New York Times bestselling author and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Florida, Uwem Akpan, has described the ill-fated Biafra Republic declared by late Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967 as the greatest evil that beset the minorities of Niger Delta.

Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a partially recognised secessionist state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970.

Its territory consisted of the predominantly Igbo-populated then Eastern Region of Nigeria which is now divided into the South-East and South-South regions of Nigeria.

Biafra was established on 30 May 1967 by Ojukwu under his leadership as the governor of the then Eastern region of Nigeria, following a series of ethnic tensions and military coups after Nigerian independence in 1960 that culminated in the 1966 massacres of Igbo people and other Eastern ethnic groups living in northern Nigeria.

The military of Nigeria proceeded to invade Biafra shortly after its secession, resulting in the start of the Nigerian Civil War.

During an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo in 90MinutesAfrica, Professor Akpan argued that the Biafra narrative shaped by most Igbo writers over time was one-sided because it painted the Igbos as innocent victims of the civil war.

He insisted that the minorities were the biggest victims of the crisis as they suffered the brunt from both Nigeria and Biafra.

“In the riots that engulfed the north, at least a third of those killed were minorities. No one tells that story. It is always the Igbos who were killed in the north. The question now is: if both the Igbos and minorities were killed in the north, why were they not able to come back and form Biafra together? This is simply because even before the genocide in the north, the Igbos and the minorities were never together. Though they were all in the Eastern Region, the minorities always feel cheated," Professor Akpan reiterated.

The award-winning author further stated that "the minorities did not want Biafra. The Igbos under Ojukwu went out of their way to block the creation of minority states. They imposed Biafra on minorities. The Ibos were thus engaged in two wars – fighting against big-time Nigeria and fighting against small-time minorities. The minorities were massacred by the Biafrans. A place in Sagbama in Ijaw land even has a festival celebrating the fact that they survived Biafra, and there are few other places like that in minority lands.”

When the interviewer drew the attention of the Professor to the fact that some minorities supported the Biafra Republic, he acknowledged that there would always be individuals within the "colonised" who accept and are part of any "colonisation project".

"Today, almost all Igbos say they want Biafra but have you heard the minorities say they want Biafra? You can mention individuals in the minority who would support Biafra, but there is no groundswell of support like you have in Igbo land. The minorities have not forgotten how they were massacred in Biafra.

"The Western press did not cover the minority villages. In any case, there was some sort of understanding that if the Western press exposed what the Biafran soldiers were doing, Biafra would lose the little support it had," he said.

"In researching for my book, I spoke to a lot of former Biafran soldiers, and they spoke about what they were told to do in minority lands. It was a mess. Biafra was a terrorist state, especially in minority land," the author emphasised.

https://saharareporters.com/2022/11/26/minorities-nigeria-were-greatest-victims-biafra-republic-declared-late-ojukwu-us-based

Mynd44, Nlfpmod.

Majority of those objecting Tinubu presidency are from the relegated region in the country, so I understand their pains���

They are coming for you Akpan.

How dare you?

It's pretty clearer now that the Igbos wanted a better Nigeria for all but the corrupt elements in government were so against that back in the days

True. There were no innocent sides during the war. Mostly propaganda galore to gain sympathy from the world.

Meaning that whenever Igbos are mocked by urchings about Biafran war, they are equally indirectly mocking the souls of innocent minorities that died during the war


Urchings and confusion ...

No urching should quote me today pls

Golan007:
They are coming for you Akpan.

How dare you?

Gbam.

Ipob pigs are fighting anyone whose comment doesn't favour them.

Professor Uwem Akpan is an almajiri illiterate from the north who wants to continue enjoying the resources of biafuro.

This is what we have always says in this forum whenever Igbo cry as victims, they were guilty of whatever they acused Nigeria government of during Biafra war.

Ojuwku was the first to led the army to squashed people in South South when they were agitating for their own country years later he was leading people in South East for the same thing and even roped in people in South South.

I still remembered the atrocities Biafra soldiers committed in Edo state and Benin when they took over the middle west, Ojuwku appointed Albert Okwonko a fellow Igbo as governor of Edo state before Nigerian Army led by colonel Benjamin Adekunle liberated middle west. That's why you will never see a real Benin man that know history support Biafra because they know it is like signing up for slavery under Igbo.

