BIAFRAN WAR: Expository of man's inhumanity to man !

A family of 23 was massacred on the spot by fleeing Biafran soldiers in July 1968 at Nyara Enyin Village in Ikot Ekpene Division as the gallant Federal troops advanced in that sector of the Nigerian Civil war.

The village is a border town between the South-Eastern and the East- Central States. This revelation was contained in a statement issued by the Ministry of Information, South –Eastern State and released in Lagos on July 31, 1968.

According to the statement, the report was made by one Mr. Etokeren, a former employee of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, who said he had been in hiding for three months before the incident.

Several others, he said, were carried away at gun-point to an unknown destination in the East-Central State. Mr. Etokeren added that he escaped from the village and went into hiding when he saw the rebels carrying out mass destruction to life and property. In another statement, the Military Governor of the South Eastern State, Col. U.J. Esuene, said that “the rebels false propaganda is fast collapsing, because the whole world is gradually understanding that South Easterners are not Ibo”.

For several years, he said, the South Easterners had lived with the Ibo and they were all along treated as second class citizens in the former Eastern Nigeria. The military governor made the statement while receiving in audience Rev. E.A. Onuk of the Presbyterian Church, Calabar, who had called on him to give an account of his tour to America, Canada, Scotland and other parts of Europe.

Col. Esuene disclosed that he was happy to hear that it was Rev. Onuk who stopped a resolution of the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches which was based on wrong information dished out by the rebels. The Military Governor added: “We are determined to see that South Easterners remain united, live on their own and make their common contribution to the well-being and progress of one united Nigeria”. In a short reply, Rev. Onuk said he was happy that the Church in Nigeria sent out people to express their various views to the outside world on the civil war.

On August 1, the Rivers State Students’ Union in Britain also warned all organs of information to desist from identifying the Rivers State and its people with Ojukwu’s dream empire, ‘Biafra’. ‘The Rivers State is an integral part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Rivers people are Nigerians”, the union said. The Union’s disclaimer was published in “The Observer”, a London Weekly, under the title “We are not Biafrans”. The union pointed out that the Federal Military Government on May 27, 1967, created three states-the East Central, the South Eastern and the Rivers States- out of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria.

It added: “But the Ibo of the East Central State, in spite of the aforementioned and well-known facts and in insolent defiance of Federal authority, continued to remain in wrongful and forceful occupation of the South Eastern and Rivers States”. The Union said that since Ojukwu declared his secession, certain information media had continued to refer to the people of the three states in former Eastern Region as “Biafrans”.

These errors, it said, had persisted even after the Rivers and the South Eastern States had been completely liberated by the Federal forces. The Union declared: “We wish it to be known by the general public, press, radio and television that the Rivers State and its people have no part in the illusion called “Biafra” that our people unreservedly condemn rebellion, secession and apartheid; that our people take strong exception to being referred to as “Biafrans” or to any part of the Rivers State being shown or included in any map or drawing as part of the said “Biafra”.

The disclaimer, which was signed by four executive members of the union and was illustrated with the map of the three Eastern States went on to say: “We are Nigerians. We are not Biafrans.” We belong to the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the Government of General Gowon. We do not know what Biafra is and we will have anything to do with it.

“The creation of states was in accordance with the trend of progressive political opinion in the country during the past 20 years and in fulfillment of the legitimate and age-long aspirations of the minority ethnic groups for a reasonable measure of self-government. “It was welcome to all well-meaning people and especially to the minority people of Calabar Ogoja and Rivers provinces.”

Meanwhile, more arms were being smuggled into Ojukwu’s dream republic than relief supplies in spite of the propaganda that thousands were dying daily of starvation. Following the capture of Port Harcourt, two hurriedly built airstrips were believed to be used by the rebels for the smuggling. And the cargoes were flown in from Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, in a shuttle service of old planes run by a team of Americans.

Reports said each trip was a nightmare, as the landings were always made at night. The makeshift airstrips were dangerously narrow as the international safety requirements were not met. In one of the flights, nine tons of arms, ammunition and mortar parts were lashed in boxes next to a few hundred cartons of tinned corned beef.

A British journalist, Roward Johnson wrote: “Anxiously waiting for the arms on the darkened jungle makeshift airstrip – a converted road with landing lights – were Biafran soldiers. “But even more anxiously waiting in the steaming mists of the airstrip were medical teams and missionaries, hoping to save the lives of starving people. Waiting for the cargo in the steaming mists of the airstrip, according to the journalist, was a Roman Catholic priest.” He said that relief supplies were in a trickle while traffic in arms got priority attention.

