When the Biafra war broke out in the late 1960s. Millions of Igbo died. Thousands of Igbo children died of starvation and thousands more were either hacked to death or slashed into piece meat.
The Biafra soldiers had to face stiff resistance from both the north and the south. Facing two enemies is not dangerous enough but what is dangerous is the second enemy which also happens to be the closest to the Igbo are the northerners.
The hatred the northerners habour for the igbo started when Major Nzeogwu Kaduna led a failed coup which claimed the lives of northern elites like Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa et al before General Yakubu Gowon launched a counter coup that toppled Nzeogwu Kaduna’s short reign across half of Nigeria and claimed the life of Igbo vips like Aguiyi Ironsi. Looking at this scenario clearly we would see the Igbo drew first blood by provoking the northerners. Well they provoked the yorubas too by killing some of our leaders like Samuel Akintola and Brig. Gen Samuel Ademulegun. Though the yorubas may be forgiving but same can not be said of the northerners which we all know won’t take any thing laying still after the Igbo steered up their hornets’ nest.
The Hausas supported by the FMG drank the Igbo blood to their satisfaction, raped, maimed, killed and massacred the igbo in honor of their fallen leaders that lost their lives to the hasty and rash behaviors of the igbo.
By the time the northerners were done with them, the Igbo had no where to run because they had already turned their backs on the world by declaring a Biafra Republic and in return the whole world turned their back on them. Their closest allies like France and South Africa had to drop all support for them in fear of international economic and military sanctions on their nations. So the Igbo had to escape into forests with starvation on their necks and the Nigeria soldiers on their heels.
Soon enough hunger caught up with them, there were no food and no water to the extent that some had to start roasting the dead for lunch and dinner while some killed their children to feed them to the others for them to survive.
Along the way they started eating different leaves in the forest, some killed them, and some happened to be delicious delicacies from which the Igbo now derive soup delicacies like Orha soup, nzuza leaf and others that they now eat today.
At the peak of the war, their now late leader Captain Ojukwu absconded leaving power into the hands of his vice who eventually led the Biafra soldiers and the Igbo to surrender to General Olusegun Obasanjo at Dodan Barracks in Lagos in which the Igbo resolved that they are sorry and have unanimously agreed that Biafra has ceased to exist.
After that many Igbo millionaires and billionaires became penniless Cuz they had foolishly converted their money to the Biafra currency which was eventually rendered null and void and absolutely useless…I’m afraid such is about to happen again. At the end of the war the Igbo were forgiven and factored back into Nigeria, their homes and lands were restored back to them and they were given full privileges to enjoy every other benefits their fellow Nigerians enjoy.
But as rebellious as their nasty nature is like a stubborn child, they’ll keep doing the things that’ll keep getting them more flogging….
*Moral of the Story*
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it
Just like Senator Dino Melaye once said “Ajekun Iya ni o je, eni ti o toni mu to lo ndena de ni, ajekun iya ni o je”
Written by me:
Ayo Adeyemi
#AyoAdeyemiSpeaks
Historical Lessons for Biafra Agitating Igbos
