‘How we survived Biafran war’

War drums are easy to beat, but hard to dance. Rising agitations for Nigeria’s break-up have made the country’s leaders to issue words of caution at various points in recent times. Ibrahim Babangida, an army General and former military ruler who actively took part in the civil war to keep Nigeria one, recently expressed concern on profuse verbal provocations from certain individuals in the country, saying the pains of that war fraught with death and suffering are still being felt.  This is a link that appears lacking in the imagination of current agitators for secession and hate speech mongers. Our correspondents bring accounts of some Nigerians who went through the three-year quagmire.

Obiefuna Onuoha makes a living dealing in paint. He was five years old when the Nigerian civil war broke out.

“Everything was turned upside down. Life became miserable,” he recalls.

“There was no food for us to eat, no water to drink. The only thing close to meat was grasshopper, if you could see it. Another was lizard. In fact, nobody should even think of another war, please. War is not good and I will nerve support it, a person like me would prefer dialogue if the need arises,” he says.

Onuoha recalls living in the forest with his twin for two whole years while bombs and mortars pounded surroundings. Now more recent agitations are forcing him to look back upon years he would rather forget.

Agitators for Biafra and opposing sides have been pitted against each other. The stand-off has forced reflections into the years between 1966 and 1970 when Nigeria teetered on the brink of breakup, as the eastern part of the country declared itself Biafra, citing political marginalization.

“The obvious point is that freedom is not free and for me I am not ready to witness any fight again. In short, it is better for me to stay in Nigeria than witness another war in the name that we are fighting for Biafra,” said Onuoha.

Chinedum Nwogu was 18 years at the time, and he recalls how it began like a funfair.

“Many people jumped up and down that the war had started, just like the drum beat we are having now, there was enthusiasm everywhere, people were asking Ojukwu for weapons,” he says.

And then the refugee problems began.

“We never thought we would have such problem until when people started fleeing their homes to reside in schools, and the speed of the federal troops? They were moving fast to conquer more grounds which gave rise to the growth of refugees. Before we realized it, they had taken over Enugu. The city was then the capital of the newfound country.

“The refugees had nobody to take care of them, they were just in schools. There was hunger in the land, health hazards, food scarcity because the Nigerian government did not allow the Red Cross free passage to bring food to the people, so there was problem of malnutrition. There was economic blockage,” recalls Nwogu.

“We had a lot of deaths, we lost more of our brothers and sisters to health hazards. Sincerely speaking, more people died out of starvation compared to the number killed by the federal troops. This was the most horrible part of the war.

“What is happening now is also the same build up to what happened during the civil war, but if you ask me, and a few of us who are veterans, we are telling the young ones to adopt all the available options. I don’t want war, it’s more than what you see.”

“Unprepared, and without a bullet”

Josiah Akparandum, 80, is also a veteran of the civil war. He was 25 then and skipped conscription into the Biafran Army. He joined the war out of sheer enthusiasm and trained as an intelligence officer, such was in short supply at the time.

After training for four months in Enugu, he took leave to see his family at Owerrinta, on the outskirts of Aba in present-day Abia State. He was too late.

“When I got to my village, l realized that my community had been taken over by the Nigerian Army, I couldn’t find my parents nor any of my relatives anymore, because some were killed while others fled for their lives,” Akparandum recalls. That was in 1968.

“I refused to return to work, I had to pitch my tent with the Biafran Army Bongo Battalion at Owerrinta Umuopkala axis to fight against the perceived enemies of my people where I was allowed to work in the intelligence unit,” he says.

As an intelligence officer, he wrote situation reports to the 65 Brigade through the battalion. He believes the war took Biafra unprepared.

“The then South easterners should not have gone for the war because they didn’t prepared for it,  it was just mere enthusiasm by the Igbos,  we suffered so much hunger, ill health, no medical support anywhere,   deaths at home and loss of many soldiers.”

“South easterners lost the Biafran  War mainly because of sabotage by Igbo  civilians and some of our Biafran military men who  hijacked food meant for distribution and sold them. A lot diverted monies meant to purchase arms, some ran away with the cash, there was serious sabotage during the Biafran war.

“In as much as the Igbo race is still  complaining about marginalization, not having our own fair share of the dividends of democracy, I am not in support of going to war, but I  believe Biafra will be won without a bullet.

‘We saw hell’

The bullet is something Emeka Amaefula doesn’t want to contemplate.

“I don’t want to wish even my worst enemy the type of experience we had during the civil war,” says the 54-year-old, only a boy in 1966 when the war broke out. As it began to wind down in 1969, the memories still haunt him.

“Troops from the Nigerian Army were throwing bombs at the market. My mother and other women were not going to the market because Nigerian troops were always bombarding everywhere.  Nothing was happening. Everywhere was in crisis. There was no food, no hospital and no utilities.

“We were starving. There were kwashiorkor and other terrible illnesses caused by poor feeding. My mother used to cook unripe paw-paw as yam. We cooked and ate that because there was no food. Our parents could not go to farm because of the war. We were hunting for lizards and rats to eat. It was a miracle I survived.

“We were able to gather insects, lizards, maggots and snails which scattered all over the bush. As we ran inside the bush we saw all these things and we started gathering them and it helped us a lot. 

They also got food handouts from non-government groups like Caritas, mostly milk and smashed egg yolk.

“We were served corn meal at a place called community centres. Schools were not functioning and some of schools were operating under trees. At the end of the war we were forced out of our homes and our properties were vandalised. My father trekked from Calabar to Ikeduru in Imo State. They were ferried across the river and those that didn’t have the stamina to trek died on the way.

