“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” - George Edward Woodberry (1855-1930)

By 1914, with the ill advised amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria by the British colonialists who ignored the formidable contradictions amongst the myriad disparate groups within the amalgamated territories, the making of an unworkable nation destined for strife and conflict had begun. While the British administrative method of indirect rule through royal proxies succeeded in the North and Southwest, it failed woefully in the republican East where the subjects enjoyed a status of equality with the kings. The epoch Aba women’s riot of 1929 represented the first acts of open dissent against the colonial authorities and opened the floodgates of challenges against colonial rule.

In subsequent years, Dr Nnamidi Azikiwe became the first Nigerian to galvanize resistance against British colonial rule. His nationalist newspaper, the West African pilot, was consistently a thorn in the flesh of the colonial authorities.  Other Nigerians eventually joined the independence struggle, however opposition to decolonisation by the North delayed flag independence until 1960, though not without a few parting tricks by the British colonialists which saw them manipulate the census and elections results in favour of the North, in a calculated attempt to retain substantial control through their Northern proxy.

The early years of independence immediately brought to the fore the inherent contradictions in the new nation. Political and ethnic crisis rent the air. Threats of secession became a norm. With the exception of Dr Nnamidi Azikiwe who remained stubbornly dedicated to the idea of a united Nigeria even after crude oil had been discovered in the East, other regional leaders who saw the nation as a “mere geographical expression” openly rejected the idea of Nigeria. The dark clouds increasingly gathered until it ushered in a coup by ideological young “Turks” in the army.

The multiplier effects of the coup saw to the emergence of General Aguiyi Ironsi, who like many Igbo of his generation wrongly believed in a united Nigeria. Had he been a separatist, he could have very easily at the heat of the moment dissolved the nation into the erstwhile four regions, but rather he chose to hold the nation together. He was eventually murdered in a so-called counter-coup and the rest is history.

It is indeed a great irony and an uncanny twist of fate that the Igbo who fought the most for Nigeria ’s independence and unity had to in the end engage in a bloody conflict of secession against a forbidding gang-up of the rest of Nigeria. When the war did come, with their backs to the wall, the East fought back against all odds with unbelievable tenacity, revealing in the process, a resilience, courage and creativity never before seen in Africa. Very few conflicts in all of human history have paraded such disparity and epic resistance in full-scale war.

The Biafran army was a rag-tag hurriedly trained group, blockaded, barely armed and without food. Yet in spite of these daunting odds, they engaged a Nigerian army that was both numerically superior and brimming with an endless flow of sophisticated weapons supplied by Great Britain and Russia amongst others in deadly combat for almost three years.

A look at other historic battles would confirm the celebrated gallantry of the Biafran soldier. By the beginning of the 2^nd world war in 1939, France was a world power who had one of the largest established armies in the world. In preparation for the much-expected German invasion, the French had also constructed the famous “Maginot line” which was an impregnable defensive fortress. German forces eventually attacked France on the 5^th of June 1940; by the 25^th of June 1940 France had capitulated. It is instructive to note that In spite of the formidable defensive armada, and a well trained heavily armed French army, it took just about three weeks for the German forces to defeat the French.

On the 1^st of September 1939 German forces had also similarly attacked Poland. By the 6^th of October 1939 Poland had surrendered. The war had lasted only five weeks. Even more spectacular was the German conquest of Holland, which began on the 10th of May 1940, by the 15^th of May 1940, only five days, Holland had surrendered. Indeed it took the Germans less than a total of four months to conquer the whole of mainland Europe.

Israeli exploits in the volatile Middle East are another example of exceptional military prowess. Between the 5^th of June and the 10^th of June 1967, the Israeli army engaged a combination of the whole Arab armies and defeated them in just six days in what is now famously known as “the six day war.”  In another Arab, Israeli conflict known as the Yom Kippur war from the 6^th of October to the 26^th of October 1973, Israeli armed forces once again defeated a combination of Arab armies in just three weeks.

In all of these conflicts, it is instructive to note that the conflict was between well-armed and established armies.  In the case of Biafra, the Nigerian armed forces confronted a rag-tag army, which was virtually unarmed and lacking food, yet in spite of these overwhelming disadvantages, the Nigerian army failed to score a victory in a full-scale war for three years.   It is indeed a great testament to the gallantry and doggedness of the Biafran soldier, that whereas well armed French, Belgian, Dutch troops, Arab armies etc capitulated in conflict in a matter of days and weeks, the Biafran soldier without food or arms, fighting almost with his bare hands, withstood the heavily armed Nigerian armed forces in a historic full-scale war for close to three years. As the philosopher George Edward Woodberry said,  “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”  Join me in celebrating the Biafran soldier!

Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email: lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 19.07.2008 02:07

SOJOURNER  Villager

# 2 I would beg to disagree the fact that the biafran army though poorly armed were able to withstand the onslaught of well equiped nigerian army for three years was due to exceptional bravery but rather as it was then and it is now ,nigerian army is not capable of winning military engagement unless of course it is against bloody civilian.the fact that the fight lasted for three years is due to failure on the part of nigeria military high command. Did Nigerian army ever tell us the number of dead soldiers sustained against rag-tag rebels in LIBERIA and SIERRA LEONE ,LET the war was not even won militarily.The officers rather involved in diamond trade than military tatics. Though I do salute all oppresed people of the world in general and the biafrans in particular who choose against all odds to fight and die on their feet rather than crawl and die on their knees.RIP to all those who lost their lives on both side of the conflict Posted by SOJOURNER| 19.07.2008 06:09

bobokite  Villager

# 3 ......It is indeed a great testament to the gallantry and doggedness of the Biafran soldier, that whereas well armed French, Belgian, Dutch troops, Arab armies etc capitulated in conflict in a matter of days and weeks, the Biafran soldier without food or arms, fighting almost with his bare hands, withstood the heavily armed Nigerian armed forces in a historic full-scale war for close to three years......... Point of correction.. The Biafra soldiers fought not only the Nigeria Armed forces but also a combined mercenary fighters from Britain, Russia and Egypt. hundred GBOSAS to our Gallant heroes!!! Posted by bobokite| 19.07.2008 08:23

emenanjo  Villager

# 4 I join you to celebrate the Biafran courage. It was a war that was avoidable if Gowon was in firm control of power. Though Nzeogwu's coup failed because Ifeajuna and co. messed up their operation in Lagos, what followed after the counter coup of July 1966 was uncalled for. If Gowon was in firm control of power, the pogrom and massacre of Igbo civilians that took place, mostly in the North after that counter coup especially in the months of Sept and Oct 1966, were really uncalled for. That Igbos decided on mass exodus back to the East showed that there was no guarantee of safety for them in the North and that Lt.Col Usman Hassan Katsina was incharge in the Northern region and could not check on these massacres and the exodus, showed he was not worthy to be a leader and ought to have been replaced by Gowon, but he never did. That Gowon failed to hold firm showed he was just there as a figure head. Murtala Muhammed, T.Y Danjuma, Babangida, Abacha, Vatsa, IBM Haruna of the "Asaba massacre" fame, Buhari, Shuwa etc were in charge and not Gowon. they were on the loose and as such Gowon could not control or curtail their action-Thus the civil war. I stand to be corrected, but if Gowon and Hassan Katsina were able to put a stop to the massacre of the Igbo civilians in the North, there would'nt have been an exodus talkless of a civil war. The emphasis by Gowon then would have been on how to get Ojukwu on his side, and this I believed would have been easy depending on tacts and diplomacy displayed. That Biafra failed was Partly Ojukwu's blame. I believed Biafra would have succeeded if he had listened to Nzeogwu's recommendation on how to confront a better armed 'British troops' wrongly called Federal troops. Most authors who have written about the war had commented on this, especially Arthur Nwankwo. Second, he made the wrong choice of allowing Col Banjo to lead the operation into the midwest and on, to Lagos. This was later sabotaged. Again, writers have commented that Nzeogwu was best suited and recommended to lead the operation. Ojukwu Refused and chose Banjo. Before that operation could commence, Nzeogwu was killed or assassinated only God knows by who. Accounts say he was killed by federal troops. While some other accounts say he was assassinated by Ojukwu's handymen. That Biafra failed was due to Ojukwu's over suspicion of his senior officers, his wrong choice of Banjo for the Midwestern incursion and beyond and the sabotage of that operation therein, which gave the Federal troops ample opportunity to swing the war in their favour. Posted by emenanjo| 19.07.2008 09:01

draftman  Villager

# 5 We do not celebrate these coward and traitor, I am glad they lost. If their MASSOB agitators do not stop they will face the same faith. The war is over we can try to heel the wounds without these troublemakers disrupting our country. The continue demand by these Igbo pp is why other Nigerians do not trust them in our country leadership position. They've announced that they are not Nigerian, why are allowing them to be part of us. All the remaining biafra soldiers should be dealth with as traitor and chase out of the country, please do not give any more of out tax payers money. I know not all Igbo pp are bad, but your reputation among other nigerians, africans, and the world are very bad. Be full patriotic citizen or get the hell out. Your stock will never be the President of our country, over our dead body. Posted by draftman| 20.07.2008 00:29

