OGBUNIGWE AND
ODIMEGWU DEFEATED BIAFRA
14/11/2014 05:12:20 HRS GMT
An In-Depth Analysis of the Psychodynamics of the Lapses
in Biafra
By Degema
Strike Force OC;
Major Kenechukwu Nzeogwu Mbaezue, BA 6532
·
Whereas The Manufacture And
Proper Utilisation Of Our Shore-Batteries Frightened And Rallied The Whole
World Against Us
·
The Aristocratic Biafran
Leadership Suppressed Every Opposition and So Frightened Off Genuine Military
Participation by Hardcore Soldiers.
·
The Result Was That Improper
Political And Military Management Ignited Disaffection That Weakened A Coordinated
Prosecution
Of The War.
A HISTORICAL REVIEW TO SEE HOW
IGBOS BUNGLED CHANCES OF BEING THE TRUE LEADERS OF THE NIGERIAN NATION
Nigeria became independent
on October 1, 1960. In 1961 the Cameroons
trust territories were split in two. The mostly Muslim northern Cameroons voted
to become part of the Northern Region of Nigeria, while the southern Cameroons joined the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Regional and ethnic tensions
escalated quickly. The censuses of 1962 and 1963 fueled bitter disputes, as did
the trial and imprisonment of leading opposition politicians, whom Prime
Minister Balewa accused dubiously of treason. In 1963 an eastern section of the
Western Region that was ethnically non-Yoruba was split off into a new region,
the Midwestern Region. Matters deteriorated during the violence-marred
elections of 1964, from which the NPC emerged victorious. On January 15, 1966,
junior army officers revolted and killed Balewa and several other politicians,
including the prime ministers of the Northern and Western regions. Major
General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the commander of the army and an Igbo, emerged
as the country’s new leader.
Ironsi immediately suspended the constitution, which did little to
ease northern fears of southern domination. In late May 1966 Ironsi further
angered the north with the announcement that many public services then
controlled by the regions would henceforth be controlled by the federal
government. On July 29 northern-backed army officers staged a countercoup,
assassinating Ironsi and replacing him with Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon.
The coup was followed by the massacre of thousands of Igbo in northern cities.
Most of the surviving Igbo sought refuge in their crowded eastern homelands.
In May 1967 Gowon announced the creation of a new
12-state structure. The Eastern Region, populated mostly by Igbo, would be
divided into three states, two of them dominated by non-Igbo groups. The
division would also sever the vast majority of Igbo from profitable coastal
ports and rich oil fields that had recently been discovered in the Niger Delta
(which until then was a part of the Eastern Region). The leaders of the Eastern
Region, pushed to the brink of secession by the recent anti-Igbo attacks and
the influx of Igbo refugees, saw this action as an official attempt to push the
Igbo to the margins of Nigerian society and politics. On May 27, 1967, the
region’s Igbo-dominated assembly authorized Lieutenant Colonel Odemegwu Ojukwu
to declare independence as the Republic
of Biafra. Ojukwu obliged
three days later.
War broke out in July
1967 when Nigerian forces moved south and captured the university town of Nsukka. Biafran troops
crossed the Niger River, pushing deep into the west in an attempt to attack Lagos, then the capital.
Gowon’s forces repelled the invasion, imposed a naval blockade of the
southeastern coast, and mounted a counterattack into northern Biafra.
A bitter war of attrition followed, prolonged by France’s military support for the
Biafrans. In January 1970 the better-equipped federal forces finally overcame
the rebels, whereupon Gowon announced he would remain in power for six more
years to ensure a peaceful transition to democracy.
Biafran Soldier
The Nigerian civil war started in 1967 when Nigeria’s Eastern Region seceded and proclaimed
itself the Republic
of Biafra. The author was
pleasantly surprised at seeing himself as a 19-year old soldier at Oguta water
front, a river port for medical supplies, without his knowledge till 20 years
after the fratricide. The bloody conflict devastated Biafra
before Biafran forces surrendered to the federal Nigerian army in 1970.
Hulton Deutsch/Corbis
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
POLITICS OF OIL AND DEMANDS FOR REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
Given the bitterness of the civil war, the restoration of
peace and the reintegration of the Igbo into Nigerian life were remarkably
rapid. Aiding the resumption of normalcy was a booming oil trade (by the
mid-1970s, Nigeria
was the fifth largest producer of petroleum in the world). However, along with
rapid growth came shortages of key commodities, crippling congestion in the
ports, and demands for redistribution of wealth. Although a national
development plan resulted in some redistribution, the bulk of Nigeria’s
income remained in the hands of an urban few.
In 1974 Gowon announced that the return to civilian rule
would be postponed indefinitely. His timing was poor: High prices, chronic
shortages, growing corruption, and the failure of the government to address
several regional issues had already created a restless mood. On July 29, 1975,
Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed overthrew Gowon in a bloodless coup. Muhammed
moved quickly to address issues that Gowon had avoided. He replaced corrupt
state governors. He purged incompetent and corrupt members of the public services.
