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[ 2011-11-27 ] 
The Biafran War - A brief history
Civil war: Meanwhile, unrests in the North
continued, reaching their peak in August and
September 1966, when a number of Easterners,
mostly Ibos, variously estimated at between 10,000
and 30,000, were killed and about a million had to
flee to the East.
As the civil and military disturbances
continued, with the military and political
leaders unable to reach an agreement, it was
generally agreed that a new constitutional
formula, which would take into practical account
the changes that had occurred, was urgently
needed. An ad hoc Constitutional Conference with
representatives from the four regions and Lagos
was convened in mid-September 1966 to try to find
a solution.
It failed due to distrust and bitterness. After
abortive attempts to meet locally, Nigerian
military leaders went to Aburi, Ghana, in
January 1967 and, under the chairmanship of
General Ankrah, then chairman of the Ghana
National Liberation Council, decided on important
changes in the Constitution. There was
disagreement between the Federal Military
Government and the Eastern Regional Military
Government over the details of what was agreed;
the printed verbatim report and the tape-recorded
account of the proceedings of the conference
showed that there was agreement to introduce a
greater measure of decentralisation by increasing
the powers of the regions vis-a-vis those of the
Federal government. Tension mounted as the
military leaders gave conflicting interpretations
of the Aburi accord.
Proclamation of Biafra: On May 26 1967 Colonel
Ojukwu summoned an emergency meeting of the
Eastern Nigeria Consultative Assembly to review
the situation. The following day, Colonel Gowon,
in a nationwide broadcast, proclaimed a state of
emergency throughout the country, and announced he
was bringing into force a decree dividing the
country into 12 states, three of which were to be
in the East (East Central, South Eastern, Rivers),
and six in the North (North Eastern, Kano, North
Central, Benue Plateau, North Western, and West
Central, soon renamed Kwara), with the West and
Mid-West remaining as they were. The Federal
capital, Lagos, was constituted into the twelfth
state.
The Eastern Nigeria Consultative Assembly, already
in session in Enugu, reacted the same night by
passing a resolution empowering Colonel Ojukwu to
declare the region the independent Republic of
Biafra; Colonel Oj ukwu did so on May 30 1967.
Colonel Gowon announced that Colonel Ojukwu had
been dismissed from the Nigeria Army, and sacked
as Military Governor of Eastern Region.
Fighting broke out between Federal troops and
"Biafran" forces on July 6 1967 when the Federal
government announced it was taking "clinical
police action" to end the rebellion in Eastern
Nigeria.
The campaign was expected to last a few weeks or a
few months at the most. The Federal army, which
the previous July numbered less than 9,000 men had
increased in the interval to an estimated 40,000
troops, hurriedly reconstructed from the
disorganised remnants of the Nigeria Army after
the withdrawal of Eastern Nigerian elements. The
"Biafran" army at the beginning of the war was
estimated at about 25,000 troops hurriedly
organised around the 2,000 surviving Eastern
Nigerian officers and men.
The Federal army opened its campaign by advancing
from the North with a reported strength of eight
battalions. The "Biafrans" had expected the
advance from that direction and had taken
positions weeks before that event. "Biafran"
resistance was much stiffer than expected.
On August 9 1967 the "Biafrans" crossed the River
Niger and occupied the Mid-West capital, Benin,
and the ports of Sapele and Ughelli; by August 17
1967 they had crossed the Ofusu river and reached
Ore, in the Western Region, in an apparent advance
on Ibadan and Lagos. On September 20 1967 Major
Albert Okonkwo, whom the "Biafrans" had installed
as administrator of the Mid-West, proclaimed the
birth of the "independent and sovereign Republic
of Benin".
