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| PEV: Arrowed on the head, the Post Electoral Violence experienced in Kenya was not averted out of jolly stupidity |
"God is a Nigerian, he lives in Nigeria but visits Kenya very often". Ever since Olusegun Obasanjo said these words (while on a cathartic, flatter-mongering session on Jeff Koinange's intimate 'bench' -- a bench that if it were to come any smaller Jeff would be liable for indecent assaults), I can't help but feel that the Nigerian supremo was talking about one of two things -- 1. Obasanjo was metaphorically speaking about himself (a subtle brag) . . . or 2. He was talking about a curious hitherto unknown, Nigerian god of calamity and political catastrophes.
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| Good or Evil: On which side of the divide does this spirit/god fall? |
If this petulant, migratory Nigerian god indeed does exist then he has apparently grown too fond of Kenya. The turbulence in Kenyan politics these days is so annoying and irritating that it is enough to make one feel like kicking their own teeth in. As Kenyans we are no longer so smug about our country being a bastion of peace and tranquility. We have pretty much cut ourselves down to size (perhaps with some input from this rascal 'god') and the precipitousness of our politics is almost at parity or even rivals that of Nigeria.
Out of this 'coincidence', it has occurred to the Greyhorn Kenya might need a thorough inquiry into this mysterious juju-figment; and who else but the probing veteran, Jeff Koinange, to do us the honour? Before then an account of the political fortunes of Nigeria and Kenya might be of interest to the reader, which happens to be the subject of this post.
{From the outset I would like to acknowledge the insightful work of Gen. Abubakar A. Atofarati from which this amateur exposition has greatly relied upon.
With regard to sourcing, for all intents and purposes it should be regarded that it is excerpts from his work that is being read (with respect to Nigeria), albeit the language, style and any inadvertent errors that might have escaped my attention are to be considered mine. Accordingly there is a link to his original work at the end.}
Now, the land mass currently known as Nigeria, existed from eternity right upto 1900 as a number of independent, separate and sometimes hostile tribal states . On this centennial year, and probably to pompously signify the inauguration of a more invasive policy, the British created administrative entities called the Northern and Southern Protectorates.
Roughly, these are areas that lie deep within modern Nigeria (the borders were gradually expanded outwards; in particular a large area was cut from the German enclave of Kamerun after WW1 and pasted onto the map of Nigeria). This action was purposely aimed to further entrench and structure British control outside the long held colony of Lagos. Thus in 1900 what was to become the state of Nigeria was still a vague conglomeration of 3 British administered areas; that is, 2 protectorates and a lonely colony.
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| The various tribes of Nigeria and where they are located |
What outsiders are apt to forget is that Nigeria, like Kenya, has never really been a single homogenous country, and this is mainly due to it's strong diversities in peoples and cultures. In fact, the population of Nigeria is a thorough hodgepodge of identities, with well over 250 ethnic groups. But only ten ethnic groups, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, Tiv, Edo, Nupe, Ibibio and Ijaw account for nearly 80% of the total population.
Most of this population is distinctly concentrated in two regions of Nigeria; the southern part of the country, and around an area of dense settlement in and around the vicinity of Kano in the north.
Between these two areas there is a sparsely populated middle belt. Something akin to the dry Nyika plateau -- the patchy, semi-arid grassland one can observe heading inland after leaving the temperate coastal landscape which stretches right across Akamba country to the northern parts of what was formerly Eastern Province on the leeward side of Mt. Kenya.
Nigeria & Kenya: Colonial Mischief and the Systematization of Tribal Balkans
May 1906: About a few months after the British had treacherously murdered Koitalel Samoei in Kenya, in Nigeria the native tribes had some perplexing tidings. The British, so they were told, had decided to make further effort at unification and integration, therefore the colony of Lagos and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, which had existed separately, were amalgamated to become the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. The distant, Islamist North was spared (for a trifling moment) and just remained the North.
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| Fredrick G. Lugard |
Although that was a significant act in the process of unification it was not as auspicious as that of 1st January 1914. On this date the British gave a sudden, drastic, melding shock to the above mentioned polities and the political evolution of a modern state in West Africa began; the state of Nigeria.
Lord Fredrick G. Lugard, the high handed agent of British imperialism, is the man who midwifed this spontaneous birth. He had been ennobled and exported to West Africa just a short while before, and his brief was to whip up things into shape in Nigeria for the British crown .
This Lugard it so happens, is the same man who had impudently boxed the ears of the monarchs in Uganda, and with a dose of bellicose manoeouvering scuttled German pretensions in East Africa.
Effectively at gun point, the then Sir Lugard had forced the new, youthful and probably demented Kabaka Mwanga II -- King in the most pre-eminent kingdom in Uganda -- to repudiate the treaty he had signed with Karl Peters in 1891 to establish a German protectorate over the politically and strategically indispensable dominion of Buganda.
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| The half-sane Kabaka Mwanga II, he is the man who burnt alive the Ugandan Martyrs some for refusing to be sodomized by him |
Thereby, the patent honour of having firmly secured British interests in East Africa goes to this particular Victorian Neanderthal. Lugard is also infamously credited for having candidly stated the shameful objectives of imperialists in Africa.
This through the remark that, “European brains, capital and energy have not been, and never will be, expended in developing the resources of Africa from motives of pure philanthropy.” Sadly for modern generations, the only thing he cheerfully, and rather randomly failed to acknowledge or reconcile to his logic is that no African ever went to Europe (or even sent a letter) to appeal for any such European brains or energies.
Tired of the hassle and inefficiencies of two very similar but hopelessly different administrative entities, Lord Lugard -- the quintessential hierarchical military man -- summarily cobbled together into one the separate administrations of the two sections of Nigeria . Following this unilateral decision, all the proto-Nigerian people (mandatorily) had one thing in common . . . the name of their country.
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| Lugard's Wife |
{Before we feel all happy and rejoice, it is noteworthy to point out one peculiar thing. Nigerians, so it is recorded, were not even given the honour of coming up with the name of their country -- that was the whimsical contribution of Lugard's wife who it is said saw a map and Eureka! . . . she blurted out the perfect term -- 'Nigeria'. Sadly, it is with the flippancy of naming a kangaroo that a British prude unwittingly created the biggest brand in Africa.}
Prior to that the North and the South had lived condescendingly oblivious of each other, each side with it's own different administrative set-up. Within the North and the South, communities had also continued to live blissfully in deliberate ignorance of each other, every tribal entity pretty much carried on with it's own devices, as long as it fell in line with British interests and imperatives.
To Lugard Nigeria must have seemed like a labyrinthine complex of regional, sectarian and tribal cocoons, that were in a clingy way, insulated from each other.
It must have immediately dawned on him with the rapidity of a flicked-on light bulb: "Nigeria has extreme and inexcusable levels of cultural inbreeding and tribal prejudice, and thereat, providence has ordained that I, and only I, be the right man to speedily and ruthlessly crush such vices".
Factional prejudice was no longer to be entertained, and it is the proto-Nigerians who were going to dance thenceforth to British prejudice and sectarian bigotry, not the other way round. And thus the Lord Lugard fellow said, "Let there be one Nigeria!" -- and alas! Nigeria came to be!
After 1914, no further constitutional development took place in Nigeria until 1922. By that time Kenya had been declared a colony; African interests were glossed over by being termed as 'paramount' in the Devonshire Declaration and yet in reality there was nothing really paramount in being an African in Kenya.
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| The Cottar Family in Kenya in the 1920s, Kenya was paradise for white settlers |
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| Alice Sheldon of the Cottar family, for the life of me I can't figure out what Kenyan tribe those curious people in the background are. 1920s Kenya was still a strange place it seems. |
The 1922 Nigerian constitution cannot be said to have been divinely inspired. It made provision (for the first time) for elected members to sit on a Nigerian legislative council -- but did not empower them to make laws for the North! To an outsider this seems eminently odd, if not fascinating and one awkward contradiction.
Northern legislators could create laws for Southerners but the converse was not allowed. Imagine a Kenyan parliament with members from every part of the country who can legislate as long as they don't make any laws for lets say Luos and Luhyas, or Kikuyus and the other GEMA communities; and if they should lose their sense of bearing and feign to make one, it would be automatically invalid!