He instigated a plan to move the national capital from industrial, coastal Lagos to neglected, interior Abuja. Civilian rule, he declared, would be
restored by 1979, and he began a five-stage process of transition.
The reforms made Muhammed extremely popular with many
Nigerians. On February 13, 1976, he was assassinated in a coup attempt, but his
administration remained in power. His successor, Lieutenant General Olusegun
Obasanjo, continued Muhammed’s reforms, including the move toward civilian rule.
Obasanjo also created seven new states to help redistribute wealth and began a
massive reform of local government. In 1977 he convened a constitutional
assembly, which recommended replacing the British-style parliamentary system
with an American-style presidential system of separate executive and
legislative branches. To ensure that candidates would appeal to ethnic groups
beyond their own, the president and vice president were required to win at
least 25 percent of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 19 states. The new
constitution took effect in 1979. The restructured administration was called Nigeria’s Second Republic.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Republic of Biafra
The Biafran civil war was precipitated by an attempt
by the Nigerian government to lessen the political power of certain Nigerian
ethnic groups by dividing the country’s 4 existing regions into 12 states. The
former Eastern Region declared itself independent in May 1967 as the Republic of Biafra, left, and the civil war ensued.
By January 1970 the Biafran forces controlled only a small portion of Biafra, right, and surrendered.
© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
1968: Nigeria
Biafra Encircled.
After a year and a half of bitterly fought
civil war, the Federal Republic of Nigeria had all but defeated breakaway Biafra. Toward the year's end, advancing federal forces
had reduced Biafra's borders from an original
29,484 square miles to under 4,000 square miles, or an area some 100 miles long
and 30 miles wide. In May, Biafra's vital port and oil center, Port Harcourt, fell to federal troops. In
September federal forces took Aba, Biafra's last administrative center and the largest of
its few remaining towns. Umuahia, the last Biafran stronghold, was encircled in
November. The war was kept going by guerrilla tactics and by foreign-supplied
military equipment and food. During the second half of the year the world was
shocked by reports that as many as 25,000 Biafrans were dying each day from
starvation, the result of the viselike federal blockade through which only
harassed night flights could penetrate with food.
Civil War Background.
With an active Parliament and a sturdy
economy, the most populous country in Africa
had seemingly made an easy transition to independence in 1960. Nigeria's 250
tribes, each with its own language and customs, were divided into three and
later four regions, each dominated by major tribes: Hausa and Fulani in the
North (29.8 million), Yoruba in the West (12.8 million), and Ibo in the East
(12.4 million). Although Western impact came late to the larger and more
populated Muslim North, ruled by powerful feudal emirs, its legislative
majority dominated the federal Parliament.
The better-educated, change-oriented,
aggressive Ibos in the East, many of whom emigrated to key positions outside
their crowded region, resented Northern dominance and the many evidences of
federal corruption. The tragic events of 1966 began on January 15 when a
military coup by army officers toppled the government and led to the
establishment of military rule under an Ibo general, Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi,
who surrounded himself with Ibo advisers. Northern resentment led to attacks on
Ibos, and on July 29 the regime of General Ironsi was overthrown, and
Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Yakubu Gowon, a Northern Hausa, became
the chief of state of the Federal Military Government (FMG). In September some
20,000 to 30,000 Ibos were massacred, and many more were attacked and maimed.
Having reason to believe themselves marked for extermination, Ibos from all
over Nigeria
returned in a mass migration to the Eastern Region, where, under their regional
military governor, Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu
Ojukwu, many pressed for local autonomy and the more militant called for
independence. The break came on May 30, 1967, three days after the federal
government divided the four regions into 12 states in a move to decentralize
and thereby reduce tribal antagonisms. Cut off by the division from coastal
trade and oil resources which would have made them economically viable, the
Ibos declared the independence of the Eastern Region under the name of the Republic of Biafra
(taken from the name of an inlet on the Gulf of Guinea).
Fighting broke out in June, and despite Biafran forays during the early months
of the war, the federal forces had, by the end of this year, closed an
ever-narrowing ring around Biafra, which
continued to resist in guerrilla fashion.
Foreign Support.
Somewhat incongruously, the countries
supplying arms and other aid to federal Nigeria
include Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, and the United Arab Republic. Britain's motives include its colonial ties and
post-independence trade and oil connections with Nigeria. Soviet aid of MIG fighters
is attributed to anticipated ideological, trade, and oil concessions in federal
Nigeria,
which it sees as the inevitable winner. Egypt sympathizes with its Muslim
co-religionists in the Northern Region. The United States, officially neutral,
has barred arms sales to either side. But the U.S.
government has acknowledged the FMG as the only legitimate government of Nigeria, a move
which has evoked anti-U.S. sentiment among Biafrans. Public reaction against
shocking reports of Biafran starvation has led three European countries—Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands,
and Belgium—to halt arms
shipments to federal Nigeria.
