our elders.

You may argue that Awo was not the
only one who saw the Igbo as obstacle
but you cannot deny what happened to
Zik in Ibadan in 1951.

Pls who can link me to Pa Pini Jason. Anyone? I need his phone number, email or home address. I want him to throw more light on the event of 1951. Pls it's urgent!

ejifranks: and in your infinite wisdom sir, you think that one must trust his landlord or landlady as a prerequisite for renting a house. what do you really understand by the world "TRUST". Even a wife that has being married to a man for several years may not still trust him talk more of common rent-age agreement.. I wonder who is the little minded person here, so fast to insult others...wise solomon like you...

Just ignore the f00l. Anonymous forum grants him the importance which eludes him in real life.

Katsumoto: So Ajuluchuku, who was Zik's right hand man, wouldn't have know whether Ifeajuna was Zik's cousin? I have provided material which states they were cousins; go and find yours which states they weren't.

I grew up partly in Onitsha. I know Ifeajuna family. Ifeajuna and Azikiwe family are not related at all. They are simply Onitsha indigenes. I wonder why Ajuluchukwu chose to misinform people if he actually said so.
You can't misinform me here.

Dede1: Again, during the first constitutional conference in 1957 which was chaired by Allen Lennox-Boyd, the three Regional Premiers and Dr. Endeley, leader of Government Business in the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly submitted, at the beginning of the conference, a joint memorandum which demanded that the British Government should undertake to grant independence to the Federation in 1959.

I do not know where you pulled the crap that Zik voted to put off the independence for eastern region, preferring to wait for the North to be ready. It was the chairman of the occasion who rejected the demand from western and eastern region to grant Nigerian independence in 1959 during which he accepted Northern region demanded for self-governing. It must be recall that AG and NCNC have reached agreement in 1956 to forge ahead for independent for Nigerian in 1959.


When Allen Lennox-Boyd rejected the demand from both west and east while granting self-governing request from north, the AG and NCNC delegates walked out of the conference, As result of the walk-out, the conference was postponed to later month in 1957. However, Zik rasied objection to later date due to court issue and conference was postponed to 1958.

You can delude yourself with Tory and British political of transparency, the fact remains Awo and Action Group were caught in the act of double standard in 1959 and were rejected by both NPC and NCNC.

Thank you Dede1!

Another lie busted! Let me see him use that argument again on this forum.

Fvcking revisionist!

How did we sit back to allow Yorubas to revise history for their own benefit? I can't believe that this is happening to Ndigbo.

Katsumoto: Nigeria could have attacked Biafra through the North and Mid-west but it only attacked from the North and not mid-west. Why was that? Had the governors of the Mid-west and West not declared neutrality?

You must be a cretin!

Does Gowon take order from Benin and Ibadan or the other way round? When it suits you; you will argue that Gowon was in control. But when it doesn't serve your purpose; you will argue otherwise.

Katsumoto: Apart from the Yorubas who were already in the Army, when did large scale recruiting of Yorubas and others from the mid-west start?


The capital was in lagos but if Gowon moves to Kaduna before the Biafrans got their, would that have given them victory? Why didn't the Biafrans push back on the attack from the North?

I thought we've dealt with this issue before. You have a penchant for mindless repetition. Large scale recruitment into the army started even before Gowon's announcement of the creation of 12 states.

Katsumoto: STFU donkey

Your rating is fast approaching that of CyberG, Bluetooth, Ekoile and Dayokanu

Katsumoto: My own fathers were not involved in the war.

But Yorubas fought because Biafra attacked Yorubaland.

If this is what you call sound logic and strong analytical power, then I'd rather be dumb. Why wont Biafra attack Yorubaland when their territory was used as a launching pad for an attack on the Biafra. Was Yoruba not part of Nigeria? Your logic can be so warped at times that I wonder if you are cerebral palsy case.

Katsumoto: These are lies again.

