There is probably nothing more symbolically annoying in the entire Biafra aftermath than the status of Biafran veterans at Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, precisely at Oji River/Ugwuoba sector—the so-called "Wounded Knee" Junction. These comrades who barely made it out of the war assembled in Enugu, the political capital of Igboland, to seek help. But Maazi Ukpabi Asika did not want to be reminded of a war he sat out in occupied Enugu as "administrator." And so his regime equipped the eyesore with wheelchairs and wheeled them out over Udi Hills and down to Oji River, to a former colonial colony for lepers—as social lepers reduced to begging for food to stay alive!

Then you read the Ahiara Declaration:

For three decades, these brethren have mounted a guard of dishonor; it is a badge of shame on our collective responsibility as a people. We build mansions and palaces, and leave them out there in the open—exposed to the elements, hungry, hurting, and uncared for.... no, I will take that back: we care—we stop long enough to drop a few lousy notes to massage our conscience and move on, if we are not yet Balkanized into an out-of-way federal state with a fancy name.

Read again what the Principles of our great Revolution said:

For 27 lousy years we have reduced the dignity of these men, because of their disability. And we ask what is wrong with our society. It would have been sad if it wasn’t so inhuman. It does not bear to think what those who moved on, unburied and unmourned, would think of a race for which they laid down their lives. Only in Igboland. Only in Nigeria. Only in Africa. Wake up, people!

"..the most exciting incident was the sinking of aboat by a Biafran-made rocket...when the rocket was fired, it flew away towards the boats trailing behind it very heavy smoke. Halfway to the boats, the rocket veered right and then right again and appeared to be flying back directly to our trenches thereby causing considerable panic. All of a sudden, the rocket did a complete turn about and raced towards the enemy boats which was more than 200m away from the one it was aimed at. Hit by the powerful warhead the rocket was carrying, the boat began to smoke and finally explosions were heard as the boat tilted on its side. Screams of both the wounded and the frightened were distinctly audible and many soldiers were seen jumping into the river. Dozens of other rockets which were fired clearly missed their targets but the one hit scored was enough to put the fear of the Lord into the hearts of the enemy" 

"I can make the assertion here that if what the 'Biafran' Scientists had achieved in weaponry and general civilian goods manufactures  (without any foreign technicians and inputs) and the tempo with which they did those things, had been copied by Nigeria at the end of the Civil War in January 1970, when Gowon made his famous quote 'no victor, no vanquished",  Nigeria might not now be where it is scientifically and technologically, still very dependent on foreign inputs (in raw materials and personnel) for virtually all its so-called scientific and technological advances."

Professor  Eugene Arene

"The 'Biafran' Scientists (The Development of an African Indigenous Technology)" - January, 1996

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"...The coup planners [of July 29, 1966] were unwilling to hand over to Brigadier Ogundipe, who was then the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and the highest ranking officer in the absence of the Supreme Commander [General Aguiyi-Ironsi]. They slighted him also because in their eyes he was somebody who "did not belong." Ogundipe realized that he could not effectively command the Army ... He realized he would not be able to control the chaotic and confusing situation and arrest the imminent break-off of the North. He was made quietly and gracefully to exchange, with Lt.-Col. Yakubu Gowon, the post he should have assumed for the peaceful job of the Nigerian High Commissioner in London. At that time, Lt.-Col. Yakubu Gowon was the most senior Army officer of Northern origin....."

The ATROCITIES were so public even in the South (Lagos).... ...executions and torture... were common daylight occurrences known to Yakubu Gowon. As for the events in the [N]orth—let us simply sum it up and say that ATROCITIES did take place on a scale so vast and so thorough, and so well-organized that it was variously referred to as the Major Massacres (as distinct from the May rehearsals), genocide, and sometimes only as disturbances and—this gem is by Ukpabi Asika—a state of anomy!"

~Wole Soyinka, professor, Nobel Laureate

The Man Died, 1972

The Igbo were not a danger to anyone. The May and July murders had sapped their capacity to make any serious trouble. What explanations did you people have to keep you so silent in the face of those damnable days of September and October [1966].

What happened to all you people in the West [his ethnic Yoruba people]? Otegbeye and all those people who are never off the pages of the newspapers. Not a word of condemnation from anyone. No protest to Gowon [then head of state], not even a student demonstration, not one act of solidarity with the victims. How did the rest of the country expect them [Ndi Igbo] not to feel cut of?

The Man Died, 1972

You know, I learnt to use a gun right in the field. I had never fired even an air-rifle in my life. But this thing [Biafra War], I am going to stay with till the end.

The Man Died, 1972

That man [Chris Okigbo] should not be wolf to man. ... We loved him. He made his home in Ibadan ... The Igbo were being slaughtered.... And anyone who had any sense would be opposed to the Pogrom that was taking place. Okigbo was not a secessionist, but when it came to defending the rights of Nigerians to live wherever they wanted, he defended it and I support it.

We believed that we were fighting to ensure our very survival. It is true we lost the war, but we fought well enough and with sufficient determination to bring our grievances successfully to the notice of the entire world. Despite a negative world reaction, we made a significant impact which is a commendable achievement. What I am trying to say is succinctly summarised in the words of a French deputy, Ambassador Raymond Offroy, who had this to say after visiting the Biafran enclave: "Before I came to Biafra, I was told that Biafrans fought like heroes. But now I know that heroes fought like Biafrans."

By late 1969 I was 6 years old and do remember the corpses that littered that road. I can still hear the sound of bombs, Mark-IVs and ferrets, and the immaculate birds that flew sorties. The people marched that road in despair clutching whatever they can reach. The voice of little kids lost echoed through the days and nights. The confusion, fear and human determination (by Biafrans) were all of epic proportion.

Igbo--net, Wed, 26 Mar 1997

"It was a strange thing," a Nigerian colonel who fought the Ibos recalled one evening over a drink, "but when the war ended, it was like a referee blowing a whistle in a football game. People just put down their guns and went back to the business of living. You wonder now why the war was ever fought in the first place."

The Africans, 1983

But it is also true that the traumatic bitterness of the war is rich with lessons for toleration and understanding. These lessons are our only guarantee against instability, for they serve as a buffer to cushion us through the rough times ahead. ....We can strengthen this buffer by learning from the experience of Biafra.

~ Arthur A. Nwankwo, author/publisher

Nigeria: The Challenge of Biafra, 1972

My contention is that we went to war to keep Nigeria one and to us there was no Biafra and therefore we cannot talk of the leader of the rebellion as the Head of State of Biafra.

It is worthwhile mentioning here that following the abduction and massacre of the Supreme Commander [Gen. J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi], the intention of [Yakubu] Gowon and his fellow Northerners was to secede. Gowon, infact, personally told me over the phone (and the conversation was duly recorded) that the North wanted to secede. Much as the idea shocked me at the time, I told him that if that would lead to peace, they could go ahead. ... A speech had been prepared for him, announcing secession of the North..... There is evidence that the British High Commissioner in Lagos, after expounding to Gowon the opportunities now offered to him and the Northern people for the domination of Nigeria, also assured Gowon of the British government’s pledge to give him every support to maintain that domination. As a result, the speech as finally delivered by Gowon bore traces of very hasty amendment and edition which did not conceal the real underlining reason for the mutiny—and that the basis of unity in Nigeria did not exist.

Biafra: Selected Speeches and Random Thoughts]:

African Concord, November 4, 1996

I say, don’t forget the past.... Even the sun has its blind spot, where the window-light falls, gruffly, against the face of idiocy. I remember they added up our bank balance, and found 20 Nigerian pounds, when we needed a wellspring of hope to water a field of bitter vegetation. How does one cut off their nose to spite one’s face? So this is how Nigeria is pissing on her own grave.

Biafran Vistas,USAfricaonline, 1996

The lessons of Biafra are numerous. We, the Igbo, will do well to learn from that experience, and use it to shape the future that lies before us. We must retap into the inventive genius of our people that was unleashed during that conflict, as exemplified by the myriad inventions and innovations that were occasioned by the war. The mistakes that were made during the war must serve as guide posts as we march into the future. The war also has a lot of lessons to teach the outside world, including those who fought against us.

~ Uzo Okoroanyanwu, list administrator

But the Igbo appear to have learnt a lesson which will make it difficult for them to rebel as readily as they did in the past. It would appear that some people somewhere who always incited the Igbo into rebellion were never around whenever the confrontation began. If the Igbo can only give others a chance to fight their own wars, there may never be any more wars in Nigeria in which they will be involved directly.

~ Alexander A. Madiebo, rtd major-general Commander of the Biafran Armed Forces.

I do not deny the fact of secession in 1967... that is a historical fact. What I deny is that the Igbo community to which I belong has been planning for secession. Secession is not like COCAINE... it is not addictive. Today other people are feeling the pangs of what I felt twenty-five years ago. These people have my sympathies. These people not having the guts to say so have continued to murmur in the hope that I will take up the refrain. I will not. Today I have more reasons to seek a better Nigeria than I did. ...I have invested so heavily in Nigeria.

TSM, 1994

But his greatest handicap was that [Odumegwu-Ojukwu] combined in himself all the qualities and defects of his gifted Igbo people. On the defects, he was stubborn, arrogant with a rich, sometimes unbridled imagination. He was impulsive whihc made it difficult for him to benefit from the advice of men of exceptional intergrity such as Sir Louis Mbanefo, Prof, Eni Njoku, Dr. Akanu Ibiam and Dr. Pius Okigbo. These men were not politicians but intellectuals and thus were unable to override the intrigues and ambitions of those around the Biafran leader.

Nigeria: The Challenge of Biafra, 1972

Our problems go beyond democracy. Some of them render democracy unworkable. One of the most challenging problems is that we prefer to consume without producing. That is why we contest political power so fiercely. Political power gives us abundant coercive resources to appropriate and consume.

~ Claude Ake, Nigerian social scientist.

(The New York Times, October 12, 1995:

Since the civil war, I find myself reluctantly sharing the views of those who have doubts and fears about the security and future of our country. .... But as I once said, Nigeria is the only country we have and all of us are duty bound to come together and join hands in salvaging her from the decay and near collapse because of past misdeeds.

Our major problem as a nation is not politics itself.... Without sound social situation in this country which guarantees security of lives and property, without sound economic base, the type of democracy we have been looking forward to will continue to elude us a nation.

It is however the greatest disservice an army officer can do to his country and people if he plunges them into political darkness and keeps them there simply because he wants political power and wealth. No matter what a politician does, he must always avoid drawing his country’s army into politics for, in the final analysis, it cuts both ways, and the results could be contrary to all his expectations.

...I believe that it is better even from the point of survival to fight and be conquered than to surrender without fighting.

I am very excited to know that people like you have not forgotten Biafra and what it stands for in the general Igbo contest. I applaud your forsight and would wish to be included in your mailing list. I will support your effort both morally and financialy if need be. The Biafran War Memorial which will be commemorated on May 30, 1997, should be an awakening call for all [Ndi Igbo] to come together and pursue a common goal. Our survival as a people can only be protected by us. These kind of ideas will surely help us unite and move into the next century. God bless those who died in the defense of Biafra and the ideals for which it was born. God grant the souls of those innocent children, men and women who died with the belief that having Biafra, would have made their lives better. Ndi Igbo have suffered enough. Let those of us who are fortunate to come out and make a better life for ourselves, help the not-too-fortunate ones at home improve their stand in life. The birth of Biafra was to improve the quality of life of Ndi Igbo. Realizable or not, those ideals for which Biafra was born, should be projected by our leaders in the present multi-nation called Nigeria.

I still believe that the one thing that will bring peace, absolute peace, to this country, the type of peace we want attached to development, is to liberate Ndi Igbo and there is no better act of liberation than accepting that they have equal right in Nigeria.

~ ‘Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ikemba

Theweek ["Ojukwu vs. Abacha?"] March 10, 1997

My name is João Vidal, I'm Portuguese and live in Belgium where I am an airline pilot, flying as captain for SABENA, the Belgium flag-carrier. During the Biafran War, I was a military pilot in the Portuguese Air Force and met several Biafran Pilots. Two of my friends joined the BAF and I did not volunteer to join only because I was still in active service at that time. My friends were not mercenaries on the wrong way they are taken these days.

In Portugal we were very much aware of the struggle of the brave Igbo nation to build a civilised country and many people were willing to help. Nevertheless there was a contract with payment foreseen for the volunteer pilots. Obviously, in the last three month of war, all the bureaucracy was disturbed and the due payment was not made to the volunteers. At that time, due to the misery and contrarieties the Biafrans were enduring, nobody cared if they would be paid or not.

My friend Artur Alves Pereira, squadron leader on T-6G and Minicon, left Uga on the 9th January 1970 and flew to Gabon. After his arrival in Lisbon, although the war was over and all the Biafran offices in Portugal were closed, when he never could expect, the ex-Biafran Government sent him the correct payment to the last penny for all the war missions he had flown.

This small example shows how special a people the Igbo are. Which country in the world, let alone in Africa, would bother to fulfil its commitments to this extent? Which messenger wouldn't fill tempted to keep part or even all of the money (quite a lot at that time), mainly when the future seemed so uncertain to everybody involved and obviously there would be no court to complain to?

We as Biafrans and as Igbo people will always be grateful for the kind of help your two friends from Portugal and numerous other people from Israel, Sweden and other progressive-minded countries rendered to us at a time the Nigerian forces were waging a war of genocide against us. We will never forget! The ideals of Biafra and what she stood for will never die! That you and I can count on. Biafra will rise again as she must, but not through the barrels of guns this time around.

[A Response to J. M. Vidal’s posting]

Your friends are not God, but I believe that for their sacrifices many of us would not be here today. I have read about the Swedes, and I have read about some Americans in "Mission Impossible." Of course, the story of our flying ace Chudi Sokie is still somewhere in the heads of those who should be telling it.

It is a pity that in the depth of denials and distortions into which we are immersed, a direct result of pathetic postwar politics.... those who made out this payment could not pat themselves on the back. You have simply shown us that once in a while, a people must blow their trumpet; or as we say in Igbo nation: if one does not lick one’s lips, the Harmattan will do it. Thank you for reminding us to lick our lips before the dry and dusty northern wind does it for us. Gracias.

Your posting reveals the human face of the Biafran Government—even from its death bed. So, before the fat lady enters the stage, we must not wallow in the negativity of abysmal failures. The foibles of some Igbo individuals, and the unfortunate failures of past efforts at building a just Igbo society, must not be a yardstick for future ventures. The story of your friends and the action of the Biafran Government officials are of the stuff legends are made: let us build on these solid foundations.

[A Response to J. M. Vidal’s posting]

The Biafra leadership was a dictatorship with all the debilitating weaknesses of all dictators.... How do you win when you alienate men like Graham Douglas, Zik, C. C. Onoh and much of the minorities? And distrust your own commanders so much there was no war council! This in the end cost Biafra the rewards of its gallantry....

The average Nigerian is human. His government is not. That is the origin of Nigeria’s problems. .... The problem has been the inability to harness and coordinate the views of the ordinary Nigerians. ....

The "abandoned properties" is one reason Biafra still lives; it is a living testimony of political wickedness which time will not heal because it is both physical and psychological. ....

And the power of Biafra remains that, as an idea against political oppression, it can never die.