Agidimolaja  Villager

# 6 Lawrence, No,I will not join you to celebrate Biafra soldier,but I will humbly bow my head for the souls of those who went into the mud during the conflict on both sides. I may have to disagree with you a little on your assartion that Biafra soldiers were rag-tags.Not really. At least not at the initial stages of the conflict. When the shooting war commenced on July 6,1967,Biafra had well equiped fighting soldiers that included several seasoned former Nigerian Army Officers like,Philip Effiong,Hilary Njoku,Conrad Nwawo,Chude Sokei,Alexander Madiebo and of course Emeka Ojukwu himself just to mention a few.Remember that before the coups of 1966, about 60% of Nigerian Army officers were Easterners. Those who managed to survive the coups and pogrom fled back to Enugu and became part of what emerged as Biafran Armed Forces. It was only when the war progressed and the blocade set in that Biafra started to feel the heat. The Biafrans that Federal troops met at Ore were not rag-tag but bold-faced fighting forces that were trying to march through the West onto Lagos. The Biafrans that wasted several armadas with which Muritala wanted to cross River Niger were not rag-tags but well equipped killer forces.Those that later set his troopps and stores ablaze at Abagana were not rag-tags but well determined fighting forces. The list is endless. In fairness to Biafrans,the civil war was not a walk-over as Federal troops met stiff ressistances and suffered several casualties. I'm not aware of any city or village that was freely taken without a fight. We must however bear in mind the contributions of former Nigerian Army officers that were in charge of Biafran war efforts. Creativeness but not bravery per se played major roles in the survival of the already doomed Republic for thirty months. It was a typical example of "do or die". Nevertheless, Biafran's great efforts were not good enough to score the much desired victory.Like Babylon,Biafra fell. Yes, Biafra fell,never to rise again. Biafra was outnumbered and outgunned. It was not a surprise to anyone in his right mind that the efforts shall not pay up eventually because there was the handwriting boldly on the wall as early as May 30,1967 that Biafra project shall fail. Surely,it failed. For Nigeria and her troops,it was a military victory.The village of Amichi witnessed the signing of the documents of surrender and it was taken to The Commander-in-Chief who accepted it and ordered his troops to stop fighting. It was however strangely nicknamed "no victor, no vanquished". We all know better! For several reasons that I don't want to talk about here now,that victory could have come much earlier than January 12,1970. Everyone{including top Biafran leaders} saw it coming ,untill it finally arrived. The delay of the victory was not due to any spectacular bravery on the side of Biafra.Lets hold it until next time. Also,there were several issues and developments that made Biafra a failled experiment. Out of the long list,allow me to give only four as at now. 1.Internal conflicts within Biafra. 2.Biafra was rendered unpopular internationally. Britain saw to that. 3.Biafra's neighbouring cousins{Efiks/Ibibios,Ijaws etc} decamped from Biafra and joined up with Nigeria.Thanks to Gen.Gowon who created for them their respective States. O Biafra,did those folks betray you? 4.Lack of regular free flow of arms and ammunitions into Biafra due to the lost of the coastal territories, and then followed by the military blockade. May the souls of those who died on both sides rest in peace.The civil war was quite avoidable but several fatal errors were made on both sides of the divide.The sad thing today is that we are still not doing well as a nation after we sent over two million of fellow citizens into the mud. Poor us! Posted by Agidimolaja| 20.07.2008 01:18

Bode Eluyera  In Purgatory

# 7 IT'S NOT YET OVER UNTIL IT'S FINALLY OVER! THE BIAFRA campaign is far from being over. He, who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. Another very good opportunity for the Ndigbos to have their own sovereign country, has presented itself through the Niger Delta crisis. This time around, I believe that they have a better chance of succeeding. It took some countries more than 40 yeras to finally have their own sovereign countries. The greatest tribute Ndigbos can pay to their fallen soldiers is to ensure that they have died in vain. And the only way to achieve that is to make sure that biafra, that they laid down their lives for, eventually emerges. NDIGBO KWENU!!! Posted by Bode Eluyera| 20.07.2008 10:38

