The Struggle for Modern Nigeria: The Biafran War 1967-1970 by Michael Gould

Author:Michael Gould
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2012-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

Biafra’s resourcefulness

Biafra was fortunate in having a well-organised regional civil service and part of an efficiently-run national police force, as well as an organised judiciary, and a well-established banking system. All functioned well and were part of the successful running of the regional government before the conflict. These agencies continued to run efficiently, but under wartime constraints, throughout the period and helped to ensure that Biafra functioned as an orderly state, and contributed to her longevity. Even two years into the war there was still evidence of the smooth and efficient running of the state:

In the week I was in Biafra a new coinage was issued, the postal service was operating normally – taking four days from any part of the country to another … . The Africa Continental Bank reopened four branches in new locations (following the fall of Umuahia the seat of Government and the last sizable town in Biafra) bringing its total to 26, which includes a bureau de change at Ulli Airport. And the court of appeal established after six months of war in December 1967 was preparing for its next session … . The civilian nature of life, even in Biafra at war, is everywhere evident: arms are not carried even by the soldier, except at the front. Road blocks are, in the main, manned by uniformed police, often even by smart policewomen. There is no curfew and no restriction on movement. The army itself has the character of a citizen’s rather than a militant force. Its officers seem to regard war as a subject for urgent study and practice, rather than a permanent way of life.313

There had been attempts under the Ironsi regime to centralise the civil service into a unitary arm of government, under Decree 34,314 but due to the second coup and his overthrow, little had been achieved in this direction and the civil service remained an arm of regional government. When a military government had been formed following the first coup in January 1966, General Ironsi had appointed Lt-Col. Ojukwu military governor of the Eastern Region. When he arrived in the region he was fortunate in having a fully functioning state under his control, and although he took his orders from the ruling military government in Lagos, because of the way the country had been governed before and during its short-lived democratic period, the regions were semi-autonomous and remained so.315 As Ojukwu commented: ‘And for three-quarters of a century now, Biafra has been ruled as a single political unit; so that the vast majority of the population have grown accustomed to the fact of the uniqueness of the political entity which we now know as Biafra.’316

It was therefore easy for Ojukwu to take control of the reins of regional government and ensure that in the event of secession the functions of government remained intact and indeed gave weight and control to the new breakaway state, helping to ensure the efficient running and stability of a modern sovereign country. These apparatuses of

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