Frederick McCarthy Forsyth, the English journalist and author will be 82 this year. He was born on 25 August 1938. At such age when a man is inching closer to his grave or Maker, his conscience becomes sharper, his propensity for remorse greater. He tends to make all crooked ways straight; he confesses his sins or does so vicariously- that is, on behalf of his clan or community or country.
That is exactly what Frederick Forsyth has done, blaming his country, Britain, for its bias against the Igbo during the Nigeria-Biafra war that spanned three years, 1967 to 1970. Another Briton who became contrite was Harold Smith, a colonial officer in Nigeria who admitted that Britain deliberately made the North to dominate the South here in all ramifications, using well choreographed policies of demography, appointments and politics.
Forsyth is a household name in the Commonwealth countries for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil’s Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Kill List, The Biafra Story and others.
It was when he covered the war in Nigeria as a BBC correspondent that he the bias of Britain became clear to him. He revealed this in a recent article in The Guardian of London: “Buried for 50 years: Britain’s shameful role in the Biafran war.”
It was for this reason that the writer walked away from the BBC, narrating
“Six months later, in February 1968, fed up with the slavishness of the BBC to Whitehall, I walked out and flew back to west Africa. Ojukwu roared with laughter and allowed me to stay. My condition was that, having rejected British propaganda, I would not publish his either. He agreed.”

In the article, Forsyth reveals the sins of Britain: “I arrived in the Biafra capital of Enugu on the third day of the war. In London I had been copiously briefed by Gerald Watrous, head of the BBC’s West Africa Service. What I did not know was that he was the obedient servant of the government’s Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO), which believed every word of its high commissioner in Lagos, David Hunt. It took two days in Enugu to realise that everything I had been told was utter garbage.
“I had been briefed that the brilliant Nigerian army would suppress the rebellion in two weeks, four at the most. Fortunately the deputy high commissioner in Enugu, Jim Parker, told me what was really happening. It became clear that the rubbish believed by the CRO and the BBC stemmed from our high commissioner in Lagos. A racist and a snob, Hunt expected Africans to leap to attention when he entered the room – which Gowon did. At their single prewar meeting Ojukwu did not. Hunt loathed him at once.
“My brief was to report the all-conquering march of the Nigerian army. It did not happen. Naively, I filed this. When my report was broadcast our high commissioner complained to the CRO in London, who passed it on to the BBC – which accused me of pro-rebel bias and recalled me to London.
“What is truly shameful is that this was not done by savages but aided and assisted at every stage by Oxbridge-educated British mandarins. Why? Did they love the corruption-riven, dictator-prone Nigeria? No. From start to finish, it was to cover up that the UK’s assessment of the Nigerian situation was an enormous judgmental screw-up. And, worse: with neutrality and diplomacy from London it could all have been avoided.”
Like Forsyth, Harold Smith, an accomplice confessed (as quoted in thenigerianvoice:
“Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid. The West without Lagos was the most populous in Nigeria at the time but we ignored that. We seriously encouraged the north to go the military. We believed that the south may attend western education, but future leaders will always come from military background. Their traditional rulers were made influential and super human. The northerners were given accelerated promotions both in the military and civil service to justify their superiority over south. Everything was to work against the south. We truncated their good plan for their future. ‘I was very sorry for the A.G.: It was a great party too much for African standard. We planned to destroy Awolowo and Azikiwe well, the west and the east’. And sowed the seed of discord among them. We tricked Azikiwe into accepting to be president having known that Balewa is the main man with power. Awolowo has to go to jail to cripple his genius plans for a greater Nigeria”

