Remembering Biafra’s fallen heroes and heroines, By Nnamdi Obodoechi By News Express on 23/08/2015

Remembering Biafra’s fallen heroes and heroines, By Nnamdi Obodoechi

By News Express on 23/08/2015

Fellow Biafrans and the friends of Biafra

Inasmuch as there was a civil war in Nigeria, there was also a country called Biafra. This is history, and it is a real fact. On May 30, 1967, the Republic of Biafra was declared by Lt Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (then Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria}, to settle the issues which emanated from the pogrom, widespread massacre of the Igbo/Easterners (Biafrans) in Northern Nigeria (and parts of Western Region). 

The nomenclature came from the Bight of Biafra which is a part of the Atlantic Bay on the Southern part of Nigeria. The name Biafra and its people were in existence 5,000 years ago. But the Republic of Biafra lived from May 30, 1967- January 15, 1970 (at the end of hostilities) after which the people were reintegrated into Nigeria.

Biafra consisted mainly of the (South) Eastern Region and some Idoma from the lower Benue in Nigeria. Biafra was predominantly inhabited by the Igbo and other tribes, which are as follows: Ijaw, Ekik/Ibibio, Annang, Ishan, Itsekiri, Urhobo, Isoko, Ogoja/Ekoi, Ika, including Igbanke, etc.

 The event that led to the declaration of Biafra by Emeka-Ojukwu, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Nigerian Army, was caused by Lt Col Yakubu Gowon, (who became head of state after the assassination at Ibadan, of Gen Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and his host, Lt Col Adenkunle Fajuiyi, then Military Governor of Western Region). Col Gowon outrightly rejected the Aburi Accord (hosted and) presided over by Gen Thomas Ankrah of Ghana. He rejected the Aburi Accord because of the evil advice of the British government headed by Prime Minister Harold Wilson (and top Nigerian public servants), not to accept such formal peace agreement.

One of the greatest enduring myths in Nigeria is the lie that Gowon fought the Nigeria-Biafra war to keep Nigeria united. In reality not only did Gowon, whose Northern Region had originally intended to secede (araba) after the July 1966 counter coup, cause an unnecessary war through his failure of leadership, his aim for fighting the war after he bridged the Aburi Accord, was never in the least a genuine desire to keep Nigeria united, but purely because of Northern economic interests.
The economic interests of the hitherto secessionist North became the principal reason for the volte face from secession to ‘One Nigeria’, after British government advised the Northern leadership of economic disadvantages of secession.

The great mistake: The British colonialist, Sir Fredrick (Lord) Lugard with the British government amalgamated the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914 into colony, for economic reasons. The essence chiefly was to support the North to survive economic hardships with the natural endowments of the southern protectorate. It was an economic association, but the people maintained religious, societal and cultural differences.

The unity did not work because the three major tribes: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba did not accept themselves as one. The reason Lord Luggard mixed oil and water together, as he was quoted to have stated that, ‘South and North is like oil and water mixed together.’ In my opinion, the  question is: How can wild animals and domestic animals live together in the same den without harming themselves? For this reason, the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914, ought to have  expired on December 31, 2013. The amalgamation was called the great mistake of 1914 by Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto) Premier of the defunct Northern Nigeria. But, nobody ever asked him why he called it the great mistake of 1914, even as the same mistakes are still occurring till date. All these great mistakes made thestatus quo to remain like that throughout the nationalist era to independence on October 1, 1960.

Among other factors that brought problems in Nigeria at independence was representation in the federal civil service, because the Igbo occupied most of the civil service positions in the North because they were highly skilled and educated. Secondly the Hausa/Fulani had not acquired the requisite skills to occupy such civil service offices. The North felt aggrieved that their people were not represented in the civil service, as we saw in the interview a White journalist granted North’s venerated leader, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, who had initially called the 1914 amalgamation  ‘the great Mistake of 1914.’ He had reportedly stated: “Well, the Igbo are more less the type of people who was designed mainly to dominate everybody. If they go to village / town, they will like to monopolise everything in that area. If you put them in a farm as labourers, they will try to emerge as the head men in that farm, and so on.

Well in the past, our people were not aligned in their responsibility because as you can see from modernisation policy, and in 1952 when I came here, there wasn’t northerners in civil service here. Then, I fight to organise them now. All the important posts are being held by the northerners.” He added that instead of giving the Igbo, he preferred to give it to a hired person from another country.

The marginalisation of the Igbo and other easterners in Nigeria continued unchecked, coupled with their serial massacre in the North in the guise of ethnic and religious riots. All these problems brought the attention of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (now African Union) to summon series of peace talks. But all were abortive due to the recalcitrance of the Gowon administration at the centre. The last of such meetings was rescheduled, as the crisis grown in intensity, as easterners were no longer safe in the Northern and Western regions of the federation. 

That led to the acceptance of Aburi, Ghana as safe and neutral venue by both the Federal Government and Eastern Nigeria government led by Col Ojukwu. The meeting was scheduled for January 1967. The essence of the meeting was to restructure the federal civil service and to restore the confidence of easterners in the young and diverse nation called Nigeria – the name which a colonial journalist gave the country. It means ‘Niger area.’ Among reasons why the Aburi Accord failed was because the federal government led by Col Yakubu did not fulfill its own parts of the agreement. 

Frustrated by Gowon’s recalcitrance and growing hostility in Nigeria, Col Ojukwu was compelled to summon a Consultative Assembly of elders and Eastern elders of thought on May 26, 1967 for advice and best way to resolve the impasse. Naturally, the convocation unanimously voted to stay away from Nigeria and have an independent state where their security could be guaranteed. Consequently, on May 30, Lt Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as the People’s General, declared Eastern Region Independent Republic of Biafra, to free easterners from constant threat to their lives by northerners, with the active connivance of the Col Gowon-led federal military government.

It’s important to recall that the Republic of Biafra was recognised by Cote d’ Voire, Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia and Haiti. The civil war began in Nigeria on July 6, 1967, when the federal military government led by Col Gowon decided to adopt a ‘Police Action’ to crush the 37-day-old Biafra and annex the Eastern Region under  Col Ojukwu’s watch . The two sides waged the war till January 15, 1970, when the federal military government of Nigeria announced cessation of hostilities with the hypocritical phrase, ‘No victor, No vanquished.’ Oh! this reminds me of the meaning of BRITISH, which I tagged: Bundle of Ridiculous people Instigating Trouble In Some people’s Homes. 

No wonder, Gen Odumegwu-Ojukwu is quoted to have said: “Nigeria is a stooge of Europe. Her independence was and is a lie. Nigeria committed many crimes against her nationals which in the end made complete nonsense of her claim to unity. Nigeria persecuted and slaughtered her minorities. Nigerian justice was a farce; her elections, her census, her politics - her everything - was corrupt. Qualification, merit and experience were discounted in public service.

In one area of Nigeria, for instance, they preferred to turn a nurse who had worked for five years into a doctor rather than employ a qualified doctor from another part of Nigeria; barely literate clerks were made permanent secretaries; a university vice-chancellor was sacked because he belonged to the wrong tribe.” 

The Nigeria civil war was a deliberate action to starve Biafrans to death. And this claimed the lives of 6 million Biafrans and properties worth billions of pounds sterling were destroyed.

The Eastern Region (the home to the state of Biafra) quickly rose to a maximum capitalist financial height few years after the war, despite the decision by Chief Obafemi Awolowo to give every Biafran 20 pounds, no matter how much the person had in his bank account. It was also Chief Awolowo who starved the children of Biafra to death, because he initiated the idea of economic barricade against Biafra. This same Yoruba man also betrayed Ojukwu who freed him where he was jailed in Calabar Prison for treasonable felony. 

The agreement he had with Ojukwu was: “Go to Lagos and declare Oduduwa Republic, while I will declare the Republic of Biafra.’’ When Awolowo got to Lagos, he accepted the offer Commissioner for Finance from the federal military government of Nigeria.   

