January 2014 marked the 44th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil
\nwar, and the end of the short lived Republic of Biafra. Biafra did not
\nlive long enough to see its third birthday.<\/p>\n
Although the war ended 44 years ago, wounds from it still fester. Many
\neastern Nigerians still wonder and ask what would have happened had Biafra
\nsucceeded. What if the federal government had agreed to \u201clet Biafra go?\u201d
\nOr if Biafra had hung on long enough for a United Nations resolution
\ncalling for the establishment of a new independent state in eastern
\nNigeria?<\/p>\n
Ostensibly, Biafra had the ingredients to succeed and become a successful
\nnation. It had an educated and skilled workforce, a charismatic head of
\nstate, a citizenry with a messianic zeal for their country to succeed,
\nnatural resources, a coastline, and perhaps most crucially of all \u2013
\nbillions of dollars worth of crude oil flowing underneath its soil.<\/p>\n
BIAFRA \u2013 A WORLD SUPERPOWER?<\/p>\n
With oil wealth and a vibrant citizenry, Biafra could have become Africa\u2019s
\nfirst world superpower. With citizens of the caliber of Nnamdi Azikiwe,
\nSir Louis Mbafeno, Matthew Mbu, Chike Obi, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Christopher
\nOkigbo, and Michael Okpara, it had men of foresight, intellect, and vision
\nto rival any nation in Africa. Academics, civil servants, diplomats,
\ndoctors, judges, mathematicians, professors, scientists, soldiers\u2026Biafra
\nhad them all. When Biafra seceded, it took not only a portion of Nigerian
\nterritory with it, but also a massive part of Nigeria\u2019s brainpower, army
\nofficers corps, and wealth.<\/p>\n
The remarkable ingenuity of Biafra\u2019s engineers during the war proved the
\nold adage that \u201cnecessity is the mother of all invention\u201d. Had the
\nshort-term technical ingenuity which led Biafra to refine fuel,
\nmanufacture everything from armoured vehicles to soap, and land mines
\nencased in milk churns, been allowed to continue long term; it may have
\nled to an industrial and technological revolution in west Africa. A
\ncountry full of people that could create, invent, lead, teach, think, and
\nfight. Surely nothing could stop such a country. The sky was the limit for
\na country blessed with so much talent, motivation, and patriotic intensity
\nto succeed. Biafra could have been Africa\u2019s answer to Israel; the little
\ncountry that punches above its weight and refuses to give in.<\/p>\n
THE \u201cJEWS OF AFRICA\u201d<\/p>\n
However as well as emulating Israel\u2019s benefits, Biafra may also have
\nmimicked Israel\u2019s problems. Igbos are often called \u201cThe Jews of Africa\u201d.
\nThe title is not fanciful. Had Biafra succeeded, it would have had similar
\ndemographic and geographic challenges to the world\u2019s only Jewish state. It
\nwould have been surrounded by hostile nations, while simultaneously facing
\nan armed insurrection within its borders by its own citizens.<\/p>\n
Biafra faced many challenges within; including a Game of Thrones style
\ncocktail of conspiracies, internal rivalries, politics, and in-fighting.
\nNot all eastern Nigerians approved of secession. The Efiks, Annangs,
\nIbibios, and Ijaws within Biafra were not enthusiastic about swapping a
\nNigerian passport under a Hausa-Fulani led government, with a Biafran
\npassport where they would be led by an Igbo government. How would the
\nethnic groups on Biafra\u2019s southern coast react to being minority citizens
\nof a country where most of the wealth is obtained from their land, but
\nwhere they did not have economic and political leadership? Probably in
\nthe way they reacted when the same circumstances arose in Nigeria; MEND,
\nNiger Delta People\u2019s Volunteer Force et al. The armed campaign of
\nkidnapping and violence which Niger Delta militants waged against the
\nNigerian federal government would instead have been waged within Biafra\u2019s
\nborders \u2013 against the Biafran government. Isaac Idaka Boro\u2019s short-lived
\nNiger Delta Peoples Republic (and the fact that Boro fought for the
\nNigerian federal army against Biafra) was a demonstration that Niger Delta
\nmilitants would have turned their guns on Biafra before long.<\/p>\n
NOISY NEIGHBOURS<\/p>\n
How would Biafra have related to its neighbours? To its northern border
\nwould have been one or two landlocked northern republics awash with
\ntrained combatant soldiers and guns. These landlocked countries would need
\nwould need deals with Biafra to gain access to the sea. If Biafra refused
\nor negotiations got difficult, their demands for access to the sea may
\nhave turned violent. Would these northern republics quietly tolerate the
\nnoisy, rich, and successful little nation to their south without envy or
\nrivalry? Unlikely.<\/p>\n
THE MID-WEST<\/p>\n
To Biafra\u2019s western border would have been a diverse country of Edos,
\nEsans, Isokos, Itsekiris, Urhobos, Ika-Igbos and others (modern day Delta
\nand Edo States). Would Biafra have closed its borders to its Igbo brothers
\nliving in the state next door? Two options were open to Biafra. It could
\nhave encouraged the Igbos living to its west to migrate to Biafra by
\ngranting them automatic Biafran citizenship under an Israel style \u201claw of
\nreturn\u201d. That of course would have presented its own problems by inferring
