There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (27 page)

8.
Ibid. See also the preface I wrote for Richard Dowden’s book
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
(London: Portobello Books, 2008).

9.
Ibid.

10.
Adapted and updated from the following: Bradford Morrow, “Chinua Achebe, An Interview,”
Conjunctions
17 (Fall 1991); Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,”
Transition
; Lindfors,
Conversations with Chinua Achebe
.

11.
Ibid.

12.
From the preface I wrote for Richard Dowden’s book
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
.

1966

1.
Chinua Achebe,
Collected Poems
(New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

January 15, 1966, Coup

1.
An honorific title whose original meaning was likely “war leader” or “captain of
the bodyguards,” depending on the Hausa language expert one talks to.

The Dark Days

1.
It is important to mention that Dr. Ogan was educated in Great Britain and was the
first board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist not just in Nigeria, but if I am not
mistaken, in all of West Africa! Dr. Ogan is a remarkable man who came from an extraordinary
family of achievers in Item, Imo state; his younger brother Agu Ogan, a future professor
of biochemistry and rector of Federal Polytechnic, Owerri, also became a close friend.
Dr. Okoronkwo Ogan served his nation admirably and, with so many others, he served
Biafra with equal distinction when the time came, in his case as a wartime surgeon
at several places, including St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Umuahia. I remember being told
by him how he was often overwhelmed by the sheer number of war wounded brought to
his surgical service. These were Biafran army casualties, killed and maimed at the
hands of Egyptian mercenary pilots flying for the Nigerian air force because the Nigerians,
not surprisingly, did not have enough well-trained pilots!

2.
Ikejiani was well-known for his attempts to end nepotism and clannishness in the
Coal Corporation, fully integrating the organization that he ran with qualified Nigerians
from all over the nation. His efforts drew great ire in many quarters.

3.
Author’s recollections. Also Ezenwa-Ohaeto,
Chinua Achebe: A Biography.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Chinua Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra.”
Transition
.

6.
Robin Luckham,
The Nigerian Military: A Sociological Analysis of Authority and Revolt, 1960–1967
. African Studies Series, vol. 4 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Archive,
1971), p. 17.

7.
Chinua Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria
(Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983), p. 43.

B
ENIN
R
OAD

1.
Chinua Achebe,
Collected Poems
(New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

A History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment

1.
Achebe
The Trouble with Nigeria
, p. 46.

2.
Ibid. Paul Anber, “Modernisation and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos,”
Journal of
Modern African Studies
5, no. 2 (September 1967), pp. 163–79. Anber’s work provides a snapshot of the threat
that Igbo educational, economic, and political success posed to other ethnic groups
in Nigeria’s perpetual internal struggles for political and economic dominance. His
work also provides useful background information on the ethnic rivalry that existed
in Nigeria right up to independence and beyond. Robert M. Wren,
J. P. Clark
(Farmington Hills, MI: Twayne Publishers, 1984).

3.
Anber. “Modernisation and Political Disintegration,” pp. 163–79.

4.
Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria,
p. 46.

5.
Anber, “Modernisation and Political Disintegration,” pp. 163–79.

6.
Ibid. Anber’s own observations of this shortcoming are instructive:

Like most parvenus, many Igbos also became arrogant and self-righteous in their new
status, thus arousing the resentment of other ethnic groups, the Northerners in particular,
whom the Igbos generally regarded contemptuously as backward and inferior. Caught
in the “revolution of rising expectations,” confronted with a political system in
which the numerically superior Northerners were destined to maintain dominance, cognisant
of the corruption in government circles and the obstacles to effective constitutional
change, the Igbos also quickly became aware of the contradiction between their aspirations
and the actualities of their condition. Their elevated status, educationally and economically,
contrasted with their subordinate status politically.

