The Biafran Great Men / Inventors

                    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.