The Untold Stories Of Nsukka Sector Of The Civil War

The Nigerian Civil War ended fifty years ago. Half a century after General Phillip Effiong made “the state of Biafra seizes to exist” speech, the effects of the war are still being felt today. Igbos are not fully incorporated into the Nigerian polity and there are suggestions that Igbos are the ones who should apologize.

With insecurity situations echoing across the geopolitical regions of Nigeria, with the Eastern Security Network in the centre of the Southeastern dilemma, plus the coming of Ebube Agu, with Fulani Herdsmen daring as ever, we would begin a series in which we would tell the story of the Nigerian Civil War sector by sector, incidence by incidence, bit by bit.

What do we intend to accomplish by this series? Firstly, we are primary storytellers and we never pass an opportunity to tell stories. Secondly, history is a very much neglected aspect of our national discourse; so we are telling a story that should be told. Thirdly, we are telling a story that is mostly willfully misinterpreted. And fourthly, we need it is about you – do with this story what you may.

Why was Nsukka important during the war?

If you ever visited Nsukka, you would see that it is not much of a city. In fact, calling it a city is a statement of upliftment; Nsukka is a town on the cusp of urbanity and ruralness. If Nsukka can barely be called a big town in 2021, it should even be less so in 1967 when the war broke out.

So why are we talking about the Nsukka Sector of the war? Because Nsukka was an important town.

1. It hosted the University of Biafra

Began as the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, a name it would revert to at the end of the war, the university was the only university in the whole of Biafra. It was thus the intellectual capital of Biafra. During the pogroms and the tension that followed the massacres, a lot of Igbo academics in Ibadan, Lagos, Ile-Ife, and Zaria, Nsukka was the point of stay for quite a number of them.

There was talk about a second university but for the now, the Administration of Ojukwu and the university administration led by Professor Eni Njoku had to incorporate the academics. So Nsukka was the intellectual beacon of the new Republic. One of the returning academics, the popular poet Christopher Okigbo not only returned to Nsukka, he served in the military tasked with defending Nsukka.

For Biafrans, it was about maintaining their intellectual stronghold. For Nigeria, it was about striking a psychological blow on Biafra by taking their educational capital and dislodging their academic body.

2. Nsukka’s proximity to the capital city of Biafra

The Nsukka Sector was important because it was the last major town before Ojukwu’s seat of government in Enugu when approaching from the north. To attack Enugu from the Niger, they need to first capture Onitsha, then they would make the perilous journey to Awka where they would have to contend with guerilla attacks from dozens of towns.

Then they would have to capture Awka and hold Awka. From Awka, there are two ways to approach Enugu, via Oji-River-Udi or via Agba Umana. Each of these routes passed through several villages and would be land mines both literally and literary. The journey to Enugu via Onitsah-Awka would prove to be impossible at the earliest stage of the war.

Nigerian army and ESN in a gun battle in Nsukka

Should the Nigerian forces come in via sea from Port Harcourt, they would have to capture the strongest Biafran sea base, a very populous city, and a fortress. After Port Harcourt, they would have to capture three major towns of Owerri, Umuahia, and Okigwe before making the long and audacious journey to Enugu.

Onitsha, Awka, Port Harcourt, Owerri, and Umuahia are big towns, each of which is a full sector of its own. Nsukka sector is the only sector that can be counted as a sector before the main sector.

While fighting in Nsukka Sector, the Nigerian forces have one eye towards Enugu. While defending Nsukka, the Biafran troops were pre-defending Enugu, their capital.

3. Nsukka was important for the northern thrust of the Nigerian military

Nsukka was the first town in the chain of the Nigerian army thrust and part of the larger northern sector of the war. Their goal was to captain the Ogugu-Ogunga-Nsukka and link it with the Gakem-Obudu-Ogoja axis thereby cutting Biafra off from the routes to the sea and reaching Cameroon.

Nsukka must fall for Biafra to be encircled.

The battles proper

The Nigerian troops were led by a certain Major Sule Apollo and the Biafran defense was commanded by Brigadier H.M. Njoku. On July 2nd, 1967 the Nigerian forces attacked. The Biafrans held on and were able to force the Nigerians back. One of the officers with the Biafran troop was Christopher Okigbo, the poet.

The Nigerian troops were able to reinforce with more men and more equipment including in the reconnaissance aspect, but the Biafrans weren’t able to reinforce in whatever aspect. When the Nigerians launched the second attack, Nsukka fell. Christopher Okigbo was killed in this battle.

Seeing this dangerous encroachment into Biafraland, General Ojukwu agreed to the invasion of the Mid-west in order to create a diversion and/or use it as a bargaining chip. The Biafran forces led by Colonel Banjo one of the handfuls of westerners who fought on the side of Biafra. Banjo’s troops crossed the Niger into Asaba and went as far as Benin-City the capital of the Mid-west region.

Banjo and his men didn’t stop in Benin, they went on to Ore and were able to threaten the important city of Ibadan. These Biafran victories made Gowon declare total war on Biafra.

Further head of state, Murtala Mohammed was able to take Ore for Nigeria and to push the Biafrans back to Asaba and thence beyond the Niger. There was no need to use the occupation of the Mid-west to negotiate Nsukka nor did the Nigerian government need the northern sector troops in order to re-capture the Mid-west.

On the Nsukka sector, Biafra didn’t let go and continue to harass Federal holds with “daring raids”. The leader of this raid was Major Nzeogwu, one of the leaders of the January 15 1966 Coup. He didn’t have any active command as, according to Ojukwu, “the senior officers were afraid of him, especially those under whose area of command he would have operated”.

So Nzeogwu relied on volunteers for his raids. One of his volunteers was Tom Biggar, Ojukwu’s younger brother from another father.

 

On what turned out to be his last raid, Tom Biggar and Kaduna Nzeogwu were killed. Years later, Ojukwu would say, “In that death, part of me died also. With Nzeogwu and Tom Biggar dead, the fate of Nsukka in the hands of Nigeria was permanently sealed.

With Nsukka in their hands, the Nigerian troops entered the university and began carrying out destructions and acts of vandalism that can, to use an understatement, be described as barbarism. Or what do you call destroying textbooks and throwing faeces on the wall of a living room?

Follow us on Twitter