04/08/2026
MONDAY ESSAY:
BIAFRA WAS NOT DEFEATED
I have said this before and I am repeating it. I commanded the last battle for the defense of Uli airport, so anything I talk about, concerning the end of the war, is more of an eye-witness account. I am telling young Nigerians particularly, young Igbo people who continue to read all these books citing the โfall of Biafraโ, โthe defeat of Biafraโ, โthe surrender of Biafraโ, those are not true.
Strictly for the purpose of history, those narratives are not true. the truth about it, is that Nigeria was better equipped than Biafra, Nigeria had upper hand but Biafra was resilient. We fought like people who had no other choice. The way we perceived the war was such that we were rejected, we did not feel safe in Nigeria anymore. Our people were slaughtered and massacred for a cause they know nothing about. They said Igbo people caused the coup, of course that was also a lie, we did not cause the coup. Thousands of Igbo people were killed for no reason. So we did not have any choice, we resolved it was better to die fighting in defense of our people. Thatโs why we, the young men of those days joined the army and took up arms. We already made up our mind to pay the supreme price in defense of our fatherland, so in spite of our shortcomings and inadequacies, we were a fearless and resilient army of passionate young men who were willing to die for their homeland.
So like I said, the end of the civil war was negotiated and I say this because I was on ground. If not for the negotiation, Biafra war could have continued for 10, 12 or even 15 years because it is not that easy to utterly defeat somebody in his own ground without a long-drawn hostilities. If you come to one place, he will go to another place, and guerrilla warfare was an option. Our own generation of young people at the time were so determined and there was no way we would have surrendered at the time. We couldnโt have surrendered.
The type of people we had in Biafra were not people who could have surrendered like that. I will also like to add that when the negotiation came to our attention, we the younger officers held a meeting, we didnโt want to surrender, we wanted to go on but it was General Effiong that saved the situation. He told us that it was not defeat, that it is a negotiated ending for the war. So it is not a question of history recording it that our generation were defeated while fighting for survival. So we want our young people to know that we their parents fought well, willingly placing our lives on the line and we were not defeated.
It was Effiong that first told us that there will be no victor, no vanquished. Itโs important to note that Ojukwu did not have a Biafran secession plan ab-initio, he believed in Nigeria. But it was the Nigerian government that forced him into the Biafra struggle, in defense of his people who were being slaughtered across the country. Infact, Ojukwu helped to neutralize the Chukwuma Nzeogwu coup alongside Aguiyi Ironsi who led the army at the time. But Nigerians plotted and killed Ironsi. So we didnโt feel any safe at all.
So there was no defeat, there was no surrender. It was a negotiated settlement to have one Nigeria. I am saying this again; we were not defeated. Yes, Nigeria had upper hand but we were resolute, we produced our equipment and military hardware. So I do not want our children tomorrow to say we were defeated. I am one of the people privy to all the meetings held. The end of the war was negotiated by both sides in the war.
Credit: Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu