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| Lord Lugard with the Northern Emirs . . . at a London Zoo!! |
These kind of shabby expediencies in political compromise that the British are infamous for, form part of the reasons why there is still persistent feelings of ill-will amongst many communities in their former colonies, Kenya included. Was it blatant favouritism to make the intransigent Northerners more malleable and submissive to the British designs? Or was it a genuine means to balance a lopsided system that favoured the Southerners? Either way it can't have failed to lay the foundation for institutional problems (amongst numerous others) in the Nigerian state, along regional and ethnic lines.
1940: Apparently not satisfied with the current administrative provisions, perhaps due to boredom, British paranoia over an improbable German invasion or simply due to the urgent need to create jobs for young British officers, the colonial administration in Nigeria (in connivance with the colonial office) changed course on Nigeria's cohesion and began to administratively disintegrate Nigeria. The country was sub-divided into four administrative units; the colony of Lagos, the Northern, Eastern and Western provinces. Out of broadly two units now there was broadly four administrative sub-units.
At this time (1940) in Kenya, the seeding Kenyan nationalists were still a rigorously surveilled lot, past political activity and dissension had been expediently dealt with by the arrest and exile of pesky political leaders to far flung places; political organisations were also routinely scuttled through peremptory banning. In the 40s, Kenya was apartheid in the making, the tide of immigrant British colonials -- later boosted by war veterans seeking a fresh start in the tropics -- was accelerating, not ebbing.
Nigeria, 1946: Separateness further strengthened, actually dug in and cemented by one Sir Arthur Richardson (could this be the contemporaneous world famous cyclist who went by that name and title?). The constitution of 1946 which is named after him, inaugurated Nigeria's regionalism and merely achieved a half-hearted political breakthrough by integrating the North with the South at the legislative level for the first time i.e. the legislative body could make laws that would actually apply equally, all across the country -- for the first time!
The same busy knight and titular gentleman, Sir Richardson, helped the Nigerians to tediously lick into form another constitution in 1950. This was necessitated by profound attitudinal shifts and a startling growth in general awareness amongst Nigerians.The post-World War 2 wave that was sweeping through Africa had inevitably also brought political awakenning and an upsurge of African nationalism in Nigeria.
But the devil is always in the detail; this awareness in Nigeria (and elsewhere in Africa) was doubly expressed in the formation of political parties on regional and ethnic basis. A good example in Kenya would be the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), the Luo-dominated Young Kavirondo Study Association and the Akamba People's Party (APP), all being pre-independence creatures.
In the permissive administrative environment in Nigeria, the fruits of institutional and political balkanization soon enough were ripe and obvious; a frenzied stampede towards full scale regionalism.
All the previous constitutional changes were not sufficient by any means for Nigerians. In fact far from it, no Nigerian was happy as yet. Obligingly the British administrators threw in the Macpherson's constitution of 1951 to the ever expanding constitutional broth. It granted greater autonomy to the regions with stronger regional legislatures. With only residual power left to the central government, Nigeria politically took a turn towards the graveyard of strongly cocoonized states, and there was great possibility of three countries emerging out of the one Nigeria we know of.
One year after the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya had began, in 1953, a central cabinet in Nigeria was split over a seemingly mundane issue, that is, the acceptance of a target date for securing self-government. Perhaps unknown to the extremely fortunate Nigerians, that was something that Kenyans could scarcely have began to imagine at that time. Kenya under a State of Emergency, was completely eclipsed by a dark and grim cloud of terror.
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| Ambushed passers-by waiting to be screened as Mau Mau suspects |
The life of most Africans in Central Kenya and Nairobi had been methodically reduced to one of perpetual and heightened sense of panic. A joyless, pitiful life of heart-rendering trepidation, morbid anxiety and intense orchestrated alarm.
The terrorized African citizenry, a majority of whom who could hardly comprehend the reason for their sudden misfortunes, were savagely atomized and compelled to live in a surreal, fright-filled world. The sheer barbarity of what was then an ongoing crackdown numbed the African masses with acharnement; simply freezing under their skins with constipated apprehension.
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| Detainees at a detention centre awaiting their fate |
Besides this, Kenyan Africans had to watch helplessly as the British relentlessly turned the country into a series of concentration camps; it was clear that the colonial government purposely contrived, as a key strategy, to make the Africans as extremely paranoid, palpably freaked out and as psychologically displaced as they possibly could.
The British quickly and brutally achieved this objective. The unprecedented scale of atrocities they perpetrated in pursuit of this aim was inexplicable to the victims, many remaining and even dying in ignorance as to the reasons and purpose of their being chosen to suffer such unwarranted and arbitrary violence.
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| Terrorizing was a game the British were far much more adept at than the Mau Mau |
Often at times entire villages, homesteads or individuals would be ambushed at the roadside, in the communal farm fields or at their homes with abrupt detentions. Other times they would be ruthlessly pounced upon, as unwitting candidates for random and brutal beatings just to set a bloody and an unambiguous example for the others.
Woe unto those, who were unlucky to have randomized selection qualify them for special 'treatment'. Such individuals would be torn apart from their desperately wailing families and friends, and whisked away to suffer additional and extreme forms of physical torture. Many were never seen alive again. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were maimed, raped and violated in various subhuman ways under the pretext of anti-Mau Mau screening operations.
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| These British Johnnies have paid a 'courtesy' call to a Mau Mau suspect at his home |
Any non-compliance and whatsoever inclination that could be vaguely construed or misconstrued by a British officer as a sign of dissension on a 'native' would be immediately rewarded with a bullet to the head. It is no surprise that such tactics resurfaced in apartheid South Africa, the favoured destination of many of the departing white settlers from Kenya.
The incredulity and falsity of the official figures given by the British government of the murdered Africans (the figures have been whitewashed and conveniently attributed to the defunct colonial government) which are in the single digit thousands, is strengthened by the fact that such murders happening in the bush or some sufficiently remote area would go unrecorded and the bodies would be nonchalantly disposed.
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| One of the only 32 white victims said to have been killed by the Mau Mau |
All this was done and justified by the artificial paramountcy of keeping the pressure sufficiently high and way, way up in the sky.
By permeating the national psyche with palpable, grinding and relentless fear, the British hoped they would quickly break the resistance. Instead they only radicalized even the moderates who were won over to the struggle. This was countered by flooding Kenya with 30,000 regular British troops from other parts of the empire. Which amounted to an obscene ratio of one British soldier for about 4 white settlers (every man, woman and child) all across the country.
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| Being caught out in the bush taking a pee without 'papers' was toying with death during the Mau Mau insurgency |
The horrors in turn increased with each extra pound the British government spent as more pressure was piled on the colonial administrators (and troops) to expedite the submission of Kenya's 'cultist savages' to British preponderance.
Nearly a quarter of a century later some of the hell-bent Mau Maus were still in the forest, cursing the British, still irreverent and ostensibly going on with the struggle. In fact they were unaware at the time of their 'redemption', that Kenya had actually been free and independent for a decade.
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| These Mau Mau conveniently emerged from the forest at Independence and here they are holding a parade as they are being welcomed back. Hundreds more still remained in the forest, some well into the seventies. |
The British extremities had completely alienated them and it is more than improbable that these remaining brave men and women would have ever submitted to the colonialists; for them their fate had been immutably sealed -- either the British allow them to live in complete freedom in their land or they die so trying.
(Destiny produced an ironic twist in that these die hard Mau Mau, and by then a global symbol of African resistance to imperialism, had to be 'salvaged' from the superseded struggle and out of the frigid mountain forests . . . they came to learn, that apparently the struggle had long ended and that they themselves had conveniently been forgotten by the new African rulers of Kenya).
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| Kenyatta with one of the Mau Mau leaders at a welcoming ceremony in Nyeri, a town that was at the outskirts of the Mt. Kenya forest in those days. The man isn't too happy to see the white journalists who took this photo. |
As they were being urged to come out of the forest, they must have scratched below their massive dreadlocks and asked some embarrassing questions to the government plenipotentiaries sent to deliver them. "Ten years? Free? Did the British pay you to stay put? For chrissake the forest is only 10 miles from civilization!"
This incredibly savage British crackdown against the Mau Mau in the 50s was mirthlessly code named "Operation Anvil". The extremities and inhuman violations perpetrated during that one sided war, mostly against unarmed civilians, ushered hitherto unknown levels of violence and inculcated the culture of state perpetrated violence in Kenya. To this day that British colonial heritage is something that still pervades the security organs in Kenya.
The failure of the Nigerian cabinet to agree on a date for self-government in 1953 escalated and widened the political rifts with the end result of the Kano riots. The gap between the Nigerian regions widened, regional opinions became radicalized and the tensions gave rise to thither unheard of demands. These were not completely unexpected but their airing was an alarming novelty and did not portend well for the future of Nigeria.
The North talked openly of the possibility of secession rather than endure what they saw as humiliation and ill-treatment. The West promptly threatened to secede over the non-inclusion of Lagos in the Western Region within the new constitution.
Experts at these things by now, the colonialists alongside what must have increasingly seemed to them as their pesky Nigerian subjects formulated another constitution, the 1954 constitution. (Kenya 1954; Mau Mau being seriously hammered onto the 'anvil', bombs are indistinguishable from raindrops in intensity within the Mt. Kenya forest -- hide-out of Mau Mau fighters), all Africans are being treated as potential suspects, Africans are being compelled through British terror-mongering and imminence of instant dispatch to betray, arrest, torture and incarcerate each other).
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| Delegates at one of the Nigerian constitutional conferences in the fifties. In the background are the nosy white colonialists |
Back to the civilized world in Nigeria, the constitution of 1954 confirmed and formalized the wishes of Nigerian leaders to move and remain as far apart as they possibly could, and the leaders settled for the Federal option over the Unitary government.
That is, they chose the late Shariff Nassir's type of majimboism i.e. a variant form of federal government that espouses some of the same attributes as the 2010 constitution Kenya is currently hurtling towards implementing, instead of the all powerful creature of a single centralized government that we had before. Wise people these eh? Or were they?
From then on everything was charged, geared and frenetically paced, which bloomed into a bewildering kaleidoscope of political activities. There were constitutional conferences in 1957, 1958, 1959 and in 1960 -- culminating in the granting of independence to Nigeria on October 1, 1960.
This can be compared to the emotive and endless rounds of negotiations both in Kenya and in Britain between the various political factions (mainly the unitary KANU and regionalist KADU) that resulted into the release from detention of Kenyatta, the two Lancaster conferences and Kenya's original post-independence constitution.
With the sheer number of constitutional changes, constitutional conferences and related debates at that early a time, Nigerians in the very least should by now (in the 21st century) have a near perfect constitution -- not only for Nigeria, but for the rest of Africa as well. But theirs is as shabby and rickety as the rest across Africa.
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| Kibaki holding up the new constitution that he had just signed into effect at the promulgation ceremony in 2010 |
Kenya unfortunately, is still included in the list of countries with half-baked constitutions -- what seemed a perfect 'constitution-thingy' only a few dozen months ago has turned out to be one spiky creature with pretty glaring holes, allegedly due to amateurish draftmanship.
Millions of Kenyans were given millions of copies to read, you could meet people sitting in long rows on the streets, ostentatiously reading the constitution -- does that mean millions of people were reading errors, and yet no one saw any? That is, the 69% who voted for it, including your erudite author here.
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| A Kenyan hawker (her banana merchandise are to the right) ostensibly reading the then draft constitution |
Am suddenly amazed by how many 'errors' I can 'discover' in any one given chapter. It has become more of a constitutional jigsaw puzzle rather than a constitution really. Experts at mutilating Kenyan constitutions, the political class in Kenya is already coming up fast and furious with various proposals for various constitutional amendments.
High Drama and Political Turbulence in Independent Nigeria
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| Princess Alexandra with Nigeria's Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa at the independence ceremony |
At independence in 1960 Nigeria had a federalist-parliamentary constitution. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe served as Governor-General (the representative of the British Monarch and Head of State) while Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was the Prime Minister. This state of affairs continued until 1963 when the post of Governor-General was abolished and Dr. Azikiwe became president and head of state in the ordinary sense.
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| Left; Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe the president and Right; Tafawa Balewa the prime minister |
A slap for Britain
New states and political turbulence can always be found together, cheek by jowl, and Nigeria was no exception. The first post-independence disturbance in Nigeria, appeared like a lightning bolt from a blue, juju-smoke-free sky.
The furore stemmed from a fairly standard defense agreement between Britain and it's former colonies; it was nonetheless spinned to sufficiently appear to a majority of Nigerians as an inequitable treaty that was meant to rob Nigeria of her sovereignty. Through student demonstrations and vehement opposition by the general public and members of the Federal House of Representatives, the agreement was abrogated in December 1962.
Through this action the Nigerians were reminding the itchy, forlorn British they were out, and that they should behave themselves by staying out; or in the very least pitch a tent at a respectable distant without.
A dead Lord Lugard must have been turning in his grave, probably injured and dishonoured that denizens of his British creation should be such ingrates. Apparently, and keeping in line with the Lugardian imperialist principles, all Nigerians (to a man) appeared to be asserting that: Nigerian brains and energy, would not, and they would never be, expended philanthropically for British interests! Poetic justice eh?
The Census Debacle:
Barely done with scratching their heads over the abortive Britto-Nigerian defense pact, the new rulers suddenly had to contend with another national crisis. The whole country was up in arms over the general census conducted in 1962 which was alleged to have been riddled with malpractice and inflation of figures.
The errors were thought to be of such astronomical proportions that the Eastern Region refused to accept the result. A second census was prescribed by the doctor, and it was speedily carried out in 1963. To the relief of the Nigerian government, the tension slackened but even then the figures were nominally accepted with reservations.
The Tiv Riots (1962-1965):
In February 1964, further threats to the federal unity emerged when the ethnic tribe, Tiv of the Benue Plateau- who had sought autonomy since independence, launched attacks against NPC (the ruling party) personnel and offices. The Nigerian federal army rapidly suppressed the insurgency.
Having had it up to their necks with the domineering antics of the ruling party, the Tiv (one of the major tribes in the Middle Belt) can be said to have been openly in dissent for almost three years. But this was only an isolated bush party compared to what was about to come. The mayhem had barely started, and things really got into the chaos rhythm with the General Election of 1964 -- the first in post-independence Nigeria.
{NIGERIA'S GIFT TO KENYA: Bungled elections excites poor silly people to murder others; if you are poor then by all means don't be silly -- as we were in the 60s.}
General Election of 1964:
A precursor of what in later years was to become a standard flaw in African elections, the general election of 1964 was alleged to have been neither free nor fair. All devices imaginable were said to have been used by the ruling parties in the regions to eliminate opponents.
The first election since independence to the federal House of Representatives (the National Assembly) took place in December 1964. This was preceded before the elections by a Kenyan style, NARC-like split in the coalition between the NPC and the NCNC and the formation of two new national coalitions. It was very Kenyan indeed in the Nigeria of 1964. The two national coalitions, (for all intents and purposes ODM and PNU) were as follows:
1.The Nigerian National Alliance (NNA), led by Ahmadu Bello was comprised of the NPC and the Akintola’s breakaway Yoruba party, now renamed the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP).
2.The United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA), led by Dr. Michael Okpara, Prime Minister of the Eastern Region, was composed of NCNC, the remainder of the Action Group (AG) party (whose leader was imprisoned for plotting to overthrow the federal government) and the minority, populist Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU).
In the ensuing wrangles, claims and counter-claims for victory immediately following the elections, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission himself admitted there were proven irregularities. Thus the Nigerians had their Samuel Kivuitu long before the Kenyan one had finished high school and when independent Kenya was only a few months old. The President, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe refused to appoint a Prime Minister in light of these allegations.
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| Tafawa Balewa |
For four anxious days, the nation waited until the President announced that he had appointed the incumbent Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, to form a broad based government. The poll results had been extremely close and the NNA was awarded victory in the elections by default. Reluctantly and in light of growing tensions nationwide, Azikiwe asked Tafawa Balewa to form a new government.
