Fifty Years Hence, The Nigeria On My Mind

Philip Effiong announces Biafra unconditional surrender January 15, 1970.

BY AYODELE AKINKUOTU

MANY Nigerians think President Muhammadu Buhari is the leader the nation needs at a time like this. On January 15, 2020, however, he uniquely failed to live up to that expectation. For, that day was the 50th anniversary of the end of the civil war. As Number One citizen, given the challenges facing the nation on several fronts, he should have used the opportunity of that moment to set the nation on a course of genuine reconciliation.

Interestingly, January 15 every year is Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day, on which the nation celebrates her fallen heroes. And as usual, this year, top officials of the federal government, led by the President and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo laid wreaths at the National Arcade in Abuja. Surprisingly, however, the government forgot, or is it ignored, the fact that on that day in 1970 officials of the breakaway Biafra Republic led by Lt. Col. Philip Effiong brought the “Instrument of Surrender” to Lagos.

That war is believed to have claimed an estimated two to three million people. Thus, the anniversary this year was a milestone on a platter of gold for the President to set the nation on the path of healing. And Nigeria needs healing because of too many festering sores, some of them dating back several decades.

However, thankfully if the government ignored the milestone, some groups, such as the Christian Aid, Nzokwu Umunna and Ndigbo Lagos, in collaboration with civil society organizations and Igbo Youth Movement Enugu, independent of each other, assembled eminent Nigerians in London, Lagos and Enugu respectively to remind us that the ship of state is adrift and we may be inexorably drifting towards another civil war.

And haven’t we been told many times by the likes of General Theophilus Danjuma that no nation survives two civil wars? At the Lambert Palace, London, David Olusoga, a historian, declared that the Nigeria-Biafra war was, without doubt, one of the most devastating post-independence conflicts in modern history.

“It caused untold sufferings on an unprecedented scale and left an indelible imprint on the Nigerian nation we know today”.

And Christian Usie, country manager of Christian Aid. observed that while fifty years on, Nigeria is flourishing on so many fronts, amid that success lies so many heart-breaking disparities.

The nation has the largest number of people, estimated at 95 million, almost 50 per cent of her population, living in extreme poverty. And that has earned us the sobriquet of the world’s “poverty capital”. As if that is not enough, there is the grave humanitarian crisis in our North east region where Boko Haram continues to wreak intolerable havoc on millions of people.

Some parts of the northwest region is besieged by bandits who not only are kidnapping people for ransom with bewildering impunity, but also engage in cattle rustling. And there is palpable fear in the North central and the South as kidnapping, ritual killings and herdsmen and farmers’ clashes have become the norm.

As if all these crises are not grave enough, there is renewed agitation among the Igbo for a Biafra Republic. That was the sole reason why Nigeria fought a 30-month civil war which ended on January 15, 1970, when General Yakubu Gowon, then military head of state, received the Instrument of Surrender.

At that occasion, the then 36-year-old head of state declared that there was “No Victor, No Vanquished”. His government moved swiftly to heal the wounds of the war by embarking on the 3Rs, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. That should have set the country on the path of national rebirth.

Today, we only need to look at the centrifugal forces at work in the nation to get a loud testimony that while Nigerians ended the war like brothers, they failed to win the peace. The failure to earn that peace has generated mutual suspicion between ethnic groups, created a sharp divide among religious groups and made politics a deadly affair.

At the Never Again conference in Lagos, Prof. Banji Akintoye, a historian and leader of the Yoruba Council of Elders, declared: “The government is being managed in ways that make it look like an exclusive preserve of a particular minority. There seems to be an agenda being pursued to establish this minority in all sections of command in the executive, administrative, judicial and security services of this country… These situations are inevitably fostering among the peoples of the Middle Belt and the South of the country the feeling that they are being reduced to the status of conquered peoples of Nigeria”.

In an address he sent to the Lagos conference, Gowon, who for over a decade has been leading the Nigeria Prays group which he founded, appealed to Nigerians to show total commitment and patriotism to the fatherland.

He added,”To me, our Nigeria of today of over 500 ethnic groups of diverse socio-cultural and religious colourations and spread across 774 local government areas and Federal Capital Territory is worthy of your support and defence”. His stand reminds one of the popular civil war jingle, coined from Gowon’s name, “Go On With One Nigeria”.

And in an interview with the BBC, General Ibrahim Babangida, former military president, is quoted to have said, “Nigeria is better the way it’s now, all parts of the country should come together and see themselves as one and equal. As everybody knows, so many good things have happened in the country, which is indeed better for all of us”.

Their position is understandable. Both Gowon and Babangida ruled the country for a total of 17 years. While it is true that many good things have happened to Nigeria to merit at a time the “Giant of Africa” title, we have become a nation full of motion without movement.

In spite of our tremendous wealth, thanks to crude oil, the nation’s development has become stunted. Prof. Pat Utomi, a political economist, says Nigeria is the way it is today because of “leadership failure”.

As military head of state between 1967-75, Gowon achieved a lot in infrastructural development for the country. However, he succumbed to the wiles of sycophants when he failed to keep to an agenda to return the country to civil rule in 1976. He was toppled in a bloodless palace coup. And having tasted political power and seeing how sweet it was, soldiers held on to it for some 29 years broken only with short interregnums.

Under them, the corruption they claimed was the bane of the country when they intervened in January 1966 ballooned. And when Babangida assumed power in 1985, not a few Nigerians thought he would do wonderfully well in his bid to return the country to civil rule.

However, he had his own agenda. Thus he embarked on a convoluted transition programme that finally ended in a cul de sac. Although he organised the freest and fairest presidential election in the country’s annals, he annulled it. That election was won by Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, multi-billionaire businessman, whose Vice Presidential candidate was Babagana Kingibe. That was a Muslim-Muslim ticket, the like of which a Nigeria, polarised by religion, may never witness again.

Babangida squandered an opportunity to have his name written in gold. The annulment led to mass protests leading to Babangida’s “stepping aside”, and a bizarre installation of an interim government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was removed 83 days later by General Sani Abacha, Babangida’s alter ego. The latter detained Abiola, who died in prison four years later, a month after his nemesis died suddenly.

The chain of events led to General Abdulsalami Abubakar assuming position as head of state. He quickly hastened a return to civil rule programme, which led to the election of General Olusegun Obasanjo(rtd.) as president in 1999. What is remarkable in the presidential election that led to Obasanjo’s emergence, was that his main opponent was Chief Olu Falae, another Yoruba man. It was a quiet admission by the powers that be of the monumental injustice done to Abiola, by not only denying him his mandate but as many people suspect, ensuring that he died in detention. His assumption of power as president on May 29, 1999, was Obasanjo’s second coming.

This time, as an elected president. Having built a formidable image as a much-respected international statesman since he left office in 1979, he imbued the nation with hope, especially when he moved swiftly to combat corruption.