I scanned the interview if i could see a mention of specific incidence of attack or massacre of minorities by Biafran forces with date and didnt see one. It is therefore safe to conclude the interview is a re-echo of the age long government sponsored conspiracy theory. The loafer that calls himself a professor even had to blame Biafra for the pogrom against the minorities in the north.

Human being is a rational being that can only be intellectually turned on by evidence such as the bombing of hospital by federal forces in itu present Akwa ibom, massacre in Asaba by federal forces etc

Nigerians are not normal people. Give it five years, IPOB will be accused of being behind Odi massacre and some Biafran haters will actually give it a serious thought.

super story

Biafrannuke:
I scanned the interview if i could see a mention of specific incidence of attack or massacre of minorities by Biafran forces with date and didnt see one. It is therefore safe to conclude the interview is a re-echo of the age long government sponsored conspiracy theory. The loafer that calls himself a professor even had to blame Biafra for the pogrom against the minorities in the north.

Human being is a rational being that can only be intellectually turned on by evidence such as the bombing of hospital by federal forces in itu present Akwa ibom, massacre in Asaba by federal forces etc

Nigerians are not normal people. Give it five years, IPOB will be accused of being behind Odi massacre and some Biafran haters will actually give it a serious thought.

Or killing police officers.

Whoops!

He's right!

My grandparents didn't want Biafra! We knew we were going to be neglected and pushed aside if Nigeria eventually split. Their parents were murdered even though they didn't want Biafra.

PrinceOfLagos:
It's pretty clearer now that the Igbos wanted a better Nigeria for all but the corrupt elements in government were so against that back in the days

Prof. said Biafra was a terrorist state.

Isn’t it funny
Coming from a so called professor…
Up till today no one has even give evidence of any of the atrocities they claim…
I bet the only bad thing Baifra did was ofcourse forcefully recruit young men and child soldiers, which it’s normal for the situation they were in,BTW many of the child soldiers joined the Army willingly…
The professor sef tire me he doesn’t even know that when they say Igbo it covers the entire Eastern region ethnicities, wether you are Efik,Ibibio,Ijaw etc forget about denying wether ure Igbo or not, no one will give u room to explain that..to an average Aboki ure Igbo..
It is sad our history isn’t being taught in schools so just about anyone will come up with rubbish and people will buy it

This people should kindly forget this issue of Biafra ooo. This table they're shaking will fall ooo.

Nigeria is too dicey for discussion of anything Biafra war.

Tinubuagbado:
This people should kindly forget this issue of Biafra ooo. This table they're shaking will fall ooo.

Nigeria is too dicey for discussion of anything Biafra war.

So, it is now dicey because Obi is contesting. When you were shouting Biafra or death, you didn't know. We will discuss the matter very well let everybody talk him own.
After that, we will go to Twitter and Facebook to discuss about how Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa were killed.
No need to fear, let everyone speak his mind.

Ipob pigs keep crying up there like they haven't heared that part of the story?

My father told me the terrible things those igbos did to the minorities during that shit of a war, and i've also heared same and even worse than what my old man told me about those flat heads

Yamrees dey open thread dey run comot. The truth in this thread fit scatter things for them.

PrinceOfLagos:
It's pretty clearer now that the Igbos wanted a better Nigeria for all but the corrupt elements in government were so against that back in the days

Better Nigeria ?

Start from your blighted yeast.

Charity , after all, begins at home.

Spit

Ojukwu's Biafran Soldiers not only Massacred Civilians they went further and Butchered their Corpses for Meat
The practice of Butchering People for meat was not Started by IPOB


Eastern Non Igbos were Victims of Ethnic Cleansing by the Biafran Soldiers

Read the article below



https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097919


http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/articles-opinions/the-unknown-victims-ethnic-minorities-1967-1970/

