THE ECONOMIC BLOCKADE AND STARVATION AS A WEAPON OF WAR AGAINST BIAFRANS BY YAKUBU GOWON THE ARCH GENOCIDIST
By Ogochukwu Nnanna
For family writers
The Biafrans suffered a lot and also paid a great humanitarian price by ceding a great deal of territory to the Nigerians and employing this war strategy. The famine worsened as the war raged, as the traditional Igbo society of farmers could not plant their crops .The demon and the blood sucker called Gowon had succeeded in cutting Biafra off from the sea, robbing its inhabitants of shipping ports to receive military and humanitarian supplies. The affliction persisted and kwashiorkor began to spread farther, with the absence of protein in the diet, and they were compounded by outbreaks of other disease epidemics and diarrhea. The landscape was filled by an increasing number of those avian prognosticators of death as the famine worsened and the death toll mounted: Vultures by the beginning of the dry season of 1968, Biafran civilians and soldiers alike were also starving. Bodies lay rotting under the hut sun by the roadside, and the flapping wings of scavengers could be seen circling waiting, watching patiently nearby.
Some estimates are that over a thousand Biafrans a day were perishing by this time, and at the height of Gowon's economic blockade and "starve them into submission" policy, upward of fifty thousand Biafran civilians,most of them babies ,children and women were dying every single month. Biafrans can never forgive Gowon for his evil role during that war. He cannot send millions of Biafrans to their early graves and expect them to forgive him, never! Ojukwu seized upon this humanitarian emergency and channeled the Biafran propaganda machinery to broadcast and showcase the suffering to the world. In one speech he accused Gowon of a "Calculated war of destruction and genocide." Known in some circles as "Biafran babies" speech,, it was hugely effective and touched the hearts of many around the world. This move was brilliant in a couple of respects. First, it deflected from himself or his war cabinet any sentiments of culpability and outrage that might have been willing up in the hearts and minds of Biafrans, and second, it was yet another opportunity to cast his arch nemesis, Gowon in a negative light.' Ojukwu despatched several of his ambassadors to world capitals, hoping to build on the momentum from his broadcast. His envoys received little new support or pledges, frustrated by the obstacles he found in coaxing a more pro-Biafra policy from the United States. St Louis Mbanefo famously rebuked the Americans, saying we are especially resentful of the ambivalent pretences the United States makes, that that it is trying to help us .......if we are condemned to die, all right, we will die. But at least let the world and the United Nations be honest about it.'
Meanwhile, on the side of the planet, Nigerian and Biafran envoys were meeting with his Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to sort out the modality of air and land transport for relief supplies to Biafra. The diplomatic battles had reached a fever pitch by middle of 1968. Gowon, under immense of international pressure and bristling from the whirlwind of publicity about Biafra, decided to open up land routes for a "supervised transport" of relief. To the consternation of Gowon, Ojukwu opted out of land routes in favour of increased airlifts of food from Sao Tome by international relief agencies. Ojukwu, like many Biafrans, was concerned about the prospect that the Nigerians would poison the food supplies because it is what they also know how to do. Whenever I come across the history of Nigerian _Biafra war, tears always gushed down my chicks because fro what my father who also fought the war told me ,many families lost their people both children and adult. The war which was caused by Gowon left many women childless. Before, people especially those who are novis in the history of this war said that it was Odumegwu Ojukwu who started the war. But if you go down to history, you will understand that Genera Yakubu Gowon is the brain behind the war by thwarting the Aburi accord. And Gowon will live to suffer for the pains he caused to Biafrans. This arch genocidist called Gowon who derived joy in killing of over 5 million Biafrans cannot be forgiven even if he tenders apology for that.
The Nigeria civil war, better known as the Biafran war, (6 July 1967_15 January 1970) was a war fought to counter the secession of Biafra from Nigeria. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the then Eastern Nigeria now south East and South south regions, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the northern _dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 includes military coup, a counter -coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria, control over oil production in the Niger Delta and Gowon's refusal to adhere to the Aburi accord are also things that triggered the war.
Within a year, the federal military government surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockades impose during ensuing stalemate led to severe famine_ accomplished deliberately as a war. This famine entered world awareness in mid 1968, when images of malnourished and starving children suddenly saturated the mass media of Western countries. And the plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause celebre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of International nongovernmental organization (NGOs) Britain and the Soviet Union were the main backers of the Federal military Government in lagos, while France and some independent elements supported Biafra, France and Israel provided weapons to both combatants.
For no reason, Nigeria and Biafra are not meant to be in one country because they absolutely have nothing in common. Everything about the two are different be it -religion, believe, culture and tradition. Right from the creation of the earth, the Northerners are known as violence and evil species while Biafrans are peaceful loving people. It was the British who joins this two different people together because of the resources of the Biafrans. But today, as Biafrans has stood their ground to restore their land, nothing in this life will stop them from achieving it even if it leads to another civil war again. Enough of all this humiliation, killings and forceful marriage. As for Gowon the arch genocidist, he will live to reap whatever evil he sow.Biafrans are not going to forgive him for his evil role of using hunger and starvation as a weapon of warfare against their people. And the spirit of those children he killed on the process of that will continue to haunt him even unto his grave. And Britain will never known peace for the evil they did against Biafrans during that war.
