"in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with a BSc in Economics. He is married with four children. The political turmoil which followed the first military coup in 1966 escalated into a civil war when the south-east region of Nigeria seceded as the Republic of Biafra a year later. Ugochukwu enlisted in the Biafran Army and rose to the rank of captain before the war ended in 1970. Upon graduation from college, Ugochukwu was hired as an Economic Research Assistant by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He remained with CBN for two years"
"Biafra Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in West Africa which existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970; it was made up of the states in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Biafra's attempt to leave Nigeria resulted in the Nigerian Civil War. The state was formally recognised by Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Zambia. Other nations, which did not give official recognition but provided support and assistance to Biafra, included Israel, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa and the Vatican City. Biafra also received aid from non-state actors, including Joint Church Aid, Holy"
"Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970. It took its name from the Bight of Biafra, the Atlantic bay to its south. The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. Other ethnic groups that constituted the republic were the Efik, Ibibio, Annang, Ejagham, Eket, Ibeno and the Ijaw among others. Anti-Igbo sentiment Anti-Igbo sentiment refers to the existence of hostility against Igbo people, or their culture. During the beginning years of Nigeria's colonial independence, the Igbo people increasingly were perceived"
"civil war. On 29 May 1967, Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu, the military governor of the eastern region who emerged as the leader of increasing Igbo secessionist sentiment, declared the independence of the eastern region as the Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967. The ensuing Nigerian Civil War resulted in an estimated 3.5 million deaths (mostly from starving children) before the war ended with Gowon's famous ""No victor, no vanquished"" speech in 1970. Following the civil war, the country turned to the task of economic development. The U.S. intelligence community concluded in November 1970 that ""...The Nigerian Civil War ended"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Biafra This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Biafra. The ""Republic of Biafra"" was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria which existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970. The secession was led by the Igbo people following economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria and contributed to the causes for the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War. Biafra was recognized by Gabon, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Zambia. The authorities in Biafra issued banknotes and postage stamps in order"
"Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War, commonly known as the Biafran War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain's formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control"
"I, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra. On 6 July 1967, Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra. For 30 months, the war raged on. During the war in addition to the Aburi (Ghana) Accord that tried to avoid the war, there was also the Niamey"
"of the eastern region suffered heavily and sustained many deaths during 1967–1970 Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, in which the eastern region declared an independent state named Biafra that was eventually defeated, thereby preserving the sovereignty and indivisibility of the Nigerian state, which led to the loss of many souls. During the next phase of resistance in the Niger Delta, local communities demanded environmental and social justice from the federal government, with Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni Tribe as the lead figures for this phase of the struggle. Cohesive oil protests became most pronounced in"
"the Nigerian-Biafran War, lasted from July 6, 1967 until January 15, 1970, after which the federal government re-absorbed Biafra into Nigeria. Several million Eastern Nigerians died from the pogroms against them, such as the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom where between 10,000 and 30,000 Igbo people were killed. In their struggle, the people of Biafra earned the respect of figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and John Lennon, who returned his British honor, MBE, partly in protest against British collusion in the Nigeria-Biafra war. In July 2007 the former President of Biafra, Late General Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, renewed calls for the secession of the"
"Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) existed from 1957 until 1960, when it became the Republic of Ghana. The Federation of Nigeria was established as a dominion in 1960, but became the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1963. The Dominion of Uganda existed from 1962 to 1963. Kenya was a dominion upon independence in 1963, but a republic was declared in 1964. Tanganyika and Zanzibar, predecessor states of Tanzania, were dominions from 1961 to 1962 and 1963 to 1964, respectively. The Dominion of Gambia existed from 1965 until 1970, when it was renamed the Republic of Gambia. Sierra Leone was a"
"north by the Niger and Chad Republic, east by the Republic of Cameroon, and south by the Gulf of Guinea. The country gained independence from the British government on October 1, 1960, and became a republic in 1963. The journey to independence started with some constitutional developments in Nigeria, these constitutional developments saw the country attaining self-rule in some quarters in 1957 and total independence on October 1, 1960. Note: Nnamdi Azikiwe resigned from NCNC to become the First Governor-General of Nigeria from November 16, 1960 - September 30, 1963. The country was split into three geopolitical regions—Western Region, Eastern"
"a stand off between Ojukwu and Gowon leading to the sequence of events that resulted in the Nigerian civil war. In January 1967, the Nigerian military leadership went to Aburi, Ghana, for a peace conference hosted by General Joseph Ankrah. The implementation of the agreements reached at Aburi fell apart upon the leaderships return to Nigeria and on 30 May 1967, as a result of this, Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared Eastern Nigeria a sovereign state to be known as BIAFRA:Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent Republic, now, therefore"
