tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80217163769522127912024-03-17T22:57:49.182+00:00Adeyinka Makinde | WriterUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger580125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-9715118477691814472024-03-16T21:08:00.010+00:002024-03-17T22:57:16.831+00:00The Bonny Landing: A Question & Answer Overview of Black Africa’s First Amphibious Operation<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMrXZVTP8DaO0DOf9wXLkzKflal0to0OJxKKZ3QflPG8rAa7JSF3bYo3ox78DDOZZBaB6EweyBL9wx08dngZsz24IjRmF_mfmPMDkJGRAyx2xNmnjXV3Nr2yJmRd-ZV9QINR1YRITloyWzrRiTiMPUd9EivFls2z4vphjDpWtDK6eZtXG0_SI4rSae3C7/s2194/112a.%20Seaman%20manning%20Vickers%20on%20Penelope%20during%20attack%20on%20Bonny%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1532" data-original-width="2194" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMrXZVTP8DaO0DOf9wXLkzKflal0to0OJxKKZ3QflPG8rAa7JSF3bYo3ox78DDOZZBaB6EweyBL9wx08dngZsz24IjRmF_mfmPMDkJGRAyx2xNmnjXV3Nr2yJmRd-ZV9QINR1YRITloyWzrRiTiMPUd9EivFls2z4vphjDpWtDK6eZtXG0_SI4rSae3C7/w400-h279/112a.%20Seaman%20manning%20Vickers%20on%20Penelope%20during%20attack%20on%20Bonny%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Naval ratings manning
Vickers guns on NNS Penelope during the assault on Bonny, July 1967 (Photo
credit: Archive of Captain James Rawe).</span></i></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;"><b><p><b style="font-size: 12pt;">SUMMARY</b></p></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The following is an overview of the
circumstances which led to the first ever amphibious operation mounted by a
modern Black African state at Bonny, Nigeria in 1967 during the Nigerian Civil
War (1967-1970).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What was the background to the Nigerian Civil
War?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">We can examine this from both a wide lens and
a narrower lens.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The distant but ever present background cause
can be found in the very nature of Nigeria’s founding, and that is the fact
that it is a conglomerate nation. It is the creation of imperial draughtsmen.
In 1914 when the British amalgamated its Northern and Southern Protectorates,
it brought together numerous ethnicities and languages - over two hundred. The
North was largely Islamic albeit with a significant Christian segment in what
is known as the Middle Belt, while the South had become rapidly Christianized.
Within this milieu were the traditions of three groups: In the North were the
Hausa and Fulani, in the South, which was often divided into West and East, the
Yoruba dominated the West and the Igbos the East.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The more immediate cause were the fractures
and disputes which occurred after independence was achieved from the British in
1960. These included the production of disputed census figures in 1963, a general strike in 1964, fraudulent elections around the country notably in the
Western Region where a split was engineered between two key leaders which
resulted in one being tried and convicted of High Treason in 1963 while the
region descended into violence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This sparked a concatenation of violence
beginning with an attempted coup in January 1966 which was followed by a
reprisal coup in July of 1966. In between were episodes of intercommunal
violence in April, September, and October 1966 during which ethnic Igbos were subjected to pogroms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The earlier coup of 1966 which was primarily
led by middle-ranking officers of Igbo origin involved the assassinations of
political and military leaders from the Northern and Western Regions. Moreover,
the senior officer who snuffed out the January coup, Major General Johnson
Aguiyi-Ironsi, himself an Igbo, was perceived to have surrounded himself with
advisors from his ethnic group and to have made decisions favourable to the
Igbo for instance in relation to promotions in the army and in his decision to
change Nigeria’s Federal structure to one of a unitary state, a move which some
perceived as designed to consolidate Igbo “hegemony” because by their
educational advantages of those in the Northern region, they would be primed to
dominate the Federal Civil Service. Also critically important was the fact that
there was a delay in court martialing the officers who participated in the
January coup.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The military governor of the Eastern Region,
Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu refused to accept the authority of Lieutenant
Colonel Yakubu Gowon, the officer who emerged as the Supreme Commander in place
of Ironsi. Peace talks were held in the Ghanaian town of Aburi in January 1967
under the auspices of Lieutenant General Joseph Ankrah, himself the head of a
military junta. The initial promise of peace dissipated in the weeks and months
following this meeting leading first to the secession of the Eastern Region on
May 30th, 1967, as a reconstituted nation named “Biafra” and the war officially
began on July 6th, 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Who was Commander James Rawe?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">James Rawe was born in the city of
Constantinople in1925. He was the son of a linguist in the service of British
Naval Intelligence and his grandfather was a naval architect who became the
