People especially my family in an attempt to protect me , asked me why i embarked on this controversial research/ articles/book? In responding to this question I wish to refer to the words of Parley. In prefacing his famous book Principle of moral and political philosophy states:
“When a writer offers a book upon a subject on which the public are already in possession of many others, he is bound by a kind of literary justice to inform his readers specifically on what it is he professes or he expects to improve.
‘’Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory’’.George S. Patton
I am the fifth of a family of eight and the oldest male amongst the rest ineligible fighters by the time war broke out. My father was a volunteer major in the Biafran organization of freedom fighters (BOFF) ,my most senior brother,Edmond was serving with the Nigerian army engineers located at Afor Ogbe,Patrick was with 63 brigade Logara and Cyril was serving doctor Ikeojor who was the medical director of MDS ,Biafran army medical unit Ahiara.This left me as the man of the house and incharge of the family means of lively hood during the period of the war.I was in charge of a restaurant at Ahiara junction selling palm wine ,fried meat and Indian hemp to soldiers.I was kept mobile through a bicycle that has condemned car tire wrapped round the wheel as the tube and tire. I would cycle daily to army engineers 53 brigade logara to deliver my mothers food for his children to their military locations and back to my restaurant.
Remember one night I was woken by the sound of rapid gun shorts , coming out to meet two tipper load of hungry looking soldiers, the officer that brought them was the second in command at the supply and transport, S&T Ahiara with yam goat and vegetable to prepare food for fighting me who came out from the war front at Owerri sector on break to feed and rush back ,their commanding officer was a fair tall tough talking captain called captain Opkonku whom I later learnt is from my neighboring village Nguru.After feeding the about 100 fighting men overnight, the captain called them out for a morning drill with a popular war song,’’ Take my bullet when I die ohhhh Biafra,take my bullet when,ohh Biafra , if I happen to die in the battle field, Biafra take my bullet when I die.’’Gowon ejigi akwukwo gawa college ndi army ,anyenye nye kwiripkwo ata gbuo ndi awusa’This war song continued till all the men jumped into the waiting tippers and drove towards Owerri sector while onlookers were praising and offering prayers to them ‘’eje ayo umum’’meaning that our ancestors should protect them in their quest.
It was just 4 days after that encounter that I heard that the tall handsome captain who commanded the troops lost his life in the battle in a heroic gun battle with the enemies near Arugo , Owerri sector, This news shook the entire civilians populace and the military formations but did not discourage the formidable Biafran soldiers who later recovered Owerri sector from the enemy.
Although i was still a teenager during the civil war , the curiosity in me spurred me to join the war efforts to make my contribution to the war of survival. One Sunday at St Brigite’s catholic church Nnarambia , my village, the then parish priest, Rev.Fr Onyewuchi ,now late announced that there is an ongoing recruitment exercise at Bishop Shanahan college (BSC) Orlu for boys company (child soldiers).I along with other interested and war zealous teenagers trekked to BSC Orlu ,the 12th marine commandos of the Biafran army where we were recruited and trained as boys company in the informant and guerrilla warfare. As a Yoruba speaking boy, I followed the supply and transport(S&T) directorate with HQ at St Brigit’s Ahiara on their customized wooden trailer to ahia attack across enemy lines where we marketed our products from rural land such as vegetables, fruits etc for cigarettes, spirits ,canned foods ,rice and beans ,stock fish and other essential commodities for our ailing soldiers and kwashiorkor ravaged civilians etc from the federal troops, while we spy on their positions ,O.P and snipers .positions and combat readiness including military equipment, fuel dumps and other military storage especially food. .Most times through our guerrilla training, we destroyed essential military facilities such as fuel dumps etc through fire ignition. Using fuel and matches. However, when the federal troops found out about the activities of the boys company,(child soldier), they started instant shooting on sighting the boys, we were quickly disbanded and reposted to various rear unit for war efforts while i was attached to S&T Ahiara.I was at same time managing the small family restaurant at Ahiara junction since both my father and my senior brothers were all in the front line, the immediate family responsibility which was feeding the younger siblings to avoid the deadly malnutrition disease called kwashiorkor which ravaged and killed half of Biafran teenage population was left on my shoulders. In Biafra young girls, market women, old men ,children, the clergy the. Red cross ,Caritas,JCC,WCC,and other NGOS local and international, land army(farmers) BOFF etc military police and all other volunteer forces and every other unit participated in the war efforts hence, i can say practically that everyone was a Biafran soldier with free will and zeal to defend father land.