https://m.facebook.com/naijainfoman/posts/1139807712715827


Enough Of This Biafran Nonsense!!! By alabo abiye Akkio-abbey


As a Rivers man who saw the events of 1967-1970 and who was old enough to understand them, this protest in Port Harcourt is a slap on true Rivers indigenes. and the memory of ALL the Rivers men and women who were slaughtered in the pogroms and ethnic cleansing committed during the civil war by the Biafran Army.
Let us remind ourselves of the TRUE facts and REAL reasons behind the secession and subsequent civil war. Ojukwu and his cohorts decided to secede from Nigeria because Gowon broke up the regions and created Rivers State among the 12 states he created. Remember the Aburi accord? Article 4 of that accord had to do with the breaking up of the regions. On the 27th of May, 1967, Gowon broke up the Regions, from the then Eastern Region and carved out Rivers, South-Eastern and East-Central states. 3 days later on 30th May, 1967 Ojukwu seceded citing the Aburi accord. ON ABURI WE STAND!! The rallying war cry of the day. How anyone who calls himself/herself a Rivers indigene support tacitly or otherwise the so-called Biafra cause when Biafra seceeded just because Rivers State was created and the Rivers people for once had a right to self rule?
In the quest for a sovereign country did the Igbo majority seek, discuss with or solicit the support of the minorities in the Oil Rivers and South-East?? Where is Biafra? How do you seek for a country which was susequently named Biafra WITHOUT involving the indigenous people of Biafra? Isn't that supreme arrogance or maybe they were not included because they were meant to be wiped out later. Events proved the latter to be true.
Late Chief (Dr.) Nabo Graham-Douglas who was the Attorney General of the Eastern Region was sent on compulsory leave and exiled to his home town Abonnema with orders for him to be executed. Fortunately the plans leaked and he miraculously escaped. He didn't draw the Articles of secession and only heard about Biafra from the BBC journalists who came to interview him in Abonnema.
He was one of the lucky ones.
The ethnic cleansing began in earnest. Our intelligentsia; top civil servants, technocrats and other able bodied men and women were rounded up and summarily executed in Enugu, Owerri, Aba, Umuahia, Degema, Buguma, Bakana, to mention but a few towns/cities. In Port Harcourt, Rainbow town and Igritta, became killing fields. the bones of those victims still lie there
These atrocities were committed by the Biafran Army, against people who were supposed to be fighting the same cause with them.
In a bid to wipe out the minority tribes, our towns and villages were evacuated, our men put to slave labour and later on shot (reminiscent of Nazi Germany), our women taken as sex slaves, young boys shared the same fate as the men. Bakana, Bille, Abonnema were all forcefully evacuated.
Finally, when the Nigerian Army counter attacked and liberated Port Harcourt, the retreating Biafran Army, burnt Kingsway (now Supabod building), Nabo Graham-Douglas's law library (which was the best Law library in the whole of West Africa) and other land marks in the Garden city. Of what military significance were these acts??
I don't blame the misguided ill-informed people for trampling on the graves of those who were murdered by the Biafran Army, by protesting in Port Harcourt. I blame Gowon for forbidding accounts of the war being published after the war, but more importantly for not trying war criminals (like Col Ojeh of Degema) within the Biafran Army and holding them accountable for their inhuman and murderous actions during the war. 70 years after World War 2, we are still reminded on a daily basis the atrocities that the Nazi's committed. If Gowon had done what he was morally and duty bound to do, this matter of Biafra would have been put to rest once and for all.
By the way, in May 1968, my uncle (my mother's younger brother) was shot in his Warri street residence in Port Harcourt, his corpse butchered, his flesh sold as Biafra meat in Mile 1 market.

That same day the Nigerian Army opened up and started shelling Port Harcourt, which was ultimately liberated
Are those protesting and the other supporters of "Biafra" aware of these facts??
The war has been over these past 45 years, we are forging on as a country, setting aside our ethnocentric issues. That Ex-Biafrans have been assimilated into all spheres of our society (as they should), without any punishment meted out to the war criminals among them, doesn't give anyone the right to re-write history or bring these painful memories back.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

The problem we face today with a resurgent Biafra agitation amongst the Igbo that is being fueled by false Zionist claims, is the fact that, majority of post civil war literature was written by the Igbos whom in their typical unrepentant and psychotic nature want the world to believe they were hapless victims.

Most of those who prosecuted the war on the Nigerian side swore to secrecy never to write about the war as part of Gowon's "No victor, no vanquished " policy as part of his reintegration of the Igbo back to Nigeria.

The so-called minorities have done very little other than rely on verbal lessons to document the atrocities and arrogance of the Igbo who came to see the European administered lumped borders of Eastern region as their bequeathed territory .

I will do my part here to expose Igbo cruelty, greed and genocidal attempts on the so-called minorities.

I pray with time, more academic historians like Akpan will fulfil that void and end the echo chamber and denial mentality alongside victim hood complex narrative the Igbo has sewn for himself since the war ended.

9gerian:
True. There were no innocent sides during the war. Mostly propaganda galore to gain sympathy from the world.

Nigerians were victims of Igbo crude ambitions .