Biafra has received military aid from France, ostensibly for trade and oil preference
should Biafra win. France
also reportedly wants to spite the United States
and Great Britain.
On July 31 the French government called for a resolution of the war on the
basis of the right of self-determination. Portugal
has given Biafra the use of its air ports and
telecommunications. Tanzania,
in April, became the first country to recognize Biafra
as an independent state. Three other African countries—Gabon, the Ivory
Coast, and Zambia—recognized
Biafra in May.
HERE WAS THE DIPLOMATIC ERRORS MADE BY ARISTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP THAT
MORTGAGED BIAFRA’S CHANCES AT WINNING THE WAR
Reports of Starvation.
In October the head of the World Council of
Churches relief program in Biafra estimated
deaths from starvation at 186,000 in July, 310,000 in August, and 360,000 in
September. Relief flights of food to Biafra,
which reached an average of 15-18 a night, reduced deaths in October to about
200,000. Forecasts predicted 25,000 deaths a day in December unless a
cease-fire was called. The International Committee of the Red Cross has fed
750,000 victims daily in what is left of Biafra,
plus 500,000 daily in areas taken by federal troops. Many groups and prominent
individuals, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts,
have criticized the American government for not sending direct food relief to Biafra. But U.S.
officials maintained that they could not authorize such flights without
permission from the federal Nigerian government and that U.S. government
food and other aid must be channeled through private church relief agencies and
the ICRC. Direct night flights to Biafra have been harassed by federal Nigeria, which
had demanded that relief shipments land on federally held territory. Biafra would not accept such an arrangement, however,
claiming that food passing through federal hands might be poisoned. In November
the federal government said it would allow daytime flights of relief supplies
into the Biafran airstrip at Uli, but the Biafran regime did not agree to this
arrangement, possibly because night flights containing arms shipments would
then be open to federal attacks.
Unsuccessful Peace Talks.
Peace talks began with unsuccessful secret
sessions in London
during January and February. More promising preliminary talks in early May led
to an agreement that peace negotiations should begin in Kampala, Uganda,
later that month. These talks, however, made little progress and were cut off
by Biafra on May 31. At the August 5-September
9 talks in Addis Ababa,
under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, the warring
representatives again deadlocked. Federal Nigeria has insisted that Biafra give
up independence as a condition for peace; Biafra
has replied that only autonomy can save the Ibos from massacre. On August 12,
Pope Paul VI appealed for an end to the civil war. At a September meeting in Algeria, the OAU passed a resolution calling on
Biafra to cease its fight for independence and to cooperate with Nigeria in
seeking peace. Most of the 40 OAU member nations themselves contain tribal
minorities with easily awakened antagonisms toward their central governments.
It is feared that Biafra's success might prompt other rebellions and lead to a
balkanization of Africa. Nigeria's
ambassadors have played upon this fear in the capitals of African nations.
At least one Biafran friend altered her
stand. Dame Margery Perham, an Oxford University specialist on Africa who in August
declared Biafrans as 'overwhelmingly the injured party ... who dare not
surrender,' changed her mind on a subsequent visit to Nigeria. In
September she broadcast a plea to Biafrans to surrender as the only way to save
millions from death and starvation.
Economic Developments.
Federal Nigeria introduced new currency
notes on January 3 in a move to stop Biafra's
use of Nigerian pounds to buy arms abroad. Biafra was thus forced on January 30
to issue its own currency notes—which it imported from Switzerland—and
postage stamps.
While the cost of the civil war is
incalculable in lost lives, one American economist estimated the financial cost
to federal Nigeria
at over $840 million. Nigeria
was also hurt financially when Great Britain
devalued the pound, as Britain
is Nigeria's
main trading partner. On January 18 the federal finance minister announced new
controls on nonessential imports in an effort to strengthen the country's
foreign reserves.
From Biafran Commando Recruit to Sergeant to Lieutenant to Major by
Bush Commissions
PIECEMEAL
NARRATIVES THAT ELUCIDATE MY PERSPECTIVE THAT OUR LEADERS REFUSED TO PEOPLE-ORIENTED
ACTIONS WHEN THEY MATTERED MOST
1967: Nigeria
Strife-torn Nigeria,
Africa's most populous country, erupted into civil war as the Ibo tribesmen of
the Eastern Region broke away from the federation and set up the
self-proclaimed Republic
of Biafra. Fighting broke
out over a wide area; federal troops finally took Enugu, the Eastern Region's capital. At
year's end federal troops appeared to have quelled the rebellion, although
tribal antagonisms remained more deeply divisive than ever during Nigeria's
seventh year of independence.
Secession of Eastern Region.
Major General Yakubu Gowon, the
federation's chief of state, decreed on May 28 the division of the federation,
which had consisted of 4 regions and a federal territory, into 12 states, 3 of
them from the Eastern Region, each to be autonomous and responsible for law and
order. Two days later the Eastern Region, led by its Oxford-educated military
governor, Major General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, seceded from the
Federation of Nigeria, declaring itself the Republic
of Biafra (named after the Bight of
Biafra, an inlet on the Gulf
of Guinea).
