₦airaland Forum

At the peak of Nigeria’s civil war in 1968, as hundreds of thousands starved to death in Biafra, it was deadly politicking between the conflict’s two key figures-Yakubu Gowon and Odumegwu Ojukwu- that kept food out of the region, escalating the death toll, a secret U.S. dispatch detailing the war says.

The document says disagreement on shipments between Mr. Gowon and Mr. Ojukwu, were more to blame for the failure of relief materials reaching dying children, women and men desperately in need of food.

The confidential cable, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, provides a rare insight into one of the most fatal angles of the war, as narrated by a superpower that regarded itself neutral in the conflict but which seemed to have sympathy for Biafra.

The disclosures came as the nation recalls devastating details of the conflict that killed millions; a recollection shoveled into national consciousness by foremost writer, Chinua Achebe’s new book, There Was a Country.

Mr. Achebe’s portrayal of the late leader of the defunct Western region, Obafemi Awolowo, as the mastermind of Nigeria’s policy of blocking food shipments to Biafra, ignited a week of fierce verbal exchanges between the Igbos and the Yorubas.

But in part, the U.S. account offers a sharp contrast to Mr. Achebe’s position, blaming instead, war-time military ruler, Mr. Gowon, and secessionist leader, Mr. Ojukwu, for the imbroglio.

Mr. Gowon, the cable said, discontinued air shipments to the Eastern region despite pressure from the United States and the Red Cross, fearing transport airplanes were being used to convey arms to Biafra.

Initial shipments by the Red Cross, suspected to be pro-Biafra at the time, had delivered 16 to 20 tons of food a night in a lone DC–4, feeding an estimated 850,000 people in Biafra three meals per week, the memo said.

But the Gowon-led military government barred the airlifting, which originated from Sao Tome and Principe, a Portuguese colony at the time. Portugal was amongst the few European nations that backed Biafra.

The Nigerian side, the cable written from the United States said, was however willing to allow land shipment, and would offer air permit only on guarantees they will not be abused for arms shipment.

Those were conditions Mr. Ojukwu refused to accept, even while thousands of his people, including children, were starving to death.

The former Biafran leader also rejected food shipments sent by road fearing they might be poisoned, and that such route might open an advance corridor for federal government troops, the dispatch adds.

The Red Cross too, would not implement any relief operation without the explicit approval of both sides.

While all these happened, at least 400 to 600 died a day from starvation, the document stated.

“All of this is happening in the shadow of what is pretty clearly a build up for a new federal offensive designed to take the 10,000 square miles still held by the rebels,” the memo said.

“There are also mounting reports on increased Biafran military activity, allegedly (though probably falsely) led by French officers. If either or both sides take the offensive, the relief problem becomes almost impossible,” it warned, adding that the US needed to take “a strong go at the Feds (federal government) on this point, but their answer is a forbidding “The other side has left us little choice.”

The “other side” mentioned in the document, appears to refer to Mr. Ojukwu’s Biafra, which, more concerned with winning the war, refused to accept the conditions spelt out by the Nigerian government for delivering food to the troubled region.

The details dated August 12, 1968 was sent by Edward Hamilton of the US National Security Council Staff to a Special Assistant to the then US president, Lyndon Johnson.

They appear to have been compiled from diplomatic filings and media reports which surged with the discovery of children dying of starvation on the Biafran side.

The document formed part of confidential U.S. State Department central files on Biafra-Nigeria, between 1967 and 1969.

Since becoming public last week, Mr. Achebe’s war memoir has stirred some of the most rabid sentiments since the war ended in 1970.

The award-winning writer’s criticisms of Mr. Awolowo’s role in the war, has put Mr. Achebe up for blistering criticisms from Mr. Awolowo’s supporters, mainly fellow Yorubas; while mainly Igbo have also attacked the Yorubas, while siding with Mr. Achebe, a kinsman.

Somehow, in his 1983 electioneering remark, republished recently in the heat of Mr. Achebe’s allegations, Mr. Awolowo admitted initiating the food policy, but said it was targeted at Biafra’s fighting personnel to help bring the war to a quick close.

The U.S. memo speaks of a diverse section of influences that leveraged Mr. Gowon’s decisions and the role of the international community in the conflict.

It speaks of the possibility of a rare agreement between Mr. Ojukwu and Mr. Gowon to allow relief through a designated airstrip succeeding, “although Gowon is under immense pressure from his hawks-which include almost the entire Hausa population- not to allow any relief, particularly any which involved air traffic into Biafra.”

The document referred to a frustrating showing of former colonialist, Britain, acting “as though they have decided that the only solution is a military solution imposed by Gowon.”

