The Biafran Great Men
/ Inventors
General Philip Efiong was born
18th November 1925 – and died the 6th day of November 2003. General Philip
Efiong was the first Vice President and the second President of the Republic of
Biafra during the Biafra genocidal war christened Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to
1970 engineered by the British government of Harold Wilson.
He was born in Ibiono Ibom in
present-day Akwa Ibom State Nigeria on 18th November 1925, Philip Efiong joined
the Nigerian Armed Forces on 28 July 1945. He quickly rose through the ranks
until on 11th January 1956 he received the Queen’s Commission following his
officer cadet training at Eaton Hall in Chester. The UK later commissioned him
for duty in the Rhine, West Germany. He was then transferred to the Nigeria
Army Ordnance Corps; then to England for further training after a peace-keeping
stint in the Republic of Congo in 1961.
He was Nigeria’s first Director
of Ordnance. His son is his namesake. General Efiong’s handling of Biafra’s
surrender is one of the most tactical and devoted manoeuvres ever seen on the
Nigerian scene. Those who do not appreciate the in-depth of it, may not have
appreciated what was at stake as Biafra forces were weakened through the
Federal government of Nigeria imposed blockade which consequently led to hunger
and starvation of millions.
At the time of the surrender,
Efiong believed that the situation was hopeless and that prolonging the
conflict would have led only to the further destruction and starvation of the
people of Biafra. At that time Efiong said, “I am convinced now that a stop
must be put to the bloodshed which is going on as a result of the war. I am
also convinced that the suffering of our people must be brought to an immediate
end.” General Phillip Efiong stood firm and well-grounded with the Biafran
side, fought gallantly and took the most tactical and lifesaving decision in
order to save what was left of the Biafran people. Through General Efiong’s
decision and action, we are here again to reclaim our land and freedom.
General Philip Efiong shall be
remembered forever. He is a great Man, loyal and committed to his duty and
people. To all our Siblings in the Riverine area, Akwa Ibom included, Efiong
stood for truth, fairness and justice which Biafra stands for. In General
Philip Efiong’s words of advice to the Nigerian government just like a prophet,
“treat the Children of the surrendering Biafra well and accommodated, or risk
their Children rising” (Gen. Philip Efiong 1970). For standing with the
oppressed, for fighting for freedom of his people even when he had all
opportunity to switch sides, even when most of his kinsmen lost interest in the
Biafran war, he stood strong and made the right decision. On 30th May 2020, we
will remember all your great deeds.
Shared from Radio Biafra Media
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo
born 16 August 1932 – died 1967 was a Biafran poet, teacher, and librarian, who
died fighting for the Independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged
as an outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the
major modernist writers of the 20th century.
In 1966 the Nigerian crisis
came to a head. Okigbo, living in Ibadan at the time, relocated to Eastern
Nigeria to await the outcome of the turn of events which culminated in the
secession of the Eastern provinces as Independent State of Biafra on 30 May
1967. Living in Enugu, he worked together with Chinua Achebe to establish a new
publishing house, Citadel Press.
With the secession of Biafra,
Ifekandu Okigbo immediately joined the new state’s military as a volunteer,
field-commissioned major. An accomplished soldier, he was killed in action
during a major push by Nigerian troops in Nsukka axis of Enugu, the University
town where he found his voice as a poet, and which he vowed to defend with his
life. Earlier, in July, his hilltop house in Enugu, where several of his
unpublished writings (perhaps including the beginnings of a novel) were, was destroyed
in a bombing raid by the Nigerian air force. Also destroyed was Pointed
Archives, an autobiography in verse which he describes in a letter to his
friend and biographer, Sunday Anozie, as an account of the experiences of life
and letters which conspired to sharpen his creative imagination.
Several of his unpublished
papers are, however, known to have survived the war. Inherited by his daughter,
Obiageli Okigbo, who established the Christopher Okigbo Foundation in 2005 to
perpetuate his legacy, the papers were catalogued in January 2006 by Chukwuma
Azuonye, Professor of African Literature at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Boston, who assisted the foundation in nominating them for the UNESCO
Memory of the World Register. Azuonye’s preliminary studies of the papers
indicate that, apart from new poems in English, including drafts of an Anthem
for Biafra, Okigbo’s unpublished papers include poems written in Igbo language.
The Igbo poems are fascinating
in that they open up new vistas in the study of Okigbo’s poetry, countering the
views of some critics, especially the troika (Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie and
Ihechukwu Madubuike), in their 1980 Towards the Decolonization of African
Literature, that he sacrificed his indigenous African sensibility in pursuit of
obscurantist Euro-modernism. “Elegy for Alto”, the final poem in Path of
Thunder, is today widely read as the poet’s “last testament” embodying a
prophecy of his own death as a sacrificial lamb for human freedom.
Just because you did not stand
idle by while your people are being decimated. You stood for freedom, you stood
for justice, you stood for fairness. You shall never be forgotten, in the
history of Biafra, you shall for ever remain evergreen in our heart of hearts.
History and posterity shall remember you till the end of time. Poet Okigbo
defended Biafra till he fell. Come on 30th May 2020 we will remember Ifekandu
Okigbo as one of us who laid down his life for humanity cause.
Shared from Radio Biafra Media
#WeRemember #30thMay #Biafra.
Remembering Professor Gordian O. Ezekwe
Professor Gordian O. Ezekwe and his team were
very courageous, they were also very talented and inventive. At the outbreak of
hostilities meted out on Biafrans, the Biafran armed forces were poorly
equipped as compared to the Nigerian Army with arms and ammunitions being in
large supply from Britain.