"First Nigerian Republic The First Republic was the republican government of Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 governed by the first republican constitution. Although Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom on October 1, 1960, the nation retained the British monarch, Elizabeth II, as titular head of state until the adoption of a new constitution in 1963 declaring the nation a republic. The name ""Nigeria"" is derived from the word ""Niger"" – the name of the river that constitutes the most remarkable geographical feature of the country. Nigeria is a country of , bound to the west by Benin, to the"
"all gains were unrelated to the proclamation of Benin. The Biafran occupation of the Mid-Western Region failed to achieve its objectives and severely damaged domestic support for the secessionist cause among non-Igbos, and was perceived by the Nigerian federal government as justification to escalate the minor conflict into full-fledged war. Republic of Benin (1967) The Republic of Benin was a short-lived unrecognized secessionist state in West Africa which existed for one day in 1967. It was established on 19 September 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War as a puppet state of Biafra, following its occupation of Nigeria's Mid-Western Region, and"
"to the city by soldiers who apologised for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Ibos. The Federal Military Government also laid the groundwork for the blockade of the Eastern Region which went into full effect in 1967. On 27 May 1967, Gowon proclaimed the division of Nigeria into twelve states. This decree carved the Eastern Region in three parts: South Eastern State, Rivers State, and East Central State. Now the Igbos, concentrated in the East Central State, would lose control over most of the petroleum, located in the"
"most serious threat to the Nigerian unity since Nigeria became independent in 1960, as other ethnic groups threatened that they too would also seek secession should Biafra successfully secede. Nigeria responded to the separatist threat with a military campaign against the Biafran government, resulting in the Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1970. The war ended with the defeat of the Biafran separatists. Between one and three million Nigerians died in the war. The 19th century did not witness the emergence of any political organization that could help in airing the grievances and expressing the aspirations of Nigerians on a"
"Operation Tail-Wind Operation Tail-Wind (January 7 – 12, 1970) was the final military conflict between Nigeria and Biafra. The operation took place in the towns of Owerri and Uli, both of which were captured by Nigerian forces. The operation ended with General Odumegwu Ojukwu fleeing to the Ivory Coast and then president of Biafra Philip Effiong surrendering to Olusegun Obasanjo. On May 30, 1967, Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra independent from Nigeria. For a month Nigeria claimed that Biafra was a part of Nigeria and it would stay so. It was not until July 6, 1967, when Nigeria"
"negotiations with Britain repeatedly broke down, Southern Rhodesia's predominantly white government declared independence unilaterally in 1965. The Katangese secession would prove to be politically influential in Africa. During the Chadian Civil War between 1965 and 1979, the ""Front de Libération Nationale du Tchad"" (FROLINAT) explicitly rejected secessionism in its bid to remove the southern-backed government of François Tombalbaye following the experience of the Katanga secession, officially stating that ""there will be no Katanga in Chad"". In the Nigerian Civil War, between 1967 and 1970, the ethnically Igbo region of Biafra seceded from Nigeria, which it accused of privileging the interests"
"rule beginning in the 19th century, and took its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It thereafter alternated between democratically elected civilian governments and military dictatorships until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with the 2011 presidential election considered the first to be reasonably free and fair. Nigeria is often referred to as the ""Giant of"
"the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra by legal means. The Federal High Court, Abuja has fixed February 25, 2019 for hearing the suit. Early modern maps of Africa from the 15th–19th centuries, drawn by European cartographers from accounts written by explorers and travellers, reveal some information about Biafra: Biafra Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in West Africa which existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970; it was made up of the states in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Biafra's attempt to leave Nigeria resulted in the Nigerian Civil War. The state was"
"the army had assassinated the Nigerian military head of state General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (29 July 1966) and peace negotiations failed between the military government that deposed Ironsi and the regional government of Eastern Nigeria at the Aburi Talks in Ghana in 1967. These events led to a regional council of the peoples of Eastern Nigeria deciding that the region should secede and proclaim the Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967. Late General Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu made this declaration and became the Head of state of the new republic. The resultant war, which became known as the Nigerian Civil War or"
"independence. Rioting broke out in the North. The Ironsi government's efforts to abolish the federal structure and the renaming the country the Republic of Nigeria on 24 May 1966 raised tensions and led to another coup by largely northern officers in July 1966, which established the leadership of Major General Yakubu Gowon. The name Federal Republic of Nigeria was restored on 31 August 1966. However, the subsequent massacre of thousands of Ibo in the north prompted hundreds of thousands of them to return to the south-east where increasingly strong Igbo secessionist sentiment emerged. In a move towards greater autonomy to"
