Biafra was a secessionist state in eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to January 1970. It took its name from the Bight of Biafra, the Atlantic bay to its south.
The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria.
This struggle by some Igbo people to secede from Nigeria started when on May 30, 1967, late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a military officer and politician announced a breakaway of the Eastern Region under the new name Republic of Biafra.
This subsequently sparked the Nigerian civil war also known as the Biafran war. The war was between the then Eastern Region of Nigeria and the rest of the country. The war was fought to reunify the country.
Biafrans through Nnamdi Kanu have renewed their struggles, agitation for an independent nation but the government has continued to clamp down on the ‘activists’.
President Muhammadu Buhari has towed the line of his predecessors and said the country Nigeria will remain has one and as such no part will leave at least not during his administration.
According to local and foreign war historians the immediate causes of the Nigeria civil war in 1966 included: a military coup (carried out by Maj. Nzeogwu which led to the death of Tafawa Belewa, etc), a counter-coup (led by Gowon, which led to the brutal murder of Aguiyi Ironsi, Fajuyi, etc) and the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom in the north (persecution of Igbo people living in Northern Nigeria).
The war which lasted for 30 months took the lives of more than one million people. Some died in the battle while others were lost majorly through famine, and hunger. There were over 50,000 casualties of soldiers both from Biafran side and the Nigerian military.
A flag of red, black and green, horizontally, with a rising sun from the Coat of Arms (of the old Eastern Province) in gold in the centre was created by the Biafran Government and raised on May 30, 1967. The design and colours are based on the Pan-African flag designed by Marcus Garvey’s Union. The eleven rays of the sun represented the eleven provinces of Biafra.
The Osasu Show living up to billing took a ‘stroll’ to the Eastern part of Nigeria and share the history behind the BIAFRA struggle.
Watch the video below: