"I'm Not Dead Yet!": The Story of Victor Banjo

by Deji Yesufu

Victor Banjo was executed by firing squad by the regime of Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, on trumped up charges of planning a coup against the government of Biafra, on September 22nd, 1967. I met Victor Banjo in 2008.

I had taken up a job as an A-level teacher of Physics in March 2008 at the Educational Advancement Center, Bodija, Ibadan. Among the children I taught in the set that wrote the May/June examinations of that year, was the grand child of Victor Banjo. His aunt, Prof. Mrs. Olayinka Omigbodun, had just published the book "Gift of Sequin: Letters to My Wife", which she wrote in her father's name. The book was a compilation of letters which her father, Victor Banjo, had written to their mother, while he was in prison. The young man, Banjo's grandchild, gave the book to the literature teacher in the school I was teaching in and I just happened to lay my hands on it. Through its pages, I met Brigadier Victor Banjo.

Victor Banjo was among officers arrested by the government of Aguiyi Ironsi after the coup of January 15th 1966, that led to the deaths of the then Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, the then Finance Minister, Sir Okotie Eboh, and a number of civilians and military officers. Banjo denied he ever was knowledgeable of the coup and many of the coup plotters attested to the fact that he was not one of them. But Ironsi left him in the gulag and Yakubu Gowon, who succeeded Ironsi, refused to heed the numerous letters of appeal Banjo wrote him from prison to be released.

The book "Letters to My Wife" was Banjo's various directives to the wife on keeping the family front in his absence. The brilliance of this Electrical Engineering trained senior military officer showed even in his private letters to his wife. He left directives on how money could be sourced to take care of the children, he planned when exactly the wife was to flee Nigeria in case war broke out (and she and the children did eventually), he instructed his wife that whenever peace returned he wanted his kids raised Nigerians (the wife was Serra Leone and she fled there afterwards), and many other such instructions. He didn’t leave out words of endearment either. Strangely enough, he told the wife that if anything was ever to happen to him, he would let her know about it. In the letters, Banjo refuted the claims that he was part of the January 1966 coup plotters. In a sense, the book was written to clear his name of that list and I believe it has succeeded in doing that.

Banjo was imprisoned in Ikot Epene in Eastern Nigeria. So when the whole brouhaha began between Ojukwu and Gowon over the secession question began, Ojukwu released all officers that planned the coup and had been imprisoned in the East. They all joined the Biafran rank - including Banjo. Banjo, as a Yoruba, was at first reluctant to work with Ojukwu. But Ojukwu urged him to join his government. At that time, the Nigerian crisis was mainly between the Ibos and the Hausas. The Ibos had accused the Hausas of carrying out genocide on their people in Northern Nigeria. The Hausas claimed the 1966 coup was an Igbo coup targeted at killing their Sardauna and other key Hausa leaders. The country was boiling. Killings were being carried out every day in every part of the country. The Ibos felt vulnerable and were returning in droves to the East. Ojukwu was playing with the idea of Secession. Banjo advised he delayed announcing it. Ojukwu announced the secession of the nation of Biafra on the 31st May, 1967. Civil War had broken forth in Nigeria.

The mid West, now Delta and Edo State, at first took a middle position as far as the crisis was concerned. Ojukwu sent Victor Banjo and an army of soldiers to take over the mid West. The mid West fell to Biafran soldiers in August 1967. It was a major military tactical move that many have credited to the intelligence of Banjo. Not a bullet was shot to take over Benin and it environs. But on getting to Benin, things fell apart between Banjo and Ojukwu. The plan had been that 24 hours after taking Benin, the Biafran soldiers were to be enroute to Lagos and Ibadan to take over those cities. Another account by Victor Banjo elder sister, Prof. Ogunsheye, in her book “A Break in Silence “, she said that Banjo invaded the mid West at his own initiative, leading a liberation army. The neatness of the invasion and take over took everyone by surprise. But Banjo may have made the mistake of announcing his presence in Benin by making a broadcast to the Western people, asking them to prepare to receive the liberation army.

This action jolted Gowon from his sleep but incensed Ojukwu. Ojukwu recalled Banjo to Enugu and placed on house arrest. Ogunsheye reports that Banjo was so popular with the troops in Benin that Ojukwu had to trick him back to Enugu. Subsequently the invasion of the mid West began to suffer disorder and Ojukwu was forced to return Banjo to command the Benin front.

On the side of the West, there was mixed reaction in the minds of Yoruba people when news of the Biafran take over of the mid West reached them. On one hand, they saw the Biafran brigade led by a Yoruba, as a liberation army and they looked forward to their coming. But as news of the atrocities being wroughted out on the non Igbo's of the mid West by the Biafran army reached the West, the Yoruba's became less convinced that the Igbo were really coming to liberate them from the shackles of their colonizers - the Hausas. Banjo himself was reluctant to invade the Ibadan and Lagos without having at least 50% grass root support. Banjo’s sister wrote of her he called her requesting to know the feeling in town. Fact is that the Yoruba elders of that time were not decided and Awolowo as number two man to Gowon made matters more difficult. Soyinka wrote of how he drove around Ibadan, trying to convince Obasanjo to permit Banjo a smooth sail through Ibadan into Lagos. Obasanjo, the head of the military in Ibadan, would have none of it. Banjo could have rolled into Ibadan successfully but he would not invade Ibadan without the cooperation of his people. His sister reminded him of Afonja and the Ilorin emirate and he said he remembered. He would eventually be felled as another Afonja of the 20th century.

Banjo had also reached an agreement with Ojukwu to take over the government of Gowon and allow the Easterners to go their way, with a possible secession of the North too. But Ojukwu had reneged on an agreement he had with Banjo not to sack the government of the mid West. The mid West was meant to be a passage through and not a destination. The two of them argued over this matter for days on the phone in Benin, giving the Nigerian government sufficient time to recover from the take over of the mid West. Muritala Mohammed was sent by Gowon to recover the mid West and invade Biafra itself. The Nigerian army successfully pushed their Biafran counterpart out of the mid West. This was the period the famous "Ogun ore olekun" occurred. The Biafran army blew up a part of the Niger bridge, therefore impeding the Nigerian army's surge into Onitsha.