We should never entertain any of their useless war dead as they knew very well the repercussions of provoking a war.

pinkPUSSY:
Meaning that whenever Igbos are mocked by urchings about Biafran war, they are equally indirectly mocking the souls of innocent minorities that died during the war


Urchings and confusion ...

No urching should quote me today pls

Fool, the pogroms in the north was indiscriminate as it targeted every southerner until a few days later when the northern authorities arranged for vehicles with megaphones cautioning the people to target only igbos.

Either way, your foolishness in killing the Sarduna, the PM and northern military officers compounded with your unruly behaviour and lack of manners led to the pogroms.

Biafrannuke:
I scanned the interview if i could see a mention of specific incidence of attack or massacre of minorities by Biafran forces with date and didnt see one. It is therefore safe to conclude the interview is a re-echo of the age long government sponsored conspiracy theory. The loafer that calls himself a professor even had to blame Biafra for the pogrom against the minorities in the north.

Human being is a rational being that can only be intellectually turned on by evidence such as the bombing of hospital by federal forces in itu present Akwa ibom, massacre in Asaba by federal forces etc

Nigerians are not normal people. Give it five years, IPOB will be accused of being behind Odi massacre and some Biafran haters will actually give it a serious thought.

Liar.

Do you expect him to grant an interview citing dates and sources like he would do if he was presenting a researched paper?

If you want dates and specifics , kindly search for any of his works regarding the Igbo attempted genocide and population displacement of minority people from their land.

You igbos are satanically evil liars.

PrinceOfLagos:
It's pretty clearer now that the Igbos wanted a better Nigeria for all but the corrupt elements in government were so against that back in the days

You wanted a better Nigeria for all by killing Ibibios, Itsekiris, Ilajes, Annangs, etc.
Your dishonesty is annoying.

Arda1000:
Isn’t it funny
Coming from a so called professor…
Up till today no one has even give evidence of any of the atrocities they claim…
I bet the only bad thing Baifra did was ofcourse forcefully recruit young men and child soldiers, which it’s normal for the situation they were in,BTW many of the child soldiers joined the Army willingly…
The professor sef tire me he doesn’t even know that when they say Igbo it covers the entire Eastern region ethnicities, wether you are Efik,Ibibio,Ijaw etc forget about denying wether ure Igbo or not, no one will give u room to explain that..to an average Aboki ure Igbo..
It is sad our history isn’t being taught in schools so just about anyone will come up with rubbish and people will buy it

There are communities in Rivers and Bayelsa that still hold yearly. Thanksgiving from being liberated from your Marxist grandparents


Can you ask why Ojukwu considered many of the minority people as potential saboteurs but the Nigerian forces saw them as allies ?

Igbo liars

Okoyeeboz:
Yamrees dey open thread dey run comot. The truth in this thread fit scatter things for them.

You know why dem run?

Because the good prof is an Akwa Iboman whom igbos take as their ally .

siofra:
He's right!

My grandparents didn't want Biafra! We knew we were going to be neglected and pushed aside if Nigeria eventually split. Their parents were murdered even though they didn't want Biafra.

And how is this one nigeria treating your sorry ass.

Iykoto86:
And how is this one nigeria treating your sorry ass.

Better than being eaten by biafran cannibals

KwaraRat:

You know why dem run?

Because the good prof is an Akwa Iboman whom igbos take as their ally .

Most Igbos don't like Akwa Ibom people, they are just doing eye service to curry the favour of Akwa Ibom people so those ones can join their Biafran madness.

There is thus guy Ilaumoh on NL. He posts developments and projects in Akwa Ibom. Guess those who attack him and insult Akwa ibomites? Mostly Igbos.
I feel they see these rapid developments in Akwa Ibom and are embittered because it is not them.

Love is not part of Igbo culture, hatred is. That is why you see a lot of Igbo posters always talking about hatred, about why you hate igbos, about how you are typing out of hatred, bla bla bla.

Most Igbos don't love anyone or themselves. They hate others the way they hate themselves. An example is Mbaise Igbos not allowing a fellow Igbo as Bishop of Mbaise. Even the Pope is aware of their hatred.

Unfortunately, we have igbos who are refined and don't share this evil trait. That small minority are usually branded as saboteurs and traitors. You see them calling these sensible igbos efulefu. Eg Soludo, Uzodinma, Rochas and those against the general madness.

Iykoto86:
And how is this one nigeria treating your sorry ass.

But you are now begging to be President of one Nigeria.