| Chapter : | Introduction |
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been to solve their political or other differences by calculated massacre of Biafran citizens. Documentary evidence abounds in the speeches of Northern Nigeria leaders in the regional Parliament, by publications in Northern Nigeria official newspapers, brochures and magazines of intention to liquidate Biafrans physically as a method of solving a disagreement. Besides physical acts of extermination, the Biafrans have been subjected to psychological pressure by malicious, vicious and destructive falsehood that not only was a Biafran an unwanted “stranger” in his own country, but the general object of hate and discrimination throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria.22
After the first coup of 1966, the complaint against the Igbo was “extended to [include] the existence of an Igbo conspiracy to become the new rulers of independent Nigeria.”23
The outbreak of the war provided an opportunity to eliminate the Igbo. Federal radio broadcasts explicitly and implicitly relayed this goal. From July 6, 1967, Nigeria radio based in Lagos continuously broadcast a war song in Hausa, the words of which translate to “Let us go and crush them. We will pillage their property, ravish their womenfolk, murder their menfolk and complete the pogrom of 1966.”24 Historical evidence on the Nigeria-Biafra War reveals that such acts were carried out by the Nigerian army when they reached Igbo villages and towns. A scrapbook recovered from Nigerian soldier Ganiyu Sodeinde at Bori instructively details what his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Onifade, often repeated to the soldiers in his unit and the prevailing official attitude toward Biafrans.
He [Lt. Col. Onifade] expresses doubts at the possibility of Nigeria subjugating Biafra in the present war. Even if this were possible, he said, there was the danger that another generation of Biafrans could spring up. He said that Germany had once faced the same period of trial in her history which Biafra is facing at the moment; but today, the Germans are leading the world in technological skill. Similarly, he predicted a glorious future for Biafra if allowed to exist … what all sons and daughters of Nigeria should do to prevent such a situation from developing was not only to subjugate Biafra