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| Kibaki and Raila at the signing of the National Accord that finally brought peace . . . and the loathsome creature called the Coalition Government |
For many Kenyans this 1964 electoral drama in Nigeria would be immediately seized upon as the events of 2007 and early January 2008. Few Kenyans are aware that such stark similarities even exist between the history of post-independence Nigeria and the recent history of Kenya, given the difference in time of the events (44 years), demographics and the difference in cultures between Nigeria and Kenya.
That is, Kenyans are not aware that during the seemingly novel crisis in 2008 in Nigerian eyes we were merely re-inventing the wheel of post-electoral violence. Unbeknownst to us, Nigerians knew we were deep in the thick of it, probably even shaking their heads with pity at our stupid non-appreciation and ignorance of their history. The similarities continue.
Western Region election of 1965:
After the General Elections of 1964 and in a still uneasy atmosphere the regional elections got underway in 1965, in Kenya that would be the equivalent of let's say the elections for the county assemblies and the governors. The rigging and irregularities in these elections were alleged to be more brazen and more shameful. But none stood out as those of the Western Region.
Suddenly law and order broke down completely leading to an almost complete state of anarchy. Arson and indiscriminate killings were committed by a private army of thugs of political parties (there were already Mungikis, Taliban, SunguSungus, Jeshi la Mzee and Chinkororos in Nigeria way back in 1965).
Law abiding citizens lived in constant fear of their lives and property. The disenchantment and disaffection following this election left the entire country in a foul mood and it lay fertile ground for the Coup of 15 January 1966.
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The Kenyan Eminent Personalities. Clockwise from top left- Koffi Annan (Ghanian), Graca Machel (South African) Benjamin Mkapa and president Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzanaians) |
Kenya, was veritably and unwittingly heading for a civil war in 2008 if the events in Nigeria in the mid-1960s is anything to go by. Thus it was no accident, nosiness or happenstance that the Nigerians and Ghanians actively participated in the restoration of peace in Kenya -- they had already lived through that exact same script more than four decades earlier!.
When John Michuki (recently deceased) was decrying their presence and saying that they should butt out as no one had invited them, he didn't know he was making an imbecile of himself.
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| John Michuki |
Perhaps the eminent African personalities, particularly from Nigeria and Ghana were wondering how such an experienced politician, (who was a fully grown man and a high ranking official during the Nigerian crisis) could be so ignorant of the obvious perils. Michuki was behaving as if he was completely unaware that he was cutting the branch that he sat on; flagrantly tethering the country onto the path of imminent war.
(I have no malice for the departed Michuki, in fact in many regards he is a figure I look up to with awe and utmost respect. An innately potent and strong willed character, he was unassuming in his demeanour, efficient beyond reproach and he defended to the hilt his positions once he had arrived at a decision. But I find it hypocritical to whitewash his errors and particularly the above disservice to the country.
Were he in my position and I in his, am in no doubt whatsoever he would have been as equally forthright.)
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| The mayhem in Kenya during the crisis of early 2008 |
The violent civil eruption in Kenya in 2008 was only a precursor to the inevitable involvement of the security forces and the army. Not to stop the violence, but to structure and intensify it. This course of action would have come as a result of the inevitable collapse of the institutional cohesion within the army and police. This would have arisen in their turn out of strong shearing pressures from ethnic and regional animosity.
Fortunately the Nigerians, the Ghanians and the other like minded African leaders paid little heed to Michuki-like voices, especially on the PNU side, perceiving things from the vantage point of practical experience and acute awareness of what awaited Kenya. Left to their own devices, the Kenyan politicians would have led us to straight to a civil war in a matter of weeks.
For this show of brotherly concern, pan-African statesmanship, perseverance and for the quick, intense and forceful intervention, Kenyans are forever indebted to especially the Ghanians, Tanzanians and the Nigerians. Only now is it becoming clear how much so that is true.
RIGGING AND COUPS: THE UNSEEMLY SIAMESE TWINS
First Coup 1966:
The violence following the Western Region elections of 1965, (which had only intensified the tensions brought about by the bungled elections of 1964) was cataclysmic in significance and helped tear apart the national fabric, reducing the country into a twisted, mangled wreck.
In times of violent chaos or war, in what are virtually collapsed states it is the professionals in the business of war who wield the real power. Therefore naturally it was no surprise when the coup of 1966 came, wiping the civil government in one clean, ruthless swoop.
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa's government was overthrown by junior (mainly Ibo) army officers. He together with Prime Minister of the Northern Region, Prime Minister of the Western Region and the Federal Finance minister (all these leaders were the leading members of the ruling coalition; it was similar to having killed all the top members of ODM's Pentagon) and several senior military officers were killed in the coup détat.
{For the Kenyan audience it would suffice to visualize the Northern Region mainly signifying the Hausa-Fulani, the Eastern region as the Ibo and Western Region as the Yoruba, of course this is wildly simplistic and does not capture the true tribal configurations of each faction, which in any case had some component of people from all parts of Nigeria. But it does represent the major factional forces at that time.}
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| Major Nzeogwu, the junior officer who led the first coup |
The aim of the coup was to establish a strong, unified and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife. The outcome of the half-hearted and ill-fated coup was a change of political balance in the country. Succumbing to the rashness and amateurism that first-time coup plotters are susceptible to, the leader of the coup Major Nzeogwu bungled the enterprise with a lopsided liquidation of eminent power figures in the then Nigerian government and army.
In a grim and ludicrous imbalance, only politicians and senior military officers from from the North and Western Region were brutally murdered. A mere, single political leader from the Mid-West and a sole senior Army officer from the East were killed along with the rest.
Naturally this did not augur well with the masses, most of the coup planners were of Eastern origin, thus the Northerners in particular saw it as a deliberate plan to eliminate the political heavy weights in the North in order to pave way for the Easterners to take over the leadership role from them. That is the Ibo and their allies in the East were killing the Hausa-Fulani and other Northern tribes to get control of the country.
To put into context it's like the Kikuyu killing all the Luo's and Luhya's in senior government and military positions, with the token massacre of a Meru politician and an officer of Akamba origin. But no Kikuyu dead. No matter how justified the reasons are, it is just plain silly and a good reason as any for cries of vengeance amongst the affected communities to come to the fore.
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| J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi,(seated) the senior-most officer in the Nigerian army in 1966 announcing his take over of the military junta after junior officers had gone haywire and staged a coup |
The sky high praises of the coup and apparent relief given by it in the south came to a sudden end when the succeeding Military Government of Maj Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, an Easterner, unfolded it's politically still-born plans.
This change in guard at the top from Maj. Nzeogwu (Nigerian names as I have discovered are often small unreadable poems. His full name is down below as a footnote.) to Maj Gen. Ironsi was a hostile, but a bloodless take over. It culminated in the arrest of all the ring leaders of the coup. This left Ironsi with a perplexing conundrum, should he treat them as heroes of the revolution or send them before a court martial as mutineers and murderers?
More grievously on account of Maj. Gen. Ironsi being an Easterner himself, the politics of the situation demanded prudent consideration of the wounded sensibilities amongst the Northeners, but lost in intrigues and innuendos within the higher echelons of the military administration he failed to quickly grasp the perils of not taking palliative measures, especially amongst the military officers. He utterly failed to see both the malignancy of the situation and it's cure.
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| Aguiyi Ironsi at the UN during his short lived presidency |
This was fatal presumptuousness or a deliberately flagrant oversight that later cost him his life; it effectively prevented the capitalization on the relief amongst Northeners which had immediately followed the bare-knuckled reshuffle in the coup leadership hierarchy.
In the North of the country the numbed reaction and passive amity in certain quarters turned to studied silence and a "wait and see" attitude. This gradually changed to resentment, culminating in the May 1966 riots throughout the North, during which, Easterners residing there were relentlessly targeted, attacked and killed.
Counter Coup:
Following the increasing turmoil and growing divisions a counter coup was staged by the Northern military officers on 29 July 1966 with two sharp aims: revenge on the East, and a speedy break up of the country.
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| Lt. Gen. Yakubu Gowon the leader of the 2nd Coup led by Northern officers |
The Head of State, the not so inspired Maj. Gen Aguiyi Ironsi and many other senior officers of Eastern origin were killed in their turn. Following frantic efforts and the wise counsel of dedicated Nigerians, interested and well-disposed foreigners -- reason finally prevailed and the aim to break-up the country was abandoned.