I was victim of several air-raids, all of which I remember vividly, and a witness to troop movements and littered corpses and the most chilling and nightmarish experience we faced for the 30 months gruesome war was the enemy air raid as it was known .Day in day out, the Nigerian air force randomly bombed every moving civilian target .One hot afternoon, after one of those daily are attacks, we were running round Nnarambia community to access and assist victims, it was a young princess from the royal house our king Hrm Eze Onyekwere that was directly hit by the bomb and another an old woman,the mother of Nze Akpayo who was also half buried by a big iron plate from the exploded bomb, we hurried buried the dead to allow every one to go back into the bomb shelters called bunkers.At this time parents were more interested in survival of their off springs more than anything else hence there was not mention of school. A lot of ways through which death could fly into any family , for the adult male, bring home corpse from the war front or news that a young man has been killed is as common as breeding air, for the little once, you can tell when the next 4 children will drop dead like chicken with bird flu. Children were dropping dead at the rate of 10/second from the malnutrition disease called kwashiorkor.The is no family except for the exceptionally well to do in terms of access to relieve food ,that did not loose uncountable number of children.The death toll became so alarming that fear of complete extermination gripped the Biafran nation that any relief plane that arrives Uli airport must be loaded with human cargo of kwosorkor children to be saved outside the death trapped Biafran enclave.
It was during one of our war efforts that we were driven to near by town of Afor umuohiagu near Owerri where about 300 civilians (with eventual toll over 500) are killed by the Nigerian air force at Umuohiagu market. (February 1969) to help in mass burial because human beings, mainly market women and children were burnt beyond recognition by the Nigerian air force bomb. It was at that stage that the worst fear gripped the Bifran populace, it was not just bombs but very dangerous chemical weapons that turned every living thing including leafs, trees fruits dry and dark .All the dead bodies were not coursed by shrapnel but inhaled poisonous chemicals that dried them up and left very dark and unrecognizable while the living within the bombed vicinity were coughing blood till they give up the ghost.
It was indeed a war that was fought to completely annihilate the people of eastern region without looking back. The war forced us to adapt and find ways to survive when nearly impossible. We were challenged to think unconventionally in order keep body and soul together, and with the grace of God, we did so and survived but living us with sorrowful memories, broken hearts, and tense feelings,yet there were still moments of jubilation in the face of a people who were undoubtedly facing genocide , the day radio Biafra broadcasted the voice of Julius Nyerere announcing his country’s recognition of Biafra on the basis of what he regarded as self determination rights of every indigenous people of Africa . This was followed by France support ,Ivory Coast ,Gabon, Zambia and Haiti.Biafran’s went frenzy with all day dancing and jubilation on the streets as if the war had been won.The next joyful moment was the recapture of Owerri by Col Joe Achuzie(air raid)and his special forces after 7 months of heavy combat with the 3rd matine commando led by Col EA Etuk , a Calabar born Nigerian army fighting machine and his 2ic major Ted Hamman who failed by the bullet of a Biafran sniper and was replaced by captain Buhari, another courageous fighter during the Owerri debacle.Etuk and his remaing men managed to shoot themselves out of Owerri to join Obasanjo in Port Harcourt who had at this time taken over from Col.Benjamin Adekunle(scorpion) as the brigade commander of 3rd marine commando.This was happening between the month of april to september 1968, yes Hamman was killed on the 20th of april and his death was celebrated as that of the Calabar wizard Etuk, but it was later confirmed that Etuk the wizard was alive and shooting his way out of Owerri.
My happiest day was the evening of June 1, 1969, OJukwu arrived with members of his cabinet and the Biafra’s National Guidance Committee, a body chaired by renowned author Chinua Achebe who drafted the historic document Modeled on Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere’s 1967 Arusha Declaration.AHIARA DECLARATION(The Biafran revolution)
I was part of the volunteers who arranged the wooden platforms for the declaration, days before the June 1st night at the St Brigitte’s catholic church Ahiara, it gave me the opportunity to see all the Biafran service chiefs, civilian administrators, twenty of them ,military actors though most of the warriors were in the battle fields defending and dying for the love of a new nation. .
By January 10TH 1970 , there was a radio announcement that the war had come to an end, this brought jubilations to majority of the Biafran populace but the fighting men in the bush and the civilian population who have been pounded in all front ,in air raids , starved despite his resolve to fight to the last man were skeptical till Obasanjo himself through the radio Biafra Enugu made the announcement that convinced the fighting men to come out of the bush. This proved to be disastrous because most of the Biafran soldiers coming home were waylaid and short by the men of 3rd marine commando under the command of Olusegun Obosanjo.Infact we lost over 2, 000 returning soldiers who were identified by the federal troops around Mbaise with their army socks mark on their ankles and short instantly, i personally witnessed several of such killings at Ahiara junction because at this time i had already switched to serving a Yoruba officer living in the house of the royal family , Oliver Onyekwere, they unit was later moved to Aba and i accompanied the captain because at this stage,survival was the game till after six months when my father traced me to come back and start schooling that i had missed for nearly three years. The occupying army at this stage went frenzy with the life stock of the locals and every woman on sight including mothers were conscripted into sex slavery to the extent that we arranged for shelters for our young women to live inside the bushes to safe our women’s hood from the occupying army .