Below is Forsyth’s article on the bias of Britain against the Igbo, entitled:
“Buried for 50 years: Britain’s shameful role in the Biafran war.”
By Frederick Forsyth
It is a good thing to be proud of one’s country, and I am – most of the time. But it would be impossible to scan the centuries of Britain’s history without coming across a few incidents that evoke not pride but shame. Among those I would list are the creation by British officialdom in South Africa of the concentration camp, to persecute the families of Boers. Add to that the Amritsar massacre of 1919 and the Hola camps set up and run during the struggle against Mau Mau.
But there is one truly disgusting policy practised by our officialdom during the lifetime of anyone over 50, and one word will suffice: Biafra.
This referred to the civil war in Nigeria that ended 50 years ago this month. It stemmed from the decision of the people of the eastern region of that already riot-racked country to strike for independence as the Republic of Biafra. As I learned when I got there as a BBC correspondent, the Biafrans, mostly of the Igbo people, had their reasons.
The federal government in Lagos was a brutal military dictatorship that came to power in 1966 in a bloodbath. During and following that coup, the northern and western regions were swept by a pogrom in which thousands of resident Igbo were slaughtered. The federal government lifted not a finger to help. It was led by an affable British-educated colonel, Yakubu Gowon. But he was a puppet. The true rulers were a group of northern Nigerian colonels. The crisis deepened, and in early 1967 eastern Nigeria, harbouring about 1.8 million refugees, sought restitution. A British-organised conference was held in Ghana and a concordat agreed. But Gowon, returning home, was flatly contradicted by the colonels, who tore up his terms and reneged on the lot. In April the Eastern Region formally seceded and on 7 July, the federal government declared war.
Biafra was led by the Eastern Region’s Oxford-educated former military governor, “Emeka” Ojukwu. London, ignoring all evidence that it was Lagos that reneged on the deal, denounced the secession, made no attempt to mediate and declared total support for Nigeria.
I arrived in the Biafra capital of Enugu on the third day of the war. In London I had been copiously briefed by Gerald Watrous, head of the BBC’s West Africa Service. What I did not know was that he was the obedient servant of the government’s Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO), which believed every word of its high commissioner in Lagos, David Hunt. It took two days in Enugu to realise that everything I had been told was utter garbage.
I had been briefed that the brilliant Nigerian army would suppress the rebellion in two weeks, four at the most. Fortunately the deputy high commissioner in Enugu, Jim Parker, told me what was really happening. It became clear that the rubbish believed by the CRO and the BBC stemmed from our high commissioner in Lagos. A racist and a snob, Hunt expected Africans to leap to attention when he entered the room – which Gowon did. At their single prewar meeting Ojukwu did not. Hunt loathed him at once.
My brief was to report the all-conquering march of the Nigerian army. It did not happen. Naively, I filed this. When my report was broadcast our high commissioner complained to the CRO in London, who passed it on to the BBC – which accused me of pro-rebel bias and recalled me to London. Six months later, in February 1968, fed up with the slavishness of the BBC to Whitehall, I walked out and flew back to west Africa. Ojukwu roared with laughter and allowed me to stay. My condition was that, having rejected British propaganda, I would not publish his either. He agreed.
But things had changed. British covert interference had become huge. Weapons and ammunition poured in quietly as Whitehall and the Harold Wilson government lied and denied it all. Much enlarged, with fresh weapons and secret advisory teams, the Nigerian army inched across Biafra as the defenders tried to fight back with a few bullets a day. Soviet Ilyushin bombers ranged overhead, dropping 1,000lb bombs on straw villages. But the transformation came in July.
Missionaries had noticed mothers emerging from the deep bush carrying children reduced to living skeletons yet with bloated bellies. Catholic priests recognised the symptoms – kwashiorkor or acute protein deficiency.
That same July the Daily Express cameraman David Cairns ran off a score of rolls of film and took them to London. Back then, the British public had never seen such heartrending images of starved and dying children. When the pictures hit the newsstands the story exploded. There were headlines, questions in the House of Commons, demonstrations, marches.
As the resident guide for foreign news teams I became somewhat overwhelmed. But at last the full secret involvement of the British government started to be exposed and the lies revealed. Wilson came under attack. The story swept Europe then the US. Donations flooded in. The money could buy food – but how to get it there? Around year’s end the extraordinary Joint Church Aid was born.
The World Council of Churches helped to buy some clapped-out freighter aircraft and gained permission from Portugal to use the offshore island São Tomé as a base. Scandinavian pilots and crew, mostly airline pilots, offered to fly without pay. Joint Church Aid was quickly nicknamed Jesus Christ Airlines. And thus came into being the world’s only illegal mercy air bridge.
On a visit to London in spring 1969 I learned the efforts the British establishment will take to cover up its tracks. Every reporter, peer or parliamentarian who had visited Biafra and reported on what he had seen was smeared as a stooge of Biafra – even the utterly honourable John Hunt, leader of the Everest expedition.
Throughout 1969 the relief planes flew through the night, dodging Nigerian MiG fighters, to deliver their life-giving cargoes of reinforced milk powder to a jungle airstrip. From there trucks took the sacks to the missions, the nuns boiled up the nutriments and kept thousands of children alive.