The Federal government soon acquired light and
heavy weapons from Britain and Russian MiG
fighters and Ilyushin bombers. By September 221967
the Federal troops had reoccupied the Mid-West. On
October 41967 the "Biafran"capital of Enugu fell
to Federal troops. By the end of the year,
"Biafra's" second largest port of Calabar also
fell. The important river port and commercial
centre of Onitsha fell in March 1968. Port
Harcourt was to follow in May 1968, thus making
the blockade of "Biafra" total. The remaining big
towns of Aba, Umuahia and Owerri, fell later.
The "total war" and the civilian suffering which
it produced divided world opinion about :he
conflict. Four African countries recognised
"Biafra" - Tanzania on April 13 1968; Gabon on May
8 1968; Ivory Coast on May 14 1968; and Zambia on
May 20 1968. They said that their decision was
prompted largely by the failure of the Federal
Military Government to respond to appeals to
settle the conflict otherwise than by force of
arms. Haiti recognised "Biafra" on 23 March 1969.
For "Biafra", recognition brought increased
material support. In addition to the transit
facilities it enjoyed in Lisbon, and in Portuguese
African territories, French arms slipped in
steadily through Abidjan and Libreville.
Charitable organisations, such as the
International Red Cross, Joint Church Aid and
Caritas, sent relief supplies to refugees in
"Biafra" against the opposition of the Federal
government, which maintained that such help
amounted to interference in Nigerian affairs.
Mutual suspicion killed the chances of relief by
sea and land routes.
Federal disenchantment with the relief
organisations because of their defiance of the
night ban increased with the length of the war. In
June 1969 Federal MiGs shot down an International
Red Cross relief aircraft, killing its crew of
four. The organisation suspended its activities
pending agreement between the "Biafrans" and the
Federal Government. The other organsations, led by
Joint Church Aid and Caritas, ignored Federal
disapproval and continued the night flights.
Peace talks: Meanwhile, diplomatic activities were
going on both in Africa and elsewhere to try :o
achieve a negotiated settlement. The
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) stuck to the
principle of settlement "within the context of one
Nigeria". At its summit meeting in Kinshasa in
September 1967, it appointed a Consultative Peace
Committee of six, headed by Emperor Haile Selassie
of Ethiopia, to examine the issues. Initially,
very little came from that committee. Many African
leaders expressed the fear that any "Biafran"
success would trigger off secessionist movements
in other countries; others opposed secession
because in Nigeria's immense potential they saw
Africa's earliest hope for the emergence of a
powerful modern state.
Both sides repeatedly proclaimed their readiness
to negotiate "without preconditions" but attached
different interpretations to that term; to the
Nigerians it meant negotiating in accordance
with the OAU resolution aimed at preserving
Nigeria's territorial integrity; to the "Biafrans"
it meant respecting the status quo which by
implication involved a de facto acceptance of
their sovereignty.
In October 1967, Arnold Smith, the Commonwealth
Secretary-General, sought to open negotiations
with a view to finding a compromise solution. A
preliminary meeting, with representatives of the
two sides, in London in April 1968, accepted the
principle of settlement by negotiation. Because
the "Biafrans" objected to holding full-scale
talks in London, which they regarded as hostile
territory because of the British government's
support of the Federal Government, Kampala was
selected as a neutral venue. "Biafran" and
Nigerian delegates met in the Ugandan capital in
May 1968; the Nigerian delegation was headed by
Chief Anthony Ena-horo, Federal Commissioner for
Information, and the "Biafrans" were led by Sir
Louis Mbanefo, their Chief Justice.
Nigeria's conditions for a ceasefire and
settlement were that the "Biafrans" renounce
secession and accept the 12-state formula. The
"Biafran" delegation demanded that a ceasefire
should precede any full-scale discussions. Within
a week the talks broke down. Sir Louis Mbanefo
declared: "We have not come all the way from
Biafra simply to sign an act of surrender in
distant Kampala."
After the collapse of the Kampala talks, the OAU
Consultative Committee made direct approaches to
the "Biafran" leadership, thus opening the way
to a series of peace attempts. On the Committee's
invitation, General Ojukwu addressed it in
Niamey in July 1968. There followed a "probing"
meeting of delegations from both sides, after
which it was announced that full-scale talks would
be held the following month in Addis Ababa.