Against the backdrop of his encounter with Abacha, his case was a grave to grace scenario. General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was in the same boat with him, and believed to have been poisoned, died in prison. It is doubtful whether President Obasanjo, a Baptist asked God why He brought him back to power again. If he had, and given his clout, he should have genuinely sought answers to what was ailing the country. He did two terms, and surreptitiously tried to do a third term, which a strong opposition, led by his deputy, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, thwarted.

At his exit from office in 2007, aside the militants’ agitation in the Niger Delta for an equitable share in oil revenue and the slowly germinating insurgency in the northeast, Obasanjo left what could be reasonably called a thriving polity. But we have since then headed back to the woods. And that is where we are today, with the leadership seemingly confused as to how to get out of the quagmire.

So, fifty years hence, what would have become of Nigeria? Will the country’s future generations be chips of some of the old blocks, many of whom have lost the ability for civilised discussions on social media.

Utomi captures that dilemma thus, “Those who cannot engage in quality and constructive criticism always haul insults at others as a defence mechanism”. Will anger still be walking all over Nigeria with four legs? And will every group imaginable, ethnic, religious and others still be shouting “marginalisation”? Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre says marginalisation is a class issue.

According to him, “marginalisation is neither religion nor ethnic rivalry but class segregation”. He argues that those who are in fact marginalised in Nigeria are the poor. “Those are the people who the northern, southern, western and eastern elites have compelled to clothe into poverty and unemployment”. Not a few would agree with Rafsanjani.

However, many Nigerians’ ire stems from the unitary federalism the nation currently operates. Thus the vociferous calls for true federalism that have been going on for several years. Balarabe Musa, former governor of the old Kaduna State in the Second Republic, in his address at the Enugu conference last month declared that, “As presently constituted the states are virtually unviable entities which are incapable of continuing to exist as viable constituent units of a federal structure”.

Thus, Balarabe advocates for a six-regional structure that would reduce the competitive pressure for power at the centre and redirect attention to regional competencies. At the same conference, Akintoye advised Igbo youths to work for restructuring the nation, rather than agitation for Biafra. He told his audience that, “The Yoruba have been calling for restructuring; it is not an ethnic struggle. Regionalism in the First Republic witnessed healthy competition for development”.

So, is President Buhari really the leader for a time like this? When his tenure ends on May 29, 2023, what legacy shall we remember him by? Will he hand over a fractious nation ripe enough to come apart at the seams? Or will he be the father of a new nation where the mustard seed of development, progress peace and unity will have been sowed which will eventually germinate into a big oak, an article of faith which all citizens will readily subscribe to?

Fifty years hence, at the 100th anniversary of the end of the civil war, will there be a Nigerian leader who will readily borrow a leaf from President Paul Kagame’s declaration at the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in April 2019 that, “Our bodies and minds bear amputations and scars, but none of us is alone. We (Nigerians) have granted ourselves a new beginning. We exist in a state of permanent commemoration, everyday, in all that we do… Today, light radiates from this place”. Fifty years hence, that is the Nigeria on my mind.

*Ayodele Akinkuotu, former Editor-in-Chief of Tell Magazine, now writes a weekly column for The ICIR

The General Philip Effiong Son’s Exclusive: Ojukwu, His Deputy And Biafran War

Philip Effiong image via Daily Sun

BY MAGNUS EZE

SUN NEWS ONLINE INTERVIEW

Prof Philip Effiong (Jr.), son of the late General Philip Effiong, second-in-command of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the defunct Biafra has given an insight into that dark side of the nation’s history. The Professor of Theatre at the Michigan State University, USA, was in Nigeria recently as guest lecturer at Centre for Memories, Enugu. He spoke to Sunday Sun on his war experience, his father’s relationship with Ojukwu; why he did not abandon Biafra, post-war healing and other issues.

Excerpts:

Prof, may we know why you’re in Enugu?

I am in Enugu to give a talk on behalf of the Centre for Memories and the title of my talk was “Post-Biafra healing: Reclaiming our shared ties”. It focused on the need to restore our ancient or pre-colonial ties; the need to reclaim them. My talk focused that we’re increasingly fragmenting ourselves; completely becoming territorial. This started in colonial times because colonialism introduced new boundaries that we didn’t have before. Before then, our boundaries were flexible and we interacted more with one another, but colonialism introduced artificial boundaries and within those countries, new boundaries; not just geographical boundaries, but religious boundaries, economic boundaries and in some countries, racial boundaries and these boundaries continue to keep us apart. My point was that if we from this area that used to be the Eastern region with all our cultural similarities can’t get together, how can we talk of getting together with other people or fighting our enemies? We need to talk about coming together the way we used to be and this is exemplified in the 1929 women revolution, which involved the whole women of Eastern Region. My grandmother participated in that revolution and you have monuments built for women in respect of that revolution in places like Ikot-Abasi; it may have started around Aba, but at the end, all the women found the need to bond together. We don’t have that anymore. You can’t ask people in the Eastern Region now to come together and deal with a crisis because we have increasingly segregated and fragmented ourselves. That’s the gist of my presentation.

How did it end?

I ended by making some suggestions. I suggested that one; we need to have a good educational system that has a strong component. This will help us to focus on ourselves; of who we are, the richness and values, and also on the richness of those around us. We spent much time looking for faults amongst ourselves. You go on social media, you find talking about those Ibibio people; those Igbo people, those Ikwere people, Calabar and all that. It’s always accusations; we don’t talk about ourselves in a noble fashion. We don’t celebrate ourselves. Strong civic components in our educational system will help us do that and we restore the values of our system that never worked like the NYSC. Even though it has not worked; it’s been corrupted over the years. We can take some of those values and reapply them in this region. We can also focus on who our real enemies are; we make enemies of ourselves. Because we do that, we don’t focus on our real enemies and they take advantage of our disunity. Also, we need to focus on the fact that nothing is impossible because if you talk to people about the possibilities of achieving these things; a lot of them we say, you know that we have states, local governments, but it doesn’t matter. Someone like Julius Nyerere in Tanzania was able to quash ethnic identity; nobody talks about ethnic identity there, yet they have up to 100 ethnic groups in Tanzania. So, if it could be done in Tanzania, why can’t we do it amongst ourselves? We also need to stop addressing problems with different voices. We speak with different voices while addressing problems in this country; we need to speak with one voice. And many people speak when the problem concerns them; when their communities or ethnic groups are threatened. That further creates divisions. If you talk to a lot of people here about what happened in Benue; they will say, well, it happened to easterners, what did Benue people do? So, we have to be more cognisant of what happened to our neighbours; if we are there for them in period of crisis, they will be there for us when there is crisis.

For the people in the old Eastern Region, don’t you think that the civil war further polarised them?

Absolutely; the war polarised us, but polarisation was also used as a tool during the civil war. Before the civil war started; 12 states were created, those states were not created with our permission. They were created by the federal side because they wanted to divide us and they successfully did so. When they created states in the former Eastern Region, it immediately isolated the Igbo from the other groups; other groups no longer increasingly see the Igbo as brothers and sisters, but as enemies because everybody now had their own domains; space, with our different territories, we tend to keep other people out instead of inviting other people in. so, it worked as a tool. It was a strategy on the part of the Federal Government. So, they exploited division and were able to fragment us.