But in some quarters (amongst officers of Eastern origin) the seed had already been sown -- why should Eastern officers now sit back and enjoy a taste of their own medicine i.e. to be lorded over by Northern officers (they themselves comprising of mostly vain, egotistical youngsters as well). Breaking up of Nigeria now more than ever must have seemed necessary; dismembering Nigeria was for them an inevitable course of action that had yet again been callously put in abeyance.
After three anxious days of fear, doubts and non-government, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon (at the time the most senior officer of Northern origin and then the Chief of Staff, Nigerian Army) emerged as the new Nigerian political leader. The lack of planning and the vengeful intentions of the second coup manifested itself in the chaos, confusion and the scale of unnecessary killings of the Easterners throughout the country.
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| Demonstrations in the Eastern Region (Biafra) before the beginning of the Biafra War |
Even the authors of the coup could not stem the general lawlessness and disorder, the senseless looting and killing which spread through the North like wild fire on 29 September 1966. (What is it with the confounded 29th and political mayhem _ the Kenyan election crisis started on that date, the counter coup in Nigeria occurred in 29 July 1966 and as you'll see it will keep recurring).
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| Yakubu Gowon head of the military junta from late 1966 |
Alarmed with the precipitous escalation of tensions and the raging violence (primarily against the Easterners in the North) Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State, in a distinctively authoritarian and disconnect broadcast to the people of the North said;
"I receive complaints daily that up till now Easterners living in the North are being killed and molested and their property looted (but when precisely was it supposed to have stopped? after a few dozen slayings and genteel butchering? Perhaps a few thousand murders and sexual violations would have sufficed? And who was monitoring the numbers and keeping tabs on when it was all to stop? Yakubu Gowon didn't go on to say, he merely rambled on . . .). It appears that it is going beyond reason and is now at a point of recklessness and irresponsibility."
An ad hoc conference of the representatives of the regions (tribal chiefs and politicians) had been called on 9 August 1966 (prior to Yakubu's broadcast) in Lagos, in an effort to stop the killings and to preserve the nation in one form or the other.The meeting made the following recommendations:
1. Immediate repatriation of military personnel to barracks within their respective regions of origin.
2. A gathering of all the major sub-national interests to take place to recommend the form of political association the country should adopt.
3. Immediate nullification or modifications of any decree which provides for extreme centralization.
4. The Supreme Commander to urgently facilitate a meeting of the Supreme Military Council as a further means of lowering tensions.
LEAD UP TO THE BIAFRAN WAR
The first of the above recommendations was implemented on 13 August 1966. Troops of Eastern Nigeria origin serving elsewhere in the country were officially and formally released and posted to Enugu, the capital of Eastern Region, while troops of non-Eastern origin in Enugu moved to Kaduna and Lagos. This marked the beginning of division and disunity within the rank and file of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The rest of the recommendations were mainly ignored.
"This simple and seemingly innocuous action broke the last thread and split the last institution symbolizing Nigeria's nationhood and cohesion which had been regularly tampered with by the politicians since 1962. The rift between the Eastern Region and the rest of the country was total." some knowledgeable figure called Madiebo is quoted by Atofarati as having said.
Most of the civilian of Eastern Region origin who had never lived in the East and would have continued to live elsewhere in the country lost confidence and moved to the East. Some of them when they arrived at their destination became refugees in their own country. Nigerians thus had their first IDPs in 1966, who were far more numerous than Kenya has ever had.
The implementation of the recommendation with regards to the posting of troops to barracks within their region of origin was relentlessly pursued by the political leaders of Western Region after the exercise had been completed in the Eastern Region. They were afraid of domination by troops of Northern origin and probably as well feared for the safety of troops from the Western Region.
With the troops of Eastern Region back in Enugu and the non-Eastern troops withdrawn from there. With Nigerians of non-Eastern origin driven and others evacuated out of the East, and with Easterners at home and abroad returning home with news of Nigerian's brutality against them (eerily similar to the way the Kikuyu IDPs from Riftvalley returned with harrowing accounts to Central Province), and with the oil flowing in the Eastern Region, the way was now open for the fervent pursuit of secession.
In place of the ethnic diffusion, the adhesive that was holding the country together, now there was distinct balkanization in all institutions and regions. By having members of various tribes in different parts was a kind of mutual hostage keeping that provided some assurance of good conduct towards immigrant tribes across Nigeria. With the forced repatriations, acrimony was bellowed to fever pitch levels and festered in the mind of every single individual amongst the citizenry. At the time of the Kenyan deal between ODM and PNU, as a nation we had already taken the first steps towards this course. Ethnic cleansing through forced evacuations had started, it only remained to be escalated.
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| Ojukwu, head of the Eastern delegation (Biafrans) at a negotiation meeting prior to the Biafra War |
The East and the North began a virulent war of words through their radios and newspapers. Something akin to what went on prior to the Kenyan cataclysmic 2007 elections. Early in 1967, a peace negotiation meeting of the Supreme Military Council of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Eastern Region Military Governor, Lt. Col. Ojukwu was called under the auspices of Gen. Ankrah of Ghana in Aburi, Ghana.
{Unbelievably and yet again another astounding similarity; the Ghanians were mediators in the Nigerian crisis too -- perhaps Kenya is really Nigeria, or is it all actually the work of that juju-god fellow? His modus operandi?}
As it turned out, all the other members of the council except Ojukwu were either too trusting, too naive or too ill-prepared for the meeting. Ojukwu completely outmanoeuvred his Nigerian counterparts representing the federal government and scored a vital goal in his ambition for secession and creation of his own state.
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| Ojukwu |
The father 'reclaimed' and took Ojukwu from his mother while he was about three and lived thereafter as a dotted child in his father's opulent household. Ojukwu attained infamy early in life. At the age of 10 he was briefly imprisoned for physically assaulting a white British colonial teacher who was allegedly 'humiliating' a black woman at King's College in Lagos, where he attended school.
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| The small town of Epsom Surrey in England, this was the most significant monument at the time Ojukwu was there |
At the age of 13 his father sent him to a choice college, Epsom College in Surrey England, where the thirteen year old Emeka was to begin a program of schooling. The designs of his dotting father in this expensive enterprise was to turn him into an English 'gentleman'. Once he returned to Nigeria he got his first job in the civil service as an administrative officer. In 1957, barely months after starting his job in the civil service, he got bored and decided to join the army.
He was one amongst only a handful of recruits who had University degrees, this alongside his affluent background earned him an officer's rank, and thereafter speedy promotions. He attained international recognition following his appointment as a military governor in the wake of the first 1966 coup and his succeeding role as a rebel leader in the Biafran War. He married thrice, divorced twice and died in January, 2011 (while still in exile in the US).
During this perilous year (1966) in Nigeria's history Ojukwu was only 32 and the other 'military leaders' who sat opposite him at the negotiation table were no older than this, indeed many of them were younger than Ojukwu. The fate of the country had been thrust onto the hands of inexperienced, power-drunk youngsters.
Walter Schwarz (one of the attendees at the negotiations between pro-secessionist officers and the federal government't military junta) remarked : "Ojukwu got his way with little effort, by being the cleverest. He was the only one who understood the issue. Step by step the others came to acquiesce in the logic of Ojukwu's basic thesis - that to stay together at all, the regions had first to draw apart. Only Ojukwu understood that this meant, in effect, a sovereign Biafra (Eastern Region) and the end of the Federation."
The reasoning can be visualized as being logically equivalent to slaughtering a cow to make it fatter or more productive, it was rashly accepted anyway. Perhaps the disasters that followed this decision could be a lesson to the secessionist MRC of Kenya; slaughtering the damn skinny cow won't make it fatter, it will surely die. Secession my MRC brothers is not always a noble and desirable cause.
Different versions of what happened in Aburi were released by Ojukwu in the East and by the Federal Military Government in Lagos. Ojukwu accused the Federal Government of bad faith and going back on promises.
The Federal Government in turn accused the beard-infested Ojukwu of distortion and half truths.
