"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"
"Yakubu Gowon as Head of State. The counter-coup resulted in the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom and caused the brutal massacre of 50,000 Igbo civilians living in various northern cities such as Kano and Kaduna. These massacres angered many Igbo civilians and a inadvertently led to easterns calling for secession. Ojukwu met with President Gowon in Aburi, Ghana in December 1966 to discuss the situation that was occurring in Nigeria. An apparent vote was held by a consultative assembly appointed by Ojukwu, and they approved of a secession of a secular Igbo state. However, it must be said that from all indications"
"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"
"sentiment emerged under the leadership of the Igbo military governor Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. With tensions stoked between the Eastern region and Gowon's federal government, on 4–5 January 1967, in compliance with Ojukwu's desire to meet for talks only on neutral soil, a summit attended by Gowon, Ojukwu and other members of the Supreme Military Council was held at Aburi in Ghana, the stated purpose of which was to resolve all outstanding conflicts and establish Nigeria as a confederation of regions. The outcome of this summit was the Aburi Accord, the differing interpretations of which would soon cause Ojukwu"
"in Nigeria besides Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whereby his body was carried around the five Eastern states, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, including the nation's capital, Abuja. Memorial services and public events were also held in his honour in several places across Nigeria, including Lagos and Niger State, his birthplace, and as far away as Dallas, Texas, United States. His funeral was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and ex President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana among other personalities. C. Odumegwu Ojukwu Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (4 November 1933 – 26 November 2011) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who"
"with their inability to maintain law and order and guarantee the safety of lives and property. During the initial stages, Nzeogwu and his collaborators were hailed as national heroes. But the pattern of killings in the coup gave it a partisan appearance: killed were the prime minister, a northerner, the premier of the Northern Region, and the highest-ranking northern army officers; only one Igbo officer lost his life. Also killed was the premier of the Western Region who was closely allied with the NPC. On 30 May 1967, Ojukwu responded to Gowon's announcement by declaring the formal secession of the"
"foil the secession of the oil-rich region. After three years of war and the loss of more than two million lives, the nascent republic lost its struggle for independence and was reabsorbed into Nigeria in January 1970. The leader of the republic, Oxford educated General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, went into exile, but later returned to Nigeria in 1983 under special pardon. In 1969 Biafra adopted one of the most progressive national constitutions in Africa at the time. The Constitution or ""Principles"" drew heavily from traditional communal modes of governance but was also informed by progressive political developments in other parts"
"that book was the most important."" In May 1967, the southeastern region of Nigeria broke away to form the Republic of Biafra; in July the Nigerian military attacked to suppress what it considered an unlawful rebellion. Achebe's colleague, Christopher Okigbo, who had become a close friend of the family (especially of Achebe's son, young Ikechukwu), volunteered to join the secessionist army while simultaneously working at the press. Achebe's house was bombed one afternoon; Christie had taken the children to visit her sick mother, so the only victims were his books and papers. The Achebe family narrowly escaped disaster several times"
"was in the company of Lt. Col. Nwawo. On 30 May 1967, Biafra declared its independence from Nigeria; this was spurred by the incessant killing of Igbos in Northern Nigeria and the refusal of then military head of state General Yakubu Gowon to mobilize security personnel to stop the killings. Nzeogwu was released from close observation, and asked to go into battle on the side of the Biafrans. On 29 July 1967, Nzeogwu - who had been promoted to the rank of a Biafran Lt. Colonel - was trapped in an ambush near Nsukka while conducting a night reconnaissance operation"
"Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, GCFR, Ph.D. (; ; born 5 May 1937) is a former Nigerian Army general who was President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state. He served as a military ruler from 13 February 1976 to 1 October 1979, and as a democratically elected president from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. From July 2004 to January 2006, Obasanjo also served as Chairperson of the African Union. Olusegun Obasanjo was born on 5 March 1937 to his father Amos"
"the fratricidal duel motivated more by greed, reprisals and revenge against Igbo soldiers. After being set free to go home, and having learnt a hard lesson from his experience, Chief Olowofoyeku vowed never to get involved in partisan politics again. By the time the Nigerian Civil War broke out on 6 July 1967 over the secession of the South-eastern Region of Nigeria desiring to become Biafra, as a separate nation, Olowofoyeku was no longer involved in politics, and was in fact temporarily out of the country. Within weeks of his release in July 1966, he had left Nigeria and departed"