When certain persons crossed over to the other side, Gen. Philip Effiong didn’t change side. What gave rise to his action?

Actually, he wasn’t here (on the side of Biafra) because of state or ethnicity; he was here because people were being treated in the most unjust fashion; people had been brutalised; killed and their lives and property destroyed and they were chased away from different parts of the North, including himself and his family. So, he felt obligated to protect the people against these injustices. If his goal was just to celebrate the creation of state, maybe he would have gone to the South Eastern State and try to find a home there, but he was there on principle. And what was the principle? The principle was to protect people that were being attacked, especially innocent civilians – men, women and children. That’s why he stayed until the end in the Biafra cause, which he believed in and which I also believe in.

Having been about six years old when the war started in 1967; could it be said that you were witness to history or your father told you about his experiences?
I was witness to history and also experienced the history. I have vivid memories of the war even though I was so young, but the impact of the war on me as a human being on my mind makes it impossible for me to forget what happened. It was a horrible experience; we moved from place to place several times; we lost a lot of property, I ran away from the bombs. I was privileged because of the position of my father, but in spite of the privilege, my father’s home was destroyed, my grandfather was killed, my cousin was killed; my aunt was killed. So, when I recall, I feel the pain. One of the things people need to understand is that wars don’t end because there’s a ceasefire. People forget that there is post war; so, the war may have lasted two and half years, for us, it lasted many more years and in some ways it still does because my parents were denied a means of livelihood. My father was a professional soldier; he was not a doctor; lawyer, engineer or an accountant in the army. So, when you took that from him; at the end of the war, he was completely dismissed without any benefit; he had to spend the rest of his days hustling and sometimes he was able to get something, sometimes nothing. And so was my mother; she was trying to do anything possible for us to have a living-sewing cloths, selling drinks, and in the end, they managed to feed and give us education, but it was a tough struggle, especially since my parents had worked hard to be where they were, to lose all of that was very disturbing and painful and it’s still there today.

You mean no restitution yet?

No restitution. And at some point during the war, we didn’t have a home, someone accommodated us. It might sound strange to some people; I mean if this was happing to the second-in-command’s family, imagine what had happened to some people. When my dad died, I heard my mother was given something, but that was meaningless to me because first of all, whatever they gave her I knew was not sufficient. Of what use is it giving restitution after my dad died. My dad had served in the army since 1945, so, I think he deserved his restitution when he was alive.

If you’re to talk about your father; what kind of man was he?

I’ve looked at history; I have done my research, there are many things we don’t like about our leaders today; a lot of them are thieves, a lot of them have rigged elections, a lot of them mismanaged resources, abused power, there was none of these that my dad did. First of all, I see him as a person of integrity. I also remember him telling us to always stand up for the truth. The truth will come with repercussions, but you have to stand up for what is right. And you also have to focus heavily on education. He said you must prepare your mind to be useful in the society. He also taught us to think differently, just because society says things should go a certain way, you need to rethink it; you need have a critical mind, so that there is room to change things and transform things, so that there will be improvement. So, I appreciate the lessons that I got from him. Someone might say that I am saying good things about him because he’s my father, but I don’t say good things about all my relatives.

Are there any close shaves with death or those particular things you could remember about the war?
I was here in Enugu when Enugu was shelled; I still remember the sound of the shelling, landing in Enugu. That day, we all ran away; entered a vehicle and ran to Ikot-Ekpene and that was our story during the war-running from place to place. Many times when you run, you leave most things behind, so we lost a lot of things. I remember when we were homeless after Umuahia fell and my father’s ADC’s father who was a successful businessman took us in his house and gave us space and there were refugee camps around there in Ifakala. We used to play with the kids around. My father’s ADC was Hilary Iroegbulam; he’s still in New York now. His father gave us a place; when we lived there, I really saw things that till this day continue to really shock me. We used to play with the local kids sometimes you go to the refugee camp; you see all these children their colour had changed, their hairs falling off, their stomach so distended, their legs are tiny; many times they were deaths and when we hear that a refugee child dies, we run to go and see the mother crying. They’ll just dig a small grave and bury the child there; you know I became desensitized to death. So, Ifakala had a very profound effect on me. So, when Owerri fell, we moved to Owerri – me and my brothers – sometimes we go inside the bush looking for corpses just to see and many times we see bones with the flesh rotted away; and the uniform was hanging on the skeleton, so, a lot of those things very disturbing and for a long time, I became desensitized to death and violence.

What was the relationship between Gen. Philip Effiong and his boss; Ojukwu?

My dad was seen as a soldier statesman; he was very loving and kind. As the war raged on, increasingly the laughter I saw in him was increasingly lost and after the war when he had to struggle just to survive; he wasn’t the happy person that he was after the war. It strained his relationship with the family; he was still a kind man, but he was also going through a lot of pain, otherwise, I always knew him to be a soldier and gentleman. I think that’s how he carried himself and yes; I’m his son but that’s also the kind of information I get from a lot of people. As far as Gen. Ojukwu, he was our head of state and that’s how we saw him, as a head of state, as the person in charge; as the person that had dared to speak out on our behalf when nobody else would. I remember visiting my dad once in Umuahia when we were there; he was also in Umuahia, I remember looking at him with lot of fascination because to me as a child, he was a giant of a man. So, they had a professional relationship; they were not personal friends, my father had been in the Army before him, he joined later, but due to circumstances he became governor and when my dad returned to the East, he had to submit to his authority. As it should be expected; sometimes they were not in agreement with the policy to adopt, which was normal. It happens in every government; it happens in Nigeria right now, it happens in the US, it happens everywhere. And during that war, those were desperate times; there was no easy solution to the problems. So, people would disagree even in families, we disagree with brothers and sisters, we disagree with our parents sometimes, but just because we disagree doesn’t mean that we abandon the values of the family or the meaning of the family to us or the fact that the family is a source of nourishment and nurturing. It still serves that such role even when we disagree and that was the case with Biafra. Even when there was disagreement, the fact was that we were in agreement to the fact that we had to fight to defend ourselves against a vicious enemy; it was about self-determination, it was about protection regardless of where they may have been disagreements. So, the core value of what Biafra represented was never lost.

Looking back, would you say the war was necessary; couldn’t it have been avoided?

Perhaps, but we didn’t fire the first shot; if we weren’t attacked, there won’t be any war. We had done very well when the first peace talk was in Aburi, Ghana and we went and everybody had the opportunity to express themselves and say what they wanted and there was an agreement and we went back and the federal side decided to revise and review some of those agreements. So, we didn’t do that, and the federal side went on to create states and certainly made Ojukwu a nonentity at that point whereas Ojukwu was the person who had stood up for the people and who the people trusted. So, the creation of states was not reassuring and not abiding by the Aburi agreement, but still, we didn’t fire the first shot and when you’re attacked, do you just stand there and be slaughtered? No, you’ll defend yourself. So, the war could have been avoided, but I have no regret that we stood up to defend ourselves. I think that’s a natural response and remember that a lot people in what used to be Biafra had already been chased away from parts of the country, especially the North; after chasing them away, they really felt infuriated that they were now coming to their homelands to attack them, so, human beings will defend themselves which was what they did.