https://scannewsnigeria.com/foreign/frederick-forsyth-attacks-britain-you-committed-crimes-against-igbo/?fbclid=IwAR3aq0ZvB9EoyIrGCsJlf07WdrAaxW85nXirwQEdodx4IBS3g4QWVm_LoRY

“Despite seeing vast land with no human but cattle in the north, we still gave the north 55 million instead of 32 million. This was to be used to maintain their majority votes and future power bid

London, ignoring all evidence that it was Lagos that reneged on the deal, denounced the secession, made no attempt to mediate and declared total support for Nigeria.

Igbos fought against the British not all these rag-tags from the other side. The truth also.




A racist and a snob, Hunt expected Africans to leap to attention when he entered the room – which Gowon did. At their single prewar meeting Ojukwu did not. Hunt loathed him at once.

Weapons and ammunition poured in quietly as Whitehall and the Harold Wilson government lied and denied it all. Much enlarged, with fresh weapons and secret advisory teams, the Nigerian army inched across Biafra as the defenders tried to fight back with a few bullets a day. Soviet Ilyushin bombers ranged overhead, dropping 1,000lb bombs on straw villages.

We all know British was at the fore-front of the war.

But the transformation came in July.
Missionaries had noticed mothers emerging from the deep bush carrying children reduced to living skeletons yet with bloated bellies. Catholic priests recognised the symptoms – kwashiorkor or acute protein deficiency.

Evils of Awolowo.

The ruling party will not like this. They will call this man IPOB apologist very soon.

Osagyefo98:
Reading

Me too lol.

Biafra has always been at war with the British not the Nigerian ragtag Army that is deemed to be the worst in the world.........

Is this not the author of the famous "Dogs of War"? I didn't know he is still alive. But truth be told, he is merely stating the obvious. Like they say, everyday for the thief, one day for the owner of the house.

budaatum:

Me too lol.

Lol

-Gowon, the head-slave of the Fulani (the official caretakers of The Zoo).

-It’s only a matter of time. Our God is alive.

-All hail Biafra!

Simply because Housas accepted to be slaves to the Britain, though they are illiterates and poor, the British used and are still using them to hold the country in captivity. NIGERIA SHOULD BE DIVIDED.

Ok so in M.I

Ok now

These are things we already know. Britain need to tender an unreserved apology to the people of Eastern Nigeria... And going forward, take meaningful steps to right their wrongs..

RonJeremy:
Biafra has always been at war with the British not the Nigerian ragtag Army that is deemed to be the worst in the world.........

But ragtag army defeated you .

femolii:
But ragtag army defeated you .

Go back read again.
Rag-tag army .....we fought world power.

Only foolish will keep on crying over spilt milk 50 years after the spilt.

Note however that if you pick up arms against the Federal Republic again, you will be treated worse than you were in 1967.

It's common knowledge, even Auberon Waugh agrees.

efighter:
Only foolish will keep on crying over spilt milk 50 years after the spilt.
Note however that if you pick up arms against the Federal Republic again, you will be treated worse than you were in 1967.