Ojukwu welcomed his defeated army back to Enugu with open arms. He had mended fences with Banjo and had promised him greater task ahead. But in a few days, trumped up charges of a coup were levied against Banjo. Banjo had made Ifeanyi Ifeajuna his chief of staff. Ifeajuna had acted as a go between with Banjo and Ojukwu at Benin. However the charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Biafra was levied against Brigadier Victor Banjo, Lt. Col. Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Major Philip Alale and Mr. Samuel Agbam. At their court martial, it was Brigadier Victor Banjo that stood as counsel for himself and the three others. His words, as recorded by Alexander Madiebo in his book, are these:

"My name is Brigadier Victor Banjo. I command the liberation army in Mid-West. Before then, l commanded all the operations in the Northern front.

“I know all the other three accused persons fairly well. The second accused, Philip Alale, l met for the first time on July 9, 1967 when there was a collapse of the Nsukka front among our troops. Neither himself nor myself was then an officer in the Biafran Army.

"We went to Nsukka together with Brigadier Philip Effiong to assist to watch Philip talk to the troops with vehemence and sincerity. That, to a great extent, helped to rekindle their sagging morale.

“His Excellency, Col. Ojukwu, was as well at Nsukka that night. I later found out from the Governor that Philip Alale has been his close friend and that the man was primarily instrumental in organising the support of the masses for the declaration of the Republic of Biafra.

“I know that Major Alale has been involved in settling some conflicts in the trade union movements, which might well account for the extraordinary hostility of one of the witnesses for the prosecution. I remember, in fact, that when l was about to return to the Western Command, His Excellency refused to allow Major Alale accompany me because he needed Major Alale for the task of preparing a political programme for the Republic of Biafra. It would be impossible to conceive of Major Alale being tried by this tribunal for the offence in this charge.

"I know Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Ifeajuna very well. He had been my colleague in the old Nigerian Army, although a junior colleague. I know about his involvement in the coup of January 1966. He was responsible for the deaths of a few people. He was with me in prison for quite some time.

“I have had opportunity of discussing the details of that coup with him. I know he regrets the bloodshed that took place on that occasion in fact, his aversion to bloodshed is in the nature of an obsession, which to a certain extent, militates against his efficiency as a commander of troops in the battlefront.

“These considerations were primary in my mind when he was offered to me as a commanding officer for the Western operations. Instead, l chose to make him my Chief of Staff. As Chief of Staff, he discharged himself with such confidence that constituted in no small measure to the success of that operation.

“Lt-Col. Ifeajuna joined the group of young men who have been in the habit of giving advice to His Excellency on State matters. During my short disagreement with his Excellency on the MidWest political policy, he was himself personally instrumental in bringing to His Excellency, my point of view on the Mid-West operation. I am aware that he subsequently became a frequent member of this group.

“My stay in Biafra, after having been released from prison, has been due to my friendship with Col. Ojukwu. I clearly remember once telling him that l would return to the West. He told me that he needed me here because he felt he needed someone who could ta to hi without ceremony; someone in a position to give blame t him for his mistakes. Most of the political manoeuvres that Col. Ojukwu planned early this year in connection with achieving Southern solidarity against the North, were planned with me.

“When he decided to declare an Independent Republic of Biafra, l pleaded with him to postpone it as both the people West and Mid-West wee not ready or at that stage, sufficiently strong militarily to take the same stand, even though they would wish it.

“I pointed out to him his declaration of Biafra at the time was not consistent with our plans and agreements. I told him that the people of the West who were acting on the basis of the fact that l would bring assistance to them from here, would consider the decision to declare Biafra at that time a betrayal of our arrangements. I tod the military Governor that l would leave Biafra for the West or for the outside world after his declaration of Independence.

“However, when l discovered the emerging trend that followed the declaration of Independence of Biafra, it became clear to me that a war with the North was imminent. I decided to stay behind and assist in the prosecution of the war, both for the sake of my friendship with Colonel Ojukwu and in the hope that having assisted to fight back the Northern threat to Biafra, he would assist me with troops to rid the Mid-West and Lagos of the same menace.

“I came into the war at a moment of temporary collapse of the Biafran fighting effort, when it became quite clear to me that the fighting effort of the Biafran Army was not only being incompetently handled, but also being sabotaged. Since then, it has been my fortune to command the Biafran troops on their successfull exploits.

“On the whole, l had in private, told Col Ojukwu that l could never be made to stand charged for having plotted against his office and his person. There was no plot against him.”

The highest authorities of the Biafran government did not believe Banjo's story. The officers hearing the court martial of these four officers found them guilty of plotting to overthrow the government of Biafra which Ojukwu headed. They were sentenced to death. Banjo's last moment reels with poignancy. It was said that all four men walked to the site of their death with head high. Banjo, without his glasses, stood erect as he was tied to the poles. Their executors took position and opened fire on them. After the first round of fire, all three men were dead except Banjo. Defiant till the end, he let out a cry "I'm not dead yet... I'm not dead yet..." This time all executors directed their rifles at Banjo alone. After the second round of shots, Banjo is still screaming defiantly: "I'm not dead yet..." However the third rounds of shots silenced him.

Continued:

Kunle Ojeleye in his book commented on how ill prepared the Biafran army were and that Banjo and the three others were killed because they dared to request better equipping for the soldiers. Hear him:

“Indeed, it was at the behest of this feeling that four Biafran military officers wrote a memorandum to the Biafran administration requesting for a review of the war effort. among others, their memorandum requested: that Biafra should have its own currency; there should be an immediate re-organisation and appropriate equipping of the Biafran army; the admittance of civilians into the Biafran decision making body and the decentralisation of the Biafran government; the mortgaging of Biafran oil in exchange for urgently needed military aid and equipment; and in the absence of all the preceding four requirements, immediate negotiation with the federal forces for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.

“For daring to take such a course of action, Lt.-Col. Victor Banjo, Major Emmanuel ifeajuna, Samuel Agbam and Major Alale were labelled as traitors, accused of wanting to overthrow the Biafran administration, court martial, and executed (Ottah 1981).” At the end, these four men were right. Biafra lost the war because it was ill prepared and because one man, Ojukwu, was chasing a pipe dream.

Banjo had told his wife that that whatever happens, he would let her know of his well being. One morning, following Banjo's death, Banjo's wife woke up in far away Sierra Leone with a dream on her heart. A bird had come into their home and after flying about a bit, it flew out of the window into the blue skies. Mrs. Banjo knew instinctively that that her husband was dead. She would eventually relocate to Nigeria and bring up her children as Nigerians, as her husband had wished.

A few months after Odumegwu Ojukwu died, following a prolonged illness, I was in the office of Prof. Olayinka Omigbodun (nee Banjo), the second to the last daughter of Victor Banjo, at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. I had come to see her on the book she wrote of her father. Among a few things we discussed I remember her saying this and I paraphrase: "the man who caused all these is today being buried as a national hero, while my father lies somewhere buried in an unmarked grave". The bodies of those four men were never found. Many of their families have found it difficult to reach closure on them.

Chris Ngwodo has rightly pointed out that the civil was wholly unnecessary. It was a war that was the result of the youthful exuberance and pride of 36 year old Ojukwu and 31 year old Gowon. Unfortunately those beating the drums of secession and war today are the same youths who have refused to learn from our history. Banjo fell out with Ojukwu from day one when he refused to support his secession course. However they both needed each other and they rode on themselves until the ride could no longer continue. Prof. Wole Soyinka, in his Memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, said when he met Banjo in Enugu, he saw a man who bought into his idea of a Third Force.

While the Nigerian and Biafran course was the first and second forces, set at warring against each other, Soyinka and a few others saw themselves as The Third Force. The Third Force aimed simply at stopping the war. They did everything to delay it. And if the youth leadership we had then were listening to them, there would not have been a war and the over three million lives lost would not have occurred. Gen. Alabi Isama, in his book on the civil war, "The Tragedy of Victory", wrote about so many gallant officers lost needlessly to this war. For his efforts at trying to broker peace between Nigeria and Biafra, Wole Soyinka was imprisoned by the Gowon government without trial all the war. He was refused permission to even bury his father. Gowon would however apologize personally to Soyinka for this years later.

The man Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is asking Nigeria to go back to this painful lane again. Someone has said that a call to secession is not the same as a call to war. I have however reminded him that history has equated most calls to secession to a call to war. If it were not so, why are IPOB members armed to the teeth today? Why are they brow beating their people to obey some sit at home order? While this country can very well call for a referendum to decide on the question of Biafra, the mere fact that free and fair elections cannot hold in the Eastern part of this country is proof that no free and fair referendum can hold in the East. Besides, what states in this Federal Republic will call themselves Biafra? The last I heard, the people of the oil rich Niger Delta are averse to secession. And Kanu needs to get his elders involved in his course. He needs to respect his state governors, Senators and Rep members. As long as he treats these people as thrash, he cannot get their support. And government will not listen to a rabble rouser. When all these is done, we will then settle the matter of the thousands of intermarriages between Biafrans and other parts of this country. As far as I can see with all these matter on ground, Biafra is a dead agenda.

Victor Banjo, though dead, yet speaketh. His last words that he is not dead rings true. As a member of the Third Force, who did everything to avert war, he was calling on the people of this generation to sheath their swords. A united Nigeria is better than a splintered one, he's saying. He's telling us that if Nigeria divides, there will be no end to its division because every region of this country are still made up of people groups. If we cannot live together now, we will not live together in splintered groups. He's calling on us to jaw jaw, rather than war war. He's asking our young men to redirect their energies to more fruitful endeavors. He's saying that if we do not do the hard work of living together, the easy path of secession, which we think is better, will only be littered with the body and blood of our best minds.

The motives of those calling for secession today is even more insincere than those who called for it years back. If Biafra of Ojukwu days was born out of the genocide perpetrated against lbos, who is killing IBOs today? Let this Biafra cry cease. Let the legitimate claims of IBOs be looked into. Let us live together happily ever after. We are better off together than divided.

This write up is dedicated to my friend across the Niger: Chidi Iloegbu. Thanks for reading my articles.

PostScript:

I've adapted this article for WhatsApp readers. If you desire it for WhatsApp to send to friends on your list, edited for much easier reading on that platform, pls inbox me and I'll send it to you there.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1953318264953646&id=100008264737265

CC: Seun, lalasticlala, Mynd44

I wish both the yorubas and ibos beating the secession drums should learn from history. more than half of those that owns the monikers on nairaland and are involved in these useless tribal e-wars were born after the civil war, they are only EMOTIONAL supporters of secession which is based on 'hearsays' and the little history they learnt in school about the war. if ojukwu should come out and boldly says he regrets the civil war, then I think he knows best and knows what he is saying. most of the stories we hear or read about the war are actually miniscule of what really transpired. any tribe talking about history will always magnify his own tribe either for glory or for emotional support, thats why those fighting needless EWar on nairaland should just sheathe their sword.

OP with all your beautifully crafted article, it's completely wrong for you to say that Biafra is dead on arrival.
I may agree with you that Ojukwu made some mistakes but in life mistakes are inevitable.
Biafra is more than Ojukwu.
Biafra is more than Nnamdi Kanu.