"the state. The Mid-Western Region was a division of Nigeria from 1963 to 1991, formally known as Bendel state from 1976. It was formed in June 1963 from Benin and Delta provinces of the Western Region, and its capital was Benin City. It was renamed a province in 1966, and in 1967 when the other provinces were split up into several states, it remained territorially intact, becoming a state. During the Nigerian Civil War, the Biafran forces invaded the new Mid-Western state, en route to Lagos, in an attempt to force a quick end to the war. While under Biafran"
"Yakubu Gowon General Yakubu ""Jack"" Dan-Yumma Gowon (born 19 October 1934) is the former head of state (Head of the Federal Military Government) of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975. He took power after one military coup d'état and was overthrown in another. During his rule, the Nigerian government successfully prevented Biafran secession during the 1967–70 Nigerian Civil War. Gowon is an Ngas (Angas) from Lur, a small village in the present Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. His parents, Nde Yohanna and Matwok Kurnyang, left for Wusasa, Zaria as Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in the early days of"
"the conquest of the caliphate by the British in 1903, its various components were made autonomous and joined into the government of Northern Nigeria. The northern region was thus made up of mainly parts of the Sokoto caliphate and Kanem-Bornu Empire. This continued up to January 1967 when states were created to replace regional governments by General Yakubu Gowon. Sokoto became the headquarters of the north-western state created in 1967. In 1976 following the creation of Niger state out of North Western state, Sokoto state emerged with its headquarters. Yet in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states were carved out of"
"Federation of Nigeria The Federation of Nigeria was a predecessor to modern-day Nigeria. It existed between 1 October 1960 and 1 October 1963. When British rule ended in 1960, the Nigeria Independence Act 1960 transformed the Federation of Nigeria into an independent sovereign state. The British monarch, Elizabeth II, remained head of state as the Queen of Nigeria as well as Queen of the United Kingdom and other independent states. Her constitutional roles in Nigeria were delegated to the Governor-General of Nigeria. Two people held the office of governor-general: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa held office as prime minister (and head of"
"the decision to secede had already been made around late 1966 by Ojukwu and his closest confidants which included Louis Chude-Sokei, Christopher Okigbo, and the very influential CC Mojekwu. On May 30, 1967 Ojukwu officially seceded the Eastern Region and proclaimed the new Republic of Biafra. Ojukwu managed to assemble a 3,000 man guerrilla force to defend Biafra's front lines. In early July 1967 Nigerian President Gowon ordered the Nigerian Army high command to regain control of the Eastern Region. On July 2, 1967 the Nigerian Army opened its offensive operations from the Northern sector. The First Area Command NA,"
"one of the original twelve states of Nigeria) after Nigerian independence. The Efik, Anaang, Oron, Eket and their brothers and sisters of the Ogoja District, were also in the Southeastern State. The state (Southeastern State) was later renamed Cross Rivers State. On 23 September 1987, by Military Decree No.24, Akwa Ibom State was carved out of the then Cross Rivers State as a separate state. Cross Rivers State remains as one of neighbouring states. Southwestern Cameroon was a part of present Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. During the then Eastern Region of Nigeria it got partitioned"
"Southern Nigeria. The state was formed in 1967 with the split of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. In 1996 the state lost territory to form Bayelsa State. In the early days of the colonial period, several protection treaties were signed between various indigenous communities and the British colonial government. Between 1941 and 1952, agitation for the creation of Rivers province began with the formation of the Ijo Rivers People's League. By 1953, the Council of Rivers Chiefs was birthed as a replacement body for the League, the same year, another organisation, the Calabar Ogoja Rivers (COR) State Movement became existent."
"Mid-Western Region, Nigeria The Mid-Western Region was a division of Nigeria from 1963 to 1991, from 1976 being known as the Bendel state. It was formed in June 1963 from Benin and Delta provinces of the Western Region, and its capital was Benin City. It was renamed a province in 1966, and in 1967 when the other provinces were split up into several states, it remained territorially intact, becoming a state. During the Nigerian Civil War, the Biafran forces invaded the new Mid-Western state, en route to Lagos, in an attempt to force a quick end to the war. While"
"1st Division soldiers. The truth about Maj. Onwuatuegwu's death is still unsolved. Operation Tail-Wind Operation Tail-Wind (January 7 – 12, 1970) was the final military conflict between Nigeria and Biafra. The operation took place in the towns of Owerri and Uli, both of which were captured by Nigerian forces. The operation ended with General Odumegwu Ojukwu fleeing to the Ivory Coast and then president of Biafra Philip Effiong surrendering to Olusegun Obasanjo. On May 30, 1967, Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra independent from Nigeria. For a month Nigeria claimed that Biafra was a part of Nigeria and it"
"had exercised repression and expulsions during the occupation and that it amounted to annexation. He said that provided Israel withdrew its forces, it appeared that it might be possible to reach a solution through the UN framework which could include assurances of a dignified and fair future for refugees and minorities in the Middle East, recognition from Israel's neighbours, and freedom of navigation through the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez Canal. The Eastern Region of Nigeria declared itself independent under the name of the Independent Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967. On 6 July the first shots in"
"other two areas. On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu declared independence of the Republic of Biafra. The Federal Military Government immediately placed an embargo on all shipping to and from Biafra—but not on oil tankers. Biafra quickly moved to collect oil royalties from oil companies doing business within its borders. When Shell-BP acquiesced to this request at the end of June, the Federal Government extended its blockade to include oil. The blockade, which most foreign actors accepted, played a decisive role in putting Biafra at a disadvantage from the beginning of the war. Although the very young nation had a chronic"