Financing the war (Biafra)
1. Central Banks in Enugu and Port Harcourt held 40m sterling
2. Collected 53m sterling in circulation
3. Bonds issued to Rothschild bank (exact amount not known)
4. Savings of Biafrans, other assets, before leaving Lagos, many Biafrans withdrew their savings
5. 2 million sterling taken from Benin Central Bank
6. After the war, through the efforts of Adeniran Ogunsanya, most Biafrans in the west, were able to take over their properties and in some cases, rent that had accrued.

It didn't make economic or financial sense to give 20 pounds to every Biafran for various reasons i.e inflation, adding to the financial burden of a country that fought a war without taking loans. However, socially and morally, Awo felt he had to do something. The 20 pound policy was the first in a series of policies that were designed to ameliorate the social, financial, and development conditions at the time and were planned over a 5 year period.

It has been estimated that between there was between 115 and 140 million pounds in Biafran currency at the end of the war and there were approximately 14 million Biafrans giving a value of 10 pounds per Biafran. Yet, each depositor was given 20 pounds. Assuming that kids did not have accounts, there would have been approximately 7/8 million depositors leading to a total sum of 140/160 million spent by Awo. But at the end of the war, Biafran pounds had no value.

You are still repeating the same fairy tale after you failed to defend it in the other thread. C'mon, are you suffering from mental automatism?

Dede1: Before I join issues with the above balderdash and drivel, I would want you to be specific with dates of 1957 constitutional conference and the purpose. I demand these instances because by the time 1957 constitutional conference came around both eastern and western regions were granted self-governing.

In addition, tell me why Awolowo secretly sent Rosiji and Akintola to Bello to negotiate terms of coalition between NPC and AG while Awo and Adegbenro were in Onitisha trying to negotiate coalition terms. If this behavior was not a political double face, what else could be?

Katsumoto: They had been granted partial autonomy in 1954; 1957 was about staying together as one or forming as separate nations.

There wasn't anything political doubleface about that action. If indeed it happened as you described, then it was politicking. After the Tory government failed to get a clear majority in 2010, the liberal democrats opened communications with both Labour and the Tories to form the new government. You negotiate with both parties and try to ascertain the situation that suits you best. But you wouldn't understand that since you don't understand politics and you want to undermine the other guy (Awo)

@Katsumoto,
You are the worst Yoruba hypocrite to grace this forum. You run about on this forum claiming that Awo offered Zik the position of Prime minister during negotiation to form coalition government. Now you have made a 180 degree turn to paint Awo's treacherous action as "politicking". Must you lie to win an argument?
Awo has once more been exposed as untrutworthy character. While you are racing and shifting the goal post to defend his indefensible action.

Dede1: Before I join issues with the above balderdash and drivel, I would want you to be specific with dates of 1957 constitutional conference and the purpose. I demand these instances because by the time 1957 constitutional conference came around both eastern and western regions were granted self-governing.

In addition, tell me why Awolowo secretly sent Rosiji and Akintola to Bello to negotiate terms of coalition between NPC and AG while Awo and Adegbenro were in Onitisha trying to negotiate coalition terms. If this behavior was not a political double face, what else could be?

+Infinity

Thank you!
I read the bolded in Ben Gbulie's "Five Majors". I was surprised that Awo was secretly negotiating for an alliance with the north while he was in talks with NCNC for an alliance. That's why I laugh whenever revisionists claims that Awo offered Zik the position of the Prime minister.
Zik had to act fast to beat Awo in his own game. I hope that Yorubas learns that Awo acted so ungentlemanly.