Hear it oh people.
Biafrans will not rest until they have Biafra.
It's Biafra or Death.
We will rather fight like Spartans and Gladiators than live as slaves and cowards.

hayoholla:
I wish both the yorubas and ibos beating the secession drums should learn from history. more than half of those that owns the monikers on nairaland and are involved in these useless tribal e-wars were born after the civil war, they are only EMOTIONAL supporters of secession which is based on 'hearsays' and the little history they learnt in school about the war. if ojukwu should come out and boldly says he regrets the civil war, then I think he knows best and knows what he is saying. most of the stories we hear or read about the war are actually miniscule of what really transpired. any tribe talking about history will always magnify his own tribe either for glory or for emotional support, thats why those fighting needless EWar on nairaland should just sheathe their sword.

It baffles me when I read, fear in the minds of people who choose to live as slaves rather than dying as hero's.
History has stories of numerous freedom fighters who never say the freedom but fought for their kids.
The Nigeria I live in today is not the Nigeria I want my generation to live in.
As long as a group of untouchable people feel it's theirs, let them have it so I can have my Biafra.

hayoholla:
I wish both the yorubas and ibos beating the secession drums should learn from history. more than half of those that owns the monikers on nairaland and are involved in these useless tribal e-wars were born after the civil war, they are only EMOTIONAL supporters of secession which is based on 'hearsays' and the little history they learnt in school about the war. if ojukwu should come out and boldly says he regrets the civil war, then I think he knows best and knows what he is saying. most of the stories we hear or read about the war are actually miniscule of what really transpired. any tribe talking about history will always magnify his own tribe either for glory or for emotional support, thats why those fighting needless EWar on nairaland should just sheathe their sword.

Ojukwu has never ever said that regrets the war. There more than 5 videos where Ojukwu said that he was very proud to lead Biafra in a war of liberation. The only thing Ojukwu said was that the war was over and he had embraced Nigeria although he consistently expressed the sentiment that Nigeria was not working as a nation.

When we talk about war, it should be noted that in every war, there is one side that is fighting for freedom and another side that is fighting to take freedom away. The side that is fighting to take freedom away is usually the guilty party. In the Nigerian/Biafran war, everyone knows who was fighting for freedom

If there is ever war again in Nigeria, we all know which side will be fighting to take freedom away.

War isnt a good thing, but sometimes, it is the only path to freedom

The Banjo guy ultimately killed himself.

Even his sister according to this write up said: that Banjo invaded the mid West at his own initiative, leading a liberation army. This is a soldier under the authority of a head of state.

He is a soldier. He knows what is chain of command. The write up even says he argues with Ojukwu (his ultimate oga) soteeeey Nigeria recovered from the Midwest takeover shock. I think this guy's ultimately cost Biafra the war. In hierarchy u follow orders chikena.

And we need to realize this: Biafra is not Ojukwu. Biafra is Biafra and bigger than Ojukwu. Ojukwu was the front man then just like this Kanu guy is the most outspoken now. However Biafra is on the heart of all those who call it a heritage one way or the other because of the realities of a Nigeria. Until those realities are faced and apprised, Biafra will likely not go away.

Rgds.

Very insightful. Overall, I think most of the major actors of the civil war were young, naive, egoistic and desperate for power and fame. They only thought of the reward of sucess without thinking of the consequences of most of their decisions.

Ojukwu wanted to create a new country where he would be the Maximum ruler and be praised endlessly for defeating the North and liberating the Ibos. Banjo wanted to use Ojukwu's army to liberate the west and mid-west and then take over the government of the new country he intend to create. Obasanjo refused to allow Banjo free pass to Lagos through Ibadan so that Banjo won't take the glory for liberating the west. Gowon as the incumbent head of state won't allow any form of disintegration under his watch.

Ego and the desire for fame and power blinded all of them and eventually led to the needless death of around 3million people. The more I read about the civil war, the more I get convinced it was totally a needless expedition. Unfortunately, I am not even convinced that we've learnt our lessons going by recent development.

Shitty old cargoes

Bibors:


It baffles me when I read, fear in the minds of people who choose to live as slaves rather than dying as hero's.
History has stories of numerous freedom fighters who never say the freedom but fought for their kids.
The Nigeria I live in today is not the Nigeria I want my generation to live in.
As long as a group of untouchable people feel it's theirs, let them have it so I can have my Biafra.

we all know this nigeria we live in is not working, truth be told! I completely support the nation of biafra, as much as I support decentralisation pf power, which brings me to the conclusion that we should direct our grieviances to those behind the. scene scuttling the ambition of true federalism and restructuing, not the transfer of aggression I witness here on nairaland on daily basis against each others tribe. I will tell you the truth, it is really disheartning seeing all these afonjas and ipob battering themselves with insult and throwing banters unneccesarily. although I am pained and angry why yoruba leaders are taking eternity to raise up their voice for restructuring and join leagues with ibo leaders, atleast that will bend the stiff arms of the FG to comply and revert back to the old regional system of governance. God help us all.

The Banjo Mistake cost Biafra the War,....

Hence one of the regrets of OJUKWU.

Kassidy4luv:
The Banjo Mistake cost Biafra the War,....


Hence one of the regrets of OJUKWU.

When you look at all the areas of their disagreement, Banjo was proved right and Ojukwu wrong.

after the Hausa vs Yoruba clash at ife,only yorubas were arrested including an oba,they're still unjustly detained till today plus many other problems affecting the yorubas but you hardly see them agitate or discuss their problems rather they would be moving from one igbo thread to another spewing hatred over what is not their concern. a famous sage said that "an unexamined life is not worth living"

Good morning Seun and Super Mod', lalasticlal

I am making an apeal to you that this thread is placed on front page.

I understand that the Biafran question is a very contentious one and this thread itself can become a war zone. But...

Nairaland offers the youths of this country the opportunity to jaw jaw so that we do not war war. While many are already set on their ways and I Biafra no matter what, others are wrongly indoctrinated.

This thread can offer a light to those wrongly taught so that our people can make their decisions from an informed position.

Providence has given us this forum in this country to help. Pls, Seun, be a source of help to every Nigerian. Post this thread to front page. I'm convinced it will contribute to the Biafran debate.

