The Nigerian Civil War and Factors That Made the War Inevitable

Background

The Nigerian Civil War also known in the History of the country as the Nigerian-Biafran war began in July 6, 1967 and ended in January 13, 1970 following the declaration of Republic of Biafra by the old Eastern Region of Nigeria in May 30, 1967. The Nigerian Civil War today forms an important political aspect of the History of Nigeria. In nations where so much importance is attached to history and development of researches a lot would have been written about such unpleasant situations which in a way will go a long way in preventing and forestalling future occurrences in such nations.

Prominent actors such as Alexander A. Madiebo, Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Uche Jim Ojaiku, Michael A. Draper, Jan Zumbach and only recently Obong (Gen.) Philip Effiong which he titled “Nigeria and Biafra: My story (posthumously presented March 31, 2005) and a host of others though the nation and the world at large still awaits further stories and publications from Gen. Yakubu Gowon and (Gen) Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu the two key prominent players in the war in which the belligerents lost souls estimated at about 3 Million .

This article expectedly will not dwell on events that occurred during the war that lasted for three years but having acknowledged in the first instance that the war was avoidable will variously seek to positively assert this and subsequently proffer and explain reasons on why Biafra lost the war.

Causes

In a write-up like this it is always germane to summarily point out reasons why such events took place in the first instance since it is a known fact in History that nothing happens by accident since certain factors must have contributed it. We shall therefore briefly outline the reasons or what we might still call causes of the Nigerian-Biafran war.

All the factors responsible for the emergence of this war is not quite uniquely different from those of other African nations and can therefore be said to be largely history, political, ethnic, economic and religious in nature. The British policy and activities responsible for the hasty and random creation of Nigeria for her own self interest and gains is the chief reason for the outbreak of the war. It would seem that the British in hurriedly putting the various ethnic-groups of more than 250 together did so in other to gather more natural resources for her British people and land overseas much to the neglect of the very nation (Nigeria) Interestingly not even the Nigerian government of today can factually tell exactly how ethnic groups that are in existence today. All we hear from the government is “more 250 ethnic-groups”

The British neglected the fact that what existed before their arrival were numbers of independent entities hostile to one another with numerous differences in linguistics, races, tribes, religions, social beliefs and a host of others.

These peoples were groups with highly diverse set of customs, culture, and values totally different from one another. There were also severe population problems which pressured these peoples helping in one way totally setting them apart in many ways. Economically too, the British did not put on ground prepared economic arrangements to help the new political entity take off, worse still, the discovery of oil in the now Niger-Delta region then in the Eastern Region has also been said to be part of the reasons which goaded the former Eastern region into hastily declaring the war which would have been avoided or best delayed. The British would appear to favour the North in what I should regard as sympathies because the British obviously had no clear reasons for this.

Almost all of the tribes brought together by the British under the political entity called Nigeria at one time or the other displayed their rejection of this coerced federal union in one way or the other a development that would continue even after independence. First was the North itself which felt that the region was not ripe for impendence for a number of reasons. Between 1962 and 1965, the Tiv rioted against the North. There was the crisis occasioned by the 1964 election said to be marred by irregularities, census crisis, Western region crisis, and the 1966 coup and counter coup all of which portrayed that one tribe was strange to the other because no agreement existed between them before the existence of the tacit federal structure.

In my own opinion, the 1966 coup prejudicially believed an Igbo coup was never one but can be likened to series of coups which have all occurred in this nation called Nigeria but the North which was nursing the ambition of separating itself from the federal structure of the nation believed it to be so because of apprehension and nothing could have assuaged them having articulated their position in the reluctance it showed in opting for independence with the rest of nation for fear of marginalization. As History will later justify, all other coups with no exception have been led and executed by the North. As someone remarked "The Federation was sick at birth and by January 1966, the sick, bedridden babe collapsed." The coup hastened the collapse of hastily made Nigerian federation.

The North only employed a cynical attitude when Gen. Aguyui Ironsi showed sympathy to the coup plotters or perhaps as later Historians have observed he did not know what to do with them after all it was the first coup ever to be plotted on the soil of Nigeria and by Nigerians. The North only showed resentment which resulted in pogroms in which a large number of the Igbo were attacked and killed beginning in May 1966 which never saw an end even though Gen Yakubu Gowon who emerged as the nation’s leader kept promising the world that arrangements were in place or that he was bringing this to the barest minimum.

Gen Gowon the most senior Military officer of Northern extraction who was to emerge in a counter coup obviously showed clear revenge for the Igbo even as Historians are quick to point out that he had no plans or agenda for the nation which accelerated the chaos, confusion, killings and unclear situation which the people had feared. His recommendations implemented August 13 1966 never restored peace.

How the war would have been prevented

Although a lot of Historians insist that the war was inevitable and beyond the Yakubu Gowon, I believe that the Nigerian Civil War was a war which could have been prevented if certain factors had been put together for this purpose.

For one, a more political, sincere, diplomatic and national leader would have prevented the war which Yakubu Gowon found inevitable. If Yakubu Gowon had seized government with the clear agenda and sympathy for the nation he would have prevented the war but from what I have pointed out earlier in this work, initial attitude of Gowon showed nothing but revenge and ambition to succeed the North even though he later had a change of mind for reasons not yet disclosed by him but I suspect the discovery of oil.

Walter Schwarz believes that “Ojukwu got his way with little effort, by being the cleverest” In other words, either Ojukwu was the only one who was quick to understand what sovereignty meant or others from his region understood this too late. Major Abubakar A. Atofarati in furtherance is of the understanding that the variant versions of what happened at the Aburi Summit in Ghana in the Eastern region by Ojukwu in which Biafra accused the Federal Government of bad faith and going back on promises and Gowon in Nigeria accusing Ojukwu of distortion and half truth in a way helped was also helped to make the war inevitable. This actually was to confuse the international community on what the situation was and how to contribute towards ending the war the more.   

Ojukwu demonstrated the idea that as an officer maybe senior to Gowon if he could not rule an independent political entity called Nigeria, he could as well break it up and rule a portion of it thus both Ojukwu and Gowon would defy series of interventions from eminent personalities such as Gen Ankrah, the then Emperor of Ethiopia, Martin Luther King amongst others.

In the first instance , the Igbo rather than allow the July 1966 coup to gain momentum should have been bold enough to challenge it from the very onset for only this development would have sent signals to the North that Igbo were prepared for any eventual outcome. This idea is shared with Alexander Madiebo in his Book, the Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran Civil War but like some Igbo Historians were to point out later the then Eastern region had false security in one of their own, Gen Aguyui Ironsi

Conclusion

The war which was fought for the purpose of unification of the country has come and gone but a lot of lessons learnt from it should enable us lead as one indivisible nation with love for all, equality so that the mistakes of the past should be clearly avoided for the country to constructively come up with agendas which will frog-lead the nation at large to a much more cherished one of the most developed nations of the world as we have learnt a lesson in a bitter way.