Nigeria is inundated with diverse cultural, religious and ethnic diversities. The history of the country is equally crucially impacted. Lagos was invaded by British forces in 1851 and annexed in 1865. Nigeria became a British protectorate in 1901, while the amalgamation of Northern and Southern protectorates took place in 1914. Colonisation lasted until 1960 when Nigeria had independence. Nigeria first became a republic in 1963 but succumbed to military rule three years later, after a bloody coup d’état. Thereafter, the events took place in the context of military coups d’état and in the prelude to the Nigerian Civil War.
The immediate precursor to the war was the January 1966 Nigerian coup d’etat led mostly by young Igbo officers. Most of the politicians and senior army officers killed by them were northerners, including the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto.
An Igbo officer, Aguiyi-Ironsi, then assumed power. He established a military government led by himself as supreme commander. Thus, Aguiyi-Ironsi became Nigeria’s first military head of state.
On Monday, January 17, 1966, he appointed military governors for the four regions. Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was appointed Military Governor of Eastern Region. Others were: Lt. Cols. Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid West). These men formed the Supreme Military Council, with Brigadier B.A.O. Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters; Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff, Army Headquarters.
On 29 July 1966, a group of officers, including then Majors Murtala Muhammed, Theophilus Danjuma and Martin Adamu, led the majority Northern soldiers in a mutiny that later developed into a “Counter-Coup” or “July Rematch”. The Supreme Commander, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host, Colonel Fajuyi were abducted and killed at Ibadan.
On acknowledging Ironsi’s death, Ojukwu insisted that the military hierarchy be preserved. In that case, the most senior army officer after Ironsi, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, should take over leadership, not then Colonel Gowon (the coup plotters’ choice). However, the leaders of the counter-coup insisted that Colonel Gowon be made head of state. Both Gowon and Ojukwu were of the same rank in the Nigeria Army then (Lt. Colonel) and were almost of the same age, 32 and 33 respectively.
Ogundipe could not muster enough force to establish his authority. Thus, Ojukwu’s insistence could not be enforced. Gowon became the head of the military government. The fall-out from this led to a stand-off between Ojukwu and Gowon, leading to the sequence of events that resulted in the Civil War.
By May 29, the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom started. It was with this background that increasing ethnic rivalries led to further massacres. By the time the pogrom ended, many people were dead. Although Colonel Gowon was issuing guarantees of safety to Southern Nigerians living in the North, the pogrom was intense. Ojukwu did everything in his power to prevent reprisals and even encouraged people to return, as assurances for their safety had been given by his colleagues.
Following the pogrom and other sequential events, it was obvious that things had fallen apart and the centre could no longer hold. In January 1967, the Nigerian military leadership, including Gowon and Ojukwu, went to Aburi, Ghana, for a peace conference, hosted by General Joseph Ankrah.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the agreements reached at Aburi fell apart upon the leadership’s return to Nigeria, and on May 30, 1967, as a result of this, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as BIAFRA. There were other peace accords that tried to avoid the war. There was the 1968 Niamey (Niger Republic) Peace Conference under President Hamani Diori and the 1968 OAU-sponsored Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Conference under the Chairmanship of Emperor Haile Selassie. These were the final efforts by General Ojukwu and General Gowon to settle the conflict at the Conference Table; all to no avail, and on July 6, 1967, Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra. Nigeria had eighty-five thousand troops as against Biafra’s ten thousand troops. The war ended exactly fifty years ago today on January 15, 1970.
Thereafter, General Gowon declared that there was no victor, no vanquished. Suffice it to say that a people were beaten but not defeated. Nigeria as a united country survived that war by divine intervention. Kudos must, however, go to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state, who, on January 12, 2015, 45 years after, led Ndigbo to perform a highly spiritual and traditional rite, titled ‘Ozoemezina’ at the Dr Alex Ekwueme square, Awka, in memory of the unburied dead and all those who lost their lives during the war. That is a commendable attribute of a good leader who hearkens to the heartbeat of his people.
Lessons learnt from that avoidable war are legion. It shows that war is never a lasting solution to any problem because what you cannot achieve through peace, you can never achieve through war. Also, diversity is an aspect of human existence that cannot be eradicated by war. It can only be conquered by recognizing and claiming the wealth of value it represents for all.
Again, it is the failure to see this planet as a single entity that causes so much pain so many times. God has given us many faiths but only one world in which to co-exist. Those who saw the war will never ever succumb to another war in the land. War, however, is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal. To our young ones, though what caused the war has not been addressed, only the dead sees the end of any war.
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