It is now over 40 years since the civil war
ended, have the Igbo have been reintegrated
into the polity?
I'd say reintegration of the
Igbo has been a slow process. You can never
reintegrate the Igbo fully as it used to be
before the war. Now the Army was
completely against the reintegration of the
Igbo into the Nigerian society because of
selfishness. The soldiers thought that if Igbo
officers came back, they (Nigerian soldiers)
would be relegated to the background
because Igbo officers were, on the whole,
senior to all of them. This is because after
independence, most of the senior officers
were Igbo. So, reintegration did not start at all
until the military regime stopped, probably
with the exit of Obasanjo. Now, since then,
we have had some progress. For instance, for
the first time, we are having Chief of Army
Staff as an Igbo man. The Igbo are getting
attention in various senses, both in politics
and in other ways, but there is a long way to
go. There are people who are determined that
the more you draw the Igbo into the society,
the more they are threatened. I have the
details of the reintegration of the Igbo but I
can’t give you all. What I am merely trying to
tell you as briefly as possible is that the Igbo
have not been fully reintegrated into Nigeria.


Major General Alexander Madiebo was a war
commander of the Biafran Army during the
civil war otherwise known as the Biafran War.

Excerpts from his interview with National
Mirror

As a commander during the war, you were

familiar with every section of Biafra and,

perhaps, Nigeria. Was Bakassi within the

geographical zone of Nigeria?
Bakassi is an

example of the evils of inter-tribal politics, evil

of colonialism and of North-South dichotomy.

If I tell the story of Bakassi, it may take too

long but we started losing Bakassi in 1959.

That was when we lost South -West

Cameroun. You know South-West Cameroun is

Adamawa in the North and Barmanda in the

South. They were part of Nigeria because the

League of Nations after the Second World War

shared Cameroun into two. It belonged to

Germany. It gave the East to France and the

West to Britain. Britain then shared its own

into two, administered the North as Adamawa

Province with the Northern Nigeria and the

South with Eastern Nigeria. In 1959, most

colonies were to get independence and the

British thought of what to do with this

Western Cameroun being administered by

Britain under Nigeria. Britain decided to give

the Southern Cameroun back to France and

the Northern one, Adamawa to Nigeria. Do

you know why? Britain was adjusting

population so that the North should have

overall majority in Lagos. I took part in the

United Nations plebiscite which was to decide

who goes where. I was the only Nigerian

indigenous officer that took part in that

exercise. The British realised that South-West

Cameroun under Hendeley was NCNC. That

was why they called it National Council for

Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC). They had 14

seats in Nigeria in the Eastern Region and one

seat at the centre. That seat at the centre was

won by Hendeley and he became Minister of

Labour. Hendeley won 13 of the14 seats in

Enugu. Funcher was being used by the British

to remove Cameroun from Nigeria. Funcher

won only one seat, yet when the plebiscite

came, he defeated Hendeley who had 13

seats. It was possible because Sardauna and

Awolowo saw it as an opportunity to reduce

the representation of the NCNC both in Lagos

and in the East. You know this is

shortsightedness. I won’t dwell much on that,

so eventually we lost that. Having lost that

part of Cameroun, Britain and Nigeria were

rejoicing that NCNC’s wing had been clipped.

They didn’t realise that after losing it they had

given the North over 52 per cent

representation over the South. They didn’t

need anybody in the South to rule Nigeria.

That was the beginning of the end. When the

civil war came, having taken that part of the

Cameroun, they were too happy to bother

about demarcating the area. We decided to

bring all our weapons from the Cameroun.

Ahidjo, the president of Cameroun said he

didn’t know where the boundary was, so we

should carry on. He was blackmailing Nigeria.

If that place had remained open, Nigeria

would have defeated Biafra, but it would

have taken about 10 to 15 years.

Gowon told Ahidjo to select the boundary and

close it after the war, ‘we shall discuss’. Ahidjo

said, okay thank you sir. Ahidjo then went

and told Biafra enough is enough. He marked

the boundary and policed it. Eventually, we

lost the war. At the end, Nigeria went back

and said that was not the boundary. Ahidjo

reminded Gowon that he told them to mark

the boundary. ‘‘We marked the boundary, you

won the war forget it’’. Ahidjo, being a Fulani,

each time he wanted to discuss the Nigerian

border with Cameroun, he might even go to

Sokoto and speak in vernacular. Journalists

wouldn’t even know what they were saying.