Superintendent of the Ottoman Sultan’s arsenal. After finishing school, he
joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and as a teenage Midshipman navigated a
Landing Craft which landed the first wave of American troops at Utah Beach on
D-Day in June 1944. Specifically, he delivered the HQ Battalion of the US 12th
Infantry Regiment. During the war he also trained as a commando at Fort William
in the Western Highlands of Scotland as part of Combined Operations. The
purpose of Combined Operations was to conduct raids and landings against the
Nazi enemy on the European continent. All RNVR and Royal Navy landing craft
officers and ratings, and their Royal Navy landing craft, were attached to the
Combined Operations Command which was staffed by Royal Navy, Army, and Royal
Air Force personnel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">After the war, he specialised as a
hydrographer first around the British Isles and later in the Far East. It was
while he was on duty in the Far East in the mid-1950s that he received a
message from a Royal Navy officer enquiring whether he would be interested in
starting a “Royal Navy type survey service and possibly a Nigerian Navy.” Being
of the mindset that it is the things one does not do which one regrets, he took
up the offer and became the first person, Nigerian or British to sign up for
what became the Nigerian Naval Force and later the Nigerian Navy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In Nigeria, he conducted hydrographic surveys,
conducted recruitment drives, sat on court martials, and supported visits of
foreign dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth II and Lord Louis Mountbatten when
he was the Chief of Defence Staff. At the time of the first coup, Commander
Rawe was the Commanding Officer of the Naval Base in Apapa, Lagos and after an
Indian Navy Captain was ordered by his government to relinquish his post as
Chief of Staff to the Navy Commander, Rawe succeeded to the post with the designation
of Principal Staff Officer. Although Rawe had been told to leave the Nigerian
Navy immediately, he refused to do this on the grounds that it would go against
the good name of Britain, and it might undermine the fragile military
government. Rawe also told the attaché that his work for the Nigerian Navy was
based on a letter written by the last British Governor General on behalf of the
Queen requesting that he remain in her service within the Nigerian Navy after
the country became independent in October 1960. He proposed that if Her Majesty
had changed her mind, he should be given a second letter which reflected her
change of attitude. Rawe was on the verge of taking early retirement at the
onset of the troubles and extended his service at the request of Gowon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What was the Nigerian strategy?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Federal Military Government understood
that the tried and tested military manner of inflicting defeat lies in
encirclement. Encirclement prohibits trade and supply routes by land. It
fosters a siege mentality within the encircled territory among the political
and military leadership as well as the population at large. So while the
Nigerian Army consolidated the ‘Northern Sector’ and the government worked with
its counterpart in Cameroon to seal Biafra’s eastern border, the idea therefore
was for the Nigerian Navy to stage a series of amphibious landings on the
Atlantic coast to create a ‘Southern Sector.’ This is why landings were made at
Bonny in July 1967, Calabar in October 1967, and Oron in March 1968. However,
because of the Biafran military invasion of the Nigerian Midwest region in
August of 1967 - the Midwest Region had sought to be neutral in the conflict -
additional landings had to be made first at Escravos in August 1967 and at
Warri, Sapele and Koko in September 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But the first part of the strategy to be
implemented even before the start of the shooting war on July 6th, 1967, was
the instituting of a naval blockade. This sought to prevent the loading of oil
and other shipments from harbours on Biafra’s coast at the island of Bonny and
the city of Port Harcourt. Foreign governments and shipping companies were
warned that any ships attempting to break the blockade would be intercepted by
the Nigerian Navy. This was highly effective despite the amount of coastline
which had to be patrolled by a relatively small number of Nigerian naval
vessels because governments obeyed the wishes of the functioning central
government in Lagos.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What considerations played a part in
determining Bonny as the site of Nigeria’s first amphibious landing?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Major General Yakubu Gowon, the Head of the
Federal Military Government handed Rear Admiral Joseph Wey, the Chief of Naval
Staff, a list of possible landing sites. Wey, who along with Commander Rawe
devised an overall naval strategy, instructed Rawe to draft a paper which
considered the merits and demerits of the navy landing at 3 alternative
locations. One was Port Harcourt, another was Opobo and the third was Bonny.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Port Harcourt was a crucial centre of
Nigeria’s burgeoning oil production. But it was located 40 miles up from the
Bonny River once entered from the Atlantic Ocean and the naval vessels and the
merchant ships following them would take 4 to 6 hours to get to Port Harcourt.