GreatPot  JJC

# 8 Be full patriotic citizen or get the hell out. Your stock will never be the President of our country, over our dead body. To hell with your patriotizm,in Aburi we stand. Posted by GreatPot| 20.07.2008 11:46

docokwy  Villager

# 9 DAFTMAN, I thought I treated you for mental derangement last month and subsequently put you on a leash, when you would not improve. How did you get out? Posted by docokwy| 20.07.2008 15:38

Tony  Villager

# 10 @Draftman the clown: There is a parable that you can take a monkey out of the jungle, but you cant take the jungle out of the monkey. your reasoning puts you at the same level with a black monkey. Congratulations because your so called "trusted" leaders have only succeeded in ruling monkeys like yourself into the "stone age." Your disgrace of a nation, where there are no roads, no food, no water, no electricity,no hospitals, no schools, rotten human corpses on the streets, crunching poverty is the legacy and achievement of your " trusted" leaders. Shame on you bigtime! With the disgraceful condition your "trusted" thieving leaders have put your useless Nigeria, you and your gang of inferior lowlife monkeys are already no better than dead bodies. You can carry your useless shameful Nigeria go! Nobody will miss such a jungle of a nation. We cant wait to be rid of incestuos, corrupt, incompetent buffoons like yourself and your so called trusted leaders. No sane group of people would want to be part of your monkey republic that is a shame to the blackrace and humanity. Reputation ke? What a laughable masquerade! what reputation does you and yours have with the nation wrecking corrupt thieves being paraded from your tribe on a daily basis? Is it the celebrated nation destroyers and robbers like Obasanjo, Kenny Martins, Patricia Etteh, Grange, Kenny Martins, Akinloye, Fani Kayode, Tafa Balogun, Bode George, Iyabo Obasanjo, Borishade and the endless list of looters from your neck of the woods that has given the nation a good name in the world? Or is it the gang-of northern murderers,incompetent nation wreckers and robbers like Abacha, Babangida, Umaru Dikko, Jerry Useni, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Athiefku Abubakar, Bamanga Tukur, Adamu Ciroma and the endless list of rogues that has given the nation a good name in the world? Arent you ashamed of your miserable self and nation? If your nigeria ruled by your "trusted" thieves and robbers is so good, why did you flee to become a refugee and nuisance in America? Can you compare your incompetent, inferior lowlife so called "trusted" thieving leaders to the worldwide, internationally respected incorruptible technocrats like ------------------- Ngozi Iweala--Presently World Bank Managing Director? Oby Ezekwesili--presently World Bank Vice-President? How many of your so called "trusted monkeys with good reputation" have ever achieved such international positions? Not to talk of other superior, highly achieving proffesional technocrats like Chukwuma Soludo, Dora Akunyili etc who have remained incorruptible in a sea of corruption such as Nigeria populated by your corrupt thieving group? We need to separate the wheat from the chaff. If i had my way, i will line up inferior lowlifes like yourself and your group who has kept Nigeria in the stone age through your inferiority and incompetence and give you the Adolf Hitler treatment in concentration camps. You and yours are not fit to live. Yeye inferior monkey. _________________________ _________________________ @Agidimolaja: You are just making useless excuses for the incompetence and cowardice of your Nigerian army. Circumstances and situations exist in every war, no need rehashing them here. The Nigerian army or high command had 1 month, 2 months or at least 3 - 4 months to correct any of their mistakes and win the fullscale war against a Biafran army that had no arms, but the war dragged on for almost 3 years, inspite of every advantage the nigerian army had. Kindly go back and read the arcticle again. If Germany could defeat Holland in only 5 days, and a world power like France in only 3 weeks, then the Nigerian army should have defeated Biafra in 2 weeks at most. Take a look at your nigerian map again, and compare the size of the areas that ganged-up to fight Biafra, and you would celebrate or even worship the courage and resistance of the Biafran soldier. As for the future of Biafra, who are you to decree that Biafra will not rise again? How much power have you had to decree your dysfunctional and sinking nigeria into a better nation to be able to decree Biafra's future? People like you also said years ago, no blackman can rule America, today a blackman is on the verge of ruling America. I am not surprised that people like you, wish nigeria to continue inspite of the monumental failings and disgrace the nation has become. There is no love in niggeria and the contradictions have held it down. Continue dreaming that your useless niggeria that parades only thieving incompetent tribal leaders will not break. Soon, before your very eyes, Niger-Delta, Arewa, Odua and Biafran republics will take their place among the comity of nations. God has decreed it and no man can change it. BYE BYE. Posted by Tony| 20.07.2008 16:18

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