That was how they took Bakassi. We tried

from 1972, they started enforcing it with

soldiers. People would say you can’t eat your

cake and have it; you sacrificed Bakassi for

Biafra. If you say take what you want, we

want Biafra, you have got Biafra, so you have

lost Bakassi. It is unfortunate that they are

our brothers. My troops were there and, if we

are to be truthful, that place is Nigeria. But if

you have in anyway given it to them, let

them have it.

I'm posting with my phone. Can someone edit the interview to appear reader friendly?

Why was I not promoted when Gowon and

Unegbu were promoted? I don’t know.

People are asking why Professor Achebe is

reliving the civil war issues after over 40

years. They believe we should not be looking

at what divided us in the past but for

something that will unite us.

That is the point. The issue of the civil war or

Biafra is not coming back. One single person

wrote a book. I haven’t read the book. All I

know about the book is what I have read in

the newspapers or from different journalists.

I am not aware that the issue of Biafra is

coming up again except that Achebe wrote

his memoirs. Nobody talked about many

other things he wrote but only about

Awolowo. As if he wrote about only

Awolowo. Maybe, he did, I don’t know. But I

understand that he wrote a book called ‘There

was a country, Biafra’. Which is true. When

Ojukwu died, he was buried as a General and

Head of State. His coffin was carried by

Generals. In fact, it was the first burial that

looked like a Head of State’s in the history of

Nigeria. Ex-Heads of State came, those who

recognised Biafra. Nigeria was, indeed, trying

to recognise that there was a country.

What are we arguing about? If somebody

says it, he gets into trouble. If he went

beyond it and said that Awolowo did this or

that, he gets into trouble. He just said the

truth but it is left for people to justify if

Awolowo did it because he wanted to win the

war. In fact, there were other things

Awolowo may have done which are part of

his job. This is the way I look at it. I don’t

think there is any need for controversy over

it. If somebody had said that Awolowo never

gave the Igbo £20 after the war or that he

didn’t change currency during the war, then I

would start wondering whether I had

forgotten. But nobody has said that. All they

are saying is that he did this purely to

succeed in his job. He was given a job.

Whether he did it in order to punish the Igbo,

I don’t know. After all, he never consulted the

Yoruba for any decision he took. He was

acting as an individual, not as a Yorubaman,

but as a Minister or Commissioner of Finance.

It has nothing to do with his tribe. Why

should his tribe be angry if he took wrong

decisions or if he showed any

overzealousness in anything he did? After all,

there were other things credited to him. To

start revealing those things now would

obviously try to draw blood. I know that if at

any time that there was anything necessary

to say, that would be in my own memoirs. I

am not going to support somebody else’s

book. Supporting a book that you have not

read, one must be carefully moderated. What I

am saying is that, as far as I am concerned,

everything already credited to him by Achebe

are absolutely correct.

The agitation for a Biafran nation is still

ongoing in some quarters. Frankly, if one

wants to be realistic, you cannot achieve

Biafra again as we used to know it. First of all,

the old Biafra presently consists of eight or

nine states. There are five in Igboland and

four in the South-South. I am just saying this

off hand. There are about eight states now

made up of the old Biafra. How on earth are

you going to start reuniting all these people

who have enjoyed a lot of progress and have

seen the fruit of local independence? How can

you join them again under one state? It is not

possible. It is not necessarily the political

independence of about eight or nine states.

They cannot lump themselves together again.

Biafra stands for justice. People who are

agitating for Biafra are, in fact, agitating for

justice. They are agitating for an end to the

marginalisation of a certain part of Nigeria.