This imbalance in power was intensified in
the course of the war, Biafra engineers like Professor Gordian Ezekwe, Benjamin
Nwosu, Willy Achukwu and others were instrumental in the design and production
of indigenous weapons used. Biafran scientists, prominently from the University
of Nigeria Nsukka (then University of Biafra), formed the Research and
Production (RAP) Organisation of Biafra which included Weapons Research Center
and Production Group.
It was the aim and purpose of this group to
develop an indigenous arms industry and they soon started with the production
of ammunitions, grenades and armoured cars. Their most effective and infamous
product was the “Ogbunigwe” (Mass Killer), of which there were different types
in various shapes and sizes. The term Ogbunigwe later came to include grenades
and landmines but initially referred to non-guided rocket propelled
surface-to-air missiles (specifically called flying Ogbunigwe), which were
later converted to surface-to-surface missiles.
Their achievements, which were sometimes made
with other groups, include the following:
• Production of indigenous solid rocket fuel
in form of pellets of various sizes determined by available metal pipes.
• Design of suitable rocket bodies including
nozzles to match the solid fuel.
• Production of offensive rockets that
covered a horizontal range of 5km with war heads that exploded by impact on
landing as well as those that fragmented before landing. These latter types
were more dangerous.
• Production of ‘Samba Ogbunigwe’ or “Ojukwu
Bucket” which showered over two thousand bullets in a conical direction – a weapon
that frightened opponents very much and led to long periods of ceasefire
because they were forced to retreat in all fronts and take some time to study
the workings of this Ogbunigwe.
• Production of shot-guns, revolvers, hand
grenades and explosion and explosive (flying land mines), and landmines,
otherwise known as “foot cutters”.
• Production of anti-aircraft rockets that
were projected up to a vertical distance of 5km. They either fragment or
explode on impact with target aircrafts.
• Adaptation and improvisation for scarce
commodities in which coconut milk were refined to brake fluids, a mixture of
diesel and grease became engine oil and retreaded tyres were made from dead
ones. There were also imitative remoulding of worn-out engine parts and
creation of new engines from scratch (Nwankwo, 1972:37).
• Construction of mini refineries
• Production, by a subgroup, of life
supporting products such as soap, liquors, wine and bread. After the
manufacture of the indigenous solid fuel pellets, Dr. Gordian Ezekwe assigned
members to test these pellets by firing them to determine their thrust and to
check if the pellets could either be relied upon or improved upon.
The solid rocket fuel was a mixture of many
odds and ends including aluminium, charcoal and gun powder. These elements and
compounds are mixed in accordance with a formula which was applied from memory
quite often. The scientists were charged to desist from committing the verified
experiments to paper.
They were meant to be secret classified. As
the war progressed, the Nigerian soldiers pushed into Owerri and Ezekwe’s group
had to run to a little village that was a great distance away from major roads.
This was in September 1968. They evacuated all their heavy and light machinery within
two days. It required hard work and great brainstorming to do this. It was in
this new location that the group invented the anti-aircraft rockets with a
great vertical blast off thrust which had a range of 5km and would detonate on
impact.
This invention led to explosions of federal
aircrafts in flight. Consequently, the air raids were reduced as no federal
pilot was ready to face those indigenous anti-aircraft rockets. Most
importantly, the Biafran engineers designed refineries and refined crude oil collected
in tankers from Egbema and Port Harcourt. They would distil the crude oil,
separating petrol, diesel, kerosene and tar. They had built a distillation
plant for separating these products.
The Rocket group had the largest store of
fuel and kerosene as a result and never suffered any shortage of these products
during the war. This was chemistry in action. It is worthy to note that it was
Dr. Ezekwe who supervised the creation of the first mini refinery using mainly
this devised distillation plant.
The Rocket group was able to supply fuel and
kerosene to other scientists in the other branches of RaP for use in running
their vehicles. Sadly, there were also moments of direct commercialization of
these crude oil products. They were sold to other civilians and soldiers. These
moments saved many scientists from going hungry. In fact, the scarcity of food
did not affect members of the RaP Board. For whenever there was shortage of
food, any product could be sold to get it.
At some points during the war, they marketed
some fuel and even soap, liquor, bread and so many other things to keep on.
Because of the successes of the Rocket group in building a mini refinery, other
quick-minded people also did the same. There was one such refinery set up at
Eziachi, near Orlu, with assistance from Dr. M.O. Chijioke of the Faculty of
Engineering of the University of Nigeria (Ike, 1986:47). The production of
Ogbunigwe was a quantum leap during the Biafra genocidal war. Michael Stafford
(1984) reveals: “The most important weapon built was the Ogbunigwe (Ibo for
“destroyers of all”.
These devices were also known as “Ojukwu’s
kettles” and were the keystone of the rebel defense. They were made from
available cooking pots filled with locally-produced explosives and miscellaneous
metal products like nails, scrap iron or whatever else was on hand. The
Ogbunigwe were planted in the ground (or in road beds) or abutted against trees
and camouflaged.
When suitable targets arrived, the mines were
command detonated. They produced a tremendous explosion and proved immensely
effective. Their use alone often created enough damage to route Federal
attacks.”. How can the Indigenous People of Biafra forget these great Men of
valour? Come 30th May 2020 is a day the Indigenous People of Biafra will
remember and honour you all that paid the ultimate price for the sake of
Biafra.
