Biafra: 50 years after, Nigeria has shown it is the victor, Igbo the vanquished

By Emeka Mamah, Anayo Okoli, Dennis Agbo, Peter Okutu & Yinka Ayaji
When then Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu declared that the Eastern Region had seceded from the rest of the country on May 30, 1967, many had thought mere police action was all that was required to quell the Biafran rebellion.

But it took three years for the administration of General Yakubu Gowon to end the civil war on January 16, 1970 when Ojukwu’s then chief of staff, General Phillip Effiong, made a formal surrender statement/declaration at a ceremony in Lagos. At the end of the war, the Gowon regime invented the ‘No victor no vanquished’ slogan to signal that there was no winner or loser in the war.

The administration followed up the slogan with the catch-phrase ‘One Nigeria’. But 50 years after Ojukwu declared the hostilities that claimed millions of lives, mostly on the Biafran side, many Igbo people say the conditions that made the civil war inevitable still haunt them today. They allege that they are still marginalised by the Nigerian federation.

Consequently, whereas some Igbo are taking the extreme option of asking for separation from Nigeria, many others want a restructuring of the federation to redress the alleged marginalisation. Meanwhile, the fact is that 50 years after the secessionist bid was launched, many of the challenges that ignited Biafra are unresolved remains an issue for many Igbo people.

For instance, Mazi Kalu Onuoha Orji, a septuagenarian, who fought on the side of Biafra in the civil war, believes nothing has changed in then situation of the Igbo in the federation and now.

‘What led to the declaration of Biafra 50 years ago is still happening. Look at how we are being treated, not even as a second but third class citizens. Our people are using their blood to develop this country,” Orji told Sunday Vanguard last week. “The Federal Government must show courage and give Ndigbo their deserved sense of belonging; otherwise the agitation for Biafra will not die.”