"divided between the Igbo and the Yoruba, though the region most in favour of Nigerian nationalism; faced the north that was suspicious of the politics of the south, creating the North-South regional cleavage that has remained an important issue in Nigerian politics. In 1960, Nigeria became an independent country. Azikiwe became the first President of Nigeria. However ethnic tensions and power struggles soon emerged and became a crisis in 1966 when Nigerian military officers of Igbo descent overthrow the democratically elected government of Tafawa Balewa who along with the Northern Premier Ahmadu Bello and others were subsequently assassinated. The killing"
"years in exile, the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari granted an official pardon to Odumegwu-Ojukwu and opened the road for a triumphant return in 1982. The people of Nnewi gave him the now very famous chieftaincy title of Ikemba (Strength of the Nation), while the entire Igbo nation took to calling him Dikedioramma (""beloved hero of the masses"") during his living arrangement in his family home in Nnewi, Anambra. His foray into politics was disappointing to many, who wanted him to stay above the fray. The ruling party, NPN, rigged him out of the senate"
"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"
"the British imperial administration, out of Nigeria. Enugu became a municipality in 1956 with Umaru Altine its first mayor. After four years passed, Nigeria gained its independence in 1960. On 27 May 1967 the Nigerian government divided the Western, Northern and Eastern Region into 12 states and Enugu was made the capital of the new East Central State. On 30 May 1967 Enugu was declared the capital of the short-lived Republic of Biafra, the latter created out of the eastern Nigerian states of East Central, Cross River and Rivers. Biafra was declared by Ojukwu because of Eastern Nigeria after their"
"ordeal. This subject remains an unresolved element of the history of the 1966 coup attempt. Following Ironsi's move against the coup, Ifeajuna's friends Christopher Okigbo and J.P. Clark helped him cross the border into Dahomey (now Benin) and through to Ghana where he was welcomed by its leader Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah's regime was overthrown shortly afterwards and Ifeajuna returned to Nigeria after assurances from Emeka Ojukwu that his life would not be at risk. He again became involved in the military, this time within the Biafran Army – the Republic of Biafra declared its secession from Nigeria, beginning the Nigerian"
"July 1967 the Nigerian Civil War broke out. During that period, he and his wife hosted many separate luncheons and dinners in their London home for the Nigerian and Biafran representatives at the peace talks sponsored by the Secretary-General, Arnold Smith. In the middle of the talks, he told the Secretary-General that he was willing to travel home to speak with the Biafran leader, Emeka Ojukwu about the Secretary-General's peace proposals to the two warring parties. He and Ojukwu had been friends since their boyhood. Smith considered it a very risky venture but however, allowed Anyaoku to go. When he"
"1964 and posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5th Battalion of the Nigerian Army. Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu was in Kano, northern Nigeria, when Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu on 15 January 1966 executed and announced the bloody military coup in Kaduna, also in northern Nigeria. It is to Ojukwu's credit that the coup lost much steam in the north, where it had succeeded. Lt. Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu supported the forces loyal to the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironisi. Major Nzeogwu was in control of Kaduna, but the coup had failed in other parts of"
"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"
"Mbakwe served as an Administrator of Okigwe Province in the Republic of Biafra, an Igbo secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria, during the 1967–70 Civil War. Mbakwe joined the Constituent Assembly in 1978 and became governor on 1 October of the following year. One of the main priorities of his administration was to improve Imo State's roads. He was re-elected, but his second term was interrupted by General Muhammadu Buhari's military coup of 31 December 1983, which brought about the end of the Second Republic. Described as ""controversial,"" he said the following about politicians in September 1995: ""If you have not"
"JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi. Later, the counter-coup of 1966, supported primarily by Northern military officers, facilitated the rise of Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon to head of state. Tension rose between North and South; tens of thousands of Igbos in Northern cities were massacered and many survivors fled to the Eastern Region. In May 1967, the Eastern Region declared independence as a state called the Republic of Biafra, under the leadership of Lt. Colonel Emeka Ojukwu. The Nigerian Civil War began as the official Nigerian government side (predominated by soldiers from the North and West) attacked Biafra (Southeastern) on 6 July 1967 at"
"of Spain in 1994. The couple had three children Afamefuna, Chineme and Nwachukwu. On 26 November 2011, Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu died in the United Kingdom after a brief illness, aged 78. The Nigerian Army accorded him the highest military accolade and conducted a funeral parade for him in Abuja, Nigeria on 27 February 2012, the day his body was flown back to Nigeria from London before his burial on Friday, 2 March. He was buried in a newly built mausoleum in his compound at Nnewi. Before his final interment, he had about the most unusual and elaborate weeklong funeral ceremonies"