The drumbeats of war are on again. Don’t you think we are about making the same mistakes again?

The problems we encountered in the past were never addressed. In the past, what had happened was that people had used violence to get what they want; which was the control of the resources in the Southeastern region, they used violence and got away with it, so, why are we surprised that people today are using violence to get what they want? They believe that they too will get away with it, so, because the event of the past was never truly addressed, I don’t think people should be surprised about what’s happening and today it’s just continuation and just assuming a different shape and form. We didn’t learn anything and the message of the war was that if you can use violence to get what you want, then it’s okay; that’s what’s happening today. Today, the only problem I have was that many people who are complaining about the attacks from Fulani herdsmen; their communities, their people were involved in attacking us or in supporting the attacks against us. So, they come across to me as hypocrites meaning that they really don’t have any value for human lives except their own lives and they’re only complaining now because theirs is problem of violence, but because they are being threatened by the violence.

Did your family go on exile like the Ojukwus and families of many officers on the Biafra side?

We never went to exile; that’s not true, my father couldn’t even travel; if anybody had said that, that’s absolutely false. I know that towards the end of the war; about three days before the war ended, Ojukwu family was leaving, then my younger brother and myself as well as my cousin were here and my mother who was with a child and my dad told Ojukwu that if he must leave; that he should take us. That was three days to the end of the war; so, I saw the war to the end and my dad never went anywhere. We all left on that plane; a cargo plane and his family, all his relatives, including his mother. We went to different places; there was no real plan, at some point we were in Sao Tome, we were in Lisbon, we spent some time in Ivory Coast. We went to school in one of the refugee camps that the Ivorian government had set up for Biafran children; we spent some time there and you know some Biafran refugees were sent even further, some went to Gabon, some went to Ireland. At a point, myself and my brother were sent to Ireland even though we were young; we took instructions and we flew by ourselves on that plane to Ireland from Ivory Coast. We spent about five months there; we stayed with a family and then we came back. So, there was no real exile. The person that went on exile was General Ojukwu.

Do you have relationship with Ojukwu’s children?
No, I don’t, not for any bad reasons; I just haven’t connected with them. I’ve connected with Brig. Eze’s children, Major Gen. Madiebo’s children; the opportunity hasn’t presented itself. I don’t have any animosity against anyone, there’s no reason I should.

Are there those things about your father and Biafra that he told you that people don’t know?
Most of the things he told me are in his book. I think he mentioned everything, he even mentioned when they thought he had abandoned Biafra; I think it’s in his book. At some point they thought he had abandoned Biafra.

So, what were his lowest moments during the war?

I don’t know if he had a lowest point; there was sadness all through that war; he was disturbed all through the war, it’s a war, people were dying; people were blown to pieces, there was a lot of bitterness, but I don’t know when the lowest point was. I can’t say.

Who were your father’s friends that are still alive?

I knew my dad’s friends before and during the war. I can’t say Gowon was his friend; most of his mates are dead, Wellington Bassey may have been his friend, his friend Col Trimmel is past; some were killed during the first coup, Brig. Mai Malari, Ogbemudia even though he was his Brigade Major in the First Brigade. I can say that he was his friend because Major Ogbemudia helped him escape from Kaduna. Most of the people I would say are his friends are late.

If the scenario of 1967 is recreated; will Prof Philip Effiong (Jr) fight for Biafra?

Absolutely, because as a trained soldier, and there were attempts on my life for no justifiable reason and those who tried to kill me now chase me down to my home not just to kill me but to kill my people, of course, I’ll stand up to defend them. Maybe I’ll lose my life, but that’s the right thing to do.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I’m happy we’re discussing this experience. I’m happy this is an important narrative today; there were attempts to suppress it because nobody wanted to acknowledge the war crimes committed against Biafrans, nobody wanted to acknowledge the creativity, the strength and the determination; the inventions and diligence of Biafrans. Nobody wanted to acknowledge that, they tried to suppress the story. I’m glad it’s all coming up now so that we can honour those who sacrificed so much to ensure that the rest of us be given some kind of hope to live on and to succeed.

BIAFRA AND ECHOES OF 1966: Ironsi Exposed My Dad To Coup Plotters — Son Of Ojukwu’s Deputy

Philip Effiong. Image via Vanguard

BY CHARLES KUMOLU, DEPUTY EDITOR

VANGUARD INTERVIEW

This interview with Philip Effiong, II, a Prof of Drama in Michigan State University, whose father, Lt. Col Philip Effiong, was the Second-in-command to then Head of State, defunct Republic of Biafra, Lt.Col Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, brings you face-to-face with many untold events of the Nigerian Civil War. From the position of a witness to history, Effiong corrects some long-held notions about key events during the civil war, with emphasis that the January 15, 1966, coup which some still regard as an Igbo coup wasn’t really the major reason for the massacre of the Igbo during and after the July 29, 1966, counter-coup. His revelations on how the Biafran first families left the break-away republic, his father’s escape from Kaduna, Ojukwu’s conversations with his father, and life as the privileged people in Biafra among others, speak to the futility of war.

Your dad was a Lt Col in the Nigerian Army when the second coup, otherwise known as counter-coup, took place on July 29, 1966. Where precisely was your family and how did your father survive since many officers of Eastern origin were killed?

We lived in a barrack called AN Barracks. It is here in Lagos. When the first coup took place, my father was reposted to the State House under Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, who was the Head of State. He was the Principal Staff Officer to Ironsi. As Principal Staff Officer, his roles were not defined like the Director of Ordinance, which was the position he held before being posted to work with Ironsi. He was trained as an ordinance officer. His posting to the State House almost cost him his life. When he was sent there he learned that the July 29, 1966 Coup was being planned and told his boss, Gen Ironsi. Instead of working with the intelligence, Ironsi brought my father before the Supreme Military Council and asked him to repeat what he told him. That experience was painful to my father and made him a marked man. As an Ibibio, no one could have easily marked my father but what Ironsi did made him a target. From that moment, the planners of the coup considered him a threat to their plans.

If Ironsi had succeeded in thwarting the coup based on the information my father provided, what could have been the fate of people like Gen Theophilus Danjuma, Gen Murtala Mohammed and then Governor of Northern Region, Gen Hassan Katsina among others, who took part in the coup? My father became a targeted man from that day. I am not here to insult anybody but exposing my father to danger for trying to save him was not the right thing for Ironsi to have done. He betrayed my father and posted him to Kaduna to be the acting Commander of the First Brigade. Kaduna was not a place my father wanted to go because he knew what was coming. The coup took place a month after my father was posted to Kaduna and we were in Lagos at the time.

How did he survive in Kaduna when the second coup took place?
He had to go into hiding in Kaduna. We are grateful to a lot people, who helped him to escape. The American Consulate in Kaduna, the Catholic Church and his Brigade Commander, Samuel Ogbemudia saved him from being killed like other officers from Eastern Nigeria. He escaped in disguise from Kaduna to Lagos and we had to leave the barrack. We left the barrack without taking anything along. When we left, the family of another military officer, Col Rudolf Trimnell, harboured us. Col Rudolf Trimnell was from Ukwuani, Igbo-speaking group in Delta State, like my mother but they are also classified as Igbo. He was in hiding but we stayed at the family compound of his wife at Spencer Street, Lagos. His wife is a Yoruba woman. They were gracious but the place was crowded. Food was not a problem but it was difficult feeding many people because the Trimnell children were six and we were seven. That was in addition to other relatives living with them. We didn’t know where my father was and my mother cried everyday thinking he had been killed. That was our situation when the first and second coups took place. Eventually, my father managed to escape to the east. I didn’t know how he made an arrangement for us to take a boat from Lagos to Port Harcourt. The boat that took us was a big boat which was captained by a white man. Till date, I get scared any time there is lightning because of the sounds of shelling I heard during the war. I also got scared any time I found aeroplane flying after the war because of the air raids we witnessed.

I was young and the things I can recall are the things that affected me. Virtually everything about the war affected me. That is why I can tell vivid sad stories of the things that happened during the war.

Some authors, and even eminent people, who gave first-hand information about the war like Frederick Forsyth, Alexander Madiebo, and Nnamdi Azikiwe among others, said Ojukwu literally ran a one-man government in Biafra. What type of working relationship did your dad have with him?

I am sure another opinion of Ojukwu from another person would sound differently. Many people say that. Officers found themselves in a very difficult situation during the crisis. My father joined the army in 1945 before many people joined. He was already an officer before some of them including Gen Yakubu Gowon joined the army. In the picture of Nigeria’s first military officers in 1951, they sat and stood according to their ranks. The highest rank was Major. There were about three Majors and the next in order of seniority were Captains and my father was one of those Captains. The remaining people were Lieutenants and Second Lieutenants. That was where Ojukwu and Gowon belonged. When my father found himself in Biafra, he had to submit himself to Ojukwu, who had been his junior and that is not easy in the military. At that time my father’s concern was not about himself but the welfare of the people. He was not the Second-in-command immediately he found himself in the Biafran Army. He was assigned to different positions. At some point, he headed the Biafran Militia before he was made the Deputy Head of State. The official designation was Chief of General Staff. Brigadier Njoku could have been given the position but he had a fallout with Ojukwu for the reasons we are talking about. Let me give Ojukwu some credits.

We can only imagine what it was like for him as the Governor of Eastern Region to suddenly have a refugee crisis on his hands. How old was he then? He was only 34 years old. They were quite young and did what they could. On that level, he handled the refugee crisis and created a safe passage for non-Igbo to leave the east. Though some people were angry and the house of the Mayor of Enugu, who was a northerner was burnt. When he went to Aburi, he did well by negotiating well. Unfortunately, the federal government revised it because they did not renege completely.

Are you saying the declaration of Biafra was not an immediate result of the failure of the Aburi Accord?

We have to remember that the creation of 12 states by Gowon was the immediate reason for the declaration of Biafra by Ojukwu. The implication of the creation of states was that Ojukwu no longer had the authority to govern the eastern region. The voiding of Ojukwu’s position was not reassuring for the Igbo because Ojukwu was the only one, who spoke for them until that point. The appointment of Ukpabi Asika, someone, who they didn’t know as the Governor of East Central State, was a clear message that their authority in the army was now being removed. That didn’t go down well with the people and they wanted to maintain what was left of their autonomy with this leader they trusted. That was a major reason Biafra was created. Biafra was blessed with respected statesmen like the late Chief Michael Opara, Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam, and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe among others. The federal side didn’t have much like the eastern region but they had Awolowo, a well-respected man. What did Gowon do? He immediately made him his deputy and listened to his wise counsel. On the side of Gowon, the creation of states was brilliant from military and political standpoints. I don’t believe it was Gowon’s original idea but it showed that he was listening to those, who were more experienced than him, probably, Awolowo. In Biafra, the opposite was happening because most of the eminent people were asking Ojukwu to listen to them. Their argument was that they were not getting a lot of cooperation from Gen Ojukwu. The people who complained were Dr. Opara, Dr. Azikiwe, among others. Azikiwe eventually left Biafra. Essentially, he didn’t only change sides but talked about his problems. Now, this is what he said not what I know. He said it was hard to get along with Ojukwu. He said he had made significant gains in trying to get support for Biafra for some African countries to get a peace deal, but added that Gen Ojukwu was always countering his proposals.

He said Ojukwu believed in a military solution while Biafra didn’t have the military might. The Secretary to the Biafran Government, a man from my place, Mr. N. Akpan, who was very close to Ojukwu also said the same thing in his book. In my father’s book, Nigeria and Biafra: My Story, he also said there were some problems getting Gen Ojukwu to see things differently. It is a common complain. The reason I told the Aburi story is to present a balanced picture because it is not all about condemnation like people tend to do. People look at Ojukwu’s faults and use them to speak completely against Biafra but it goes beyond his personality. My father once talked about how he told Ojukwu that Biafran forces needed to protect Ikot Ekpene which leads to the heart of Biafra. He said when he made the proposal, Ojukwu said maybe Biafra needed reinforcement to protect Nnewi, where he, Ojukwu, hailed from. Ojukwu thought my father made the statement because of the assumption that he was from Ikot Ekpene. We are not from Ikot Ekpene but Ibiono. My grandfather only settled in Ikot Ekpene which is Ananland while Ibiono is Ibibio. Some also said there were problems with the Igbo and minorities in Biafra. These minorities didn’t play minor roles in the war. Some problems arose because some had been given states. It contributed to the saboteur narrative in Biafra. Some non-Igbo were killed by Biafran forces for suspicions of being saboteurs.

Was it like the public execution of Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Col Victor Banjo on September 25, 1967?
Ifeajuna and Banjo were even assumed to have plotted a coup against Ojukwu. I am talking about innocent civilians, who were targeted and accused of being sympathetic to the federal troops. They were killed. My father’s younger brother, Etim, who fought for Biafra and rose to the rank of Sergeant, was almost killed. When Ikot Ekpene fell to the federal troops, they were trekking to Umuahia, along the way, a vigilante group stopped them. When Igbo was spoken to them, my father’s younger brother was not able to speak Igbo and they almost killed him. They were just fortunate enough to convince the vigilante members that he was my father’s younger brother. Some would argue that enough was not done in Biafra to consolidate the unity between the Igbo and non-Igbo. The person that suggested the name, Biafra, Chief Opigo was not an Igbo man but Ogoja. My father said he insisted that if the problem was not handled, it would be among the forces that would work against Biafra. Maybe Biafra would have fallen, but that also contributed to the loss of the war. However, I still want people to look at the leader of Biafra from a different angle and not to condemn him.