Inestimable losses

Teddy Chilaka worked with the International Red Cross Society during the war, assisting the wounded under harrowing circumstances.

He recalls: “Two of my brothers were killed in the war. You know what it means losing your beloved ones in such tragic situation. Then when the Nigerian military forces were coming closer and closer, we ran from one village to another.  At the sound of aircraft, we had to hide under a tree and remove our white shirts in order not to be easily identified by those in the aircraft. Then we were sleeping in markets. It was like that until after two months. I left my parents and went with the Red Cross team to Cross River State, and from there we traveled to  many places, carrying the sick, assisting the wounded, taking them to hospital. Then after the war, we came back and rejoined our families. We were lucky that my parents were alive because most of our neighbours were dead.

“It was after the war that people developed lack of regard for dead bodies. Before the war, when you saw people carrying a corpse, you would hide. But in the war condition, we were eating where dead bodies were laid, to the extent that people were no longer afraid of death or corpses.”

Life very difficult after return

“When we came back, we had no homes. We were haboured somewhere in our neighbourhood until we were able to get money to start life all over again for the family,” he recalls.

But he has a different understanding of ongoing agitations.

“The agitators I’ve come in contact with are not canvassing for war. They are saying that they will follow it up through referendum, like Southern Sudan did or the one that happened recently, Scotland under British government. Now, if the United Nations can organize a referendum, if they succeed, so be it, but if they do not succeed, they may continue to agitate until their intentions are achieved.

“Igbos are humiliated too much because of the effects of the civil war. In fact, the war made the Igbo to lose their identity. Nobody will agitate for war again.”

But Emeka Iro doesn’t rule out a referendum. From Isuikwuato Local Government Area resident in Abakiliki, he was 10 when the war started.

His father died in the war, leaving the 10-year-old to fend for himself even after the war.

Says Iro: “It was a bitter story and I won’t like that to repeat itself. Like these people- the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and MASSOB members that are calling for referendum, if there should be referendum everybody will air his or her view and if it is something we cannot manage everybody we go their way but in a situation where it will lead us to a war, I will not like it.”

Emeka Okafor retired from public service, he was eight years old when the war started. He was among countless youths who joined the war effort in enthusiasm. He fought for three years and has marks on his body to show for it.

“I served the 14 Divisional Brigade headquarters, Owerri, 60 Brigade in Uguta, 72 Battalion in Egbema, among others.  I rose to the rank of a lieutenant,” he says.

“We were in Ogbidi when the war ended. As soon as it ended, we had no option than to go back to the basics. Personally, I was very disappointed that we lost out in a noble cause we all thought we could have won,” he said. He returned to school after the war.

“Our mates in Nigeria were already in year one when we were still battling with the entrance examinations. I became more annoyed. But thank God, I eventually graduated and worked in both public and private organizations.

But the disquiet hasn’t died down, and there’s talk of Biafra of the mind.

“What gave rise to this agitation is injustice and lack of fairness and equity. Check out the six geopolitical zones in the country. Northeast has seven states, others have six. It is only the Southeast that has five states.  You know states is a basis for sharing the national cake,” Okafor says.

“Just imagine what we have lost as all these years. On that ground, it is okay to at least  recognize the fact that we have been shortchanged and cheated for long.

“A state like Bayelsa that produces the greatest volume of oil has only seven local government areas.  So, if anything is being shared, you can imagine what they would end up getting. But Kano which has no single oil well has 44 local governments.  I don’t think that is fair.”

What does Biafra meant to Igbos?

Ralph Obioha, a chieftain of the apex Igbo socio-cultural association, Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, was in the House of Representatives between 1979 and 1983, serving on the finance committee.

Later, he joined pro-democracy groups in the aftermath of June 12. They triggered international sanctions on Nigeria to force the military back to the barracks. He would later found the Justice Party.

But he is disturbed that the ‘crusade’ led by Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is anti-Igbo.

“I’m opposed to Biafra. It means nothing. It is against the Igbo. Anybody who is proposing or propagating it is anti-Igbo because Biafra is not in Igbo’s vital interest. Nigeria is even too small for Igbo. The Igbo are all over the world excelling in every field of their chosen endeavours. How can we contract it? How can we reduce our space and size?” says Obioha.

He says the word Biafra is opium for young people who never witnessed the war and who are taking up social media to fan misconceptions.

“I’m appealing to the Igbo to see Nigeria as the place they will have to aspire to be their best, to take the abundant opportunities in this country. On the other hand, I’m asking other Nigerians to have another look about the Igbo. The Igbo are the engine room of Nigeria. They are really the true Nigerians because they are the ones who will leave their own shores and venture to other places and take those places as their home, build and develop such,” notes Obioha.

Air Commodore Luke Ochulor is retired but he fought on the Biafran side during the war. He later became the military administrator of Delta State.

“Most of us are worried but is not because we don’t know what to say. We have been very inarticulate as far as this problem of agitation is concerned. The danger in this type of situation is that you may be caught in a web where the agitators, because they don’t understand exactly what they are looking for, can regard you as an enemy, which makes it dangerous.

“But we all owe allegiance to the flag of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. After the civil war, we all agreed that the fight for Biafra was over. That’s what makes a people and then we must stay together and build Nigeria to an extent that if any group wants to secede, we won’t allow them. So when we look at the agitation for Biafra, we are of the view that youths in the Southeast zone of Nigeria have the right to protest if the condition in Nigeria is not good for them and their future. But they should not use the word, ‘Biafra’.