Following colonel Olusegun Obasanjo’s acceptance of the surrender of Biafran forces ,led by Gen.Philip Efiong ,the second in command to Gen.Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was at this time in Ivory coast ,Gowon subsequently declared his famous “no victor, no vanquished” speech, and followed it up with an amnesty for the majority of those who had participated in the Biafran uprising, as well as a program of “Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation”, to repair the extensive damage done to the economy and infrastructure of the Eastern Region during the years of war. Unfortunately, some of these efforts never left the drawing board. In addition to this, Gen. Gowon’s administration’s policy of giving 20 pounds to everyone who had a bank account in Nigeria before the war, regardless of how much money had been in their account, was criticized by foreign and local aid workers, as this led to an unprecedented scale of begging, hardship and economic exile of Ndigbo to cater for themselves and children as remnants of the 30 months genocidal war till date which has not erased the indelible of the civil war.
Since after the civil war, the south east has continued to suffer one form of marginalization or the other inside the Igbo heartland and in the volatile north. When Maitasine is not rioting and killing Ndigbo, its the Almajiris, Northern Muslim youths and the ongoing agent of ethnic cleansing is the boko haram, in all ,at the slightest provocation of the north, they next action is the massacre of Ndigbo, be it Danish carton in far away Europe ,post election violence or even unfavorable government policy , the Igboman has paid and continue to pay the supreme price of keeping Nigeria one and all indication is that they have been pushed to the wall and the next stage is a boomerang that will live no party at a comfort zone any longer unless of course the government redress the problem that is confronting them at this moment or better still grant them their hearts desire, the sovereign state of Biafra.
This experience made me to join Bilie Human Rights Initiative, an international human rights group, registered under the Nigerian law(CAC) and the United Nations.
The Civil War is Over. Broadcast by (Biafran) Major-General Phillip Effiong on Monday, January 12, 1970.
Fellow Countrymen, As you know, I was asked to be the officer administering the government of this Republic on the 10th of January, 1970. Since then, I know that some of you have been waiting to hear a statement from me. I have had extensive consultations with the leaders of the community, both military and civil, and I am now encouraged and hasten to make this statement to you by the mandate of the armed forces and the people of this country. I have assumed the leadership of the government.
Throughout history, injured people have had to resort to arms in their self-defence where peaceful negotiations fail. We are no exception. We took up arms because of the sense of insecurity generated in our people by the events of 1966. We have fought in defence of that cause. I take this opportunity to congratulate officers and men of our armed forces for their gallantry and bravery which had for them the admiration of the whole world. I thank the civil population for their steadfastness and courage in the face of overwhelming odds and starvation. I am convinced now that a stop must be put to the bloodshed which is going on as a result of war. I am also convinced that the suffering of our people must be brought to an immediate end. Our people are now disillusioned and those elements of the old government regime who have made negotiations and reconciliation impossible have voluntarily removed themselves from our midst.
I have therefore instructed an orderly disengagement of troops. I am dispatching emissaries to make contact with Nigeria’s field commanders in places like Onitsha, Owerri, Awka, Enugu and Calabar with a view to arranging armistice. I urge General Gowon, in the name of humanity, to order his troops to pause while an armistice is negotiated in order to avoid the mass suffering caused by the movement of population. We have always believed that our differences with Nigeria should be settled by peaceful negotiations. A delegation of our people is therefore ready to meet representatives of Nigeria federal government anywhere to negotiate a peaceful settlement on the basis of OAU resolutions.
The delegation will consist of the Chief Justice, Sir Louis Mbanefo as leader, Professor Eni Njoku, Mr. J. I. Emembolu, Chief A. E. Bassey and Mr. E. Aguma. The delegation will have full authority to negotiate on our behalf.I have appointed a council to advise me on the government of the country. It consists of the Chief Justice, Sir Louis Mbanefo, Brigadier P. C. Amadi (Army), Brigadier C. A. Nwawo (Army), Captain W. A. Anuku (Navy), Wing Commander J. I. Ezeilo (Air Force), Inspector-General of Police, Chief P. I. Okeke, Mr. J. I Emembolu (Attorney-General), Professor Eni Njoku, Dr. I. Eke, Chief A. E. Udofia, Chief Frank Opigo and Chief J. M. Echeruo. Any question of government in exile is repudiated by our people.
Civilian population are hereby advised to remain calm and cooperate with the armed forces and the police in the maintenance of law and order. They should remain in their homes and stop mass movements which have increased suffering and loss of lives.
On behalf of our people, I thank those foreign governments and friends who have steadfastly given us support in our cause. We shall continue to count on their continued help and counsel. I also thank His Holiness the Pope, the Joint Church Aid and other relief organizations, for the help they have given for the relief of suffering and starvation. I appeal to all governments to give urgent help for relief and to prevail on the Federal Military Government to order their troops to stop all military operations.
May God help us all.
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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