Given the foregoing background, we the IPOB in Greece humbly seek the world’s assistance, particularly the KEERFA Movement United against racism and the fascism threat, and the Greek government, to help Biafra in her quest for freedom from the oppressive government of Nigeria. Biafrans have suffered many atrocities, mayhem and cold blooded killing of our beloved brothers, sisters, even our children are being raped by the Hausa/Fulani/Kanuri inspired Boko Haram.

To highlight the seriousness of the Biafran cause, I will like to mention the sad experience of a Biafran activist, Bruce Mayrock, a White man, who was 20 years old when he set himself ablaze in front of the United Nations Building, while demonstrating against the injustice meted out to Biafrans by Nigeria and Britain. A young student of Columbia University, New York, at the time. Unfortunately, he died the same day as a result of the injuries he sustained. 

 May your soul eternally reign with our Lord in Paradise, where no political, racial, tribal, religious or economic domination will ever be tolerated. Amen! Together we remember a host of others that fought so that we shall live. And here we are today honoring them for their gallantry; and may the same  virtue continue where they stopped. May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace. Biafra ga-adi, Iseeee!

 It is a compulsory duty of everybody in the land of Biafra to hail Biafra. All must hail Biafra.  Whoever that hates to hail Biafra is our enemy! Try to figure them out wherever they are.
Freedom for all, no matter who you are, no matter your race, no matter your colour, you are welcome in Biafran Rally today. Thanks and God bless all who join this awesome remembrance of Biafra’s fallen heroes.

We say freedom for all! Ndewo-nu!! 

•Being text of a speech delivered by Comrade Nnamdi Obodoechi (Ojukwu Igbo nile) during a recent ceremony in Greece in remembrance of Biafra’s heroes/heroines who died in the 30-month Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-70. Photo shows Comrade Obodoechi.

Source News Express

Posted 22/08/2015 10:05:54 PM

In Memory of Obong (Major General) Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom

In Memory of my father, Obong (Major General) 
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)

Major General Philip Efiong-Biafran Number two man

                                                

In Memory of my father, Obong (Major General)
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)

May the soul of a great dad and exceptional statesman rest in perfect peace! By his son

               About Major General Philip Efiong

Obong (Major General) Philip Asuquo Efiong of Ikot Akpan Obong in Utit Obio Clan of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State was born on 18 November 1925 in Aba, present Abia State, Nigeria. His father, the late Eté John Efiong Essien, was a businessman while his mother, the late Elizabeth Ekandem Efiong Essien, was a trader and farmer.

(The Efiong Essien family ended up in Ikot Ekpene after Eté John moved his household from Aba to Ikot Ekpene in 1929. This was in a bid to avoid victimisation against his wife who had participated in the legendary Eastern Women’s Revolution of that same year.)

The young Philip began his education at Saint Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Ifuho in Ikot Ekpene, from where he obtained his Standard Six Certificate, which, at the time, qualified him to be a pupil teacher. He was posted to Nto Otong Midim, Abak after which he relocated to Saint Thomas’ Teacher Training College, Ogoja and later the Seminary at Saint Patrick’s College, Ikot Ansa, Calabar. He left the Seminary in 1944 and moved on to Saint Augustine’s, Urua Inyang to study for his Higher Elementary Certificate.

In 1945, the Philip left teaching entirely and joined the Army (the West African Frontier Force), enlisting as a private in Enugu. At the end of the Second World War, he was converted to a regular soldier in the renamed Royal West African Frontier Force. Private Philip Efiong was among the first batch of educated recruits posted to Zaria, which was then the training depot for young enlisted soldiers. Part of his training involved clerical instruction at the Clerical Training School in Teshi, Ghana. On his return to Nigeria, he was posted to the Lagos Garrison Office and promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal in 1947. He was subsequently promoted Corporal in 1948 and Sergeant in 1949. Also in 1949, Sergeant Philip Efiong was posted to Zaria to help set up the African Non-Commissioned Officers School (ANCO) under the supervision of a British Warrant Officer II. While in Zaria, he studied on his own, sat for and passed the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examination in 1953. He was then posted to the Orderly Room as the recruiting Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO).

It was also around 1953 that the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test was introduced into the Army and Sergeant Philip Efiong’s result in the test was used as a base for evaluating the new recruits. In 1954 he was promoted Sergeant Major and in 1955 was again sent to Teshi, this time to the Regular Officers Special Training School. On his return, he was recommended for training in Britain and subsequently trained at the Home Countries Brigade, Canterbury, and Eaton Hall Officers Cadet Training School in Chester and Trawnysfyld in Wales. At the passing out parade in Chester in 1956, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant and later that year was promoted Lieutenant.

In 1958 Lieutenant Philip Efiong went on to do his post commissioning training in various parts of Britain, the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in Düsseldorf in Germany, and the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in West Germany. That same year he was promoted to Captain. He served in various capacities.

In 1959 Captain Philip Efiong served in the Cameroons with the peacekeeping force. As a Major in 1960, he also served in peacekeeping operations under the United Nations as a Company Commander in the Republic of Congo. He was later recalled from the Congo in 1961 and transferred to the Nigerian Army Ordnance Corps. As follow-up to this transfer, he proceeded to Britain to attend an ordnance course at the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) School in Blackdown near Aldershot in England. This course led to his being awarded Associate Member of the British Institute of Management (AMBIM). On completion of his ordnance training, he became the first Nigerian Commander of the Ordnance Depot in Yaba, Lagos in 1962, and the first Nigerian Director of Ordnance Services of the Nigerian Army in 1963, the year he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. This was the post and rank he held when the first coup d'état took place on January 15 1966.

After the coup d'état of January 1966, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Efiong was posted to Supreme Headquarters as Principal Staff Officer to the late Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi. He was Acting Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters in May 1966 and in July 1966 was posted to Kaduna as Deputy Brigade Commander under the late Lieutenant Colonel Wellington Bassey. Following the countercoup of the same year, he managed to escape from Kaduna to Lagos. In compliance with orders for all officers to return to their regions of origin, he returned to the East where, in 1967, the war broke out. For Obong Philip Efiong, this marked the beginning of the end of 22 years of meritorious service in the Nigerian Army.

As a Biafran officer from 1967 to 1970, Obong Philip Efiong served in various capacities as Chief of Logistics, Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Militia, and Chief of General Staff.

In January 1970, Major General Philip Efiong called for an end to the hostilities and voluntarily led a delegation of surrender to General Gowon in Lagos.

Obong Philip Efiong received many honours in his lifetime, most of them expressing tribute to his courage. It was for this reason that the Ibiono Ibom Traditional Council of Chiefs conferred him with the title of Akangkang Ibiono Ibom (the Sword of Ibiono Ibom) in 1995.

After battling occasional health problems, Obong Philip Efiong passed away on 6 November 2003, 12 days to his 78^th birthday. He is survived by a wife, eight children, several grandchildren and a host of relatives.

1969, at parade to celebrate the Second Independence 
Anniversary of Biafra; General Efiong is fourth from left; 
General Ojukwu, Head of State, is fifth from left

1970, initial meeting between both sides at 

the end of the War; from left to right: General Efiong,

 Prof. Eni Njoku, Colonel Obasanjo

 1969, Major General Philip Efiong returning 

from a visit to a refugee camp at Nto 
Edino in present Akwa Ibom State

End of the War; In the true spirit of 
African reconciliation, kola nut is shared; 
General Efiong, extreme right, takes a piece

Right, Lagos, 15 January 
1970, General Efiong shakes 
hand with General Gowon 
after surrender

January 1970, preparing for meeting in 
Lagos at the end of the Civil War; second 
from left is General Efiong, third is 
Colonel O. Obasanjo  

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             Post Biafra Experience in Ivory Coast & Ireland

                Presentation at National University of Ireland

                     Galway, Ireland, 2010

                                  About Biafra

Several sociopolitical factors led to the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (1967-1970), including upheavals in Nigeria’s Western Region and Middle Belt in the mid-1960s; the first military coup carried out on January 15, 1966 to allegedly curb the deteriorating state of corruption and conflict; a countercoup mostly led by northern officers who perceived the first coup as ethnically biased; and the subsequent massacre of eastern (mostly Ibo) officers, men, and women primarily in Lagos and northern Nigeria. The ensuing forced relocation of thousands of easterners to the East engendered tensions between the Governor of the Eastern Region, Lieutenant-Colonel C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the new Head-of-State enthroned by the countercoup, Lieutenant-Colonel Y. Gowon. The inability of both leaders to reach an agreement on future administrative and military issues resulted in a decision by the Eastern Region to secede from the rest of the country. In response, the Nigerian military government launched a "police action" to retake the secessionist territory and this escalated to a 31-month civil war that officially began on July 6, 1967.

Aside from the huge advantage that the federal side enjoyed in terms of regional size, it received tremendous support in arms and other military supplies from the likes of Russia, Egypt, and Britain, and also utilized tactics like the bombardment of civilian facilities, the shooting down of relief planes, economic blockade, and the deliberate destruction of agricultural land, which caused mass refugee problems and starvation of the populace. It is estimated that two to three million people died in the conflict, mostly through starvation and illness.

When the collapse of  Biafra's military was imminent, General Ojukwu fled to Côte d'Ivoire, after which his Second-in-Command and Chief of General Staff, General Effiong, assumed leadership of the young ailing nation on 8 January, 1970. On 12 January, Effiong called for a ceasefire and an end to hostilities. Three days later, on January 15, he led a Biafran delegation comprising civilian and military officials to Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, where, in a ceremony at Dodan Barracks, he officially delivered the instrument of Biafra’s surrender to General Y. Gowon.

For my family, the war began in Lagos after the countercoup of July 1966. For security reasons, we relocated to another section of Lagos where we were accommodated by the family of Colonel R. Trimnell. We eventually escaped to Enugu where we were when the war commenced in full. With each incursion of the enemy, we relocated to different towns. From Enugu we moved to Ikot Ekpene and then to Umuahia. We fled Umuahia when it was on the verge of falling into the hands of the enemy and ended up in Ifakala, a rural town, where family friends accommodated us for several weeks because we were homeless. From Ifakala we relocated to Owerri after Biafra recaptured the town from the enemy. We were still in Owerri when the enemy’s final onslaught took place, forcing us out of the town. About three days before Biafra’s final collapse; me, my mother, two brothers and a cousin fled Biafra in a seat-less cargo plane while my father stayed back to handle the young nation’s final surrender.

  Why we were sold to the British for £865k in 1899

Who sold (what became) Nigeria to the British for £865k in 1899?

Today we will be discussing the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria.
All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed resources such as palm oil to maintain that.
Palm oil of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta. Malaysia’s dominance came a century later.
By 1870, palm oil had replaced slaves as the main export of the Niger Delta, the area which was once known as the Slave Coast. At first, most of the trade in the oil palm was uncoordinated, with natives selling to those who gave them the best deals. Native chiefs such as former slave, Jaja of Opobo became immensely wealthy because of oil palm. With wealth comes influence.
However, among the Europeans, there was competition for who would get preferential access to the lucrative oil palm trade. In 1879, George Goldie (1846 – 1925, pictured below) formed the United African Company, which was modeled on the former East India Company. Goldie effectively took control of the Lower Niger River. By 1884, his company had 30 trading posts along the Lower Niger. This monopoly gave the British a strong hand against the French and Germans in the 1884 Berlin Conference. The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference.
When the Brits got the terms they wanted from other Europeans, they began to deal with the African chiefs. Within two years of 1886, Goldie had signed treaties with tribal chiefs along the Benue and Niger Rivers whilst also penetrating inland. This move inland was against the spirit of verbal agreements that had been made to restrict the organisation’s activities to coastal regions.
By 1886, the company name changed to “The National Africa Company” and was granted a royal charter (incorporated). The charter authorized the company to administer the Niger Delta and all lands around the banks of the Benue and Niger Rivers. Soon after, the company was again renamed. The new name was “Royal Niger Company”, which survives, as Unilever, till this day.
To local chiefs, the Royal Niger Company negotiators had pledged free trade in the region. Behind, they entered private contracts on their terms. Because the (deceitful) private contracts were often written in English and signed by the local chiefs, the British government enforced them. So for example, Jaja of Opobo, when he tried to export palm oil on his own, was forced into exile for “obstructing commerce”. As an aside, Jaja was “forgiven” in 1891 and allowed to return home, but he died on the way back, poisoned with a cup of tea.
Seeing what happened to Jaja, some other native rulers began to look more closely at the deals they were getting from the the Royal Nigeria Company. One of such kingdoms was Nembe, who’s king, Koko Mingi VIII, ascended the throne in 1889 after being a Christian schoolteacher. Koko Mingi VIII, King Koko for short, and like most rulers in the yard, was faced with the Royal Nigeria Company encroachment. He also resented the monopoly enjoyed by the the Royal Nigeria Company, and tried to seek out favourable trading terms, with particularly the Germans in Kamerun.

