Gen. Alabi-Isama's account of the civil war

By Muyiwa Adetiba
I have on my shelf, an autographed copy of General Obasanjo’s ‘My Command’ which gave his account of the unfortunate civil war. I also have General Madiebo’s (un-autographed) version of the war.

Between these two extremes, I have read other authors who have made their valuable and invaluable contributions to enrich our knowledge as to what really went on during those three years of madness. So why would another book on the civil war interest me; a war that ended over 40years ago and from which we have refused to learn any tangible lesson?



General Alabi-Isama is someone I have liked almost from the first time I met him. He has also been talking about this book for at least a couple of years now. He was gracious enough to give me a draft copy to flip through. To top it all, he had given me more than an advanced notice of the launch.

So when Uncle Sam Amuka called me a day to the launch for details, I had more or less made up my mind to attend. The fact that the venue was less than 15 minutes drive from my house was an added incentive. I pleaded with Uncle Sam to show up if only to ‘shake hands and disappear’ as he sometimes does.

To my surprise, he was not only there before me, he stayed till the very end. When I signalled to him at a point that I wanted to leave, he waived me back to my seat.

The programme started almost on the dot which was a welcome surprise despite the slightly inclement weather. Another surprise was the quantum—and quality of attendees. Many old Generals—some leaning heavily on walking sticks-graced the occasion and stayed the course.

They were ably led by General T.Y Danjuma who doubled as Chairman and Chief Presenter. Their use of nick names and aliases in addressing themselves was enchanting and indicative of old camaraderie.

I am sure it was more than a reunion of sorts for these old generals. It was however, not only the Generals that graced the day. Many otherwise busy VIPs and veteran journalists were there too.

At the end of it all, Uncle Sam echoed my thoughts when he wondered what it was about ‘our friend’ that brought all these people to the hall. He repeated the question twice but I could not think up a good answer.

My answer ‘came’ a couple of hours later when I got home and decided to browse the book. I found myself spending the next two hours. It was that riveting. But what got me was the man’s attention to details. Pictures, maps and documents authenticated the fact that General Isama not only took part in the war, he was a major participant.

In spite of what many of us were made to believe, the real truth about each officer’s role in the civil war is known to many of the officers of that era. So their presence was possibly to identify with the author and give their approval of the ‘corrections’ that have been made.

Secondly, anybody who keeps records and provides minute details the way General Isama has done, can not be described as flippant, a fact that might be overlooked by those of us who only know the social side of him.

It was probably this attention to details that made him reach out to many officers that played a role in the war. As to the rest of us who filled the hall, the social, amiable side of him probably won us over.

The book from what I have read- and I have read more than half—gives a more believable account of what happened during that dark part of Nigeria’s history than many books on the topic including international ones. It shows that truth, whether hidden for 40 or 400 years, will one day eclipse untruth.

Thanks to the book, we get to know a bit of the personalities of those who took decisions –either in the war front, or in their offices that affected the outcome of the war. We also got an insight into the politics, intrigues and indiscipline of our young generals; how the war officers and desk generals—as Wole Soyinka once described them, took decisions that perished lives.

I was touched as I am sure many at the hall would have been, at the presence of many unsung war heroes; the barely literate tank driver whose tank sank on the bank of a river, the tribal marked tank commander who was mobbed by the enemy, the colonel who virtually started the war and was there throughout the duration of the war, the officer who actually received the enemy surrender, and wives of those who had passed on.

You wonder why very little capital has been made of these unsung heroes. Why is it that those who are at the fringes of things in Nigeria are those who benefit the most? They are the ones who have streets named after them, who collect the nation’s most coveted awards while laughing to the bank.

Mean while the real heroes are left to languish like Brigadier Adekunle who gave his all to the war effort. Today, he is dying slowly; a poor, neglected and dejected person. The same thing has happened to June 12 where the fringe players have cornered most of the spoils. We hope the real story of June 12 with its many heroes and infidels will emerge soon.

I salute General Isama’s courage and urge all of us, especially those who are playing brinksmanship in River State, to sometimes remember how we came to fight this mindless war.

Generals of the unjust war (2)

By Ochereome Nnanna
BEFORE I proceed, let me recap the essentials of the first part of this essay. I described the Nigerian civil war as an “unjust war”.

It follows that the ex-military officers who gathered last week in Lagos to launch General Godwin Isama-Alabi’s book, including their comrades living or dead, were soldiers of this injustice.