Shut Up there
If truly you can read
Shame won't allow you utter this crap
Black foreheads everywhere

IF ONLY IGBOS KNOWS WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY CAN DO


WE WILL ALL JOIN HAND TO RESTORE BIAFRA AND FORGET NIGERIA


WE SHOULD IGNORE ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL BEEN COMPROMISED AND WON'T SUPPORT BIAFRA


ITS OUR FUTURE AND OUR CHILDRENS


NIGERIA GOT NOTHING TO OFFER ANY RIGHT THINKING HUMAN BEING

booscy:
Just because Ojukwu in his wisdom refused the British Petroleum (BP) oil exploration and exploitation of the Eastern Oil Wells of vast commercial Quantity, Britain covertly declared war on Biafra

Eziokwu di ka afo ime anaghi ekpuchi ya aka.

The truth is like Pregnancy, it can never be concealed.

Then he should have given them better terms than Nigeria could offer.
At least for the main time until the objective is met. .
International politics is selfish. There is no morality to it.

Countries don't support a cause they can't benefit from.

Ojukwu was not smart enough.

CSTR2:
Then he should have given them better terms than Nigeria could offer. At least for the main time until the objective is met. . International politics is selfish. There is no morality to it.
Countries don't support a cause they can't benefit from.
Ojukwu was not smart enough.

And Today they will blame Ojukwu for same reason.
His decision was okay. The people realised their mistake by themselves.

Osagyefo98:



And Today they will blame Ojukwu for same reason.

His decision was okay. The people realised their mistake by themselves.

His decision cost 3 million łives.

There is nothing smart about going to war against a stronger enemy.

Nnamdi KANU God will continued to guide you

CSTR2:
His decision cost 3 million łives.
There is nothing smart about going to war against a stronger enemy.

He was a very smart man and he did the right thing.
He didn't live to die like a coward.

booscy:
Just because Ojukwu in his wisdom refused the British Petroleum (BP) oil exploration and exploitation of the Eastern Oil Wells of vast commercial Quantity, Britain covertly declared war on Biafra

Eziokwu di ka afo ime anaghi ekpuchi ya aka.

The truth is like Pregnancy, it can never be concealed.

In Biafra, Africa died!

efighter:
Only foolish will keep on crying over spilt milk 50 years after the spilt.

Note however that if you pick up arms against the Federal Republic again, you will be treated worse than you were in 1967.

you been fighting boko Haram since 10years.
You can't defeat boko Haram because Britain and Russia are not there for you.

CSTR2:

His decision cost 3 million łives.

There is nothing smart about going to war against a stronger enemy.

is ogoni land now better?

I can never lie the most wicked set of people in this world is definitely the British. In my study of history I've never seen any more wicked and heartless people. These guys love to cause confusion and chaos in other countries while keeping their own safe. These guys were sponsoring a civil war in Ireland just so they don't leave the UK. These guys launched wars against Scotland for no other reason but conquest. Launched wars to conquer France. I just feel sorry for the innocent Igbo civilians that lost their lives in the middle of the struggle. Living during those times must have been hell. Oya help us fight boko haram like you did in the Biafran war no. It's to use us as case study for failed state in the university they know.

I've always known it was the British and not Nigerians we fought during that war. Even when reading civil war books, common river crossing you'll see British amphibian experts.

Ok

Osagyefo98:



He was a very smart man and he did the right thing.

He didn't live to die like a coward.

So because he didn't want to die a coward, he had to take 3 million lives and set igbos back.

Do you know that igbos have not regained all they lost before the war?
Positions, properties, political relevance.

Do you know igboland is now significantly smaller forever because of that war.?
You have lost access to the sea in Rivers and akwa ibom.
These were things that ojukwu controlled as military governor.

Can you ascertain the worth of the human capital wasted by one man's obstinacy.?

austinsmat:
Nnamdi KANU God will continued to guide you

The albino idiot wants to lead you guys into another episode of lose without care for the consequences.

This time you would lose onitsha and aba.