Troops from the Nigerian Federal Army marching along a road after routing Biafran troops at Port Harcourt during the Biafran War. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images) A federal soldier swings a hand grenade by its release pin while guarding Ibo women prisoners and their children in Nigeria, during the Biafran War. (Photo by Keystone/Getty…
On May 15, 1976, the perpetrators of the failed coup attempt of February 1976 were shot dead in the Kirikiri maximum security prison in Lagos. In this failed coup led by Lieutenant Colonel Buka Suka Dimka, the Nigerian head of state, General Murtala Muhammed, was killed. Below is the speech of Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo (who replaced General Murtala) after the execution. The Supreme Military Council has been meeting to consider, among other things the conclusions of the Military Tribunal appointed by the Federal Military Government…
Below is Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s last interview with Mr Dennis Ejindu of ‘Africa and the World’ in April 1967, a few months before the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war. Ejindu: I am glad to meet you, Sir. How would you feel if you knew that you are being regarded as a hero? Nzeogwu:…
On May 30, 1967, before the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War/Biafra War, the Military Governor of the Eastern Region, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, delivered a speech declaring the Republic of Biafra sovereign. Read more below. Fellow countrymen and women, you, the people of Eastern Nigeria: Conscious of the supreme authority of Almighty God over all mankind, of your duty to yourselves and prosperity; Aware that you can no longer be…