After several meetings amongst the Federal and Regional officials, what amounted to the demise of the Federation was promulgated in decree No. 8 of 17 March 1967. This was done in a desperate effort to implement the Aburi decisions and to avoid further stalemate and possible civil war.
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| The Eminent Persons in the Nigerian crisis of 1966. From left; Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr., Gen Ankrah and Emperor Haile Selassie |
Not surprisingly, Ojukwu completely rejected Decree No. 8 as falling short of full implementation of Aburi decisions. He did NOT want peace, he wanted a country. The die was cast. All further efforts to intervene by eminent Nigerians and well-wishers to Nigeria like Gen. Ankrah, late Emperor Hallie Selassie of Ethiopia and the late Dr Martin Luther King proved abortive. (Yes, they had 'eminent persons' too! Was there anything really authentic and new in the Kenyan crisis?)
Bushman Ojukwu seized the Federal Government property and funds in the East. He planned the hijacking of a National commercial aircraft Fokker 27 on a schedule flight from Benin to Lagos. All these and other signs and reports convinced the Federal Military Government of Ojukwu's intention to secede.
Lt Col. Yakubu Gowon, the Head of Federal Government, imposed a total blockade of the East. It was realized that more stringent action had to be taken to weaken support for Ojukwu and to forestall his secession bid. Short of military action at that time, creation of States by decree was the only weapon ready at hand. The initial plan was to create States in the Eastern Region only.
Such action was considered impolitic and fraught with danger. Eventually 12 States were created throughout the country on 27 May 1967. (The curios similarity in dates again. Not 29 but close enough, as you will see the crisis took shape on that date anyway).
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| Ojukwu at the unilateral declaration of independence for the Eastern region of Nigeria and the coming into being of the state of Biafra |
The Eastern Region was divided into three states. The reaction from Enugu was sharp and quick -- the declaration of Eastern Nigeria as the independent sovereign state of "Biafra" on 30 May 1967. (The decision therefore must have been reached on the confounded 29th, the day the PEV started in Kenya! I increasingly fear there 'could' be a mischievous juju-god in this, the symmetry of coincidences reeks of design)
There was no other fallback plan in sight, with Eastern Region's declaration of independence war remained as the only course forward, blood and murder were the only tools left to thrash out the political dispute. Jungle diplomacy, that is what the mighty African nation of Nigeria had been woefully reduced to.
The month of June was used by both sides to prepare for war. Each side increased its military arsenal and moved troops to the border watching and waiting until the crack of the first bullet at the dawn of 6 July 1967 from the Federal side. The Biafran war had started and the dawn of a new, dramatic history for Nigeria had just been unwittingly opened.
THE NIGERIAN ARMY BEFORE THE BIAFRAN WAR (1966)
What is known today as the Nigerian Army was, before 1966, a part of the British West African Army called the Royal West Africa Frontier Force ( RWAFF ). This force included the armies of Gold Coast (Ghana) Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia.
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| 4th Regiment of the KAR |
Correspondingly in East Africa there was the King's African Rifles (KAR), which reeks of the euphemism for Kenyan African Rifles, nevertheless it was manned by troops from all the East African states under British control.
At independence in 1960, there were eight indigenous Nigerian officers in the entire force, the rest being British officers. The role of an army in a developing country was not fully realized by the nationalist leaders struggling for independence, hence, there was no effective pressure on the British Government to train Nigerian officers in preparation for independence.
Even at this stage, it was clear that the future stability of a nation such as Nigeria depended to a large scale on the existence of a reliable army. One result of this short-sightedness was that the first Nigerian to command the Nigerian Army - Maj Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, was not appointed until 1965, nearly five years after independence. Then he was shot dead one and a half years later.
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| Aguiyi Ironsi |
At independence, it was also obvious that only the group that controlled the Army could aspire to run a stable Nigerian government. Either by some sort of bizarre, Caucasian coincidence or by design, almost all the military installations were concentrated in one area of the country - the Islamic North.
In the North there were situated two army battalions (3rd and 5th), the entire Nigerian Airforce, the Nigerian Defense Academy as well as two other separate Military Colleges, an Ammunition factory and a separate Ordinance depot, all logistical units including the Army corps of Engineers and Transport regiment, a Reconnaissance Regiment and finally one Field Battery - Artillery. All in all 14 major facilities and military units.
In the West of Nigeria there were two Field Batteries - Artillery, an army battalion (4th Bn) and two Reconnaissance Squadrons, at 3 separate facilities.
In stark contrast Eastern Nigeria had a mere battalion (1st Bn) stationed at Enugu, which also happened to be the sole military facility in the Eastern Region.
But the Eastern region was still better off. There were no military units in the Mid - Western Nigeria and those in Lagos were either administrative or ceremonial.
Recruitment of soldiers into the Nigerian Army was based on an ethnic quota system. Under this system Northern Nigeria provided 60% of all recruits, Eastern and Western Nigeria 15% each and Mid - Western Nigeria 10%. This was supposedly done to encourage the Northerners who had not been interested in joining the Army initially.
{That is, arm and make all Pokots soldiers, they after all don't seem to be too keenly interested in rushing up to take civil positions. What happens when the Pokot army get's tired of being ordered around by the lowly civilian tribes? }
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| A Turkana lady (neighbours and rivals to the Pokot) in that part of Kenya an assault rifle is a more appropriate accessory - a deadly handbag |
The standard of entry into the Army was as well lowered to favor the Northerners. As a result the North in 1966 had the absolute majority within the rank and file of the Army. Discipline and standards plummeted within the Army and the soldiers became more politically conscious. Madiebo pointed out "In order to ensure the loyalty of the military thus established, the criterion for promotion and advancement was based more on political considerations than efficiency or competence."
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| Some of the former top brass in the Kenya military; each is conspicuously from a different tribe . . . but were they fit to serve in these senior capacities? |
If politics is still a criterion in the recruitment, career advancement and promotion in the KDF, someone needs to urgently slap the generals and politicians back to sanity. This is the surest recipe for perpetual discontent, tribal polarization and bloody turmoil in times of crisis -- just when the army is needed the most! If you need proof that it does indeed happen in the Kenyan Army perhaps you need to read David Throup's treatise which is posted in this blog.
The involvement of the Military in politics took a turn for the worse during the Western Nigerian elections in October 1965. The politicians openly courted the friendship of top military officers (as did the Kenyan politicians during the 2008 crisis!).
Due to the chaos that characterized the general election of 1964 and the Western Region election of 1965, it had become clear that Nigeria was overdue for a change. By October 1965, rumors of an impending coup were already circulating in the country. It was therefore not much of a surprise when the coup was finally staged.
BIAFRAN WAR (6th July 1967 -- 10th January 1970)
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| These are some of the victims of the Biafran War, children who suffered from chronic malnutrition due to the blockade that was imposed on the secessionist Eastern region. Left, an albino child. |
The Biafran Civil war was a long, bloody and hungry affair. After the declaration of Eastern Nigeria as the independent sovereign state of "Biafra" on 30 May 1967 war preparations on both sides went on furiously during the month of June .
At the dawn of 6 July 1967, the first bullet was fired signalling the beginning of the gruesome 30 month civil war and carnage. The Biafran war is another episode in what has been a long running African soap, something along the lines 'Make-A-War-to-Kill-A-Compatriot'.
At the outset, the Biafran side was woefully outnumbered and out-resourced. This was partially due to the fact that the Eastern Region had no sufficient arms since all the soldiers who returned to the region did so without their arms while the soldiers who were withdrawn from the East departed with their weapons. What was left of the Nigerian Army at Enugu barracks amounted to about 240 soldiers, the majority of them technicians and tradesmen and not all the soldiers had weapons.
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| Some of the World War Two hardware at the disposal of the Nigerian Army which the rebels could only dream about |
There was no comparison between the strengths of the opposing forces in the Nigerian civil war. Nigerian Army (NA) was comparably far superior in arms and resources to Biafra, with a conservative ratio of 4:1. However each side knew the tactics the other side would employ since they all belonged to the same Armed Forces before the war.
Nonetheless the Biafrans were not cowed or overtly perturbed by their superior foe. They took it in stride and made thorough defensive preparations. The military leadership of Biafra was keenly aware of the immense odds against them which meant substantial limitations with regard to the effectiveness and scope of possible offensive measures.