By 1894 the the Royal Nigeria Company increasingly dictated whom the natives could trade with, and denied them direct access to their former markets.
In late 1894, King Koko renounced Christianity, and tried to form an alliance with Bonny and Okpoma against the the Royal Nigeria Company to take back the trade. This is significant because while Okpoma joined up, Bonny refused. A harbinger of the successful “divide and rule” tactic.
On 29 January 1895, King Koko led an attack on the Royal Niger Company’s headquarters, which was in Akassa in today’s Bayelsa state. The pre-dawn raid had more than a thousand men involved. King Koko’s attack succeeded in capturing the base. Losing 40 of his men, King Koko captured 60 white men as hostages, as well as a lot of goods, ammunition and a Maxim gun. Koko then attempted to negotiate a release of the hostages in exchange for being allowed to chose his trading partners. The British refused to negotiate with Koko, and he had forty of the hostages killed. A British report claimed that the Nembe people ate them. On 20 February 1895, Britain’s Royal Navy, under Admiral Beford attacked Brass, and burned it to the ground. Many Nembe people died and smallpox finished off a lot of others.
By April 1895, business had returned to “normal”, normal being the conditions that the British wanted, and King Koko was on the run. Brass was fined £500 by the British, £26,825 in today’s money, and the looted weapons were returned as well as the surviving prisoners. After a British Parliamentary Commission sat, King Koko was offered terms of settlement by the British, which he rejected and disappeared. The British promptly declared him an outlaw and offered a reward of £200 (£10,730 today) for him. He committed suicide in exile in 1898.
About that time, another “recalcitrant King”, the Oba of Benin, was run out of town. The pacification of the Lower Niger was well and truly under way.
The immediate effect of the Brass Oil War was that public opinion in Britain turned against the the Royal Nigeria Company, so its charter was revoked in 1899. Following the revoking of its charter, the the Royal Niger Company sold its holdings to the British government for £865,000 (£46,407,250 today). That amount, £46,407,250 (NGN12,550,427,783.81 at today’s exchange rate) was effectively the price Britain paid, to buy the territory which was to become known as Nigeria.

* Try to be committed to doing a #HistoryClass once a week as a response to Nigeria’s removal of history from its school curriculum. He tweets @william Omumukeze. 

This is the document from the British People in Cameroon (1968) telling the British government that Biafra needs to be defeated.

Nigerian could not have defeated Biafra. Biafra cannot be defeated. Britain fought and defeated Biafra.

We are wiser now and we know Nigeria has no power. They have not been able to defeat a rag tag imbecilic group like Boko Haram talk less of a developed and civilized Biafra.

"The British, after rigging the 1961 Plebiscite, had continued to lie that the Western Cameroonians hated the Igbos. When war Nigerian civil war broke out, the Cameroonian government supported Nigeria while Western Cameroon supported Biafra. The problem was so much that they were considered as Nigeria's 13th State provided the Igbos are kept very far from them. That was how Bakassi happened.

Did you notice that the idea was to confine the Igbos to the interior "landlocked" and tell those other Igbos outside the land-lock that they are not real Igbos. Well, those in the East coastal area agreed while those across the Niger jumped over to fight with their kith and kin in Biafra.