The secession followed long-simmering
hostility among Nigeria's
hundreds of tribes, many of them separated by religion, culture, and language.
The largest tribes are the 31 million Hausas of the Northern Region and the
12.8 million Ibos of the East. Most Ibos are Christians; they are well educated
by African standards, politically forward-looking, skillful, and energetic.
Many Hausas are Muslim, conservative, and several generations behind the Ibos
educationally. (Gowon, a Hausa, is a Christian; his father was a Methodist
minister.) The long and savage history of Hausa-Ibo violence reached a climax
in January 1966 when Ibo army officers staged a bloody coup against the
Northern-dominated federal government, and an Ibo general (Johnson T. U.
Aguiyi-Ironsi) took over as interim ruler of the country.
Six months later the Northerners struck
back by murdering the Ibo chief of state and launching a pogrom against the 1.5
million Ibos living in the Northern and Western regions. Some 20,000 to 30,000
Ibos were massacred; hundreds of thousands fled back to their crowded Eastern
Region. The embittered Ibos wanted security and more autonomy for the Eastern
Region than Federal Governor Gowon was willing to grant.
The East's Ojukwu gave Gowon until Mar. 31,
1967, to put into effect agreements reached at a conference held in Ghana in January for a loose confederation of
states for Nigeria,
promised aid for Ibo refugees, and other concessions. When the deadline passed
without action, Ojukwu hit back by requiring taxes (about $40 million in 1967)
from foreign oil companies in the Eastern Region to be paid to the Eastern
treasury rather than, as before, to the federal treasury. This act Gowon
denounced as 'illegal and unconstitutional.' Ojukwu responded by seceding on
May 30, and Gowon ordered federal troops to bring the rebellious 'Biafrans'
back into the federation.
Civil War.
While the federal navy blockaded Eastern
Region ports to prevent the shipment of oil, the federal army invaded the
Eastern Region. By July it had taken the university town of Nsukka in the east and the market town of
Ogaja in the west on a 100-mile war front. The relatively small forces on both
sides were augmented by volunteers. The federal offensive halted as Biafran
guerrillas struck back in confused clashes between wandering groups of
ill-trained armies.
Fighting the federal troops to a
standstill, the Biafrans, joined by mutinous federal soldiers under Ibo
officers, took the offensive and captured Benin,
capital of the neighboring Midwestern Region, on August 9, thus spreading the
civil war to the second of Nigeria's
four regions. Shortage of matériel bogged down both armies, while radio
propaganda from both sides claimed victories.
The Biafran-appointed Ibo military governor
of the Midwestern Region declared its independence. Shortly thereafter, on
September 20, federal troops reoccupied the Midwestern Region and with their
coming the formerly tolerant Midwesterners took a heavy revenge on the
half-million Ibos (20 percent of the Midwestern Region's population) living in
their midst. Ibo corpses lined town streets and country roads.
Foreign Arms.
The United
States prohibited arms shipment to Nigeria. Great Britain
supplied light arms to the federal army but banned plane shipments. Federal
forces were reinforced by the arrival of a reported six Czech L-26 jet planes
and six obsolete MIG fighters, six MIG trainers, military supplies, and
mechanics from the Soviet Union. The Biafrans
obtained two obsolete B-26 bombers and a few helicopters. It was estimated in
October that the civil war had cost both sides $140 million for arms so far.
The federal government asserted that Portugal was aiding the Biafran
cause.
Biafra's Capital
Taken.
In a radio broadcast on October 1, the
seventh anniversary of Nigeria's
independence, Gowon appealed to Easterners to abandon their secessionist leaders
and promised Ibos their rightful place in the federation after the civil war
ended. Shortly afterward federal troops slashed deep into Ibo territory and
rained shells on the Biafran capital of Enugu.
By the end of October the civil war had reached a decisive stage with the
toppling and emptying of Enugu and the
encirclement of Biafra on three sides. Ojukwu
offered his resignation, but Biafra's House of
Chiefs and Consultative Assembly gave him an overwhelming vote of confidence
and promoted him to full general, thus seeming to halt hopes of a negotiated
peace. An offer to negotiate a cease-fire had come earlier from the leaders of
the Organization of African Unity meeting in Kinshasa,
capital of the Congo,
in September. The arrival of their six-member peace delegation was postponed
several times.
1968: Nigeria
Biafra Encircled.
After a year and a half of bitterly fought
civil war, the Federal Republic of Nigeria had all but defeated breakaway Biafra. Toward the year's end, advancing federal forces
had reduced Biafra's borders from an original
29,484 square miles to under 4,000 square miles, or an area some 100 miles long
and 30 miles wide. In May, Biafra's vital port and oil center, Port Harcourt, fell to federal troops. In
September federal forces took Aba, Biafra's last administrative center and the largest of
its few remaining towns. Umuahia, the last Biafran stronghold, was encircled in
November. The war was kept going by guerrilla tactics and by foreign-supplied
military equipment and food. During the second half of the year the world was
shocked by reports that as many as 25,000 Biafrans were dying each day from
starvation, the result of the viselike federal blockade through which only
harassed night flights could penetrate with food.
