Ojukwu's Call from Exile

Three days ago I left the Republic of Biafra with
certain members of my Cabinet as a result of a
decision taken by that Cabinet in the interest of our
people's survival.  Since my departure events have
moved with such breathless speed that friends and foe
alike have been left not only bewildered but confused.
 It is therefore necessary for me to address these
words to the international press in order to keep the
records right, and in pursuit of the object of my
leaving the Republic of Biafra. 

It is necessary in order to understand events that
have led to the drama of the past few days to look
back at the origin of our conflict and conduct in this
war.  Biafra, once the eastern region of Nigeria, was
one of three sovereignties that banded together to
form the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Three of the
reasons which made the sovereignties bind themselves
together were:

1. Mutual protection of life and property - hence the
fundamental human rights entrenched in our
constitution and the arrangements made for the joint
control of the police.

2. Security against external and internal threats -
hence the responsibility of the central Government for
defence.

3. The promotion of international trade and good
relations with foreign countries - hence the
assignment of exclusive responsibility to the central
Government.

During the course of our first experiment in
nationhood it was clear that the Federal Organization
had neither the will nor the desire to maintain that
unity of purpose for which the Federation was founded.

In 1966 it became clear that the central authority was
unable and unwilling to fulfil the terms for which it
was established.  Right under her nose the people of
Eastern Nigeria, now Biafrans, were subjected to such
acts of barbarism, such atrocities that gave clear
indication of a genocide that was to come.

The people of Biafra, in full consultation and
believing that the only guarantee for security lay in
the resumption of the sovereignty, mandated me to
proclaim their territory the sovereign and independent
Republic of Biafra, and to take up arms if need be to
protect the lives and property of our people and the
independence was thus proclaimed.

On July 6, 1967, the Federal forces crossed the
boundaries of Biafra and attacked her defenseless
populace.  Our people, in the face of such aggression,
had no alternative but to defend themselves as best
they could.  The war that ensued has continued from
that day with unabated fury until today when we find
that, because of certain limitations, we are no longer
able to offer formal military resistance to the
Nigerian aggressors.

For three years we have fought against overwhelming
odds.  Our conduct of the war has contrasted sharply
with that of the Nigerian hordes.  We were always
aware of our limitation, and therefore have never
discontinued out efforts for peace and a negotiated
settlement. 

We had relied on the conscience of the world to
respect the rights of our people to self-determination
and security.  We have been frustrated by an
international conspiracy against the interest of the
African.

Yet, believing in the justice of our cause and the
ultimate triumph of truth over falsehood, outnumbered
and outgunned, we have grimly held back the
unrelenting enemy for three grueling years with our
bare hands.

Nigeria began her recent final offensive against
Biafra in October 1969 after months of preparations,
which included the starvation of our entire populace
to such sub-human level that the movement of enemy
troops through our territory became a mere formality.

For months we cried to an unsympathetic world,
pointing out the danger of a total blockade and siege
warfare at this stage of world civilization.  In
answer to that cry our people were further subjected
to more deprivation by the drastic reduction of relief
supplies, not only to the menfolk but to our women and
children, to the aged and the very young, to the old
and the infirm.

By the end of November the Biafra armed forces were no
longer able to feed themselves; our civil populace
were neither able to feed themselves nor the army.
Yet over 30 grim days our gallant and heroic forces
maintained their positions in the sheer hope of a
miraculous respite.

In the first week of January, the Nigerian forces, by
a fast military move, took control of the last areas
from where we had any possibility of obtaining food.
In quick succession demoralization set in, threatening
national disintegration and bringing in its wake
confusion and mass exodus.

I gathered together at Owerri during the night of
January 8, 1970, those members of my Cabinet who could
be contacted to review the situation.  At that meeting
I presented in firm and clear terms the grim
hopelessness of continued formal military resistance.

I informed the Cabinet that my primary duty in the
circumstances was to seek the protection of our
exhausted people and to save the leadership of our
heroic republic.  I therefore offered to go out of
Biafra myself in search of peace.

I decided personally to lead any delegation in order
to give it maximum effect and to speed up matters in
order to save the lives of our people and preserve the
concept of Biafra.  I did this knowing that whilst I
live Biafra lives.  If I am no more it would be only a
matter of time for the noble concept to be swept into
oblivion.

I chose for the delegation the following persons:  Dr.
M.I. Okpara, my political adviser; Mr. N.U. Akpan, my
Chief Secretary; Major-General Madiebo, the commander
of my army.