If however you think otherwise, you can respond to this post.

- ProfDemi

ProfDemi:
Continued:

Kunle Ojeleye in his book commented on how ill prepared the Biafran army were and that Banjo and the three others were killed because they dared to request better equipping for the soldiers. Hear him:

“Indeed, it was at the behest of this feeling that four Biafran military officers wrote a memorandum to the Biafran administration requesting for a review of the war effort. among others, their memorandum requested: that Biafra should have its own currency; there should be an immediate re-organisation and appropriate equipping of the Biafran army; the admittance of civilians into the Biafran decision making body and the decentralisation of the Biafran government; the mortgaging of Biafran oil in exchange for urgently needed military aid and equipment; and in the absence of all the preceding four requirements, immediate negotiation with the federal forces for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.

“For daring to take such a course of action, Lt.-Col. Victor Banjo, Major Emmanuel ifeajuna, Samuel Agbam and Major Alale were labelled as traitors, accused of wanting to overthrow the Biafran administration, court martial, and executed (Ottah 1981).” At the end, these four men were right. Biafra lost the war because it was ill prepared and because one man, Ojukwu, was chasing a pipe dream.

Banjo had told his wife that that whatever happens, he would let her know of his well being. One morning, following Banjo's death, Banjo's wife woke up in far away Sierra Leone with a dream on her heart. A bird had come into their home and after flying about a bit, it flew out of the window into the blue skies. Mrs. Banjo knew instinctively that that her husband was dead. She would eventually relocate to Nigeria and bring up her children as Nigerians, as her husband had wished.

A few months after Odumegwu Ojukwu died, following a prolonged illness, I was in the office of Prof. Olayinka Omigbodun (nee Banjo), the second to the last daughter of Victor Banjo, at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. I had come to see her on the book she wrote of her father. Among a few things we discussed I remember her saying this and I paraphrase: "the man who caused all these is today being buried as a national hero, while my father lies somewhere buried in an unmarked grave". The bodies of those four men were never found. Many of their families have found it difficult to reach closure on them.

Chris Ngwodo has rightly pointed out that the civil was wholly unnecessary. It was a war that was the result of the youthful exuberance and pride of 36 year old Ojukwu and 31 year old Gowon. Unfortunately those beating the drums of secession and war today are the same youths who have refused to learn from our history. Banjo fell out with Ojukwu from day one when he refused to support his secession course. However they both needed each other and they rode on themselves until the ride could no longer continue. Prof. Wole Soyinka, in his Memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, said when he met Banjo in Enugu, he saw a man who bought into his idea of a Third Force.

While the Nigerian and Biafran course was the first and second forces, set at warring against each other, Soyinka and a few others saw themselves as The Third Force. The Third Force aimed simply at stopping the war. They did everything to delay it. And if the youth leadership we had then were listening to them, there would not have been a war and the over three million lives lost would not have occurred. Gen. Alabi Isama, in his book on the civil war, "The Tragedy of Victory", wrote about so many gallant officers lost needlessly to this war. For his efforts at trying to broker peace between Nigeria and Biafra, Wole Soyinka was imprisoned by the Gowon government without trial all the war. He was refused permission to even bury his father. Gowon would however apologize personally to Soyinka for this years later.

The man Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is asking Nigeria to go back to this painful lane again. Someone has said that a call to secession is not the same as a call to war. I have however reminded him that history has equated most calls to secession to a call to war. If it were not so, why are IPOB members armed to the teeth today? Why are they brow beating their people to obey some sit at home order? While this country can very well call for a referendum to decide on the question of Biafra, the mere fact that free and fair elections cannot hold in the Eastern part of this country is proof that no free and fair referendum can hold in the East. Besides, what states in this Federal Republic will call themselves Biafra? The last I heard, the people of the oil rich Niger Delta are averse to secession. And Kanu needs to get his elders involved in his course. He needs to respect his state governors, Senators and Rep members. As long as he treats these people as thrash, he cannot get their support. And government will not listen to a rabble rouser. When all these is done, we will then settle the matter of the thousands of intermarriages between Biafrans and other parts of this country. As far as I can see with all these matter on ground, Biafra is a dead agenda.

Victor Banjo, though dead, yet speaketh. His last words that he is not dead rings true. As a member of the Third Force, who did everything to avert war, he was calling on the people of this generation to sheath their swords. A united Nigeria is better than a splintered one, he's saying. He's telling us that if Nigeria divides, there will be no end to its division because every region of this country are still made up of people groups. If we cannot live together now, we will not live together in splintered groups. He's calling on us to jaw jaw, rather than war war. He's asking our young men to redirect their energies to more fruitful endeavors. He's saying that if we do not do the hard work of living together, the easy path of secession, which we think is better, will only be littered with the body and blood of our best minds.

The motives of those calling for secession today is even more insincere than those who called for it years back. If Biafra of Ojukwu days was born out of the genocide perpetrated against lbos, who is killing IBOs today? Let this Biafra cry cease. Let the legitimate claims of IBOs be looked into. Let us live together happily ever after. We are better off together than divided.

This write up is dedicated to my friend across the Niger: Chidi Iloegbu. Thanks for reading my articles.

PostScript:

I've adapted this article for WhatsApp readers. If you desire it for WhatsApp to send to friends on your list, edited for much easier reading on that platform, pls inbox me and I'll send it to you there.

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CC: Seun, lalasticlala, Mynd44

A RESPONSE TO DEJI YESUFU

By AKPOVETA, Valentine​ 't

Meanwhile, I just finished reading the article by Deji Yesufu.

While I think he may have done a passably good job with the abridged versions of the lessons in history, the problem, as I see it, is that he went further.

Where he would have been perfectly alright as a historian, regurgitating bits and pieces of history, and drawing some conclusions from incomplete narratives​, while ignoring contexts and the actions that the times, pressures and information of that period necessitated, I am more than a little peeved that he designed to give a simplistic solution to an obviously complex problem.

