On May 30, 1967, the Peoples Republic of Biafra was declared an independent nation by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Though that dream was thwarted when that country waged a three-year war against the federal forces (of Nigeria), that bold move resonates today, 47 years after.

In the minds of many Igbo people, it is a reminder of the wounds of the past. To other Nigerians, it is just another day when the sun rises from the East and sets in the West. On the social media, it is pains all over by people, especially from the east of the Niger. One of them posted this on his Facebook wall: “Today, as I pray for the rescue of the abducted Chibok school girls, I recall with pains, tens and hundreds of Biafran/Igbo girls who were kidnapped, violated and visited with violence by the ravenous Nigerian troops who saw them as war booty. Many of them never made it back to their families. That heinous crime and others against humanity must be addressed for Nigeria to move forward.”

However, it is necessary to advise our brothers from the East to forget the past and push forward their integration effort. This is because they are found in every nook and cranny of Nigeria as successful business people. While it is legitimate to mark the day, let it remain at the level of romanticism.

On the other hand, the Federal Government which declared no victor no vanquished when the war ended should stop behaving like a victor who takes a whole race as spoils of battle. This is by way of marginalising the Igbo and treating them as second class citizens.

It can also be argued that since Igbo people are found everywhere, it is necessary for them also to allow other ethnic groups to blossom in their own land.

These and others are the ways we can all forget the pains of the past.

Read the history of Biafra here on Wikipedia

“Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was according to Wikipedia, a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south). The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new state that was pushing for recognition was among the causes of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War.

The state was formally recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania and Zambia. Other nations which did not give official recognition but which did provide support and assistance to Biafra included Israel, France, Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa and Vatican City. Biafra also received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy Ghost Fathers of Ireland, Caritas International, MarkPress and U.S. Catholic Relief Services.

After two-and-a-half years of war, during which a million civilians had died in fighting and from famine, Biafran forces agreed to a ceasefire with the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG), and Biafra was reintegrated into Nigeria.

Secession

Main article: Nigerian Civil War

In 1960, Nigeria became independent of the United Kingdom. As with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic boundaries. Thus the northern Sudan and Sahelian Savannah region of the country is made up of Muslim majority, while the southern population was predominantly Christian and Animist. Furthermore, Nigeria’s oil, its primary source of income, was located in the south of the country.

Following independence, Nigeria was divided primarily along ethnic lines with Hausa and Fulani in the north, Yoruba in the south-west, Ijaws in the south and Igbo in the south-east. In January 1966, a group of primarily eastern Igbo led a military coup during which 30 political leaders including Nigeria’s Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and the Northern premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, were killed. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the President, of Igbo extraction, and the premier of the southeastern part of the country were not killed.

In July 1966 northern officers and army units staged a counter-coup. Muslim officers named a Christian from a small ethnic group (the Anga) in central Nigeria, General Yakubu “Jack” Gowon, as the head of the Federal Military Government (FMG). The two coups deepened Nigeria’s ethnic tensions. In September 1966, approximately 30,000 Igbo were killed in the north, and some Northerners were killed in backlashes in eastern cities.

Ojukwu, therefore, declared: “Now, therefore, I, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles, recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters shall henceforth be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of “The Republic of Biafra”.

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

In January 1967, the military leaders and senior police officials of each region met in Aburi, Ghana and agreed on a loose confederation of regions. The Northerners were at odds with the Aburi Accord; Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the Western Region warned that if the Eastern Region seceded, the Western Region would also, which persuaded the northerners.

After the federal and eastern governments failed to reconcile, on 26 May the Eastern region voted to secede from Nigeria. On 30 May, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Eastern Region’s military governor, announced the Republic of Biafra, citing the Easterners killed in the post-coup violence.The large amount of oil in the region created conflict, as oil was a major component of the Nigerian economy. The Eastern region was very ill equipped for war, out-manned, and out-gunned by the military of the remainder of Nigeria. Their advantages included fighting in their homeland and support of most Easterners. The British and Soviet support (especially militarily) of the Nigerian government played a major role in the outcome of the war.

The FMG launched “police measures” to annex the Eastern Region on 6 July 1967. The FMG’s initial efforts were unsuccessful; the Biafrans successfully launched their own offensive, occupying areas in the Mid-Western Region in August 1967. By October 1967, the FMG had regained the land after intense fighting. In September 1968, the federal army planned what Gowon described as the “final offensive”. Initially the final offensive was neutralised by Biafran troops. In the latter stages, a Southern FMG offensive managed to break through the fierce resistance.

On 30 June 1969, the Nigerian government banned all Red Cross aid to Biafra; two weeks later it allowed medical supplies through the front line, but restricted food supplies. Later in October 1969, Ojukwu appealed to the United Nations to mediate a cease-fire. The federal government called for Biafra’s surrender. In December, the FMG managed to cut Biafra in half, primarily by the efforts of 3 Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian Army, led by then Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, popularly called “The Black Scorpion”, and later by Olusegun Obasanjo. Ojukwu fled to Côte d’Ivoire, leaving his chief of staff, Philip Effiong, to act as the “officer administering the government”. Effiong called for a cease-fire 12 January and submitted to the FMG. More than one million people had died in battle or from starvation. Biafra was reabsorbed into Nigeria on 15 January.