\nthat Biafra was an Igbo ethnic theocracy. It would also have fuelled fears
\namong non-Igbo Biafrans that Biafra was an Igbo project.<\/p>\n
The other option would have been to enlarge Biafra\u2019s territory by
\nextending its borders westward into Igbo speaking areas west of the River
\nNiger such as Asaba. Non-Igbos living in such areas were unlikely to
\naccept such territorial encroachment peacefully. Any Biafran attempt to
\nannex territory west of the Niger would have been violently resisted. Even
\nif successful, Biafran soldiers would have been viewed as an army of
\noccupation in the manner of British soldiers in Northern Ireland and
\nIsraeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.<\/p>\n
FORGIVENESS AND BEYOND<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s existence today owes much to the \u201cNo Victor, No Vanquished\u201d
\npolicy of Nigeria\u2019s leader General Gowon after the war. Had Gowon not
\ndeclared a blanket amnesty for all combatants and reintegrated some
\nBiafran soldiers back into the Nigerian army, there would likely have been
\na Biafran resistance army in existence for several decades. Conversely,
\nhad Biafra won the war; the bitterness caused by the 1966 pogroms and
\nslaughter of Igbos would have made it impossible to treat defeated
\nNigerians leniently. Biafran officer Colonel Ben Gbulie admitted that
\nGowon would not have lived to tell the tale of a Biafran victory. Gbulie
\nsaid “Probably if we had won the war, we would have shot him.” Biafran
\n\u2018pound of flesh\u2019 reprisals against those who so badly wounded it in 1966
\nwould have led to a decades long tit-fot-tat war to rival the Israelis and
\nArabs.<\/p>\n
Biafra\u2019s army would have been kept very busy. It would simultaneously have
\nto defend itself from two potentially hostile northern republics (one of
\nwhich was likely to be Islamic), fight resentful neighbours to its west
\nand\/or maintain an occupying army outside its borders to its west, and
\nsimultaneously try to suppress an armed rebellion within its borders by
\nNiger Delta militants. The military strain may have compelled Biafra to
\nintroduce compulsory military service for all adults, and would require it
\nto spend a sizeable chunk of its budget on defence and military
\nexpenditure.<\/p>\n
WOULD OJUKWU HAVE BECOME A DICTATOR?<\/p>\n
Biafra\u2019s leader Ojukwu was every inch the revolutionary leader:
\ncharismatic, iconic, and intelligent. He even wore the revolutionary\u2019s
\ntrademark green fatigues and intense beard. He was almost Fidel
\nCastro-esque or Yassir Arafat-esque in that regard. However would Ojukwu\u2019s
\nstrong leadership have been able to resist a slide into a personality cult
\nor tyranny?<\/p>\n
For all his articulation and intelligence, Ojukwu was no democrat. He
\nhimself admitted that leaders do not voluntary surrender power. Instead
\npower must be wrestled from their hands. The execution of Alale, Banjo,
\nand Ifeajuna demonstrated that Ojukwu was not safe from his own people,
\nand the lengths he would go to in order to remain in power. He also fired,
\nthen arrested and detained, his army commander Brigadier Hilary Njoku (who
\nhad disagreed with him and questioned the wisdom if fighting a war against
\nan army with vast superiority in manpower and weaponry).<\/p>\n
Biafra had several officers who were senior to, or had equal seniority
\nwith, Ojukwu in the pre-war Nigerian army. Many of these officers did not
\nenjoy Ojukwu\u2019s arrogance or having to serve under a junior officer. Ojukwu
\nwould eventually have faced a coup or assassination. Even if he somehow
\nmanaged to faced down coups or escape the assassin\u2019s bullet, it would have
\ncome at a price. Biafra\u2019s paranoid \u201cSabo\u201d mentality would have led him to
\nestablish a KGB or Orwellian-like secret police to keep continual watch on
\nhis population and potential enemies within. Biafra would not have been an
\noasis of freedom.<\/p>\n
The defection of Ijaw air force officer George Kurubo demonstrated that
\nsome non-Igbo ethnic groups did not have their hearts entirely in Biafra.
\nSeveral other non-Igbo officers were also likely to defect. The suspicion
\nwith which Igbos regarded their ethnic neighbours such as the Efik,
\nIbibio, and Ogoni was likely to have led to racial profiling of these
\nethnic groups by Biafran intelligence services (further increasing their
\nhostility to the Igbo leadership).<\/p>\n
Biafra was not immune from corruption either. If some Biafrans could sell
\nweapons to an enemy that was resolutely determined to bomb them into the
\nstone age, and which continually bombed women and starving children in
\nhospitals and markets, could embezzle funds meant for the welfare of
\nBiafran troops and the purchase of weapons, imagine what heights
\ncorruption could have reached in peacetime in a country awash with oil
\nmoney…<\/p>\n
Biafra may have been Nigeria in a microcosm.<\/p>\n
Max Siollun<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/maxsiollun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
January 2014 marked the 44th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war, and the end of the short lived Republic of Biafra. Biafra did not live long enough…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n