Civil War Background.
With an active Parliament and a sturdy
economy, the most populous country in Africa
had seemingly made an easy transition to independence in 1960. Nigeria's 250
tribes, each with its own language and customs, were divided into three and
later four regions, each dominated by major tribes: Hausa and Fulani in the
North (29.8 million), Yoruba in the West (12.8 million), and Ibo in the East
(12.4 million). Although Western impact came late to the larger and more
populated Muslim North, ruled by powerful feudal emirs, its legislative
majority dominated the federal Parliament.
The better-educated, change-oriented,
aggressive Ibos in the East, many of whom emigrated to key positions outside
their crowded region, resented Northern dominance and the many evidences of
federal corruption. The tragic events of 1966 began on January 15 when a
military coup by army officers toppled the government and led to the
establishment of military rule under an Ibo general, Johnson T. U.
Aguiyi-Ironsi, who surrounded himself with Ibo advisers. Northern resentment
led to attacks on Ibos, and on July 29 the regime of General Ironsi was
overthrown, and Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Yakubu Gowon, a
Northern Hausa, became the chief of state of the Federal Military Government
(FMG). In September some 20,000 to 30,000 Ibos were massacred, and many more
were attacked and maimed. Having reason to believe themselves marked for
extermination, Ibos from all over Nigeria returned in a mass
migration to the Eastern Region, where, under their regional military governor,
Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, many pressed
for local autonomy and the more militant called for independence. The break
came on May 30, 1967, three days after the federal government divided the four
regions into 12 states in a move to decentralize and thereby reduce tribal
antagonisms. Cut off by the division from coastal trade and oil resources which
would have made them economically viable, the Ibos declared the independence of
the Eastern Region under the name of the Republic
of Biafra (taken from the name of an
inlet on the Gulf
of Guinea). Fighting
broke out in June, and despite Biafran forays during the early months of the
war, the federal forces had, by the end of this year, closed an ever-narrowing
ring around Biafra, which continued to resist
in guerrilla fashion.
Foreign Support.
Somewhat incongruously, the countries
supplying arms and other aid to federal Nigeria
include Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, and the United Arab Republic. Britain's motives include its colonial ties and
post-independence trade and oil connections with Nigeria. Soviet aid of MIG fighters
is attributed to anticipated ideological, trade, and oil concessions in federal
Nigeria,
which it sees as the inevitable winner. Egypt sympathizes with its Muslim
co-religionists in the Northern Region. The United States, officially neutral,
has barred arms sales to either side. But the U.S.
government has acknowledged the FMG as the only legitimate government of Nigeria, a move
which has evoked anti-U.S. sentiment among Biafrans. Public reaction against
shocking reports of Biafran starvation has led three European countries—Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands,
and Belgium—to halt arms
shipments to federal Nigeria.
Biafra has received military aid from France, ostensibly for trade and oil preference
should Biafra win. France
also reportedly wants to spite the United States
and Great Britain.
On July 31 the French government called for a resolution of the war on the
basis of the right of self-determination. Portugal
has given Biafra the use of its air ports and
telecommunications. Tanzania,
in April, became the first country to recognize Biafra
as an independent state. Three other African countries—Gabon, the Ivory
Coast, and Zambia—recognized
Biafra in May.
1969: Nigeria
Civil war continues.
The most populous country in Africa continued to hurtle toward disaster in the third
year of a devastating civil war. By September 1968, Federal Military Government
troops had squeezed Biafra's 12.4 million
people into a 5,000-square-mile area; the area has now been reduced to less
than 3,000 square miles. The starvation of more than 1.5 million people on both
sides has shocked the world as the war has dragged on, with the FMG receiving
British, Soviet, and Egyptian military aid and Biafra receiving Portuguese and
French aid. Other nations have responded with food and medical shipments, which
must cross FMG territory to reach Biafra.
Biafrans fear that the FMG will poison the
food; the FMG insists on inspecting shipments to prevent arms smuggling. The
FMG halted flights by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on
June 5 and continued to fire on illegal night flights made by paid volunteers.
Both sides continued to use starvation deliberately for political ends. The
once prosperous Ibos, sure that they will never regain their former high status
in Nigeria,
fought on in this bitter war.
The United States remained officially
neutral but continued to recognize the FMG as the only legal government.
Americans supplied money, food, and medicine to relieve Biafran suffering, but
this may only help prolong the conflict.
A battle for oil.
The war-drained FMG treasury was bolstered
by industrial expansion, increased cotton exports, and an oil boom. Wartime
import restrictions have forced local production of some manufactured goods, so
that industrialization has nearly doubled since the war began. Cocoa and peanut
production have slipped, but cotton exports have increased. Oil is the FMG's
big money-maker. Port Harcourt,
recaptured by the FMG early this year, is the source of over half the country's
oil. By 1975, Nigeria
expects to earn $840 million (mainly from Shell-British Petroleum and Gulf
Oil), double the current revenue from all sources. Oil income is also expected
to be important in financing postwar reconstruction.
After May, Biafran ground and air forces
struck repeatedly at FMG's Port
Harcourt oil installations. Some dozen hedgehopping
and rocket-equipped Swedish-built Minicon training planes were flown mainly by
Biafran pilots trained by Carl Gustav von Rosen, the Swedish count who is Biafra's chief air force adviser. These Biafran air
strikes aimed to sap the FMG's oil-based economy and to goad British and
American oil companies into pressing the FMG for peace.
Relief flight talks stalled.
After the shooting down on June 5 of a Red
Cross mercy flight by the FMG, only a trickle of relief shipments on night
flights piloted by private volunteers reached besieged and starving Biafrans.
On August 3 a Canadian crew of four died in a Canair Relief Agency night flight
plane crash near Uli airstrip in Biafra. On
September 12 the ICRC reached an accord with the FMG on a three-week experiment
of day flights with FMG arms inspection at the Red Cross base in Cotonou in
neighboring Dahomey and further FMG inspection rights in the capital of Lagos.
The plan seemed likely to abate Biafra's fear
of poisoned food dispatched from FMG territory and was also a slight change
from the FMG's former requirement that relief flights originate or touch down
in FMG territory. But hopes were dashed on September 14, when Biafra Radio
rejected the accord as militarily advantageous to the FMG. On October 22,
Biafra Radio proposed that the ICRC resume night flights and hand over food and
supplies to private pilots willing to risk FMG ground fire. A new relief
proposal was made in October by several prominent Americans, including former
vice-president Hubert H. Humphrey, Mrs. Coretta King, and Lieutenant General
William H. Tunner, who commanded the Berlin
airlift in 1948. The plan would use 12 jet-powered helicopters operating from
an aircraft carrier 50 miles off the Nigerian coast to shuttle food and medical
supplies directly to FMG and Biafran starvation areas.
Peace hopes dim.
Worldwide hopes for Nigerian peace did not
materialize from Pope Paul VI's three-day visit to Uganda, July 31-August 2, despite
his talks with representatives from both sides. Peace hopes were revived again
in late August by statements made in London by
Nnamdi Azikiwe, a distinguished elder Ibo serving as Biafra's
representative abroad. He is a hero of Nigerian independence, a former prime
minister of the Eastern Region, and was Nigeria's first president.
Having originally opposed secession, he now
called on Biafra to give up the struggle and labeled as unfounded Biafra's fear
of genocide in a reunited Nigeria.
He pointed out that more Ibos now live without harassment in FMG territory—up
to 5 million—than the approximately 3 million Ibos still in besieged Biafra. Biafran leaders were shocked and angered by his
views, by his return to the FMG capital of Lagos on September 5, and by the warm
reception given him by Major General Yakubu Gowon, the FMG leader.
Peace initiatives were thought more likely
to come from the 41-nation Organization of African Unity, which held its sixth
annual meeting September 7-11 in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia,
to discuss Nigerian peace, among other matters. President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, one of four OAU countries to recognize
Biafra, called for a cease-fire. FMG
representatives would not accept a cease-fire unless Biafra
ended its secession.
Ibo leaders in turn rejected negotiations
based on reunification. A fresh approach sounded by the FMG's Gowon on
September 10, calling for peace talks without preconditions, reportedly was
accepted by Biafra two days later, but no
direct talks took place in September or October. Acting from his present
position of strength, Gowon was reportedly anxious for peace talks and seemed loath
to make a massive quick kill, as urged by FMG hawks. Biafra's General Odumegwu
Ojukwu and other leaders continued their guerrilla resistance, believing that
they would be executed and the Ibos would be long harassed if Nigeria were
reunited.
Amnesty for civilians.
The FMG's Gowon marked the ninth
anniversary of Nigeria's
independence of October 1 by ordering the release of civilians imprisoned
during the civil war. The first major figure released was playwright Wole
Soyinka, freed from a northern Nigerian jail in Kaduna on October 8. His plays have appeared
on New York and London stages. A yoruba of western Nigeria, be had publicly sympathized with the
Ibos in September 1966 and had been jailed August 17, 1967, after a visit to Biafra.
Military action.
Little military action occurred after
April, when Biafra won back the town of Owerri,
now its provisional capital. Biafra continued to make hit-and-run ground
attacks and desultory air hits on oil refineries near Port
Harcourt, 15 miles north of which the Biafra
front line was said to be. So far an estimated 500,000 Biafrans have been
killed in action. Biafran leaders claimed that 7.5 million Ibos minority tribes
live in the oppressed Biafran enclave, but FMG authorities argued that the
number within Biafra's shrinking defense
perimeters was much smaller.
1970: Nigeria
Civil war ends.