His opinions are not only a sign of a very uninformed mind, lacking a strong grasp of reality or global parallels, they also lack any real form of empathy.

He sees himself as a Third Force but his arguments are no different, in form or substance, from those who would force people to remain in an inconvenient union of imperial making without addressing the essence of the core of the agitations. Deji is not a Third Force. He is an ignorant force. A dangerous and ignorant voice.

He transposes the call by the dying Victor Banjo to the Nigerian situation, "I'm not dead yet!". He misses the poignancy of the end of that narrative. Banjo died. Eventually.

As the guns were trained on him, vomiting their metal messengers of death, he died.

The soul of Nigeria, today, is at the centre of a firing squad, with the guns of marginalisation, corruption, debilitating ignorance, sectionalism​, and whatnot, trained on her. She may cry again and again that she is not dead. But except these guns stop firing, she will die. That is an incontrovertible truth.

How many SNC's have we had? What has been the result? To think that typing out overly simplified solutions to fundamental problems that have perennially faced Nigeria and shaped every single facet of her socio-cultural and political facets- fundamental problems that have not been addressed, to think this will magically solve our problem is to reveal how out of tune Deji is with reality. We cannot wish away our problems. We cannot​ write it away either.

Deji goes ahead to say that since the Ibo's are no longer killed, then they have no reason to ask for a referendum for secession. In his narrow-mindedness, only a genocide should be reason enough to ask for secession. But that, even then, the glorious Third Force should be listened to- that even secession should not be a reason to secede. Essentially, he says everyone must stay in this forced marriage for which we had no say. He compounds the expression of his folly when he says we should just live together "happily ever after".

But this his pipe dream of "together happily ever after" is backed up with absolutely no facts. And when he goes on to say we are better off together than divided, I do not understand where he gets that idea from.

If the blood merchants who put together this contraption called Nigeria for their pecuniary gains, without regards to the several unique differences amongst the tribal groups, had put together Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana together into one country with a land mass approximately equal to Congo or Algeria, a buffoon would come to the conclusion that five countries cannot break away and function independently​. But we have these five countries existing relatively peacefully, side by side, dealing with their issues and making progress in their different ways.

Why can it not be the same for Nigeria as it presently exists? Who says that we are better together than divided? What are the indices from which that conclusion was drawn?

Yesufu, thinking he writes to unthinking people, says some really laughable things.

He says that the claim of a call to secession not being equal to a call to war is insincere. And that gathering arms in readiness for the eventuality of a war is proof that Biafrans are itching to be aggressors. This is an asinine suggestion. If he thinks that the possession of arms must be interpreted strictly as a warning of aggression and impeding war, but not as a possible safeguard against the mindless slaughter of innocent people demanding their right to self-determination and sovereignty, then indeed, it is Yesufu who needs a lesson in history.

The book of our nationhood has pages written with the blood of innocents mass murdered, and killed in droves- by rampaging mobs as well as soldiers. Unarmed people shot dead. Whole populations denied food and medicine and slaughtered for the fun of it, for the singular reason that they were Ibo's.

Now, Yesufu, in his silliness, suggests that the Ibo's should not arm themselves if their call for secession is truly sincere. That, therefore, leaves another option- a referendum. But Yesufu, the clown, shoots down the idea of a referendum too. He says the south-east is notorious for compromised elections and that since free and fair elections cannot hold in that region, then free and fair referendum cannot hold in that region.

Yesufu is a bumbling nitwit.

If we ignore the bloated census figures of a certain part of the country, if we ignore the child voting and disproportionate vote results compared to accredited voters in that part of the country, if we ignore the mass protests in that same part that usually end in blood-letting because of a loss of their popular candidate in polls, if we truly ignore all that and say that only the south-east has flawed electioneering processes, is that not an indictment on the systemic failure of the nation's electoral body? How is that a south-east problem?

If, truly, the Ibo's are beating the drums of war, then it is a drum that the system created.

Whose interests does it serve to be together yet not "together" in the real sense of the word? Whose interests does it serve to refuse to address all the issues of marginalisation and underdevelopment and, in fact, all the valid concerns of each unique group? Whose interests does it serve to continue to drag along this bumbling, unwieldy bulk of very disparate peoples in this geographic space who, when the chips are down, do not even see others as their brothers but as second class citizens as long as they do not share the same heritage or mother tongue?

How can we restructure the nation in such a way that every federating unit will take a more involved approach in their development and be responsible for the pace of their growth, rather than be tied to a central government?

These are valid questions Deji should ask. Or else remain silent. And not pollute the already befouled public space and discussions with his fetid ignorance.

While I used to be a strong advocate of one Nigeria by all means, I have grown wiser and have come to accept that the Nigerian project- this Luggardian contraption seems doomed to fail. Asides from the fact that the way Nigeria is presently constituted seems fashioned to serve the interests of a few to the detriment of the many- the interests of a section with a born-to-rule mentality over another section, asides from this fact, I believe that every people have a right to self-determination. And anyone advocating the everlasting legitimacy of this British colonial legacy, without seeking ways to adapt this contrivance to our present realities and persistent agitations, is nothing but a tyrant.

I suspect Deji is one.

This post is dedicated to common sense.

RIP Victor Banjo.
Ojukwu was simply jealous of his rising profile among the troops.
I hope you have all seen why it will always be difficult for a Yoruba man to fight alongside an Igbo man.
Even Wole Soyinka that was jailed for supporting biafra is hated by the Igbos because he was awarded a Nobel laureate.

Bibors:
OP with all your beautifully crafted article, it's completely wrong for you to say that Biafra is dead on arrival.
I may agree with you that Ojukwu made some mistakes but in life mistakes are inevitable.
Biafra is more than Ojukwu.
Biafra is more than Nnamdi Kanu.

