LT. COLONEL OJUKWU'S ART OF WAR

 LT. COLONEL OJUKWU'S ART OF WAR

'When Ojukwu read out those words from the paper he held in his hands, declaring secession, and reawakening the weakening joy in the Eastern peoples'. I knew that was the shot Nigeria held on for.'

                                        "Like I was there"

So much has been said, and so much has been written about who shot the first bullet or even dire; fired the first Rocket Propelled Grenade known militarily as the RPG to ignite the fire that engulfed Africa, Nigeria's very first and maybe last tragic civil war.

So many Easterners, -Igbo, Efik, Annang, and many other tribes- lay claim, that the Federal Government of Nigeria was the first to fire a shot, whipping up a war against the newly created Biafra.

They may be right after all.

However, considering some technicalities, these self-claimed rights might be wrong after all.

Few days after perfecting a blockade plan, and tightening all loose ends; General Yakubu 'Jack' Gowon demanded that oil blockade should also be considered in the blockade's bucket list.

By the evening of July 3, 1967, a total blockade that included oil was announced, and the official blockade plan took effect pronto.

In the wee hours of the morning of 6 July 1967; the Nigerian Federal troops began to advance towards Biafra with a mission; to forcefully resist the Eastern Regions secession bid and return her to an already balkanized Nigeria union.

While Biafra slept and Biafrans snore, Federal Troops closed in, firing the first shock of panic, hence the beginning of that long dark allay that eventually led to wakes of death and tales of anguish.

The Nigerian Civil War hasn't just begun; it began with Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu.

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Before the Federal Troops began marching towards the East, the state of Biafra had been declared months before.

It was declared on May 30, 1967, by its leader, Lieutenant-Colonel Odimegwu Emeka Ojukwu; after consultations with Eastern Elders Council, and not necessarily the fierce premature pressure from students of the University of Nigeria Nsukka who told General Ojukwu to secede.

However, it is worthy of note, that the Nigeria Civil War did not start when the Federal Troops fired its first force salvo into Biafra.

The war began when Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu dared Nigeria by declaring an independent state, hence attempting to secede from the larger entity.

In the law of nations; in practical international politics, and in reality, the declaration of secession from an existing country without a concerted consensus agreement is an act of war.

Hence, by standing before a large body of Igbo peoples' in an open sparse space filled to the rafters to pronounce secession from Nigeria, Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu did not only declare war on Nigeria, he signaled Biafra's preparedness for conflict.

Declaration of secession is a declaration of war, and much more meant firing a gun shot warning.

This was Lieutenant-Colonel Ojukwu's art, that propelled the act of war.