They have been supervising our local economy since 1970.''

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Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the first prime minister of Nigeria, was assassinated during the January 1966 military coup.

1/16/1966-Dorking, England- Nigerian President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe tells the press here on January 16 that he will return to his troubled country as soon as arrangements can be made. Dr. Azikiwe, convalescing in this country following an illness, said that on his return he would appeal for law and order to be restored in Nigeria, which has been the scene of a revolt against the government of Prime Minister Balewa January 15.

General Yakubu Gowon commanded the Nigerian troops that defeated the Biafran army. He is a genocidist, who killed 6,000,000 Biafrans during the war -1967-70. Yet the world closed their ears as if nothing happen. He is parading himself as an elder statesman in Nigeria. A killer

 Nnamdi Azikiwe the architect of the Biafran problem Address to the Ibo State Assembly held at Aba June 25, 1949

In the following address given eleven years before Nigerian independence, Nnamdi Azikiwe calls for self-determination for the Ibo as they along with other ethnic groups march toward an inevitably free Nigeria.  This address was delivered at  the Ibo State Assembly held at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday, June 25, 1949.

Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.

The Ibo people have reached a cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the path of national self-realization.

It would appear that God has specially created the Ibo people to suffer persecution and be victimized because of their resolute will to live. Since suffering is the label of our tribe, we can afford to be sacrificed for the ultimate redemption of the children of Africa. Is it not fortunate that the Ibo are among the few remnants of indigenous African nations who are still not spoliated by the artificial niceties of Western materialism? Is it not historically significant that throughout the glorious history of Africa, the Ibo is one of the select few to have escaped the humiliation of a conqueror’s sword or to be a victim of a Carthaginian treaty? Search through the records of African history and you will fail to find an occasion when, in any pitched battle, any African nation has either marched across Ibo territory or subjected the Ibo nation to a humiliating conquest. Instead, there is record to show that the martial prowess of the Ibo, at all stages of human history, has rivaled them not only to survive persecution, but also to adapt themselves to the role thus thrust upon them by history, of preserving all that is best and most noble in African culture and tradition. Placed in this high estate, the Ibo cannot shirk the responsibility conferred on it by its manifest destiny. Having undergone a course of suffering the Ibo must therefore enter into its heritage by asserting its birthright, without apologies.

Follow me in a kaleidoscopic study of the Ibo. Four million strong in man-power! Our agricultural resources include economic and food crops which are the bases of modern civilization, not to mention fruits and vegetables which flourish in the tropics! Our mineral resources include coal, lignite, lead, antimony, iron, diatomite, clay, oil, tin! Our forest products include timber of economic value, including iroko and mahogany! Our fauna and flora are marvels of the world! Our land is blessed by waterways of world renown, including the River Niger, Imo River, Cross River! Our ports are among the best known in the continent of Africa. Yet in spite of these natural advantages, which illustrate without doubt the potential wealth of the Ibo, we are among the least developed in Nigeria, economically, and we are so ostracized socially, that we have become extraneous in the political institutions of Nigeria.

I have not come here today in order to catalogue the disabilities which the Ibo suffer, in spite of our potential wealth, in spite of our teeming man-power, in spite of our vitality as an indigenous African people; suffice it to say that it would enable you to appreciate the manifest destiny of the Ibo if I enumerated some of the acts of discrimination against us as a people. Socially, the British Press has not been sparing in describing us as ‘the most hated in Nigeria’. In this unholy crusade, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Economist, News Review and the Daily Mail have been in the forefront. In the Nigerian Press, you are living witnesses of what has happened in the last eighteen months, when Lagos, Zaria and Calabar sections of the Nigerian Press were virtually encouraged to provoke us to tendentious propaganda. It is needless for me to tell you that today, both in England and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’ has become a word of opprobrium.

Politically, you have seen with your own eyes how four million people were disenfranchized by the British, for decades, because of our alleged backwardness. We have never been represented on the Executive Council, and not one Ibo town has had the franchise, despite the fact that our native political institutions are essentially democratic—in fact, more democratic than any other nation in Africa, in spite of our extreme individualism.

Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I shall now state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for many decades!

On the economic plane, I cannot sufficiently impress you because you are too familiar with the victimization which is our fate. Look at our roads; how many of them are tarred, compared, for example, with the roads in other parts of the country? Those of you who have travelled to this assembly by road are witnesses of the corrugated and utterly unworthy state of the roads which traverse Ibo-land, in spite of the fact that four million Ibo people pay taxes in order, among others, to have good roads. With roads must be considered the system of communications, water and electricity supplies. How many of our towns, for example, have complete postal, telegraph, telephone and wireless services, compared to towns in other areas of Nigeria? How many have pipe-borne water supplies? How many have electricity undertakings? Does not the Ibo tax-payer fulfill his civic duty? Why, then, must he be a victim of studied official victimization?

Today, these disabilities have been intensified. There is a movement to disregard traditional organization in the Ibo nation by the introduction of a specious system of a form of local government. The placing of the Ibo nation in an artificial regionalization scheme has left an unfair impression of attempted domination by minorities of the Ibo people. In the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council the electoral college system has aided in the complete disenfranchisement of the Ibo. As a climax, spurious leadership is being foisted upon us—a mis-leadership which receives official recognition, thus stultifying the legitimate aspirations of the Ibo. This leadership shows a palpable disloyalty to the Ibo and loyalty to an alien protecting power.

The only worthwhile stand we can make as a nation is to assert our right to self-determination, as a unit of a prospective Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, where our rights will be respected and safeguarded. Roughly speaking, there are twenty main dialectal regions in the Ibo nation, which can be conveniently departmentalized as Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili in the northwest, Aniocha in the west, Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast, Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu, Awka and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in the northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and Mbaise in the east, Ngwa, Bende, Abiriba Ohafia and Etche in the southwest. These Provinces can have their territorial boundaries delimited, they can select their capitals, and then can conveniently develop their resources both for their common benefit and for those of the other nationalities who make up this great country called Nigeria and the Cameroons.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip pictured with Nigeria's first head of state Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and HRH Obi Okosi, the Obi of Onitsha in the 

The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up Nigeria and the Cameroons. With the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Yoruba, Ibibio (Iboku), Angus (Bi-Rom), Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, ltsekiri, Nupe, Igalla, Ogaja, Gwari, Duala, Bali and other nationalities asserting their right to self-determination each as separate as the fingers, but united with others as a part of the same hand, we can reclaim Nigeria and the Cameroons from this degradation which it has pleased the forces of European imperialism to impose upon us. Therefore, our meeting today is of momentous importance in the history of the Ibo, in that opportunity has been presented to us to heed the call of a despoiled race, to answer the summons to redeem a ravished continent, to rally forces to the defence of a humiliated country, and to arouse national consciousness in a demoralized but dynamic nation.

Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).

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Biafran Colt of Arm

Biafra (old eastern Nigeria) adopted a new flag, national anthem and Odumegwu Ojukwu was promoted to a General and Head of State.

                                Biafran Gunner Wings

Biafra On Her 2nd Anniversary 1969

Biafran Rank Insignia

Biafran Scarf for officers

Biafrans Stamp

After independence, the Post Office in Biafra continued to use Nigerian stamps until they ran out when a "postage paid" cachet was applied instead until the first stamps were issued.

The first stamps of Biafra were issued on 5 February 1968 and consisted of three values to mark Biafran "independence

Biafran tie over 40 years old, testimony of ingenuity of its designers

The Hat Philip Efiong wore as a Major General in Biafra Army- Biafran number 2nd man.

Biafran Gunner wing

Biafran Pilot Gunner Wing

Biafra Air Force Wing

General C. O. Ojukwu Lauching Biafran stamp and pounds

The Burial of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, August 1967

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The children of the Most High Aba will never forget 30 May 2015 the heroes day
0 Archives, Articles 03:14

Who said it was only 3 million that came out? The children of the Most High from all corners of Biafraland and beyond. Aba will never forget 30 May 2015. Our departed heroes today are proud of their children because Biafra is here. We get Biafra or we die getting Biafra. One of the two MUST happen.