On August 7, hopes of a successful outcome for the Nigerian peace talks were frustrated with the departure from Addis Ababa of Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the rebel leader. Ojukwu, considered as the only man in the rebel hierarchy capable of taking any concrete decisions, left Addis Ababa on August 6 with some members of his delegation for Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

His departure was seen by observers as a gesture against the absence of Federal Nigerian leader, Major-General Yakubu Gowon. The Federal delegation at the talks- the third attempt at ending the 14-month old civil war- was headed by Chief Anthony Enahoro. A Government source in Lagos said that General Gowon would not go to the talks and added: “The meeting is not a summit. Our delegation is fully empowered to negotiate a peaceful settlement provided our sovereignty is not compromised.

Other members of the rebel delegation who left with Ojukwu for the Abdijan, Ivory Coast included Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the rebels’ Minister of Interior, Mr. Christopher Mojekwu. They were met at the airport by the Mayor of Abidjan and high officials of the Ivory Coast Foreign Ministry.

The talks, which opened in African Hall, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 5 had already run into trouble and no second session was held on the following day. Chief Enahoro told a Press conference that he would stay away from further sessions so long as “representatives of other countries” acted as members of the rebel delegation. He said at least two members of the rebel delegation were from Gabon, one of the four African states that had recognised the secessionist. regime.

Timesman, Sam Amuka , covering the peace talks, quoted Dr. Eni Njoku as saying that Ojukwu left Addis Ababa because General Gowon did not turn up at the meeting. At a Press conference held, Dr. Njoku announced himself leader of the rebel delegation and admitted that foreigners were included in the rebel delegation at the opening of the meeting.

Dr. Njoku’s statement ended thus: “Chief Enahoro said yesterday that he wanted an assurance that only Nigerians will attend future meetings. As far as we are concerned, we Biafrans shall attend future meetings.” Ojukwu”s departure was kept top secret but the Press got wind that he was leaving Addis Ababa by accident. He left with the other members of his delegation closely guarded by four armed soldiers into a waiting car that took them to the airport.

By middle of August 1968, hunger and starvation had reached a high proportion. Hungry and tattered mothers with their children strapped to their backs were the principal feature in Umuahia, the capital of Ojukwu”s still born republic. The women, carrying a basin of house-hold utensils were looking for a refugee camp. Before the war, Umuahia was a sleepy town with a population of less than 17,000. During this time, it became seven times that number. The makeshift “capital” was jammed with fleeing persons in their thousands. There was no more accommodation left. Schools, office blocks and houses were filled with refugees.

The number of fleeing persons had risen steeply since the capture of Port Harcourt and the surrounding towns in May by the Federal forces. Ojukwu then carried out most of his duties in Umuahia. After the capture of Enugu in October 1967, rebel government offices and departments were dispersed over the “shrinking republic”. On the economic front, prices of foodstuffs went up as much as 60 per cent. And except for relief supplies, hospitals and clinics were virtually without medicine or drugs.

Doctors watched patients die because the drugs that might save lives were not available. Women walk the streets of “Biafra” with dead children on their backs. So desperate was the position regarding protein that people were being advised to eat rats and dogs. A rat was sold for 10 shillings and a dog might fetch two pounds a head. “The apparent lack of concern for the sufferings of his fellow men shown by Ojukwu in the crisis could well fetch him a first division in satan’s league table”, an American writer said.

“Thousands of people, mostly children and women, were perishing everyday because Ojukwu couldn’t care about them. “He stubbornly refused to submit to reason to abandon his crazy enterprise called “Biafra” and accept Major-General Gowon’s formula on mercy corridor. The veritable satanic pat on the back, apart Ojukwu’s monstrous propaganda to bring sympathy for a lost cause, is wearing thin absolutely.”

Because of Mr. Ojukwu’s hard-headedness, another American propagandist on the rebel payroll returned more than one million pound fees to tottering “Biafra” in protest against Ojukwu’s inhuman policies. A group of foreign and Nigerian journalists on August 14, saw prisoners of war at Kirikiri and Ikoyi prisons in Lagos. Major I.U conducted the journalists round the prisons. Rakuffa, Provost-Marshall of the Army Pay Office, Apapa. At the Kirikiri prison, the journalists saw 152 captured rebel soldiers being looked after by the Federal authorities. They also saw 88 rebel soldiers who surrendered to the Federal troops at Port-Harcourt, also being cared for by the Federal authorities at the Ikoyi prison yard.

Interviewed by the journalists, the prisoners at Ikoyi said that most of them were conscripted into the rebel army. Those at the Kirikiri said they joined the army on their own free will.