I noted that the immediate causes of the civil war were the “Igbo coup” of January 15, 1965 and Col. Ojukwu’s declaration of secession.

I also mentioned that the remote causes included the rapid emergence of the Igbo people to, in 30 years of exposure to Western education and civilisation, become a dominant force both in their native Eastern Region and the nation at large.

Their inability to manage their new-found success, coupled with the impatience of their idealistic young military officers over the corrupt, inefficient and clannish ways of the ruling establishment spearheaded by the North, led to actions that prematurely terminated their manifest destiny.

The rest of the country, with the support of some world powers, came together to push the Igbo people off the political centre stage.

The perceived hatred of the Igbo was not the only factor that led to the grand gang-up. In truth, no major ethnic or regional group was beloved by their neighbours within and outside their regions in the jostling for power and the upper hand when the colonialists left.

The Minorities of the former Western Region also detested the Yorubas, whom they accused of excluding them from the spoils of power in Ibadan. Majority of them continued to vote for the National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, throughout the First Republic.

They had their own Mid West Region created out of the old Western Region in 1963. In gratitude they voted for the NCNC, which produced the first Premier, Chief Dennis Osadebay.

And in the North, the Middle Belt Christian Minorities actually took up armed struggle in the Tiv and Plateau areas against Hausa-Fulani domination and allied with the Southern political parties, such as NCNC and the Action Group led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

There was hatred galore. Regional Minorities hated their domineering Majority and allied with Majorities from other regions to sabotage them, while each regional Majority hated its rivals while sitting heavily on their regional Minorities.

A bigger, more lucrative incentive was responsible for the successful multinational gang-up that led to the defeat of the Igbo: the oil wealth of the Eastern Region. Long before independence, the East was the poorest region, while the West was the richest due to their cocoa wealth.

The North was also quite wealthy because of their many agricultural products such as groundnuts, cotton and livestock. But the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri and other parts of the Eastern Region was set to change the fortunes of the region.

As at 1966 when the first coup took place, the 1963 Republican Constitution, which vested resource control in the various regions, was in effect.

Had the “Igbo coup” not taken place, Eastern Region would have, by 1975, had enough resources to build a society comparable to today’s Gulf economic miracles, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and others. The oil boom was about to explode.

Nobody saw it coming, except the British ex-colonial masters. When they saw it they prevailed on Gowon to stand and fight to keep Nigeria one and be in control of the oil resources coming the way of Nigeria. Gowon started dissuading the North from their call to secede from Nigeria.

The North, which was shouting “Araba! Araba!! (secession) only in March 1967 started chorusing that Nigeria was “an indivisible and indissoluble one nation under God” in September the same year.

Once the war ended, the resources of the country were centralised. By 1979 when we were ushering in a civilian government, the presidential system of government was adopted, whereby the centralised economy and politics of the North-controlled military were enshrined into a constitution that was virtually rendered impossible to amend. With the Igbos pushed out, the land of the Eastern Minorities from where the oil was exploited became war booty.

The first attempt by the Minorities to protest the situation ended in the summary trial and hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni activists by the General Sani Abacha regime on November 10, 1994. It took an armed struggle by Ijaw militants between 1998 and 2009 for the Minorities to win the derivation concessions as well as the right to produce the incumbent president of Nigeria.

Since the war ended, the oil wealth of the former Eastern Region has fed, not only the nation but also kept the top generals of the North and West and their civilian partners and aristocrats in great opulence.

They are the major owners of the oil wells, oil services and both legal and illegal oil bunkering outfits, often using local and international small fries as fronts.

The old North and West have benefitted from the oil wealth of the old East far more than the East itself. It was used to develop Lagos and environs as the former capital of Nigeria.

It is also being used to develop Abuja and environs as the capital of Nigeria, which some Northerners are now claiming as part of their region. In terms of federal presence, there is very little in Port Harcourt to show it is an oil city.

All manners of tricks were devised to make sure that the North, which led the civil war, got the lion’s share in every aspect of national cake sharing (including seven states in the North West) while the South East, the war’s loser got the least (five states).

But when it comes to qualifications to benefit from the federation, the North always gets the smallest cut-off points while the East is saddled with the highest.

From the look of things, this could become a permanent feature of Nigerian affairs. It does not seem as though anyone is prepared to put an end to it.