This would give the enemy ample time to take up positions along the river and
would have rendered naval ships and especially the merchant ships vulnerable to
ambushes via mortars or rocket propelled short-ranged weapons. Such vulnerability
would be particularly pronounced during the last 20 miles as the Bonny River
becomes narrower. So Rawe logically concluded that from a “naval point of view,
to embark on an attack on Port Harcourt, direct, would invite disaster.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As for Opobo, while it ostensibly presented a
better proposition than Port Harcourt in the sense of not being defended in
high numbers, it was ultimately discounted because of the uncertainty of the
depth of its waters and the presence of a river bar. Inadequate intelligence
about the presence of marker buoys and a beacon added too much uncertainty and
risk to an operation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">So Bonny was selected because the adjoining
river had the necessary depth for naval vessels to manoeuvre. There were
jetties available along with several points at which the navy’s Landing Craft
Tank could beach and offload a first wave of troops, equipment, and military
stores.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Commander Rawe noted three strategic
advantages in taking Bonny. Firstly, it would release the navy from blockade
duty off Bonny River and allow it to concentrate on other areas. Secondly, the
navy would have an area close to the base of operations and would be in a
better position to support the army. Thirdly, military forces could be built
for an advance on Port Harcourt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Finally, Bonny as an island, Rawe noted, would
be easier to defend than an area of mainland.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What was the plan the Nigerian Navy devised to
take Bonny?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The plan devised by Commander Rawe followed a
conventional pattern of an Amphibious Assault, which is by having a naval task
force land a concentration of troops who would force a landing in the presence
of the enemy. The Command Direction authored by Rawe was designated as Naval
Operation Number One of 1967. It identified the main commanding officers as
well as the commanders of the ships. Captain Nelson Soroh, the heir apparent to
Rear Admiral Wey, was designated as the Officer-in-Charge of the Operation,
Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, the General Officer Commanding the Third
Infantry Division, was the Officer Commanding Land Forces and Commander Rawe
would be the Forward Control Officer and the Naval Liaison Officer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Having ascertained through intelligence
channels that Bonny was garrisoned with around 300 men, the mission for the
Nigerian navy was to “transport, land and afford the support of naval fire
power to federal troops, in order to facilitate the capture of Bonny Town and
the island.” In a nutshell, the invasion would occur in three waves. The first
wave would consist of troops on the landing craft NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which would beach on the northern part of Bonny Town. The
idea behind landing troops in the northern part of Bonny Island was to trap
Biafran soldiers stationed in the south and to prevent any reinforcements
coming from the north. The second wave of troops would be landed by NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> when the situation permitted.
And the third wave would be landed after Bonny Town was captured.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Sailing Orders commenced on July 22nd, 1967.
The movement of the task force was staggered owing to the different speeds of
the vessels and the need for the larger vessels including one merchant ship to
collect soldiers from a location on the coast in the Midwest region which was
still neutral and not yet overrun by Biafran forces. NNS <i>Penelope</i>, Rawe’s old
survey ship, which was converted into an armed vessel, was the only ship to
make its way directly to the rendezvous point at Bonny Fairway Buoy on the
Atlantic Ocean. The others met up at some point at Escravos Fairway Buoy before
proceeding to Bonny Fairway Buoy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Once assembled Commander Rawe would lead them
into battle at the first daylight on the designated D-Day, July 25, 1967, after
Captain Soroh issued the formal execution order. The river and ocean adjacent
to Bonny was split into areas with names such as “Tango,” “Uniform” and “Zulu.”
NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a patrol boat commanded by
Lieutenant Commander Akin Aduwo, would move into “Area Sierra.” NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, two seaward defence boats, commanded respectively by
Lieutenant Commander Huseini Abdulahi and Lieutenant Promise Fingesi, would advance
further in “Area Tango.”</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, the
Landing Craft Tank commanded by Commander Apayi Joe, would position itself facing the
northern part of Bonny Town where intelligence indicated Biafran troops were
sparsely concentrated. Once </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
landed the first troops, both </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">would proceed further up
“Area Uniform” ready to engage any enemy aircraft or vessel coming down the
Bonny River.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
would stay in the Atlantic in areas designated as “Osca” and “Papa.” From these
areas, the naval ships could bombard targets on Bonny Island which was divided
into sectors.” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, with its twin
High Angle/Low Angle guns, had the greatest range and destructive power. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> had a 3-inch gun and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and the two seaward defence boats
used Bofors guns for bombardment and Oerlikon or Vickers guns to provide
covering fire for advancing federal troops. Rawe in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> operated flexibly, moving between areas as he assessed the
battle giving orders and acting as the centre of communication between the
ships closest to the battle and Nigeria which relayed battle reports to Naval
Headquarters in Lagos.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">One interesting aspect of the operation was
the use of pyrotechnic flares as signals to signify the beginning or ending of
specific manoeuvres, as well as to indicate the position of troops. For
instance, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">was expected to fire
what was described in naval jargon as “one red Very light” in the final stage
of her beaching run, while the troops of the Third Division engaging the enemy
in Bonny were expected to indicate their position to naval vessels by firing
“one green Very light” in order to indicate their most southerly position so as
to permit relevant naval vessels to fire ahead of them. It would in effect
indicate the dividing line between “friendly troops” and “enemy troops.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What obstacles did the Nigerian Navy envisage
in attempting to land forces at Bonny?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Mounting an amphibious landing is
unquestionably one of the most difficult of military manoeuvres to execute. It
was a daunting operation for the Nigerian Navy to undertake from quite a number
of perspectives. The navy was young and inexperienced given that it had no substantive
traditions in actual warfare. There was no tradition of inter-service
cooperation with the army, largely because joint manoeuvres were in fact discouraged
by the political class over fears that it could lead to a coordinated coup by
the two forces. The navy’s manpower and material resources had been diminished respectively
by the defection of officers and ratings of Eastern region origin and their
sabotage of equipment on vessels and onshore. There were also challenges to
overcome regarding Bonny’s terrain and the physics of the sea, as well as
potential challenges regarding the manner in which the defending forces could
opt to prevent an invasion. Commander Rawe’s operational order addressed the geographical challenges, <span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">while in his civil
war memoir, Colonel Adekunle placed great emphasis on the potential obstacles
which the defenders could have used to frustrate an attack.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Rawe noted the importance of having knowledge
of the tidal stream and the amount of rise and fall of tide. This would be
crucial in determining the angle of approach which the landing craft would make
to the beach and the length of time that the craft would be able to remain on
the beach without being stranded. Another issue of concern to the navy would be
the sea conditions. In other words, they needed to have an idea of the level of
surf or volatility of waves once the landing craft had beached.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the end, July 25</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1967,
was selected as the landing day because it would be preceded by a moonless
night, a high tide was predicted at dawn, and it was determined that the sea
would be relatively calm.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In his memoir, Adekunle recalled that the
tidal information indicated that high tide would peak for 56 minutes. This
could have been used by the Biafrans to predict the timing of a Federal
invasion, as well as to determine where to concentrate coastal batteries. The
entrance to the Bonny river could have been lined with sea mines or explosive-filled
drums. Moreover, the defenders could have sowed confusion by shifting the buoys
which marked the navigable areas of the entrance into the river and caused attacking
vessels to be run aground. In short, the Biafran side had the capacity to turn
the enterprise into a disastrous one.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But none of these measures were employed. It appears
that they did not construct any watchtowers or coast guards tasked with
watching the entrance to the Bonny River. They also failed to mine any beaches
or jetties. This was surprising given Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu’s belligerent pronouncements that any Nigerian vessels approaching the Biafran controlled
coast would be sunk to the bottom of the sea.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It was perhaps the case that the Biafran side
felt that the Federal Navy would not recover from the defection of personnel
and their sabotage of naval equipment. In any case the Federal side put a great
