AN EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW WITH A BIAFRAN/NIGERIAN WAR VETERAN
By Orji Ezynne
Family Writers Press
Family Writers Press has remained one of the legitimate and uncompromising Biafra media outfit in the fore of Biafra restoration movement. Family Writers Press in a bid to project the Biafra stories and bringing the Biafra question to the international front, took it upon themselves to unveiling all the atrocities of the Nigerian government on Biafrans, thereby destroying Nigeria with undiluted truth which is the watch word in the Biafra struggle. However, there are many Family Writers correspondents on ground, unapologetically ready to dishing out accurate information and news as regards to Biafra restoration. These gentlemen and ladies are dogged, resolute and have remained focus in the dissemination of information basically on Biafra.
To this end, I Orji Ezinne a Family Writers correspondent had an interview granted to me by a Biafra/Nigerian war veteran so as to get a first hand information and knowledge of what led to the war, as well as what transpired during and after the war. Below is a first hand account of a Biafran, who is incidentally not only an eye witness but also a participant in the war.
Note: FWC~ will be used to designate Family Writers Correspondent.
FWC: Good day sir, my name is Orji Ezynne a Biafra Family Writers correspondent.
Veteran: You are welcome.
FWC: Sir, what is your name and place of origin please?
Veteran: I am Mr. Imenba Njoku and I hail from Osisioma Ngwa local government area of Abia state, Biafraland.
FWC: When exactly sir, did the Nigeria/Biafra war commenced and how long did it last?
Veteran: It actually started in 1967 after the declaration of Biafra as a sovereign nation by Ikemba Ojukwu and it ended in the year 1970, when Achuzie surrendered Biafra to the Nigerian government, that is after three years.
FW5: What really triggered that war?
Veteran: The war was as a result of inhuman, unfavourable and oppressive leadership style adopted by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the then Nigeria's Prime Minister, which mainly was directed against the Igbos (Biafrans). This anti Biafran leadership was opposed by General Aguiyi Ironsi, the only war star decorated Field Marshall in Nigeria, who in a bid to foster the unity of Nigeria, led a coup which comprises of many Army officers from all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria but was tagged an "Igbo coup" because Ironsi is an Igbo Biafran. The then Prime Minster (Tafawa Balewa) along with the sultan of Sokoto, then decided and ordered the Northerns in the military to carry out a revolution and kill Aguiyi Ironsi and other military personnel of Igbo extraction as a revenge for the killing of a Northern Head of State via the coup. Many other Biafrans resident in the North, were gruesomely murdered and their corpses transported through the rail down to the East. I personally was an eye witness to those canage on our people because I went to the rail way station to see the corpses myself.
FWC: Were there any involvement of foreign countries that connived with Nigeria in this genocide against Biafrans?
Veteran: Oh yes. The British was a ready and willing tool along side some Arabic (Islamic) countries.
FWC: How realistic is this slogan "No Victor, No Vanquish" as commonly being used by Nigerians since after that war, to buttress the elusive unity of the country?
Veteran: There is absolutely no iota of truth in that slogan. Biafra won that war despite the massive military support Nigeria garnered from her foreign accomplices. A war they thought will end in three months but we defended ourselves and held them down for three years. So we won.
FWC: Did you record any loss of friends or relatives in that unfortunate war?
Veteran: Hmmmmm! Wipes his face.....Yes of course and very painfully too. Many of them indeed.
FWC: What happened after the war?
Veteran: Immediately after the war, Biafrans no matter the amount of money you had in the bank before the war, were given 20 pounds. Most of our properties were tagged "abandoned properties" and the Nigerian government confiscated all of them, even till today.
FWC: Is it really necessary remembering or honouring these our heros and heroines?
Veteran: Extremely necessary. We must have to maintain the reminiscence of these our fallen compatriots who paid the costly price that we may live. It must be paramount in our subconsciousness as a people.
FWC: Thank you very much sir for your time.
Veteran: You are welcome my daughter. The pleasure is all mine. Thank you!
By Orji Ezynne
Family Writers Press
Family Writers Press has remained one of the legitimate and uncompromising Biafra media outfit in the fore of Biafra restoration movement. Family Writers Press in a bid to project the Biafra stories and bringing the Biafra question to the international front, took it upon themselves to unveiling all the atrocities of the Nigerian government on Biafrans, thereby destroying Nigeria with undiluted truth which is the watch word in the Biafra struggle. However, there are many Family Writers correspondents on ground, unapologetically ready to dishing out accurate information and news as regards to Biafra restoration. These gentlemen and ladies are dogged, resolute and have remained focus in the dissemination of information basically on Biafra.
To this end, I Orji Ezinne a Family Writers correspondent had an interview granted to me by a Biafra/Nigerian war veteran so as to get a first hand information and knowledge of what led to the war, as well as what transpired during and after the war. Below is a first hand account of a Biafran, who is incidentally not only an eye witness but also a participant in the war.
Note: FWC~ will be used to designate Family Writers Correspondent.
FWC: Good day sir, my name is Orji Ezynne a Biafra Family Writers correspondent.
Veteran: You are welcome.
FWC: Sir, what is your name and place of origin please?
Veteran: I am Mr. Imenba Njoku and I hail from Osisioma Ngwa local government area of Abia state, Biafraland.
FWC: When exactly sir, did the Nigeria/Biafra war commenced and how long did it last?
Veteran: It actually started in 1967 after the declaration of Biafra as a sovereign nation by Ikemba Ojukwu and it ended in the year 1970, when Achuzie surrendered Biafra to the Nigerian government, that is after three years.
FW5: What really triggered that war?
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| Orji Ezinne and IPOB leader |
FWC: Were there any involvement of foreign countries that connived with Nigeria in this genocide against Biafrans?
Veteran: Oh yes. The British was a ready and willing tool along side some Arabic (Islamic) countries.
FWC: How realistic is this slogan "No Victor, No Vanquish" as commonly being used by Nigerians since after that war, to buttress the elusive unity of the country?
Veteran: There is absolutely no iota of truth in that slogan. Biafra won that war despite the massive military support Nigeria garnered from her foreign accomplices. A war they thought will end in three months but we defended ourselves and held them down for three years. So we won.
FWC: Did you record any loss of friends or relatives in that unfortunate war?
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| Mr. Imenba Njoku |
Veteran: Hmmmmm! Wipes his face.....Yes of course and very painfully too. Many of them indeed.
FWC: What happened after the war?
Veteran: Immediately after the war, Biafrans no matter the amount of money you had in the bank before the war, were given 20 pounds. Most of our properties were tagged "abandoned properties" and the Nigerian government confiscated all of them, even till today.
FWC: Is it really necessary remembering or honouring these our heros and heroines?
Veteran: Extremely necessary. We must have to maintain the reminiscence of these our fallen compatriots who paid the costly price that we may live. It must be paramount in our subconsciousness as a people.
FWC: Thank you very much sir for your time.
Veteran: You are welcome my daughter. The pleasure is all mine. Thank you!
Incorrect information. Would have been editored.
ReplyDeleteGen. AGUIYI IRONSI NEVER LED ANY COUP in the zoological rep. of Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteLiving legendary, GOP ACHUZIA NEVER SURRENDERED BIAFRA, rather was a protagonist for a cease fire between Biafra and Nigeria for a martial round table settlement. ACHUZIA stand on the reechoed IPOB maxim: BIAFRA OR DEATH in a very critical moment of Biafra existence attracted external interest that frightened the zoo government not to murder him but rather to commute such a
stand dubbed offences of treason and felony to imprisonment.