Organized resistance in Nigeria's
30-month, bitterly fought civil war ended January 12 with a declaration of
surrender over Biafran radio by Major General Philip Effiong. He succeeded
secessionist leader General Odumegwu Ojukwu, who fled January 11 to asylum in
the Ivory Coast.
Unconditional surrender was accepted on January 15 by federal Nigerian leader
Major General Yakubu Gowon, who declared general amnesty 'for all those misled
into attempting to disintegrate the country.' He added: 'We have been reunited
with our brothers.' The end became imminent on January 10 with the collapse of
Owerri, Biafra's third provincial capital, and on January 12 Uli airstrip, Biafra's last link with the outside world, was captured.
The civil war took an estimated 2 million lives, including many Biafran
children and women, and cost over US$840 million according to the federal
government.
Relief efforts.
The federal government's insistence on supervising
all foreign relief operations in war-devastated areas, partly because of the
pro-Biafra bias of some relief agencies, allegedly made for more red tape and a
slowdown in meeting relief needs. An April 11 report from relief workers stated
that 50,000 persons had died of starvation since the end of the civil war. The
Nigerian Red Cross relief operations distributed an estimated 3,000 tons of
food a week to 3 million people, mostly children, at the peak of the emergency
in March. Relief operations were gradually reduced in scale and were taken over
on June 30 by the National Rehabilitation Commission, which coordinated the
efforts of voluntary relief agencies. These agencies promised to keep 14 teams
operating until the end of September.
Reconciliation and reconstruction.
An international team of observers reported
on January 16 that neither widespread starvation nor mistreatment of Biafrans
had been found in the areas visited between Port Harcourt and Owerri. Secretary General U
Thant of the UN, in Lagos
on January 18, also reported no evidence of violence or mistreatment of the
civilian population. In Lagos on February 19, U.S. secretary
of state William P. Rogers praised Nigerians for their 'vital work of
reconciliation and reconstruction.'
Such early favorable accounts were marred
by later reports of severe troop misbehavior, continued scarcity of food, and
slow disposal of relief supplies. In February, 35 Catholic priests were jailed
and fined for breaking immigration laws, and 64 missionaries, including ten
nuns, all active in Biafran relief work, were deported. An August 15 decree
stated that any public servant who supported the rebellion would be dismissed
or forced to retire. The federal Ministry of Information clarified the decree
on August 17 by stating that its purpose was not to penalize all officials but
only those who were proved to have exhibited 'undue enthusiasm' in furthering
the rebellion.
Gowon announced on April 20 that former
Biafra would be reinstated as the East-Central
State on an equal basis with the other
11 states in federal Nigeria.
The state would be led by Ukpabi Anthony Asika, an Ibo who had been appointed
administrator of the East-Central State in 1967 and who had remained loyal to Nigeria during
the civil war. The government made a flat exchange payment, worth US$56, to
each of the 200,000 persons who had deposited Biafran currency in the Central
Bank. Railway restoration was begun in areas devastated by war, some night
flights were resumed, the eastern ports of Port Harcourt
and Calabar were opened to foreign ships, telephone lines were restored between
Lagos and Enugu,
government incentives were offered to villages to organize rural development
projects, and a number of schools were reopened.
Foreign relations.
Nigeria moved toward normalizing its foreign relations, particularly with
nations which had recognized or aided Biafra.
Gowon met in Lagos on February 25 with French
deputy Aymar Achille-Fould; although the restoration of amicable relations was
announced, some antipathy remained toward France
because of its support of Biafra. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
at the opening of the summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity on
September 1, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
announced that a 'total reconciliation' had taken place between Nigeria and the four African countries which had
recognized Biafra: Gabon,
the Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia. Earlier, in May, resumed
relations were sought by the Ivory Coast,
whose president had conferred on the matter with the presidents of Chad and Gabon,
all three of which are tied closely to France. Secessionist leader Ojukwu,
in exile in the Ivory Coast,
also attended the meeting. In October, Ojukwu was asked to leave the Ivory Coast,
ostensibly because he broke his promise to refrain from political activity by
granting news interviews. He was reportedly refused asylum by Switzerland in
late October.
Nigeria resumed commerce with Cameroon
on the Benue River
on August 14 as a result of an agreement on strengthening ties and signed a
treaty of friendship and cooperation with Dahomey on August 19. Also in
August, Gowon visited Algeria,
the Sudan, and Egypt.
Civil war lessons.
Federal victory evoked worldwide press
speculation about the reporting of the civil war, starvation as a weapon of
war, and the motives of intervening powers. In retrospect, some critics cite
press reports as all too often emphasizing atrocities at the expense of
socioeconomic and political analysis. Some editors and reporters presented a
primitive stereotype of Africans, particularly federal soldiers. In order to
gain world sympathy, recognition, relief, and arms, powerful Biafran lobbies in
such countries as the United States and Great Britain encouraged emotional
reports presenting Biafrans as wronged, beleaguered, and starved. Advocates of
this position point out that Biafran capitulation was caused as much by waning
outside support as it was by federal military action.