Hear it oh people.
Biafrans will not rest until they have Biafra.
It's Biafra or Death.
We will rather fight like Spartans and Gladiators than live as slaves and cowards.

Fighting like Spartans does not consist in building a bunker with 20 escape routes and eventually running to Serria Leone.

“For daring to take such a course of action, Lt.-Col. Victor Banjo, Major Emmanuel ifeajuna, Samuel Agbam and Major Alale were labelled as traitors, accused of wanting to overthrow the Biafran administration, court martial, and executed (Ottah 1981).” At the end, these four men were right. Biafra lost the war because it was ill prepared and because one man, Ojukwu, was chasing a pipe dream.

This is a blatant lie. Have forgotten that Ojukwu released Banjo and housed in Government House as his personal guest. It is unfortunate that many people still do not know why Ojukwu executed Banjo, Ifeajuna, Alale and Agbam. The writter ignorantly called it 'trumped up' charges. The real reason why Ojukwu executed these men was because they had plotted to topple Ojukwu. The full story of the coup plot plus the transcripts of their trial and the evidence that nailed them can be seen in a book called "No Place to Hide: Crises and Conflicts Inside Biafra" by Bernard Odogwu.

Odogwu was a Biafran intelligence officer who secretly recorded Banjo and Ifeajuna putting finishing touches to their coup plot including how they would arrest Ojukwu at Enugu Government House.

Banjo was arrested, tried and executed for coup plotting.

I want to tell the writter that it is the inalinable right of people to self determination. I have a right as an Igbo man to decide if I want to be Nigerian or not. To deny me that right is to call me a prisoner. What Kanu, IPOB/MASSOB are calling for is a referendum, not war. It is Nigeria that brings war into the issue of Biafra. The Biafran agitators have not hurt or killed anyone. Infact, it is them that have been brutalised and killed, yet they remain peaceful.

Nigeria is just a mere colonial creation.of the whiteman, it is not my fathersland. Let the Government of Nigeria respect the peoples right to self determination and grant them referendum, brute force cannot be used to keep Nigeria together forever

ettybaba:

Fighting like Spartans does not consist in building a bunker with 20 escape routes and eventually running to Serria Leone.

The Spartans all perished because they didn't have bunkers.
He who is tactical lives to fight another day.
Common sense.

ValisGod:

A RESPONSE TO DEJI YESUFU

By AKPOVETA, Valentine​ 't

Meanwhile, I just finished reading the article by Deji Yesufu.

While I think he may have done a passably good job with the abridged versions of the lessons in history, the problem, as I see it, is that he went further.

Where he would have been perfectly alright as a historian, regurgitating bits and pieces of history, and drawing some conclusions from incomplete narratives​, while ignoring contexts and the actions that the times, pressures and information of that period necessitated, I am more than a little peeved that he designed to give a simplistic solution to an obviously complex problem.

His opinions are not only a sign of a very uninformed mind, lacking a strong grasp of reality or global parallels, they also lack any real form of empathy.

He sees himself as a Third Force but his arguments are no different, in form or substance, from those who would force people to remain in an inconvenient union of imperial making without addressing the essence of the core of the agitations. Deji is not a Third Force. He is an ignorant force. A dangerous and ignorant voice.

He transposes the call by the dying Victor Banjo to the Nigerian situation, "I'm not dead yet!". He misses the poignancy of the end of that narrative. Banjo died. Eventually.

As the guns were trained on him, vomiting their metal messengers of death, he died.

The soul of Nigeria, today, is at the centre of a firing squad, with the guns of marginalisation, corruption, debilitating ignorance, sectionalism​, and whatnot, trained on her. She may cry again and again that she is not dead. But except these guns stop firing, she will die. That is an incontrovertible truth.

How many SNC's have we had? What has been the result? To think that typing out overly simplified solutions to fundamental problems that have perennially faced Nigeria and shaped every single facet of her socio-cultural and political facets- fundamental problems that have not been addressed, to think this will magically solve our problem is to reveal how out of tune Deji is with reality. We cannot wish away our problems. We cannot​ write it away either.

Deji goes ahead to say that since the Ibo's are no longer killed, then they have no reason to ask for a referendum for secession. In his narrow-mindedness, only a genocide should be reason enough to ask for secession. But that, even then, the glorious Third Force should be listened to- that even secession should not be a reason to secede. Essentially, he says everyone must stay in this forced marriage for which we had no say. He compounds the expression of his folly when he says we should just live together "happily ever after".

But this his pipe dream of "together happily ever after" is backed up with absolutely no facts. And when he goes on to say we are better off together than divided, I do not understand where he gets that idea from.

If the blood merchants who put together this contraption called Nigeria for their pecuniary gains, without regards to the several unique differences amongst the tribal groups, had put together Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana together into one country with a land mass approximately equal to Congo or Algeria, a buffoon would come to the conclusion that five countries cannot break away and function independently​. But we have these five countries existing relatively peacefully, side by side, dealing with their issues and making progress in their different ways.

Why can it not be the same for Nigeria as it presently exists? Who says that we are better together than divided? What are the indices from which that conclusion was drawn?

Yesufu, thinking he writes to unthinking people, says some really laughable things.

He says that the claim of a call to secession not being equal to a call to war is insincere. And that gathering arms in readiness for the eventuality of a war is proof that Biafrans are itching to be aggressors. This is an asinine suggestion. If he thinks that the possession of arms must be interpreted strictly as a warning of aggression and impeding war, but not as a possible safeguard against the mindless slaughter of innocent people demanding their right to self-determination and sovereignty, then indeed, it is Yesufu who needs a lesson in history.

The book of our nationhood has pages written with the blood of innocents mass murdered, and killed in droves- by rampaging mobs as well as soldiers. Unarmed people shot dead. Whole populations denied food and medicine and slaughtered for the fun of it, for the singular reason that they were Ibo's.