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| A victim of the brutal Biafran War |
The Biafran military leaders cynically contrived that a defensive war would galvanize and stiffen the resolve of the Biafran masses, for their survival very much depended on the amount of internal and external support they could muster. Fight or die, that was the corner-stone of their strategy.
Internally, the Biafran side's preparation for war had been put into high gear as soon as the troops of non-Eastern origin withdrew from Enugu in August of 1966. Thousands of people poured in for recruitment. Training was embarked upon both for officers and soldiers who were mainly lecturers and university students -- always a feisty lot full of impractical ideals.
At the outbreak of the actual fighting, the Eastern Region had succeeded in securing arms and ammunition from France, Spain and Portugal.
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| One Benjamin Adenkule (a Biafran) is not taking any chances, shooting dead anything on sight that qualifies as something mobile |
A peoples army called, the Biafra Militia, was formed. Local leaders and ex-servicemen trained young men and women in the use of whatever weapon the individuals had. These weapons were mainly imported and locally made shotguns. The militia were to provide a ready source of manpower re-enforcement for the regular army, to assist with military administration immediately behind the front-line, to garrison all the areas captured or regained from the enemy, and to help educate the population on the reason why Biafra was fighting.
Perhaps, it would be important to note at this point that most of the battle-front casualties on the Biafran side were not actually the result of the Nigerian Army's efforts. The Biafrans at the beginning pretty much shot themselves dead with their own home made guns. They would use these improvised tubes for mortar artillery, head to the battle front and proceed to confidently blow themselves up in front of the surprised if not bemused Nigerian Army. Reading that the Mau Mau made functional home made guns and actually making one it appears is not quite the same thing.
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| Part of the Biafran Airforce that was used to terrorize the civilian populations in Nigeria and to target the Nigerian Army |
There were also aggressive propaganda campaigns conducted by both sides but the Nigerian state gained the support of both the superpowers and a significant portion of the world opinion by presenting their position as one of re-uniting the country. The Nigerian Federal government under Lt Col Yakubu Gowon also continued to maintain the diplomatic missions abroad. The civilians as well were trained in civil defense duties.
In mobilizing the people of Nigeria, the Federal Government had to make the war look a just cause to stop the disintegration of the country and in doing so the potent slogan "To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done" was invented. Even the letters of the name of the Head of State, Gowon was coined to read "Go On With One Nigeria" and became strong propaganda for cohesion, perseverance and patience with the execution of the war.
On it's side the Biafran state had the fanatic support of Biafrans in the diaspora and in concert they in turn mounted a very strong propaganda campaign for the recognition of Biafra by the international community.Their shrill blitzkrieg and self-determination propaganda finally paid off; Biafra was formally recognized as a state by revolutionary Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Haiti.
They also enjoyed covert support from France besides benefiting from a series of clandestine relations that they had forged with West Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Republic of Dahomey and Sierra Leone.
This facilitated secret importation of arms and ammunition into the Eastern region which in all respects was duplicitous double-dealing against the interests of Nigeria. Neither at the end of hostilities nor afterwards would it have done much good for Nigeria to begrudge the concerned states or continue to bewail this effrontery on it's sovereignty, the apt adage 'all is fair in love and war' perhaps accurately captures the reason why.
Biafran women were not left out in the scheme of things. They were trained in intelligence gathering and how to infiltrate into the Nigerian side. A Women Voluntary Service was formed to assist in educating the women of Biafra on the cause of the crisis, keep women informed of developments, rehabilitation of war casualties, setting up of nurseries, orphanages,civil defense corps, and provision of cooks for the troops. An Advisory Committee was set up to plan and execute the war and to advise the Head of State on political and military matters.
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| Col. Rolf Steiner one of the hundreds of mercenaries and adventurers who participated in the Biafran War on the rebel's side |
Lastly the Biafrans employed expatriate mercenaries (the Artur brothers of those days) to train their troops and in the early years of the war they participated in missions against the Nigerian Army.
Now, in fundamental aspects, the War itself was a slow one sided affair, basically a constriction. The military enterprise deliberately focussed on strangling and choking off the insurgency from all resources and to purposely alienate the rebel forces from the populace, partially with the objective of lessening the casualty numbers. The irony of the situation is that perhaps they were too effective, of the one million victims of the Biafran War, a large number had succumbed to hunger and starvation.
All the major towns in the rebel controlled areas were in a consistent series vanquished one after the other, all the ports and entire coastline were repossessed from the rebel hands and finally the Port Harcourt Airport and small improvised airstrips were overrun -- completely shutting off the rebels from the external world. In the final analysis and in the larger scheme of things the Biafran forces can be said to have been methodically isolated, starved of resources, squeezed into a small area and pounded into submission.
Systematic encirclement, that is all it was. First in what in the beginning was a huge area roughly the size of Uganda, then having cut the rebels' lines of communication and supply the government forces proceeded to tighten the noose with vice like increments of pressure.
The rebels were progressively pushed and hammered into an increasingly smaller area whereupon they buckled and surrendered, precluding the need for a final showdown. Before the surrender and prior to the degradation of their capabilities the Nigerian Army's pincer manouevre had compelled the Biafran forces to resort to sporadic guerrilla attacks.
Frontal assault simply petered out and it became the preserve of the Nigerian forces. These guerrilla attacks nonetheless were extremely ferocious and bloody affairs .
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| A devastating ambush attack on the Nigerian Army's military convoy by the Biafran forces |
As time went on and Biafra's propects became grim, desertions in the Biafran ranks correspondingly increased, their war effort became irregular and it was plagued with disease, food shortage, chronic lack of ammunition and war supplies besides dwindling internal and external support due to war fatigue. His ragtag forces marooned in their last stronghold and completely surrounded, the rebel leader Ojukwu found himself flat out and without viable options in continuing the struggle.
On 10th January 1970, the wily Lt. Col. Ojukwu, self-proclaimed Head of State of Biafra, acceded to the total chaos and hopelessness of the situation. He handed over the administration of Biafra to the Commander of the Biafran Army Maj. Gen. Phillip Effiong, and skulked out of the enclave on a plane with his immediate family members -- in hot pursuit of peace!
A few short hours later Maj. Gen Phillip Effiong, mustered his courage and pride, put on a brave voice and announced the surrender via a radio broadcast.
For those not accustomed to such things no War is actually as black and white as I have portrayed it here and each side has it's heroes and villains whereas the complexities are rarely so straight forward.
Ojukwu like many other failed rebel leaders and loser generals before him has greater responsibility for the shedding of blood in his hands, not in the least, for relentlessly leading his heroic and loyal people into a fruitless cause. Regardless of his aims, in history villainy is accorded to the losers; this is merited perhaps by the fact that they sacrificed the lives of others for nothing. In the very least he should have surrendered earlier, more so if he knew that his life was not worth the cause he was egging others to die for.
The losers (Ojukwu and his military command) have not escaped the tag of being the blood-drenched villains. If you think that Ojukwu is not a villain, then would you feel comfortable being associated with him? Imagine telling people that, " I (your name) am an Ojukwu fan, the former Biafran rebel leader. He was such a jolly, witty fellow and later he even became a completely reformed stiff-neck."
All that would be needed is a giant photo of the starving children in the Biafran War, embedded in the middle with your photo and that of your buddy Ojukwu laughing highlighted with the words 'Bloodthirsty Cowards'. You will be calling a press conference in a jiffy to retract your 'fanship'.
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| Ojukwu with his 3rd wife Bianca (a former beauty queen) who he married in 1994 and their children at their US home in the 1990s |
Have I been overly harsh on Ojukwu? Absolutely yes! I have no pity, remorse or regard for priveleged rich people who expediently and callously barter the lives of the poor to further their personal ambitions.
Let's not be coy about this, Ojukwu was a bloodthirsty autocrat. This is easily attested by amongst other things his treatment of the ill-fated Nzeogwu (the officer who carried out the first coup by turning a scheduled military exercise into an unexpected coup operation). It is even widely thought that Ojukwu ordered or had a hand in Nzeogwu's murder so as to eliminate him for opposing the secessionist move and the creation of Biafra. Both men were Easterners.