Would it be safe to say that what made your father’s escape from Kaduna and your family’s refuge at the home of the father of Col Trimnell’s wife was the absence of mistrust among Nigerians at the time?

I agree absolutely because many of the people, who helped my father at the time were not easterners. When he was hiding in Lagos also, a lot of people who helped him were Yoruba. The mistrust was not there but we have increasingly established boundaries among ourselves and it is causing problems. However, we managed to escape and ended up at Ikot Ekpene, which is my parents’ adopted home. Our real home is Ibiono. From there, we went to Enugu. I was there when the war started and when Enugu was shelled.

The January 1966 coup is widely belived to have been conceived by Major Ifeajuna and led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu. There were other majors like Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Chris Anuforo, Don Okafor, Humphrey Chukwuka, and Adewale Ademoyega. Some roles were played by some rustics like non-commissioned officers. Does the ethnic composition of the leading actors not justify the labeling of the coup as an Igbo coup?

I am not a fan of Nzeogwu, I am not a fan of Ifeajuna, and I am not a fan of Ademoyega, who were the three principal actors in the January 1966 coup. We talk of others like Nwobosi, and Onwuatuegwu. There are many others that people don’t talk about including Atom Kpera, who later became the military governor of Benue and Anambra states. There were also other non-commissioned officers, who people don’t talk about. The coup can’t be called an Igbo coup because most of the principle players were Igbo-speakers. There is no doubt about that and I am not exonerating them. Therefore, to hold the entire Igbo ethnic nationality responsible for the coup is wrong. We have to look at the real reasons Igbo were slaughtered in the second coup. It is not because of the first coup or the Decree 34 ,Unitarisation Decree, because a lot of people involved in the slaughter of the easterners didn’t even know the tenets of Decree 34 at the time. If that was the case, why did they kill for what they didn’t understand? When people lie about reasons for an atrocity like that, it only creates problems because people become angry and indignant. Even people, who were not born at the time, are going to learn about what happened to their communities, families, businesses and homes and there are going to be reactions. That is why it is important to tell the truth. Some of my greatest heroes are not from my tribe. One of the things the Igbo people have done is that they have excelled tremendously in business and other areas. Before independence, they had excelled in education, sports, military and other sectors of the Nigerian society, They played leading roles everywhere even in the north where they were in the majority of the non-indigenes and were very aggressive commercially before independence. Unfortunately, independence brought rivalry and people became territorial. It was a situation that made the Igbo become very powerful and visible but it created problem because indepence had created new boundaries and rivalries. The prominence of the Igbo became a threat and there was a question of what to do with them. If people are marked for attack or elimination flimsy reasons are always given. Long before the coup, then Premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who was very powerful spiritually and politically, in an interview, talked about the Igbo in the north. He complained that the Igbo always wanted to be the head and take charge. If he had said the Igbo in the north were committing crimes, I would have agreed with him but he was saying good things about the Igbo, which to him were reasons they were threats to them in the north. That made me realise that even before the pogroms of 1966, there were already plans to attack the Igbo. The first coup and Decree 34 presented themselves as opportunities to attack the Igbo.

Do you mean the Nzeogwu coup and the Decree 34 , Unitarisation Decree, were not the reasons they struck on July 29, 1966? 

The reasons were that the Igbo were considered as economic and political threats. But the decree and first coup were used as reasons. That was just an excuse and not a justifiable reason. The decree gave many powers to the centre. 

Has it changed?

This question is germane to your concerns about the profiling of the coup as an Igbo coup.

In your conversations with your dad, who was the Director of Ordinance when Nzeogwu carried out Operation Damisa , did he ever mention names of non-Igbo, who were involved in the coup whose names were never made public?
I know I have a list of those involved which is a product of research. The point is that there was a more diverse group of people, but the non-Igbo have been isolated and the focus has been on the Igbo. We should remember that Nzeogwu is from Okpanam—a town close to Asaba. We need to identify the fact that he was of Igbo background, but there were people I met from Igbo-speaking area of Delta who said they are not Igbo. Let us assume that everybody that participated in the coup were Igbo, it is still not enough to call it an Igbo coup. There have been coups in this country that have been affiliated to certain groups but no coup was ever profiled as northern or Hausa coup. There was never an Igbo coup and I hope there would never be. Saying that it is an Igbo coup implies that the Igbo came together, planned and executed the coup. For instance, the fact that Major Ademoyega was involved does not mean that Yoruba people planned the coup. He operated as an individual not as a representative of the Yoruba people. It is obvious that war times are not interesting times.

Was that the case for your family which was the number two family in Biafra after Ojukwu’s family?
There were privileges but we have to look at them within the context of Biafra. When planes came to bomb Biafra, they didn’t look for privileged people to bomb. Everybody was a target. At some point, we were homeless. When Umuahia fell, we were destitutes and were taken in by my father’s first ADC’s family. The father of the ADC kept us in his house. My father’s ADC, Hillary Iroegbulam was a young man then. He is still in New York. We stayed in his father’s house until Owerri was recaptured and we went to Owerri. There was Ojukwu Bunker in Umuahia, which was said to have been the place Ojukwu stayed when Umuahia fell.

Why didn’t your family take refuge there?

That is what people say but if there was a bunker, I never saw it and we didn’t have one. Maybe there was but when Umuahia fell, regardless of the bunker, Ojukwu had to leave Umuahia. There may be truth in some but it is important to verify before believing. For instance, some said he left Biafra with his Mercedes-Benz. The truth is that we left Biafra on cargo planes.

Which of the tiny cargo planes would have contained the Mercedes Benz? When you people were boarding the “last flight in Biafra” at Uli Airstrip, did you leave with Ojukwu?
Towards the end of the war it was clear that Biafra was losing. This talk about Ojukwu leaving Biafra for peace deals was not the case. I am not here to insult anybody but to say the truth. Biafra had engaged in a few peace talks. That was the first time he was going for the purported peace talks with his entire family, including his mother. Everybody that was remotely connected to Ojukwu was flown out of Biafra. When it was clear that he was leaving, he told my father. At the time and my mother was pregnant with my younger sister, Philipa. My father told him that if that if he was leaving for him , my father, to stay back, he must take his wife ,my mother, and her children, which included my older brother, Charles, my younger brother, Francis, I and my cousin, who was staying with us. Prior to this time, some countries were taking Biafrans out as refugees. About a year earlier, my oldest brother and my older sisters were taken out. My siblings were taken to Ireland but I was in Biafra until the last minute with my older brother Charles.

