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Biafra Agitation: Any Justification
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1.4 The Consequences of the Biafran War.
After
the Biafran surrender, the Nigerian military head of state, Yakubu
Gowon, declared that there was ‘No Victor No Vanquished’ and declared
the move of the federal government towards reconciliation,
rehabilitation and reconstruction concerning the war. In reality, the
opposite became the case for the war continued in a worse form; no
longer as two independent sovereignties but as a conqueror nation and
the conquered territory. Contrary to the expectation of the Easterners,
there was a systematic further blockade of relief materials immediately
after the Biafran surrender by the Nigerian government, causing more
civilian deaths even more than recorded within the last weeks of the
war. Many Biafran soldiers were shot by Nigerian troops after their
surrender and those who survived were dismissed from the forces like
army, police etc. Many people’s last drop of hope for survival of the
extremely dehumanizing war-caused conditions were destroyed when they
were allowed only twenty pounds each from all they loaded into Nigerian
banks before the war ended, while those paralyzed by the war have since
then been languishing at Oji uncared for. Again, the reconstruction
propaganda has not been matched with action as the wanton destructions
of the war have remained forgotten by the federal government. To ever
increase their sufferings and equally create disunity among the
Easterners, the properties of the Igbos in some places, especially in
Port-Harcourt, were declared abandoned till today. Besides making life
ever more difficult for the Igbos, this was meant to create disunity
between the Igbos and the inhabitants of Port-Harcourt, who being
desperate beyond control would most likely accept the offer of
inheriting the properties of the Igbos in their midst. To facilitate the
destruction of Igbo solidarity and identity, many Igbo communities have
been forced to states dominated by Igbo-hostile communities, which
makes these Igbos deny their Igbo identity in order to escape
maltreatment. As these people were still desperately battling with these
blood-sucking and dehumanizing situations, indigenization policy was
introduced to sell the indigenized foreign companies to the ‘real
citizens’ of Nigeria; like the Yorubas who benefited most and are now
the sole controllers of the economic sector of the federation. This was
systematically done in order to permanently nail the Easterners to
poverty and state of total exclusion, while the ‘real citizens’
over-take them and permanently maintain control of every sector of the
federal government. Thus after everything, the Hausas control power,
Yorubas control economy, while the Igbos are labourers.
These and so
many other steps continually being added in order to systematically and
completely shatter the ‘Biafrans’ have continually and increasingly been
the case for more than thirty years after their surrender. This ever
worsening situation of perpetual slavery and dehumanization becoming
increasingly unbearable, and without any hope for a future change, this
people remembered Biafra again and bounced back to it but in a new way;
it is now a new Biafra.
1 I.R.A.Ozugbo,A History Of Igboland In The 20th Century, Snaap Press Ltd., Enugu, 1999, p.33.
2 Mag-Gen A. Madiebo, The Nigerian Revolution And The Biafran War , Fourth Dimension Publishers Co. LTD., Enugu, 1980, p.3.
3 Loc.cit.
4 I.R.A. Ozigbo, Op.cit. p.15.
5 Mag-Gen A.A. Madiebo, Op.cit. p.10
5 B.C. Nwankwor, Authority In Government, Almond Publishers, Makurdi, 1992, p.201-202.
6 I.R.A. Ozigbo, Op.cit. p.15.
7 B.C. Nwankwor, Op.cit. p.223.
8 J.N. Uwalaka, Igbos To Be Or Not To Be, Snaap Press LTD., Enugu, 2003, P.50.
9 Loc.cit.
10
F. Aghamelu, Political Activities In Nigeria Before And After
Independence, Unpublished Work, Pope John Paul ii Major Seminary, Okpuno
Awka, 2003, p.148.
11 B. Gbulie, Nigeria’s Five Majors, Africana Educational Publishers (NIG) LTD, Onitsha, 1981, p.52.
[2] Ibid., p.27-28.
[3] C. Enonchong., Who Killed Major Nzeogwu? Ranorama Books, Calabar, 1987., p.15-16
[4] Maj-Gen A.A. Madiebo, Op.cit., Chapt.1
[5] Loc.cit.
[6] Ibid,. P.11-13.
[7] B. Gbulie, Op.cit., p.6-8
[8] Ibid., p.36, 38-39, 56.
[9] Ibid., p.160.
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