Biafra
is one of the sad outcomes of the turbulent era that followed
the rancorous politics of post-Independence Nigeria. In
January 1966, young military officers felt that they were duty
bound to intervene in national governance in order to address
the national ills that had virtually paralyzed the country's political
class. Unfortunately, the immediate outcome of that bloody
putsch created the impression, in some quarters, that the military
intervention was designed to bring Nigeria under Igbo domination.
Though the suspicion was unfounded, the military establishment
became quickly politicized to the extent that its leadership became
steeped in the same ethnocentric biases for which they had ousted
civilian politicians. A northern-led counter coup, 6 months
after the debut of army rule, provided official connivance for
well-orchestrated pogroms that were unleashed on innocent men,
woman and children of Igbo ancestral heritage which resulted in
estimated loss of 30 thousand lives within a period of less than
six months.
The
Igbos and other inhabitants of former Eastern Nigeria, in fear
for their lives, abandoned everything they owned and fled to the
safety of their home base in the East. The former
Eastern Nigeria Consultatie Assembly mandated the then Military
Governor, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to seek the means
to restructure the Nigerian political arrangement in order to
prevent the repeat of the atrocities that the Igbos suffered at
the hands of their supposed fellow citizens. In early 1967,
a conference of Nigerian leaders was convened at Aburi, Ghana
to deliberate on how to break the political impasse that had paralyzed
the nation at that time. Suffice it to say that the confederate
structure, which was agreed to as the only feasible means to maintain
national cohesion, was never allowed to see the light of day because
General Gowon and his advisers in Lagos decided to unilaterally
renege on its implementation.
As
if to force the hands of the Igbos at that time, the Federal Military
Government arbitrarily decided to divide up Nigeria into 12 federating
states without consultation from anyone. This move by General
Gowon left the then Easterners with no other viable choice than
to opt for self-determination through the declaration of a sovereign
Biafran State on May 30, 1967. For the next 30 months, Biafrans
were blockaded by air, land and sea as the might of the Nigerian
army, with the massive support of Britain, Russia and Eqypt, was
unleashed on the enclave from all sides.
Various
aspects of the conflict that led to the Biafra, prosecution of
the Civil War as well as its aftermath shall be presented in this
page in all it ramifications.