It spoke of France as “actively pro-Biafran,” the defunct Organization for African Unity, OAU, as “pro-Nigerian” while Russia was “largely disinterested and identify with the Nigerians to the degree that they are interested.”

The Pope made “strong statements” but was largely powerless, it said.

At the time the memo was compiled, a meeting of the OAU was being held at the group’s Ethiopian capital, Addis Abbaba, where the country’s former leader, Haile Selassie, attempted a go at a truce on the relief issue, separate from the political wrangling between the warring sides.

For all that happened, it was the frustrating relief failing that was more disturbing particularly to the American population, whose opinions the cable says, was “pro-Biafran.”

Even so, the cable found that the US mission in Lagos was “too sensitive to the feelings of the federal government to have done much pushing” on Mr. Gowon for a fresh commitment on opening a relief corridor.

But the US policy overall, the memo said, was stimulating the Red Cross to serve as the international cover for a relief operation; asking both sides to agree to a settlement, or at least to a relief agreement; offering help necessary to make a relief operation work; and asking Mr. Gowon to “dramatize the fact” that it is not the federal government that is keeping the food out of Biafra.
Click here to download the memo

Evaberry:
...

so we should fry sperm?

Hian!!! What happened to ur egg kwanu

Evaberry:
...
so we should fry sperm?

ehie:
and to think the first coup by Nzeogwu was to remove Akintola and restore Awololo to power, he turned around to cause children to starve, may his descnedatns and that of Gowon and he likes never know peace

In a 1996 interview, Effiong reflected on those events:

I have no regrets whatsoever of my involvement in Biafra or the role I played. The war deprived me of my property, dignity, my name. Yet, I saved so many souls on both sides and by this, I mean Biafra and Nigeria. . . .
I felt that I played a role which has kept this country united till today. . . .
At the end of it all when I saw they (Biafran soldiers) could no longer continue and Ojukwu had fled, I did what was ideal after wide consultation . . .

Benekruku:
The conclusion remains that "Ojukwu sacrificed over 3,000,000 of his very own people on a platter of wood"

mpianya39:
Somehow, in his 1983 electioneering remark, republished recently in the heat of Mr. Achebe’s allegations, Mr. Awolowo admitted initiating the food policy, but said it was targeted at Biafra’s fighting personnel to help bring the war to a quick close.


King of rat poison may you never no peace even in that grave yard

Rest in pieces son of devil

In 1953 when Northern Nigerians were beginning to consider secession from the Nigerian colony that would soon be a nation, Nnamdi Azikiwe gave a speech before the caucus of his political party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in Yaba, Nigeria on May 12, 1953. That speech, while not disallowing secession, suggested that there would be grave consequences if the Northern region became an independent nation. Ironically, fourteen years later, Azikiwe led his Eastern Region out of Nigeria and created Biafra, a move that prompted a bloody three year civil war. Azikiwe's 1953 speech appears below.


...It may lead to economic nationalism in the Eastern Region, which can pursue a policy of blockade of the North, by refusing it access to the sea, over and under the River Niger, except upon payment of tolls. It may lead to economic warfare between the North on the one hand, and the Eastern or Western regions on the other, should they decide to fix protective tariffs which will make the use of the ports of the Last and West uneconomic for the North.
The North may be rich in mineral resources and certain cash crops, but that is no guarantee that it would be capable of growing sufficient food crops to enable it to feed its teeming millions, unlike the East and the West. Secession may create hardship for Easterners and Westerners who are domiciled in the North, since the price of food crops to be imported into the North from the South is bound to be very high and to cause an increase in the cost of living. Lastly, it will endanger the relations with their neighbours of millions of Northerners who are domiciled in the East and West and Easterners and Westerners who reside in the North.
You may ask me whether there would be a prospect of civil war, if the North decided to secede? My answer would be that it is a hypothetical question which only time can answer. In any case, the plausible cause of a civil war might be a dispute as to the right of passage on the River Niger, or the right of flight over the territory of the Eastern or Western Region; but such disputes can be settled diplomatically, instead of by force.
Nevertheless, if civil war should become inevitable at this stage of our progress as a nation, then security considerations must be borne in mind by those who are charged with the responsibility of government of the North and the South. Military forces and installations are fairly distributed in all the three regions; if that is not the case, any of the regions can obtain military aid from certain interested Powers. It means that we cannot preclude the possibility of alliance with certain countries.
You may ask me to agree that if the British left Nigeria to its fate, the Northerners would continue their uninterrupted march to the sea, as was prophesied six years ago? My reply is that such an empty threat is devoid of historical substance and that so far as I know, the Eastern Region has never been subjugated by any indigenous African invader. At the price of being accused of overconfidence, I will risk a prophecy and say that, other things being equal, the Easterners will defend themselves gallantly, if and when they are invaded.