Free#Nnamdikanu,
Free#Biafra.
 |
| Gowon |
By Ogochukwu Nnanna
For family writers
The Biafrans suffered a lot and also paid a great humanitarian price by ceding a great deal of territory to the Nigerians and employing this war strategy. The famine worsened as the war raged, as the traditional Igbo society of farmers could not plant their crops .The demon and the blood sucker called Gowon had succeeded in cutting Biafra off from the sea, robbing its inhabitants of shipping ports to receive military and humanitarian supplies. The affliction persisted and kwashiorkor began to spread farther, with the absence of protein in the diet, and they were compounded by outbreaks of other disease epidemics and diarrhea. The landscape was filled by an increasing number of those avian prognosticators of death as the famine worsened and the death toll mounted: Vultures by the beginning of the dry season of 1968, Biafran civilians and soldiers alike were also starving. Bodies lay rotting under the hut sun by the roadside, and the flapping wings of scavengers could be seen circling waiting, watching patiently nearby.
Some estimates are that over a thousand Biafrans a day were perishing by this time, and at the height of Gowon's economic blockade and "starve them into submission" policy, upward of fifty thousand Biafran civilians,most of them babies ,children and women were dying every single month. Biafrans can never forgive Gowon for his evil role during that war. He cannot send millions of Biafrans to their early graves and expect them to forgive him, never! Ojukwu seized upon this humanitarian emergency and channeled the Biafran propaganda machinery to broadcast and showcase the suffering to the world. In one speech he accused Gowon of a "Calculated war of destruction and genocide." Known in some circles as "Biafran babies" speech,, it was hugely effective and touched the hearts of many around the world. This move was brilliant in a couple of respects. First, it deflected from himself or his war cabinet any sentiments of culpability and outrage that might have been willing up in the hearts and minds of Biafrans, and second, it was yet another opportunity to cast his arch nemesis, Gowon in a negative light.' Ojukwu despatched several of his ambassadors to world capitals, hoping to build on the momentum from his broadcast. His envoys received little new support or pledges, frustrated by the obstacles he found in coaxing a more pro-Biafra policy from the United States. St Louis Mbanefo famously rebuked the Americans, saying we are especially resentful of the ambivalent pretences the United States makes, that that it is trying to help us .......if we are condemned to die, all right, we will die. But at least let the world and the United Nations be honest about it.'
Meanwhile, on the side of the planet, Nigerian and Biafran envoys were meeting with his Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to sort out the modality of air and land transport for relief supplies to Biafra. The diplomatic battles had reached a fever pitch by middle of 1968. Gowon, under immense of international pressure and bristling from the whirlwind of publicity about Biafra, decided to open up land routes for a "supervised transport" of relief. To the consternation of Gowon, Ojukwu opted out of land routes in favour of increased airlifts of food from Sao Tome by international relief agencies. Ojukwu, like many Biafrans, was concerned about the prospect that the Nigerians would poison the food supplies because it is what they also know how to do. Whenever I come across the history of Nigerian _Biafra war, tears always gushed down my chicks because fro what my father who also fought the war told me ,many families lost their people both children and adult. The war which was caused by Gowon left many women childless. Before, people especially those who are novis in the history of this war said that it was Odumegwu Ojukwu who started the war. But if you go down to history, you will understand that Genera Yakubu Gowon is the brain behind the war by thwarting the Aburi accord. And Gowon will live to suffer for the pains he caused to Biafrans. This arch genocidist called Gowon who derived joy in killing of over 5 million Biafrans cannot be forgiven even if he tenders apology for that.
The Nigeria civil war, better known as the Biafran war, (6 July 1967_15 January 1970) was a war fought to counter the secession of Biafra from Nigeria. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the then Eastern Nigeria now south East and South south regions, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the northern _dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 includes military coup, a counter -coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria, control over oil production in the Niger Delta and Gowon's refusal to adhere to the Aburi accord are also things that triggered the war.
Within a year, the federal military government surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockades impose during ensuing stalemate led to severe famine_ accomplished deliberately as a war. This famine entered world awareness in mid 1968, when images of malnourished and starving children suddenly saturated the mass media of Western countries. And the plight of the starving Biafrans became a cause celebre in foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of International nongovernmental organization (NGOs) Britain and the Soviet Union were the main backers of the Federal military Government in lagos, while France and some independent elements supported Biafra, France and Israel provided weapons to both combatants.
For no reason, Nigeria and Biafra are not meant to be in one country because they absolutely have nothing in common. Everything about the two are different be it -religion, believe, culture and tradition. Right from the creation of the earth, the Northerners are known as violence and evil species while Biafrans are peaceful loving people. It was the British who joins this two different people together because of the resources of the Biafrans. But today, as Biafrans has stood their ground to restore their land, nothing in this life will stop them from achieving it even if it leads to another civil war again. Enough of all this humiliation, killings and forceful marriage. As for Gowon the arch genocidist, he will live to reap whatever evil he sow.Biafrans are not going to forgive him for his evil role of using hunger and starvation as a weapon of warfare against their people. And the spirit of those children he killed on the process of that will continue to haunt him even unto his grave. And Britain will never known peace for the evil they did against Biafrans during that war.
Free#Nnamdikanu,
Free#Biafra.
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