Now, Yesufu, in his silliness, suggests that the Ibo's should not arm themselves if their call for secession is truly sincere. That, therefore, leaves another option- a referendum. But Yesufu, the clown, shoots down the idea of a referendum too. He says the south-east is notorious for compromised elections and that since free and fair elections cannot hold in that region, then free and fair referendum cannot hold in that region.

Yesufu is a bumbling nitwit.

If we ignore the bloated census figures of a certain part of the country, if we ignore the child voting and disproportionate vote results compared to accredited voters in that part of the country, if we ignore the mass protests in that same part that usually end in blood-letting because of a loss of their popular candidate in polls, if we truly ignore all that and say that only the south-east has flawed electioneering processes, is that not an indictment on the systemic failure of the nation's electoral body? How is that a south-east problem?

If, truly, the Ibo's are beating the drums of war, then it is a drum that the system created.

Whose interests does it serve to be together yet not "together" in the real sense of the word? Whose interests does it serve to refuse to address all the issues of marginalisation and underdevelopment and, in fact, all the valid concerns of each unique group? Whose interests does it serve to continue to drag along this bumbling, unwieldy bulk of very disparate peoples in this geographic space who, when the chips are down, do not even see others as their brothers but as second class citizens as long as they do not share the same heritage or mother tongue?

How can we restructure the nation in such a way that every federating unit will take a more involved approach in their development and be responsible for the pace of their growth, rather than be tied to a central government?

These are valid questions Deji should ask. Or else remain silent. And not pollute the already befouled public space and discussions with his fetid ignorance.

While I used to be a strong advocate of one Nigeria by all means, I have grown wiser and have come to accept that the Nigerian project- this Luggardian contraption seems doomed to fail. Asides from the fact that the way Nigeria is presently constituted seems fashioned to serve the interests of a few to the detriment of the many- the interests of a section with a born-to-rule mentality over another section, asides from this fact, I believe that every people have a right to self-determination. And anyone advocating the everlasting legitimacy of this British colonial legacy, without seeking ways to adapt this contrivance to our present realities and persistent agitations, is nothing but a tyrant.

I suspect Deji is one.

This post is dedicated to common sense.

Victor Banjo: My Response to Akpoveta Valentine T.

When I wrote “I’m Not Dead Yet”: The Victor Banjo Story, I had a national dialogue on the Biafran debate at heart. I am convinced that civilized societies debate national issues until the best reasoning are produced and all are forced to align with it.

My essay drove at the heart of the secessionist cry of Igbo people, as I conjured up a story, that of Victor Banjo, to defuse the increasing clamour for Biafra among the Igbo’s. As I write, the essay has gained increasing traction among Nigerians with the Facebook post hitting an all time high of 550 shares and an uncountable number of broadcasts on WhatsApp. I thank God for this and I hope many more will read and be won over to the argument for one Nigeria.

This response to the essay by Mr. Akpoveta, which I found on Nairaland, deserves a rejoinder. He had raised issues there that is common on many hearts. Perhaps if these matters are sufficiently responded to, Akpoveta and friends will rethink secession.

Firstly, Akpoveta has described the Nigeria of today by a rather over used concept: a forced marriage. And it is from this concept of a marriage that I wish to begin my refutation of Akpoveta essay.

If Akpoveta is married, he would realize that marriage, forced or not, is a rather poor metaphor to describe the Nigerian union. Every marriage comes to that point where the union is threatened. For some, the threat last for a while. For others, it covers years. But the most enduring marriages are not those whose union is threatened but those who overcome the threat. So if Nigeria is a forced marriage, we should consider every reason to remain together. Biafra, as a Christian people, should know that God hates divorce.

Akpoveta also has issues with my suggesting we remain happily ever after – especially while I did not give sufficient facts to back up my assertion. At this point, I’ll just list a few:

1. Nations are realizing the strength and blessing in unions and thus we have the United States, Great Britain, African Union, ECOWAS and recently European Union. Nigeria as it is, is a unity of nations already. This is a blessing.

2. Our unity and diversity is a blessing. Every part of this country is a contributor to its success. The Igbo’s are know for their creativity, industry and business. The Yoruba’s for their intellectualism. Hausas for their agriculture. All these can be added up to benefit this Union.

3. This real enemy of Nigeria is not tribe or religion. It is greed, self centeredness, lawlessness and the natural Nigerian madness. If Biafra were to secede, the Nigerian evil will still tag along with them.

4. There is the wonderful Providence of God that created Nigeria in 1914. The British were just his tool at this. We should honor God and keep his creation.

5. Two is better than one. We are better off together than splintered.

Even though Akpoveta disagrees with me, I maintain that Igbo’s have little reasons to secede today compared with 1967. First there is no genocide. No one is killing Igbo’s. Every other part of this country has lost people to Fulani herdsmen too.

Igbo’s are not marginalized. They simply refused to use their opportunity. “Ebele” Jonathan amassed Igbo’s into his government. What did they do with their opportunities. Unfortunately the Buhari you didn’t vote for is the one fixing your roads now and helping to sanitize the polluted Ijaw lands of oil spills. Obviously when your sons were in power, they were only interested in themselves and not the common you. And that is what will replicate in Biafra, if you ever get that nation.

So, yes, let this country remain as it is. Let’s have the discussions continue. We have a listening government. Let’s speak as a group. Let’s debate humanely and not like rascals. As for speaking humanely, I must mention here that though Akpoveta response was brilliant, the insult replete in it betrayed his good reasoning.

And this is something those pushing for Biafra should watch against. You don’t win your course with either violence of the fist or of the tongue. You win your course through peaceful means. We have listened to Radio Biafra and we hear what your people are saying there. It is the height of hypocrisy to vaunt religion on one hand and to be raining down insults and curses on the other hand. God can never be in such a course. If Biafra cannot be earned in peace, it is not worth it.

Finally, if the Biafran advocate will defend their course with sound arguments and win folks like us to their side, I will join in the call for a referendum for them. Until then, Banjo though dead, yet speaks: Nigeria remain united.

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