Chief Uwazuruike who is pursuing the

project in a way, is useful to the Igbo. It is not

useful to the extent of getting independence

for the Igbo. He is the only pressure group

now the Igbo have to let the rest of Nigeria

know what our problems are. In fact, there

was a time that I would say he achieved more

than all the South-East (Nigerian)

governments put together. Under these

governments everybody is trying to get

maximum benefit for himself and his family

and not for the Igbo really. After the war, the

Igbo who joined political parties were just the

second fiddle, not hoping to achieve more

than satisfying their families. Under Abacha,

an Igbo man, Kalu, formed ‘ Youths Earnestly

Ask for Abacha, to have Abacha there

permanently, not an Igbo man. Abacha was

not an Igbo man. Nobody has the ambition of

reuniting the Igbo. They just became

nuisance in a way, individually.

But now, people are beginning to realise that

you don’t achieve much by trying to shine in

the midst of poverty. The Igbo are uniting

again.

elombah.com/index.php/special-reports/13104-blame-gowon-and-awolowo-for-biafra-genocide-general-madiebo

nationalmirroronline.net/new/interviews/gowon-ceded-bakassi-to-cameroun-to-win-the-civil-war-madiebo/

Many people have been commenting on

Professor Chinua Achebe’s comment on Chief

Obafemi Awolowo in his book, There was a

Country. What Achebe said, as I told some

people, in all aspects, is correct. In fact, I went

further to say that if I am to give my own

account of the war and Awolowo’s role, I

would even have said more.

But that is as far as I can go. I do not want to

draw attention on Achebe’s book to myself.

This is because I haven’t written any book

and I do not want to steal the show or act for

Achebe. Achebe is well qualified to defend

himself but one thing you notice is that, of all

the people who have been criticising Achebe,

no one had said what he said was wrong. If

there is anybody who has said that, then I

have not been able to read or hear it. Nobody

is saying that Awolowo did not give the Igbo

£20 at the end of the war; that he did not

starve the Igbo during the war, and all that

Achebe had to say. This is because what he

(Achebe) said are true. Awolowo’s people

agreed that he had to do them to win the

war. So, what is the bone of contention?

There is no basis for controversy because

one person has given the facts, and the other

person is trying to justify the facts. They are

all entitled to that. Now, I have more. I keep a

lot of documents and materials on the war

and the participants. If I had to write my own,

I might not even mention any of the things

that Achebe said. I mean, he has written as a

civilian and I will write as a soldier. What he

said are all correct and everybody agrees, I

mean all the tribes.

The question now is, is he justified to do

those things just to win a war. That is for

anybody to answer.

[b]One of his followers, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said

that food supply was stopped because the

soldiers hijacked the food being sent to the

East and didn’t allow it to get to the people.

Obviously, that is a talk of an idle civilian. How

can you be giving food to soldiers? I was

commanding the Army throughout the war.

For the first two months, we had no problem

of food. As far as I know, throughout the war,

Nigeria did not give food to any warfront or

any part under the control of Biafra. This is

common sense. The only thing was that we

had the support from the Caritas (it is a

church organisation) and the Red Cross. I

think Caritas is based in Rome. It is a very big

relief organisation. To get food from them,

their flight only came in the night and

completely under bombardment by the

Nigerian command to prevent the food from

coming in. He said he was giving Biafrans

food. If I were a Nigerian, I won’t give

Biafrans food. We did not have the means to

hijack food coming, with the sophisticated

planes from Nigeria. How could we have

hijacked them with helicopters? The point is

that, officially, unofficially or in any way,

Biafra got no food from Nigeria at all.
[/b]

There was a brief period when we benefitted

from Nigerian food by accident. It was when

Biafran troops cleared Owerri and cut off a lot

of Nigerian soldiers. The Nigerian Army

started dropping food for their soldiers inside

Owerri. Obviously, we discovered that what

they were doing was that they asked their

soldiers to spread white clothes in the areas

where they were and they would drop food

for them. The Biafran soldiers cleared other

areas and spread white clothes and they

were dropping food for them mistakenly.

They soon found out. They didn’t at any time

during the war give Biafrans food. If they

captured any part of the original Biafra, they

had to feed the people there, but not Biafrans.