“ Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran have been thwarted by the desire of the central government of Nigeria to pursue total and unconditional victory and by fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now – and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through channels, or to observe the diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is an immoral objective even in the most moral of wars. It can never be justified; it can never be condoned.” U.S. President Richard Nixon’s campaign speech on September 10, 1968
The Nigeria-Biafra war which was (under) estimated by Gowon and his top officers to last not more than three months, had lasted more than two years by July 1969. By an inexplicably suicidal instinct, Biafra had held on to the frustration of the Nigerian side. All the brutalities of an overwhelming force and the air bombardments overtly aided by British fire power had still not totally subdued the ‘rebels’. The economic blockade of the ‘rebels’ was thus reinforced and the noose tightened. All the seaports to Biafra had been closed at the beginning of hostilities with the creation of Mid-West, Rivers and South Eastern states which isolated the Biafra state of East Central State. Biafra had also been isolated from the major oil wells by this singular action.
Further economic and food blockades had been devised as state policy and were being strictly implemented. No agreement could be reached between the two warring parties as to the modus of shipping essential supplies to the ‘rebel’ enclave. Ojukwu insisted on air routes, fearing food poisoning if supplies come through Nigeria moderated channels but the Nigerian government would not hear of it, worried that arms may be smuggled in via that method. In his writing for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ series, New Issues, Professor Nathaniel H Goetz of Pepperdine University thus captures the complexity of the standoff: “Politically, the possibility of a land corridor seemed impossible. One of the many disagreements between the warring parties was simple, yet it illustrates both the mistrust and complexity of what was occurring: Ojukwu forbade the necessary food to reach the country through the neutral corridor for fear Nigerian troops would poison it… on June 5 (1968), an ICRC DC-7 aircraft was shot down by the Federal air force over Biafra, killing the three aid workers on board. Because of this incident, serious disputes over the conduct of relief operations arose and the airlift was again suspended.”
While the diplomatic face-off went on, the scourges of hunger, diseases and deaths raged on in war-ravaged Biafra eliciting uproar across the world. Dan Jacobs, author of the book, “The Brutality of Nations” wrote about the lamentations of Pope Paul VI over this situation: “The war seems to be reaching its conclusion, with the terror of possible reprisals and massacre against defenseless people worn out by deprivations, by hunger and by the loss of all they possess… there are those who actually fear a kind of genocide.”
Jacobs also quoted the editorial of the Washington Post of July 2, 1969: “One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria’s decision to stop the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), and other relief agencies from flying food to Biafra.”
The International Committee in the Investigation of Crimes of Genocide led by a Ghanaian, Dr. Mensah after its investigation of the conflict, reported thus: “I am of the opinion that in many of the cases cited to me, hatred of the Biafrans (mainly Igbos) and a wish to exterminate them was a foremost motivational factor.”
Let us take a final quote on the international outcry against the Federal Government’s handling of Biafra from no less a personage than Arthur Schlesinger, American historian and scholar of note: “The terrible tragedy of the people of Biafra has now assumed catastrophic dimensions. Starvation is daily claiming the lives of estimated 6,000 Igbo tribesmen, most of them children. If adequate food is not delivered to the people in the immediate future, hundreds of thousands of human beings will die of hunger.”
It is from the foregoing, from the gloomy umbra of this genocidal turn of events that Achebe concludes that the highly respected Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo could not be watching this gory Biafran drama happen, not to talk of being part of it and worse, being the master mind. “All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.” This is the alleged refrain from Chief Awolowo and reechoed by people like Chief Allison Ayida, says Achebe. This pogrom by hunger was steadfastly reinforced with such grim policies as state creation, secret currency change, the 20 pounds punishment, the ban on importation of certain commodities and the Indigenisation Act. All this orchestrated war of attrition to what end than to asphyxiate Ndigbo?
How, when and why did Igbo brothers and sisters suddenly become mortal ‘enemies’ to be strafed, starved to death and exterminated so that the rest of Nigeria would have peace? Why was the reprisal coup not stopped at killing Aguiyi-Ironsi and Igbo officers; why did over 30,000 defenceless civilians have to be slaughtered with no questions asked? What manner of leader would fold his hands and watch while his people are killed like rats in a senseless pogrom without putting up a fight no matter how feeble?
Achebe is saying that Chief Awolowo providing the intellectual prowess behind these sinister policies means that we still did not know at which point the rain started to beat us. He is saying that Igbo is not the problem of Nigeria. Achebe is asking: who jailed Awolowo on trumped up charges; who killed Adekunle Fajuyi, then governor of Western Region in cold blood, for no reason; who chased away the most senior military officer (Brigadier Ogundipe) and installed a stooge as head of state; who made sure Awo never became president of Nigeria; who killed Ken Saro-Wiwa, who made sure M.K.O. Abiola never became president and eventually killed him, his wife and damaged his businesses; who jailed Obasanjo; who always insists that he always must rule or determine who rules?
Achebe expected Chief Awolowo, as the Yoruba leader of that era, who had just been freed from an unjust imprisonment to stand up against the injustice of the pogrom against Igbo in the north; he expected him to speak up against the raging genocide unleashed on Ndigbo the way others like Wole Soyinka, Victor Banjo and a few other Yoruba spoke against it, instead of aiding and abetting it.
EPILOGUE: REQUIEM FOR BIAFRA; QUO VADIS NIGERIA? On January 15, 1970, the Biafran delegation, which was led by Major-General Philip Effiong and included Sir Louis Mbanefo, M.T. Mbu, Col. David Ogunewe and other Biafran military officers, formally surrendered at Dodan Barracks to the troops of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Forty-two years ago, the rest of Nigeria teamed up seeking to exterminate the Igbo race in Nigeria, putting down more than two million and leaving the rest deprived, wretched and psychologically traumatised for no just cause. Forty two years after, all the rehabilitation and reconstruction promised was never to be. A trip through Igbo land today is enough proof of an ongoing ‘war’ by other means. Today, Igbo that was a pillar of the land, one of the majority tribes has been deliberately reduced to sub- minority. The people now are the least in population! It has the least number of states, local government areas and consequently, the least share of the federal revenue allocation. All these wars of attrition notwithstanding, the current attitude is: we dare you to talk about it. But Achebe insists: “My aim is not to provide all the answers but to raise questions, and perhaps to cause a few headaches in the process.”
Sadly, Igbo land, the wretched remains of Biafra still bears the ugly marks of that near-annihilation, both physically and in the mind. For over four decades, Igbo still cannot dare to produce the President of Nigeria. For forty years, it remains tattered, disheveled and unkempt like an old hag. And because we have backed up the wrong tree, Nigeria generally has not fared much better either. The contorted creature sits pitiably today at a precipice staring down her deep, dark doom. Quo Vadis Nigeria?