Throwback:
His face and name still adorns Nigerian national landmarks.

He was a real Nigerian, without any apology to foreigners and Biafrans.

If only Azikiwe had listened to superior logic of Awolowo and agreed to a secession clause in the constitution, the war Azikiwe declared as being the only way out of the Nigerian union, would not have became the sad fate of his own people.

mpianya39:
Imagine conehead and their reasoning

Throwback:
His face and name still adorns Nigerian national landmarks.

He was a real Nigerian, without any apology to foreigners and Biafrans.

If only Azikiwe had listened to superior logic of Awolowo and agreed to a secession clause in the constitution, the war Azikiwe declared as being the only way out of the Nigerian union, would not have became the sad fate of his own people.

Throwback:
His face and name still adorns Nigerian national landmarks.

He was a real Nigerian, without any apology to foreigners and Biafrans.

If only Azikiwe had listened to superior logic of Awolowo and agreed to a secession clause in the constitution, the war Azikiwe declared as being the only way out of the Nigerian union, would not have became the sad fate of his own people.

Throwback:
If only you were educated enough to understand simple grammar.

Azikiwe in rejecting the inclusion of a secession clause in the Nigerian constitution prior to independence, had declared that only by the event of a war will any separation of Nigeria occur.

The Biafra war was Poetic Justice!

ehie:
Yes he adorns monuments, so do TY Danjuma, Muhammed Jega, Murtala Muhammed,Joe Garba who are instrumental to cleansing the army of igbo soilders, igbo soilders were rounded up en masses and murdered in almost all the battalions, only a few saved them such as Abba Kyari. The fact remains that the first couo was ideological and it was aimed at installing Awolowo as the Premier. He is not a hero but a traitor

Throwback:
Only a fool would continue to fight a war when you have already been economically castrated.
Only a fool will continue to fight a war while still depending on relief supplies that must pass through the country you are fighting against.
Only a fool will expect mercy in a war.

mpianya39:
Oga professor throwback does these your grammar change the fact that Mr. Awolowo admitted initiating the food policy that killed 3 million kids

attackgat:
You have never had to fight a war to liberate your self from oppression, that why you can say things like this.

A people wanted to be free and fought hard for their freedom even against impossible odds. To me, that is a most honourable thing to do. To turn around and become a Northern slave in other to avoid war like Awolowo and the rest did is a cowards way out of a fight and Im glad Ojukwu did not bow to it. Im an Igbo man, if someone is going to bring me to my knees, it will be after they beat me in a fight rather than me kneeling out of fear and cowardice.

Throwback:
Is it only 3 million?

I thought it was 6 million deaths that resulted from Igbo foolishness?

Sanctions, blockades, fines, penalties, are meant to hurt, and result in a change of action.

Only a fool continues to toe the same line resulting in destruction, then cry years later that it was not shown mercy.

attackgat:
You have never had to fight a war to luberate your self from oppression, that why you can say things like this.

A people wanted to be free and fought hard for their freedom even against impossible odds. To me, that is a most honourable thing to do. To turn around and become a Northern slave in other to avoid war like Awolowo abd the rest did is a cowards way out of a fight and Im glad Ojukwu did not bow to it. Im an Igbo man, if someone is going to bring me to my knees, it will after they beat me in a fight rather than me kneeling out of fear and cowardice.

ehie:
the best thing i am doing his year is educating myself on what really went down in the 60's.
The Igbos did not get up one day and start the war, you need to understand how they were killed by soilders, baying mobs, i read one woman had to escape east with the head of her baby,, they were thrown over the river benue, woe betide you if they saw you wearing western garb you were dead, soilders were killed in their brigadeds, it was for their safety that is was decided that all the esterners should return home, because of how they killed them it got so bad that after killing the top igbo officers, they installed Hassan Katsina as the CoS, when they was a Yoruba Brigadier ahead of him, infact Murtala Muhammed our fake hero, was the loudest baying for blood and seeking for seccession from Nigeria.Igbos never wanted a war, but the had to fight because they were being killed in droves.Ojukwu even refused to meet any of the SMC outside the east, that was how bad it got.

mpianya39:
Somehow, in his 1983 electioneering remark, republished recently in the heat of Mr. Achebe’s allegations, Mr. Awolowo admitted initiating the food policy, but said it was targeted at Biafra’s fighting personnel to help bring the war to a quick close.


King of rat poison may you never no peace even in that grave yard

Rest in pieces son of devil