Forty -six years after General Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra,former Abia state governor Dr.Orji Uzor Kalu believes Nigerians should thank the Civil War for keeping them together.
Kalu explained that because of the experience, twice, the country diplomatically shied away from war- during the June 12 years and the gloomy days of Niger-Delta militancy.
Said Kalu,”When Ojukwu declared Biafra on May 30 1967,war became imminent.And when it came,millions of lives were lost in the crisis that lasted for about three years.We have to salute Biafra for keeping Nigeria alive.During the June 12 1993 tumult,there could have been war but when Nigerian leaders remembered the past,they quickly pacified the Yoruba with the Presidency in 1999.”
Indeed the Yoruba had made the nation ungovernable.Chief Moshood Abiola was in confinement,General Obasanjo landed in jail,Gen.Dipo Diya was awaiting death,Chiefs Alfred Rewane[Yoruba by association],Bisoye Tejuosho,Suliat Adedeji,Kudirat Abiola and Dr.Shola Omoshola were assassinated.
According to Kalu,”when democracy returned in 1999,Niger-Delta activists extended the agitations of Adaka Boro.From the Odi massacre to the elimination of Chiefs Marshal Harry and Aminasoari Dokubo,they also made the country unsafe .That was the beginning of the rise of an Izon Presidency.”
The Civil War actually began on July 6 1967 when a Nigerian Artillery officer Lt.Gado Nasko, fired the first shot across Garkem.At that time,the Biafrans had not put up enough barricades to stem the onslaught.Four months after hostilities,Chief Jerry Enyeazu the father of Rangers,Heartland and Enyimba was querried by Gen. Yakubu Gowon for organising a soccer match between Enugu and Aba on May 30, 1970,exactly three years after Biafra was declared.
Kalu wondered if today anybody would remember May 30 as the day Biafra united Nigeria,even after giving Ojukwu a grand burial.