7.
Ibid. See also Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria,
pp. 48–49.

8.
Anber, “Modernisation and Political Disintegration,” pp. 163–79.

9.
Crawford Young,
The Politics of Cultural Pluralism
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979), p. 467.

10.
Ibid.

11.
Anber, “Modernisation and Political Disintegration,” pp. 163–79.

12.
Ibid. See also Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria,
p. 25.

13.
Young,
The Politics of Cultural Pluralism
, p. 467.

14.
Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria,
p. 25.

15.
Falola and Heaton
, A History of Nigeria
, with special attention to timeline and notable people in Nigerian history; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military
; Achebe,
The Trouble with Nigeria.

The Army

1.
Information passed on to me directly from Christopher Okigbo and other personal sources;
Alexandar Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War (Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers,
1980)
, p. 14; Adewale Ademoyega,
Why We Struck: The Story of the
First Nigerian Coup
(Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Brothers, 1981).

2.
Ademoyega,
Why We Struck
; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military.

3.
Alex Madiebo, Robin Luckham, Dr. Nowa Omoigui, and other authorities on this subject
suggest that over two scores of military officers and civilians were killed during
that bloody coup. These include: “Chief F. S. Okotie-Eboh, Finance Minister of the
Federation; Brigadier Zakari Mai-Malari, Commander of the 2nd Brigade Nigerian Army;
and Colonel K. Mohammed, Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army. Other casualties of this coup
were Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. Unegbe, Quartermaster General; Lieutenant-Colonel J.
T. Pam, Adjutant General, Nigerian Army; Lieutenant-Colonel A. Largema, Commanding
Officer 4th Battalion, Ibadan; and S. L. Akintola, Premier of Western Nigeria.”

Apart from Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, “the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern
Nigeria, others killed in the north included Brigadier S. Ademulegun, Commander of
the 1st Brigade NA; Colonel R. A. Shodeinde, Deputy Commandant, Nigerian Defense Academy;
Ahmed Dan Musa, Senior Assistant Secretary (Security) to the North Regional Government;
and Sergeant Duromola Oyegoke of the Nigerian Army. There were rumors that the senior
wife of Sir Ahmadu Bello and the wife of Brigadier Ademulegun were also killed.”

There were a number of political leaders whose lives were spared but were nevertheless
arrested and detained in Lagos and Kaduna: “Sir Kashim Ibrahim—Governor of Northern
Nigeria; Aba Kadangare Gobara—Assistant Principal Private Secretary to the Premier
of Northern Nigeria; Alhaji Hassan Lemu—Principal private secretary to the Premier
of Northern Nigeria; and B. A. Fani-Kayode—at the time Deputy Premier of Western Nigeria.”

Sources
: Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War
; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military
; Arthur Nwankwo and Samuel Ifejika,
Biafra
:
The Making of a Nation
(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1969); Nowamagbe Omoigui, “Military Rebellion of 15th
January 1966,” Part I, Urhobo Historical Society, www.org/nigerdelta/nigeria_facts/MilitaryRule/Omoigui/1966Comp=Part1.html.

4.
Major General Alexander Madiebo (Ret.), commander of the Biafran army, recalls this
period this way:

The January coup was widely acclaimed all over the country, including the northern
Region, where top civil servants celebrated its success and apparently happy ending
by holding parties both in their homes and in public places. Acting against my advice
that it was improper from the protocol point of view, Katsina [Governor of the Nigerian
Northern Region] visited my house immediately after his appointment. He brought with
him his entire entourage of police outriders and patrol cars and a carload of drinks.
We all drank to the health of Ironsi. We drank to the health of the new governors.
We drank to the survival of a new Nigeria. Katsina would probably say now, I did all
that to deceive old Alex into believing all was well. I sincerely believed that he
was acting in good faith that night we drank the toasts.

Source
: Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War
.