So what was the picture of the last flight from Biafra?
The flight took place before my father announced the surrender of the Biafran forces which ended the 30-month civil war. I remember what happened vividly because it was not planned for us to leave. My [dad] had gone to Ojukwu in Nnewi to make the request for us leave with them. Other people said my father threatened Ojukwu that he must include us among those leaving Biafra with him. The wife of a military officer, who was a colleague of my father, told me that my father had the conversation with his riffle drawn. The woman is old now and lives in Maryland but that was not true. Before our departure, we were in Owerri which had been recaptured by Biafrans and the recapture was a major victory for Biafra. There was a night my father was away and there were explosions. It was common to hear the gunshot sounds but the sounds of the explosion were so loud that we had to leave. My mother had a driver, Goddy. It was a special arrangement because the car belonged to Goddy. We left with the car but we didn’t have a destination. The car was very slow and eventually stopped. We stood at the roadside and saw a convoy of four vehicles coming. We knew it was someone of importance because convoys were used by Ojukwu, my father and Madiebo. We waved and the convoy stopped. My dad emerged from one of the cars. He took us to a place we slept that night before leaving for Nnewi the next day. Nnewi was one of the few places that were never captured by the Nigerian troops.

Was it a stroke of luck that Nnewi was never attacked?

Biafran forces really protected the town because it was a target of the federal troops. Biafran soldiers deserved credit for protecting Nnewi. They also protected the Uli Airstrip. Sometimes when the Airstrip was bombed, Biafran engineers fixed it within three days. Those people deserved credit for their ingenuity. The next day we left for Nnewi. At a point we were driving behind a lorry that was carrying bags of rice. Some of the bags were leaking and were streaking on the roads. People were packing them into their containers. It was a sad sight and showed how people starved in Biafra because I never starved in Biafra. When my mother, older brother, my younger brother, I and my cousin arrived at Ojukwu’s personal house in Nnewi, I was shocked. They took us into the house and I saw children playing with toys that I had never seen since the war started. I am talking of cars and aeroplanes running with batteries. They gave me Bournvita that I had never drank since the war started and I drank it and felt as if I was in heaven. My brother and I were not comfortable there and they took us outside where we sat. At that point, they were making plans for us to leave with Ojukwu’s family. In that house all Ojukwu’s relatives were there, meaning that they had assembled. The plan was to evacuate them. It was at that point that my father made the request. We were there and his official car drove in at some point. It was so strange that he came and left without speaking to us. Apparently that was when they concluded the negotiations of our exit inside Ojukwu’s house. We didn’t know what was happening. In the night, they put us in a car and took us somewhere. As we were driving, we got to a place where some people with torch-light asked us to turn off our light. The place turned out to be the Airstrip. I saw cargo planes with two propellers with no seats inside. There was a ladder leaning on the aeroplane and people were climbing. I can recall Ojukwu’s mother who was an elderly woman, having problems while climbing the ladder. After struggling, she entered the plane, and they invited us to climb the ladder. We didn’t have any property with us. We flew the same plane with Ojukwu’s mother. We left two days before Ojukwu. We landed at Sao Tome. From there, people started going to different places, because there was really no plan. 

You said your plane landed at Sao Tome but Ojukwu departed Biafra for Ivory Coast, How come? 

We joined Ojukwu later in Ivory Coast but we first stayed in Sao Tome, after which we left for France and Portugal because there were no plans. These countries were sympathetic to Biafra. I had a Biafran passport but didn’t know what we were travelling with. We ended up in Bourke, Ivory Coast where his family was staying. Ojukwu was staying in Yamoussoukro where Felix Houphouët-Boigny hailed from. We visited him once but his family stayed in Bourke with us. We used to go to school in a refugee camp. I am grateful to Ivory Coast because if not for what it did, those children taken from Biafra would have died of Kwashiokor. Some of the children were able to trace their families while others didn’t return and integrated into the country. That is why I believe that there are descendants of Biafra in Ivory Coast. We stayed there until the war ended. Based on the instructions my mother gave my brother and I, we flew to Ireland where we stayed.

 As of late 1968 and 1969, it was obvious that Biafra was losing the war. Now, in your conversations with your dad, did he ever say that the war was fought with the conviction that the war would end in favour of Biafra? 

When Biafra started, it didn’t have resources in terms of trained soldiers and weapons of war. That was always source of concern but as a Biafran, my father and other Biafrans felt it was a just cause and they felt they had the right to defend themselves. Along the way, a number of them believed there would be some international interventions. I am not going to say that there wasn’t any belief because people thought they would be able to defend themselves. A number of people also didn’t imagine that Gowon would use maximum force against Biafrans. At the initial stage people volunteered to join the army but as at 1968, people were conscripted into the army. That showed that the morale was dropping.

BOOK REVIEW: The Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970)-My Memoirs by Patrick A. Anwunah

The Pogrom Everyone Still Denies

by Ambrose Ehirim

The Nigeria-Biafra War (1967-1970)

My Memoirs
by Patrick A. Anwunah
Foreword by
Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu
Spectrum Books Limited, 381 pp. $30.00

COMMENTS:

"As the Biafran Army Commander and therefore, an active participant in the Nigeria-Biafra War, I have written my own account of the war to cover details of tactics and general operational conduct. Colonel (Barrister) Patrick Anwunah, a remarkable Staff Officer both in Nigeria and Biafra, has now through his memoirs, revealed the logistics and general administrative aspects needed to sustain the Biafran Army at war for three years. He has thrown more light on the situation that led to the 'Statement of Peace' by General Philip Efiong to end the war in January 1970."

Major General Alexander Madiebo (rtd)
Commander,
Biafran Army

"The memoirs of Barr. Col. P.A.O. Anwunah, who happened to be my student at the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, has clarified a lot of issues not fully appreciated at the ending of the Nigeria-Biafra war. Reading these stories is highly recommended for all Nigerian (and African) youths for the benefit of hindsight and foresight."

Prof. Hochi A. Okafor, SAN
Vice Chancellor.
Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
Awka

"The memoirs of Barrister (Colonel) Patrick Anwunah embodying the entire story and history of the Nigeria-Biafra war (1967-1970) from the Biafran perspective, has come out on time to draw the attention of all Nigerians to the biblical truths enshrined in the book of Proverbs that righteously exalted a nation while sin or (crimes) is reproach on any people.

As members of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, Enugu Chapter, where we regularly meet to share and enjoy the goodness of the Lord, the Colonel has used his wartime experience to urge all Nigerians to make more serious efforts to draw nearer to God if they want or desire to join the class of world citizens who are proud to call themselves 'The Happiest People on Earth.' Consequently, he is urging all Nigerians to hurriedly transform themselves from being mere churchgoers to being true christians and believers.'"

Conrad Bosah
Deputy Advert Manager (Enugu)
VANGUARD Newspapers

"History has suffered from the shortage of stories by the principal participants in the making of modern Africa, especially the perplexing post-colonial period. Patrick Anwunah, Esq has plugged a gapping gap in the history of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general with a first hand account. This much-awaited memoirs of an important insider in the Nigeria-Biafra war is an immense addition to the collection of historical materials for not only professors and students of African and African Diaspora studies but also for military historians worldwide and the general public."