As for the other major players in the Biafran crisis (on both sides) -- such as Gowon -- fate masterfully accorded each a stinging dose of retribution for the misuse of the power they had invested onto themselves (as you shall see below) which to me is a gratifying rarity.
During the civil war, military and civilian casualties reached an estimated 1,000,000 people, dead. Maimed? Who knows. Besides that no one has cared enough to know the exact economic cost for the 30 month devastating, senseless and bitter war. But it easily runs into the hundreds of millions perhaps billions of dollars if reckoned at current dollar rates. Biafran civilians, who made up most of the victims of the war, died mainly from starvation as a result of the federal blockade.
(Has Kenya's MRC taken such cost for their nascent secessionist move into account? If so, how many children will they allow to die before their madness would dissipate? A million? Two perhaps? Do you my countrymen know what the price of secession actually means? Is there really prosperity for the Coastal people in following that path?)
End to Biafran War 1970
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At this point am disinclined to further this enterprise (mostly in personal enlightenment) for two reasons:
1. It might appear am masquerading a book (copy pasted and plagiarized) for a blog post
2. Gen. Abubakar Atofarati's paper unfortunately ended with the Biafran war, thus I would need to do another bruising round of googling, sifting, reading, analyzing and putting down the raw facts in a fascinating way. So from the collection of material I already have I will give a brief outline of momentous events in Nigeria upto date.
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| Murtala Ramat Mohammed |
Gowon however presided over the signing of the final agreements establishing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); a Nigeria-funded initiative aimed at combining the economic potential of the West African sub-region. It is his interest in Nigeria’s foreign policy that culminated in his overthrow when he was attending an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit meeting in Uganda.
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| Gen. Obasanjo in 1978, leader of the military junta and head of state |
Though Gen. Mohammed had substantial popular support, he was
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| Murtala Ramat |
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| Shagari Shehu |
1983 August-September - Shagari re-elected amid accusations of irregularities.
1983 December - Major-General Muhammad Buhari seizes power in bloodless coup. During it's first term, the Shagari regime achieved almost universal acclamation as being notoriously corrupt and incompetent. Despite these problems, the NPN government of Shagari used its entrenched position and financial influence to return to office in a six-party contest in the elections which took place in August to September 1983.
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| Muhammad Buhari |
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| Idiagbon |
August 1985 - Buhari’s regime is deposed in a peaceful military coup. The coup is led by Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the army chief-of-staff at the time. Ibrahim Babangida then curtails political activity. The Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) under the leadership of Babangida and the support of his chief of army staff, Maj.-Gen. Sani Abacha ruled the country from 1985 to 1993.
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| Ibrahim Babaginda |
1993 June - Military under the command of General Ibrahim Babangida annuls the results of the national elections after votes are counted and the preliminary results show victory for Chief Moshood Abiola.
1993 August - Power transferred to Interim National Government.
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| Gen Sani Abacha |
The iron-fisted General Sani Abacha leads the military junta in place of Babangida after Babaginda supposedly resigns.
The entire fiasco of the annulled elections in 1993 had well intentioned beginnings. In the hope of restoring the country back to civilian rule, the AFRC (the ruling military council) had created two new political parties: the National Republican Convention (NRC) led by Bashir Tofa from northern Nigeria and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by Chief Kashimawo Olawale Moshood Abiola, from the southwest, both, wealthy businessmen.
This imposition provoked wide spread criticism. The SDP, led by the
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| Moshood Abiola |
1994 - Abiola arrested at the orders of Sani Abach after proclaiming himself president.
Repression escalates to unprecedented levels. Military ruler General Sani Abacha- who took over power in 1993 from Babangida - peddles another complex "transition" programme which generates internal protest. These protests are viciously and repeatedly quashed. The international community shows little regard and appetite for the intricacies of African politics, particularly after the failed humanitarian mission in Somalia.
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| Ken Saro-Wiwa |
1998 - Abacha dies (allegedly for taking Viagra with an undiagnosed heart condition -- sex, unbelievably, liberates a nation). He is succeeded by Major-General Abdulsalami Abubakar. The unfortunate Chief Abiola dies in custody a month later.
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| Abdulsalami Abubakar |
2000 - Adoption of Islamic, or Sharia, law by several northern states in the face of opposition from Christians. Tension over the issue results in hundreds of deaths in clashes between Christians and Muslims.
2001 - Tribal war in Benue state, in eastern-central Nigeria, displaces thousands of people.
In October of the same year, army soldiers sent to quash the fighting kill more than 200 unarmed civilians, apparently in retaliation for the abduction and murder of 19 soldiers.
2001 October - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, South African President Mbeki and Algerian President Bouteflika launch New Partnership for African Development, or Nepad, which aims to foster development and open government and end wars in return for aid, foreign investment and the lifting of trade barriers to African exports.
Ethnic violence
2002 February - Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and ethnic Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest. Things take more of a sectarian tone in the regional dynamics henceforth.
2002 November - More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain.
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| Obasanjo as a civilian head of state the second time around |
Ethnic violence over the oil producing Niger Delta region and inadequate infrastructures are some of the current issues in the country.
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| Umaru Yar'Adua |
5 May 2010 - Yar'Adua dies in office. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan sworn in as Yar'Adua's replacement on 6 May 2010, becoming Nigeria's 14th Head of State. His deputy -- Namadi Sambo, a former Kaduna state governor is approved on 18 May 2010, by the National Assembly following President Goodluck Jonathan's nomination of Sambo as his Vice President.
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| Jonathan Goodluck |
19 April 2011 - Goodluck Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) is declared the winner having won the election by 57 % of the votes cast (39.5 million votes) ahead of Muhammadu Buhari from the main opposition party, the The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which garnered slightly over 31% of the total votes cast.The international media reports the elections as having run smoothly with relatively little violence or voter fraud in contrast to previous elections.
Since the ascension of Goodluck into his first term in office, the most significant menace to his authority has been the Boko Haram and related news. Bombings here bombings there threatenning officials here threatenning officials there. And such like.
It looks ludicrous from Kenya what the Boko Haram has chosen as it's chosen means ta air grievances, how can you bend the will of a whole nation such as Nigeria that has already passed through far greater horrors in the past? Isn't it obvious to them that at the end of the day they will never be able to horrify or terrify the country into submission? Terrorists will come terrorists will go, the country will remain.
Once the novelty of Boko Haram's 'terrorist' brand dissipates they will have to contend with a nation awakened to similar horrors of the past, for in Boko Haram there is another pesky seed of secession. Who then will protect the leaders behind the Boko Haram from the wrath of an infuriated nation? A nation galvanized by the fear of being dragged into another hell hole? It would be sheer madness for the people of the North not to pulverize the Boko Haram themselves, for they stand to lose the most.
***
To see into the future with clarity, to grapple with the paroxysms and dynamics in social and political cycles, to avert the miseries that come with cataclysmic changes then one must delve deep into the past. Human history carries in it the secret to human behaviour and social patterns. It is cyclical and cuts across cultures, epochs and eras. Plodding through whatever advancement there may be in technology and civilization. And for this there is one reason and one reason only; everything changes but human motives -- the essence of man -- does not.
We are no better or smarter than the people of past decades or even thousands of years ago, we are merely more informed. It is time we begin to behave in a more informed manner.
End
M. Wycliff,
Nairobi.
links and acknowledgements:
1. Atofarati, Abubakar A.,(1992),The Nigerian Civil War, Causes, Strategies, And Lessons Learnt, US Marine Command & Staff College.
2. BBC- Nigeria Profile
3.Nigeria- History and Politics
4. African Sun Times
5.Nairaland and other sources (Nigerian history related photos)
6.Various sources for the Mau Mau and colonial Kenya photos
Nzeogwu's official names -- Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu
I was wondering where you go the picture of Alice Sheldon?
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Adekunle was NOT "biafran", he was commander of the Nigerian 3rd Marine Commando between 1967/69!
ReplyDeleteSo according to you Mau Mau was not civilized....they killed more Africans cause kenyans had no business collaborating with British....those loyalists and police were TRAITORS...were they fighting for kikuyus or the country...the Mau Mau sped up the the rebellion...and whites affected kikuyu the most unlike any other tribe..shitty blog
ReplyDelete