Some reporting of humanitarian efforts may
have unfairly presented the federal government's reasons for insisting on
supervision of relief shipments. Some relief agencies publicly favored Biafra, frankly called themselves 'bootleggers of mercy,'
and gave the rebels tacit recognition by illegally dealing directly with them.
Little stressed, too, were the paranoid Biafran fear of poison in federally
inspected food, the possible arms concealment in relief shipments from or
passing through countries recognizing Biafra and committed to its victory, the
inefficiency of competing relief agencies, their interdenominational rivalry in
order to gain an advantage for future proselytizing efforts, and the
capitulation of the big powers to their propagandized public, which wanted to
hasten and increase relief shipments.
Speculation also centered on the motives of
the intervening powers and on the consequences of their intervention. Britain's
support of the federation it had launched was clear, and its subsequent trade
benefits were understandable. Former French president de Gaulle's aid to Biafra
was seen as consistent with his antipathy to the Anglo-American alliance, his
encouragement of separatism as in Quebec, his hoped-for dominance of Biafran
oil-production potential, and his fear that a powerful federal Nigeria posed a
threat to African countries in the French economic orbit. The Soviet Union's
motives were explained as another attempt to gain a foothold in West Africa
after its recent failures in Guinea
and Ghana.
The United States'
prohibition of arms to either side was seen as a test of its resolve not to act
as world policeman and not to counter every Soviet intrusion. In general,
observers felt that, having learned the stern lessons of big-power involvement,
federal Nigeria
is likely to pursue an independent course and to keep foreigners at arm's length
for some time to come.
Outlook.
Restrained optimism marked Nigeria's tenth
independence anniversary on October 1. Gowon promised a new national census by
1973 and a new constitution as preludes to elections leading to a return to
civilian government by 1976, or earlier if possible. Most close observers saw
Gowon's leadership as a necessary factor in maintaining peaceful progress, but
few had expected the elections to be delayed as long as six years. Those who
are optimistic about Nigeria's
future point to the rapid pace of the return to economic and social normalcy.
A reasonable reconciliation with the
Biafrans has been achieved despite dire predictions of their being massacred.
The federal victory held together over 400 diverse tribes, and the 1967 redrawing
of the former four contentious regions into 12 more equitably balanced states
should help prevent tribal differences from causing another war.
In February the oil industry output
exceeded the highest prewar level, making Nigeria the world's tenth-largest
oil producer. In November, Gowon announced a four-year plan to develop Nigerian
industry. The government plans to control the nation's industries and
'strategic natural resources' to make sure companies comply with the planned
growth timetable. The oil industry, presently entirely foreign run, will be
taken over by a planned national oil corporation. The development plan
appropriated $658 million, of which $114 million will be spent in 1970-1974,
for implementing industrial expansion. In addition, money was allotted for
expansion and modernization of the public transportation, educational, and
agricultural systems.
RELEVANT STATISTICS THAT OTHER RESEARCHERS MAY NEED:
Area and population.
Area, 356,669 sq. mi. Pop. (est. 1970),
55,100,000. Principal cities: Lagos (cap.;
1963), 665,246; Ibadan, 627,379; Ogbomosho, 319,881; Kano,
295,432; Oshogbo,
208,966.
Government.
Federal military government; member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Head of state and of government,
Major General Yakubu Gowon, rules Supreme Military Council and is advised by
12-member civilian Federal Executive Council, with Chief Obafemi Awolowo
(Yoruba tribal leader) as vice-chairman.
Finance.
Monetary unit, Nigerian pound; £1 =
US$2.80. Budget (est. 1968-1969): revenue, £147.7 million, of which £54.4
million reverts to state governments; expenditure, £92 million.
Trade (1968).
Exports, £211.1 million; imports, £192.6
million. Principal exports: petroleum (6.9 million tons), groundnuts, cocoa,
palm kernels and oil, rubber, raw cotton, cotton seed, tin. Principal imports:
manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals. Principal
trading partners: United Kingdom
and other Commonwealth nations, United States,
Japan, Netherlands, West
Germany, Italy.
Education (1967, excluding the 3 eastern states).
Primary enrollment, 1,778,976. Secondary
enrollment, 142,837. University enrollment: Nigeria
Nsukka, 3,482; Ibadan, 2,559; Ahmadu Belle,
1,351; Ife, 1,258; Lagos, 1,436.
Armed forces (est. 1969).
Federal Nigeria, 100,000.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
FULL TRIBUTE IS PAID TO ARCHIVES COLLIER'S YEAR BOOK
DR JIDEOFO KENECHUKWU DANMBAEZUE, D. Sc.
I acknowledge all downloads
I made from Archives that consist of articles that originally appeared in
Collier's Year Book (for events of 1997 and earlier) or as monthly updates in
Encarta Yearbook (for events of 1998 and later). Because they were published
shortly after events occurred, they reflect the information available at that
time. Cross references refer to Archive articles of the same year.