"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"
"seat, which was purportedly lost to a relatively little known state commissioner in then Governor Jim Nwobodo's cabinet called Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe. The second Republic was truncated on 31 December 1983 by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, supported by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and Brigadier Sani Abacha. The junta proceeded to arrest and to keep Ojukwu in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Lagos, alongside most prominent politicians of that era. Having never been charged with any crimes, he was unconditionally released from detention on 1 October 1984, alongside 249 other politicians of that era—former Ministers Adamu Ciroma and Maitama Sule were also on"
"Obiora Udechukwu Obiora Udechukwu (born 1946) is a Nigerian painter and poet. Born in Onitsha in 1946 to parents from Agulu in Anambra State, Nigeria, he studied for one year at Ahmadu Bello University before transferring to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a result of pogroms against the Igbo people in northern Nigeria. During the Nigerian Civil, also known as the Biafran War (1967-1970), Udechukwu worked in the Propaganda Unit, and participated in the artists and writers workshops led by the poet Gabriel Okara and the artist Uche Okeke. At the end of the war, he returned to Nsukka,"
"war of secession, Azikiwe became a spokesman for the republic and an adviser to its leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, before switching allegiance back to Nigeria and publicly appealing to Ojukwu to end the war. Azikiwe became chairman of the Nigerian People's Party in 1978, making unsuccessful bids for the presidency in 1979 and again in 1983. National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), was a Nigerian political party from 1944 to 1966, during the period leading up to independence and immediately following independence. The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons"
"Nnamdi Azikiwe Nnamdi Azikiwe, PC, (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), usually referred to as ""Zik"", was a Nigerian statesman who was Governor General of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and the first President of Nigeria from 1963 to 1966 (when Nigeria became a republic). Considered a driving force behind the nation's independence, he came to be known as the ""father of Nigerian Nationalism"". Born to Igbo parents in Zungeru in present-day Niger State, as a young boy he learned to speak Hausa (the main indigenous language of the Northern Region). Azikiwe was later sent to live with his"
"whip in the Eastern House of Assembly. Later he joined with other independent candidates to form the National council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC). He played a central role in helping Zik become premier of Eastern Region, using his influence in the NCNC to persuade Professor Eyo Ita to resign as premier of the Region. Zik appointed Orizu the minister of local Government. When Nigeria attained independence on 1 October 1960, Orizu became the President of the Nigerian Senate. The President of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe left the country in late 1965 first for Europe, then on a cruise to the"
"and at the same time NCNC partisans began to clash with supporters of other parties, and the non-Igbo rejection of the invasion was solidified. As Okonkwo's administration continued to lose the support of the Mid-Western Region's populace, they became desperate. On 19 September 1967, the Biafrans rebranded the region by proclaiming the Republic of Benin, an independent state separate from Biafra, as a last-ditch effort. It was believed that even if it could not win non-Igbo support, the new state might at least physically divide Biafra from the Nigerian federal forces. Citing the deaths of Mid-Western residents in the northern"
"one million Igbos returned to the eastern region). It also was the precursor to Ojukwu's declaration of Eastern Nigeria's secession from the federation as the Republic of Biafra, and the resulting Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970), which Biafra lost. 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom was a series of massacres committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966. These events led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, which ultimately led to"
"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"
"Obiwu Obiwu is the pen name of Obioma Paul Iwuanyanwu (born 1962), a Nigerian-American writer and professor. He is a survivor of the Igbo genocide in Nigeria (1966-1970), and teaches World Literature and Critical Theory in the Humanities Department at Central State University. Obiwu was born in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria. His parents, Ichie Njoku Iwuanyanwu and Lolo Igbeaku Iwuanyanwu, were Catholics and ran their own hotel and restaurant business. Obiwu’s early schooling was interrupted by the violent conflicts that erupted in Nigeria with the pogrom in Northern Nigeria (1966) and the Biafran War (1967-70)."
"Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme GCON (21 October 1932 – 19 November 2017) was the first elected Vice-President of Nigeria, from 1979 to 1983, on the platform of the National People’s Party (NPN), with President Shehu Shagari. Ekwueme was the Ide of the Oko kingdom in Anambra State, where his younger brother Prof Lazarus Ekwueme, reigns as the traditional ruler. He was also honoured by the council of Traditional Rulers in the old Aguata as the Ide of Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State comprising forty-four (44) towns. He died at 10.00pm on Sunday 19 November 2017 at"