General Gowon and General Ojukwu were widely
expected to lead their respective delegations.
When the representatives assembled in the
Ethiopian capital in the first week of August
1968, only General Ojukwu was there. Within days,
the ++++ another abortive attempt was made in
Monrovia, but neither General Gowon nor General
Ojukwu attended. A similar fate met a further
attempt in Addis Ababa in mid-December 1969.
Collapse of "Biafra": As efforts to achieve a
negotiated settlement were going on, Federal
troops were advancing deeper and deeper into
"Biafra", forcing the "Biafrans" to move their
"seat of government" from place to place.
On January 8 1970, General Ojukwu handed over
power to Major-General Philip Effiong, "Biafran"
Chief of Staff, and fled to Cote d'lvoire, where
he was granted political asylum. On January 9
1970, Owerri, which became "Biafra's" provisional
capital after the fall of Umuahia, fell to Federal
troops. Uli airport, which had been "Biafra's"
lifeline fell the next day and, on January 12 1970
Major-General Effiong announced "Biafra's"
surrender.
On January 15 1970, at Dodan Barracks, Lagos, the
headquarters of the Supreme Military Council and
official residence of the Nigeria Head of State,
General Effiong signed the formal act of
surrender, with the following declaration: "We
accept the existing administrative and political
structure of the Federation of Nigeria. Biafra
ceases to exist."
Post-war era: In a nationwide radio and television
address on October 11970 marking the country's
tenth anniversary of independence, General Gowon
announced that the Armed Forces had decided to
hand over power to civilians in January 1976.
The military, he said, had set itself a nine-point
programme which must be completed before returning
the country to civilian rule. The programme
covered the reorganisation of the Armed Forces;
implementation of the National Development Plan
and the repair of the damage and neglect caused by
the war; eradication of corruption in national
life; settlement of the question of the creation
of more states; the preparation and the adoption
of a new constitution ; the introduction of a
new revenue allocation formula; conducting a
national population census; the organisation of
genuinely national political parties; and the
organisation of elections and installation of
popularly elected governments in the states and in
the centre.
A new population census was taken throughout the
country from November 251973 to December 2 1973.
Provisional figures announced in May 1974 by
General Gowon gave Nigeria a population of
79,758,969. The total of the six northern states
was 51 million, and the six southern states, 28
million. General Gowon emphasised that the figures
were preliminary and were being re-checked.
Despite this assurance, the announcement of the
results generated a great deal of unease and
acrimony with claims and counterclaims of
inflated figures in various states.
After the civil war, General Gowon turned his
attention increasingly to pan-African and world
affairs. He visited several African countries; his
first visit outside Africa was in November 1971,
when he visited Israel as a member of the OAU
peace mission. In June 1973 he paid a three-day
state visit to Britain, and in November 1973 he
attended the UN General Assembly meeting in New
York. In May 1974 he visited the Soviet Union, his
first visit to a Communist country.
No return to civilian rule: On October 11974
General Gowon, in a speech marking the
fourteenth anniversary of Nigeria's
independence, announced that the Armed Forces now
considered the 1976 deadline for a return to
civilian rule as unrealistic. The Armed Forces, he
said, would not honour that pledge without
plunging the nation into chaos. "It would indeed
amount to a betrayal of trust to adhere rigidly to
that target date," he said. This announcement
generated widespread disaffection in the country.
Tai So-larin (a social critic), who had circulated
a leaflet The Beginning of the End to condemn
Gowon for (so he said) deciding to remain in power
indefinitely, was detained. Public allegations
of corruption against high ranking functionaries
of the regime became common, following Godwin
Dabo's court affidavit alleging corruption against
the Commissioner for Transport and
Communications, J. S. Tarka, who eventually
resigned.
Culled from Africa Today, Published by Africa
Books 1991
Source - Africa Today
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