By admin
In this grim report by a British journalist just a year in the Biafran war, he argues that Biafra was staring defeat in the face due the fact that, the Nigerian forces had already captured about two-thirds of the Biafran republic. In doing so the Nigerians had also captured the most stategicly important Biafran cities of; Enugu, the capital; Port Harcourt, its primary seaport and oil city; Bonny, its main oil terminal; and Calabar, its other seaport and commercial town.
These Nigerian victories despite the sheer doggedness and stiff resistance of the Biafrans, put the Biafrans in a disadvantage both Militarily and politically, in that the Nigerian federal government was now in a dorminant and uncompromising position, from which she never shifted from, by asking the Biafrans to renounce seccession and accept its 12 state structure.
The Gowon administration, having successfully localised the war politically, meant the UN and other big world bodies were kept out of the war (Biafra never got the chance to present its case at the UN), and the OAU (organisation of African Unity) was also forced to treat the war, like a side show (with threats of balkanisation from Chief Awolowo to the sympathetic African nations), which evidently was a body blow to the Ojukwu led government, in diplomatic terms. Nonetheless, both waring sides headed to Kampala for its first peace talk, with the Nigerian side holding the most aces.
The report also highlights the dominance of the Nigerian army with its light and heavy armour, artillery etc and the paucity of the Biafran army in every regard and reliance on Biafran produced weapons, which he admitted were deadly but inaccurate, there was finally a suggestion and a slight shift by the Nigerians, that some force could be interjected between the waring sides, while a peaceful solution is found – this suggestion never came to fruition.
The image above and in the attached piece, is of the victorious Nigerian army officers with a captured Biafran Airways plane, on the tarmac, after capturing the Biafran airport in Port Harcourt. This victory robbed the Biafrans of their last proper International airway to the world, and put their war effort in serious danger which was only solved when they opened up the Biafran built Uli airport in Ihiala.
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