With the second highest death-toll of all African conflicts, the Nigerian Civil war (also known as the Biafran war) is perhaps the single most significant event in Nigerian history.
This video is an attempt to shed light on the 3 year conflict, which claimed the lives of over 100,000 soldiers and an estimated 2 million civilians as the Nigerian government led by General Yakubu Gowon fought to prevent the secession of the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra which was led by General Chuckwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
The Nigerian state breached the Aburi Accord and failed to comply with Rules of Engagement and other aspects of International Humanitarian Law by committing mass genocide. Despite these injustice and atrocities committed, the Nigerian state failed to properly compensate the peoples of the Eastern Region and properly re-integrate them into the Nigerian state.
Many years after the war, a sense of alienation from the Nigerian state still grips some of the peoples of the former Eastern Region. This has resulted in modern day agitation for the Biafran state by self determination groups such as MASSOB led by Ralph Uwazuruike and IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu.
The recent agitations by Nnamdi Kanu led IPOB has led to a serious face off with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Just recently, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari sounded a note of warning via a controversial post on his twitter account which stated as follows:
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian civil war,” a tweet from the official handle of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari read last Tuesday. “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
The tweet was deleted by the twitter policy team of Jack Dorsey’s twitter with the situation degenerating into a suspension of twitter operations in Nigeria, the suspension was sanctioned by the administration of Nigerian’s President, Muhammadu Buhari.
With tension heightened in the Country that has witnessed pockets of violence in the South Eastern geo-political, political watchers are still observing to see our the situation unfolds.
The purpose of sharing this video is to remind readers about how the war started so that they can vividly imagine the damage that the war cause to the peoples of the Eastern Region and the Nigerian state. Perhaps, to avoid a repetition of what occurred between 1967 and 1970, parties in Government and on the side of the self determination proponents should dialogue with each other through diplomatic means.
Watch the video and share your comments below!