In the fluid and uncertain military circumstances the
Cabinet considered it advisable and reasonable that
families of envoys in or going abroad should be sent
out.  My last hours in Biafra before my departure were
spent in close consultation with Major-General Philip
Effiong, whom I had appointed to administer the
Government in my absence, and his last request to me
was to take out his family and to maintain them under
my protection.  I agreed.

Since the departure of the delegation from Biafra, we
have remained faithful to our mandate.  We have made
contacts with friends and men of goodwill.  We have
spared no efforts to mobilize all forces in an effort
to take food into Biafra on a gigantic scale.  We have
taken steps to alert the world to the real fears of
genocide at the hands of the Nigerians.

Nigeria's continuing efforts have always been directed
at domesticizing the conflict in order to apply the
final solution to the Biafran problem away from the
glare of an inquisitive world.

From all indications it is clear that Nigeria will not
feed our people.  They have said so often enough, and
their past records clearly underling this fact.  There
is no food whatsoever in Biafra and unless food can
get into Biafran mouths in the next 72 hours it will
be too late.

Nigeria's insistence to control the distribution of
relief is both to ensure that Biafrans get no such
relief, and also to shut out outsiders who might
witness and expose the enormous crimes she plans to
commit against our people.

Nigeria throughout this war has distinguished herself
for a lack of control over her armed forces.  It is
therefore most unlikely that, flushed with an
intoxication of unexpected military victory, she will
be able to exercise any measure of control on her
forces now on the rampage.

In any case Nigeria's aim is to destroy the elite of
Biafra.  The only possible way of preventing such a
catastrophe is by interposing between the contesting
forces some neutral force to prevent a genocide that
would make 1939-45 Europe a mere child's play.
We have always believed in the futility of this war.
We have always maintained that this war will solve no
problems.  If this carnage must stop, Nigerian leaders
and their friends must borrow a leaf from the lessons
of the last world war, where it was found that a
permanent settlement could only emerge from an
honourable peace.

Immediate efforts should therefore be directed towards
early negotiations for peace without exacting full
tribute of conquest.  Only in this way can peace which
the whole world desires have any chance.
I therefore appeal to all governments and
international organizations, countries and churches of
the world, men and women of goodwill, to both out
friends and enemies, in the interest of humanity to
come forward to assist and protect the lives and
talents of Biafra, to relieve the starvation and
wasteful death now the only companion of our exhausted
people.

I implore the world to rise to this desperate need, to
mount all possible pressures on Nigeria to ensure that
food gets to my people.

I would like to conclude this statement with a solemn
declaration, emphasizing again the point I have
repeatedly made in this appeal to the governments of
the world to save my people from extermination.
The sole motive behind Nigeria's determination to draw
an iron curtain over Biafra and exclude international
observers, relief agencies, journalists whom they have
not carefully picked themselves, is to make sure that
the atrocities they will certainly carry out in Biafra
is unseen and unreported in the world press.
Once they have sealed off Biafra from the gaze of
mankind, I hesitate to contemplate the fate of the
Biafran leadership, the trained manpower, the
scientists and professionals whom they would liquidate
as planned before the world can interfere.
Genocide, I repeat, is not an internal affair of
Nigeria, and it is the clear duty of those powers who
have armed and helped Nigeria to gain victory over
Biafra to step in and persuade Gowon to allow
international agencies and observers to enter Biafra
to feed the hungry, to heal the sick and to save a
whole people from complete annihilation.

If they fail to persuade Nigeria to open her doors to
these agencies then their declarations of humanitarian
aid to Nigeria becomes mere propaganda.  I repeat the
aims of Nigeria are genocidal - the test that the
contrary is the case is her willingness to admit
humanitarian agencies whom Gowon has now openly
declared he will exclude.

As a people we have endured as only giants endure.  We
have fought as heroes fight.  We have dared as only
gods dare.  We are disillusioned by the world's
insensitivity to the plight of our people.  Yet
because our cause is just we believe we have not lost
the war, only that the battlefield has changed.
We are convinced that Biafra will survive.  Biafra was
born out of the blood of innocents slaughtered in
Nigeria during the pogroms of 1966.  Biafra will ever
live, not as a dream but as the crystallization of the
cherished hopes of a people who see in the
establishment of this territory a last hope for peace
and security.  Biafra cannot be destroyed be mere
force of arms.

May I take this opportunity to thank all those persons
and organizations that have sacrificed that we might
live - that we assure them that their sacrifice will
not be in vain.

Biafra lives.  The struggle continues.  Long live the
Republic of Biafra.

______________________
(1) Statement issued through the Biafran Information agency in Geneva and reproduced verbatim in The Times, 16 January 1970.