[AFRICAN CONCORD, 7 July 1997.]

The Igbo nation shall rise again... I recommend that we move slightly apart rather get burnt by the friction of our closeness

On Friday, May 30, 1997, BBC broadcast

Those who say remembering Biafra resurrects the pains are right. The process of remembering injustices and atrocities is a process of reclaiming our sanity and humility. By reclaiming humanity, we capture our sense of self and lost innocence. The explosion of evil in our society and the present political paralysis are all products of failed postwar programs. If we cannot talk about the root of the malaise, we are condemned to relive it. No one really want to go through all that again. I don’t.

Until we honor those who gave their lives in pursuit of freedom, their bones, like daggers, will continue to stab our memories.

This is indeed a memorable occasion. Very touchy and filled with emotions. I fought as Biafran soldier, went all through the war. Even though I came out alive, I still think that those who lost their lives must be honored and remembered. They deserve a place in creation. I salute Biafra.

The Igbo story must be told by us—the Igbo, otherwise others will tell our story to suit their agenda.

Biafra lives.

To forgive is easy. To forget is stupid. He who has forgotten has better redeem his stupor. Biafra—the memory of my father, Stephen Ernest Oranuka Maduabum—the memory of my godfather, Timothy Onwuatuegwu—the memory of all the blood spilled. May we forgive but not forget.

A novice to the politics of Biafra, in short a greenhorn to Nigerian politics: Just a little touch from the eloquent lecture of Dr. MOE ignited my zeal and inquisitiveness into our country. It is sad for this division—we need a solid bridge in our coexistence.

The war was a lesson to all of us. It clearly shows that the rest of Nigeria could not survive without the Igbo. On the other hand, I beg every reader to recognize the need that Black people , especially Nigerians, should begin to see how we can regain our place in the world history. The world is looking to us (Nigeria) to take the lead of the rest of the world black population. We should all begin to learn to see the macro and not the micro issues. Thanks.

The Biafran story must be told to our children and generation yet unborn because it is the truth. Never, never, never again. Together we must ensure genocide against the Igbo never happens again.

A most worthy effort! Three millions of lost lives in Biafra will continue to haunt our society until we pacify them and live up to their expectations. There are numerous reasons why Nigeria as a country and Igbo as a nation continue to go round in circles, socially, politically and economically. It behooves those of us who experienced the war to pass on the necessary knowledge and information to generations coming behind us lest our cause, heritage and story will be lost for good. Like the Jews around the globe say "Never again," let us say "Ozo emene," unite, harmonize and use our God-given intelligence and skills.

~ Chidi Hans Ibe ~

To those who are not here today to feel, listen meditate and share this shame, to all those who lost their lives during the Nigeria-Biafra War, God bless and rest in peace. You have not died in vain. Though some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers, but you know hope is hard work and setbacks, but without hope, you have nothing. It’s not over till it is over. Aim at nothing and you’ll never miss. You tried your best with your lives. Alas, God is not done with us yet. Your blood will not be shed in vain. Hail Biafra.

This cosmic 30th year after Biafra is very significant to the survival of the Igbo nation as one united and progressive society. Those who still cling on to soaking ships shall sink to the dark deep floors of the ocean of hopelessness. Be a believer, wake up and look around your world.

These are sample views from the first-ever Nigeria-Biafra War Memorial Lecture held in the Nursing Amphitheater, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA. The lecture was preceded by a memorial mass for all those who lost their lives during the civil crises and the war proper (1966-1970) at the Chapel of Immaculate Conception.

Theme: LET THE HEALING BEGIN

Officiating Priest: Rev. Father Valentine Okere

Title of Lecture: Beyond Biafra: What Biafra did to us, and what we did with it.

Lecturer: M. O. Ene, Ph.D.

Special Guest of Honor: Prof. James O. Orange

Organizers: NONI—Nnoko Oganiru Ndi Igbo [Society for the Advancement of Igbo Legacy]