Dr. M.O.Ene
Seton Hall University
New Jersey, USA

I AM NOT SURE HOW MANY BOOKS, JOURNALS, ARTICLES THAT I have read including oral stories told pertaining to the pogrom and Nigeria Civil War. I have read quite a lot and still counting as the story will never be complete in our own time and beyond since our offsprings will most likely pass it on and on. Just like any human tragedy, the pogrom and the catastrophic civil war must be told until eternity. I read some of the books back home , but I have read many more in Diaspora I now have heaps of the tragic event all around my study with the stories and analysis basically the same; but, though, from different perspectives considering the time and positions taken regarding an Orwellian act which goes down to date as the most blood-soaked event in the history of Africa.

From Chukwuemeka Odumegwu's Biafra: Selected Speeches and Random Thoughts, to Arthur Agwuncah Nwankwo and Samuel Ifejika's Biafra: The Making of a Nation, Adewole Ademoyega's Why We Struck: The Story of the First Nigerian Coup, Wole Soyinka's The Man Died, Elechi Amadi's Sunset In Biafra, Buchi Emecheta's Destination Biafra, Chukwuemeka Ike's Sunset At Dawn, Dan Jacobs' Brutality of Nations, Alexander Madiebo's The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War, Flora Nwapa's Never Again, John J. Stremlau's The Internatiional Politics of the Nigerian Civil war, Egbebelu Ugobelu's Biafra war Revisited: A Concise and Accurate Account of Events That Led to the Nigerian Civil War, Ralph Uwechue's Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War and many other related war notes and stories that had been in place, I think I now have a grip of the war's tale, including the "tell-flaws."

Patrick A. Anwunah's memoir is fascinating and a lot more has been revealed. It is an insiders point of view reminiscing mankind's horrible crimes against humanity the Hausa-Fulanis still deny. Anwunah had noted his book was "not designed for politics," but "a humble effort to bring about some understanding, reconciliation and healing." Born in Awka, the author attended Government College, Umuahia. Enrolled as an Officer Cadet "directly from school" and trained together with Mike Okwechime, Yakubu Gowon, Arthur Unegbe and Alexander Madiebo at the Royal Miltary Academy, Sandhurst, England. He joined the Biafran side during the crisis and dedicated his life to a worthy cause; the Sovereign State of Biafra.

The author spent quite enough time narrating his years at the Royal Academy, life in England, his beloved family, the role of the five majors in the coup of January 15, 1966 and the counter coup of July 29, 1966. First, the January 15th coup was seen as an Igbo coup which resulted to the counter coup of July 29th, carried out chiefly by the Northern military soldiers. But the irony of the counter coup as the author implies "is" that, then Commander-in-Chief, Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi's defiance of numerous hints that a coup "was" in the making and likely to be bloodier than January 15th took the Commander-in-Chief's life when he and his host, Lt-Col Francis Adekunle Fajuyi were abducted by Northern military soldiers under the command of Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and murdered in the most brutal of circumstances. But Ironsi, according to the author, had ignored every counsel regarding a counter coup on the basis "Ironsi had a personal and official policy of appeasement towards the North." The author, thus writes;

"He therefore failed to take heed, and ignored warnings of impending counter-coup manovres against the Igbos which were then becoming an open secret throughout the country. For example, from my G Branch of the Army Headquarters Office, I learnt that a high-powered Igbo delegation from Kano led by the veteran journalist, Chief Anueyiagu arrived Lagos to brief him on the impending threats to Igbo lives and property in Kano but he would not accept to be brifed confidentially privately before a formal delegation. Similarly, when Major Madiebo from Kaduna tried to brief him on the official counter-coup plan which included the exact details as received from Alhaji Suya who was a member of the inner circle and planning committee of the northern caucus, the supreme commander would not accept to be briefed privately."

Ironsi had been careless and had made too many mistakes. He had promulgated the "Unification Decree," also known as "Decree No. 34." He was warned of the trip to Ibadan. He had banned the Igbo State Union, the authoritative mouthpiece of Nd'Igbo which most likely could have saved more Igbo lives by way of its organizational effectiveness.

Had Ironsi listened, the story probably would have changed, especially when the first stage of the pogrom took effect on May 29, 1966 as Igbo civilians in the North were subjected to mass deportation, wholesale pillage and rape. The July 29th coup was also gross. The Northern "Jihadists" and soldiers had embarked on a policy of "ethnic cleansing" of the Igbos by means of terrible tortures, expulsions and massacres because five majors organized and effected a coup of which four were Igbos and the other a Yoruba. What has innocent civilians and defenceless men and women got to do with a coup that erupted within the military circles involving corrupt politicians?

The September 29, 1966 massacre of Igbos in the North was the last straw. Countless Igbos had been murdered. Northern "jihadists" and soldiers rampaged through Igbo homes, ransacking every house and stall owned by Igbos and killing every Igbo they could lay their hands on. Pregnant Igbo women were disembowelled and young children raped. Between May through early part of 1967, most Igbos in sight were killed and their houses and stores robbed and demolished. It was a pogrom.

It was beyond comprehension as Anwunah narrates extensively. The killing of the Battalion Commander, Lt. Col Okoro in Kaduna, the "summary executions of Eastern military personnel," the brutal murder of Lt-Col Gabriel Okonweze, Major John Obienu and Capt Iloputaife in Abeokuta garrison and uncountable atrocities committed by the Northern "jihadists." But nevertheless, Biafra was not to be walked over in four days as the Nigerian vandals anticipated. Biafran scientists went to work, most of them undergraduate students from University Of Biafra, Nsukka and "inaugurated what became known as Research and Production." Weapons were produced to counter federal attacks which led to "the recapture of Owerri, Ikot Ekpene, Oguta, etc., and the destruction of the enemy at Abagana," was seen as a major Biafran victory in a war that should't have taken place had the Aburi Accord been upheld and respected.

The stalled Aburi talks was of concern when Yakubu Gowon and his genocidal campaign against the Igbo nation suddenly in a 180 degrees turn reneged and launched the first attack on the Igbo nation which was patently revealed in Joseph Garba's book Revolution in Nigeria: Another View, and Anwunah cites Garba in that regard:

"It was clear even to the most undiscerning observer that civil war as Murtala predicted months before, was inevitable...It is true that on July 6th, 1967, Nigeria fired the first formal shot in the civil war."

Though the book made quite a number of references crediting Madiebo, and a whole lot of citations from the Old Testaments much more comparing the Holocaust to the fate of the Igbos during the pogrom and civil war, it's a well-written book. Not even Wole Soyinka's memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn had in great detail what unfolded in the military barracks coupled with the pogrom that subsequently led to the civil war.

Like other books on Biafra, I recommend this book. It is a remarkable eye witness account broken down to the comprehension of a 10th grade. No doubt, like any other story in that capacity, it must be told until eternity.