5.
The coup plotters had killed Brigadier Zak Maimalari, Lieutenant Colonel Abogo Largema,
and the prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

6.
Members of his supreme military council included: “Babafemi Ogundipe as Chief of
Staff, Nigerian Defense forces; Yakubu Gowon as Chief of Staff, Army; and Military
governors of the four regions at the time. These were Chukwuemeka Ojukwu—Military
Governor of Eastern Region; Adekunle Fajuyi—Military Governor of Western Region; David
Ejoor—Military Governor of Mid-western Region; and Hassan Katsina-Military Governor
of the Northern Region.”

Sources
: Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War
; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military;
Nwankwo and Ifejika,
Biafra
; Henryka Schabowska and Ulf Himmelstrand,
Africa Reports on the Nigerian Crisis: News, Attitudes, and Background Information:
A Study of Press Performance, Government Attitude to Biafra and Ethno-Political Integration
(Upsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1978).; Philip Effiong,
Nigeria and Biafra: My Story
(Princeton: Sungai, 2004); Ademoyega,
Why We Struck
; Metz,
Nigeria
.

Interviews with retired Nigerian soldiers; and Omoigui, “Military Rebellion of 15th
January 1966.”

7.
They were actively being told this, mainly by local and foreign observers and radio
and diplomatic types.

8.
Nzeogwu was moved to Aba’s prison. Of his coconspirator: Major Ifeajuna was transferred
to Uyo’s prison; Majors Adewale Ademoyega and Tim Onwuatuegwu to Enugu’s prison; Captain
Gbulie to Abakaliki’s prison; and Major I. H. Chukwuka and Captain Nwobosi were both
transferred to Owerri’s prison.

Sources
: Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War
; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military;
Nwankwo and Ifejika,
Biafra
; Ademoyega,
Why We Struck
; and Omoigui, “Military Rebellion of 15th January 1966.”

9.
The most bizarre story is the one that says the riots were provoked by a brand of
bread named Nzeogwu that had a picture depicting him as St. George the crusader slaying
a dragon drawn in the likeness of the Sardauna of Sokoto.

Countercoup and Assassination

1.
Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War
, p. 43; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military
.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ibid., p, 62; Luckham,
The Nigerian Military
; interviews with retired Nigerian soldiers; Nwankwo and Ifejika,
Biafra
; Schabowska and Himmelstrand,
Africa Reports on the Nigerian Crisis
.

6.
Here are some chilling statistics: Of the 206 individuals murdered during this countercoup
(almost ten times as many as during the January 15 coup), 185 were from the East,
19 were from the Mid-Western Region, and 6 from the Western Region. Not a single person
from the North lost their life during this blood fest.

Source
: Luckham,
The Nigerian Military
.

7.
Achebe, “The Duty and Involvement of the African Writer”; Also Chinua Achebe,
The Education of a British-Protected Child
(London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2009).

The Pogroms

1.
Chinua Achebe, “Chinua Achebe on Biafra,”
Transition
, pp. 31–38.

2.
The hysteria would be heightened by a most sensational news item of that time: A
four-engine propeller plane, “a Royal Air Burundi DC-4M Argonaut, flown by . . . Henry
Wharton/Heinrich Wartski, crashlanded at Garoua, in Cameroun [
sic
], while carrying a load of arms from Rotterdam.” Henry A. Wharton, a German-American,
was arrested. The newspapers alleged that the load of arms was en route to Biafra.

Sources
: Tom Cooper, “Civil War in Nigeria (Biafra) 1967–70,”
Western & Northern African Database
, November 13, 2003; Metz,
Nigeria.

P
ENALTY OF
G
ODHEAD

1.
Chinua Achebe
, Collected Poems
(New York: Anchor Books, 2004).

The Aburi Accord

1.
Madiebo,
The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War,
p. 92; Nwankwo and Ifejika,
Biafra
; Schabowska and Himmelstrand,
Africa
Reports on the Nigerian Crisis
; Joe O. G. Achuzia,
Requiem Biafra
(Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1986); Metz,
Nigeria.