deal of effort into navy-army preparation for the assault in the Tarkwa Bay
area of Lagos where things such as gunnery, ship pitching, and embarkation and
disembarkation in daylight and darkness were practised. Captain Soroh recalled
that soldiers were taught how to handle dinghies and outboard engines because
they would need them to move themselves across the creeks as soon as they were
put ashore by the navy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Finally, a crucial element towards ensuring
the success of the operation would be that of surprise. Therefore the
replenishment of sabotaged equipment and preparations for the assault were
conducted in great secrecy. The Apapa naval base was out of bounds to all but
essential personnel. There was strict censorship of mail and phones were
tapped. Random roll calls were utilised to flush out potential intruders at the
naval base and the relevant army cantonment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a name="_Hlk161492900"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">How did the actual
landing develop?</span></i></b></a></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161492900;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The first order Rawe gave on entering the
Bonny River was to order one of the ships to take out the signal and telegraph
station on Bonny so as to cut off communications with Port Harcourt. While the
Nigerian ships were in the process of bombarding Bonny, they encountered what
had been NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a converted
minesweeper which had been taken over by the Biafrans because it had been on
patrol off the waters of the Eastern region during the crisis and commandeered
after the declaration of secession. Rawe ordered Lieutenant Commander Akin
Aduwo in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> to engage </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and after a brief encounter,</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> suffered a direct hit to its
engine which caused an outbreak of a fire and heavy loss of life. The captain
of Ibadan, Lieutenant Commander Pascal Odu managed to escape with a handful of
crew. Rawe recalled that the opposition was much as was expected and that there
were around 200 casualties, most of them Biafran defenders. There were some
hairy moments such as </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> getting
stranded while landing a second wave of troops and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> running aground on the second day of operations, but the
enemy was not equipped to exploit these mishaps. Bonny was taken within 2
hours. Additionally, the navy successfully landed troops on neighbouring
Peterside and took advance positions up to Dawes Island which is 20 miles north
of Bonny in the direction of Port Harcourt.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">How important was the amphibious operation
which took Bonny?</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It was extremely important. It was the first
landing conducted by naval and land forces of a modern African state. The other
amphibious assaults had been conducted by European and North American
militaries. During World War 2, there was “Operation Menace” in 1940 which
involved the Royal Navy and the Gaullist Free French Forces attempting to
overthrow the Vichy government in Dakar, Senegal. Two years later, “Operation
Ironclad,” another British and Free French endeavour successfully led to the
Free French taking over the island of Madagascar, and of course there was
“Operation Torch,” the Anglo-American landings which began the Allied effort of
dismantling German and Italian armies in North Africa.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">So the Bonny landing was a milestone as far as
modern Black African militaries are concerned. It provided a psychological
boost to the Federal side and by succeeding in securing a foothold on
secessionist-held land, began the process of reclaiming territory and the
process of encirclement which would ultimately lead to the capitulation of
Biafra. Economically, it sent a message to the oil companies, most notably
Shell which was responsible for over 80 per cent of oil production that it was Federal Nigeria which they would deal with and not the Biafrans.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">ABOUT
THE AUTHOR/SPEAKER</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a Visiting Lecturer in Law
at the University of Westminster in London, England. He is a barrister-at-law
by training who has research interests in global security and military history.
His interest in naval history and specifically naval warfare during the
Nigerian Civil War has to do with the fact that his late father served as a
Nigerian naval officer. He presented a lecture on the Bonny Landing to
participant officers on the Naval Warfare Course at the Naval War College
Nigeria in April 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a name="_Hlk161492489"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">NOTES</span></b></a></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161492489;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Links</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">1. “</span><a href="https://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-nigerian-civil-war-new-history-of.html" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">The Nigerian Civil War: A New History of the Bonny
Amphibious Operation, July-September 1967</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">” by Adeyinka Makinde</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2. “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQPSfuMNcpY" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #1155cc;">The
Bonny Landing | Presentation to the Naval War College, Nigeria | Adeyinka
Makinde | April 2023</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is based in London, England.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-15670573425972839372024-03-12T01:00:00.006+00:002024-03-12T21:16:03.598+00:00The Untold Story of Joseph "Hannibal" Achuzia: Hero and Villain of the Nigerian Civil War<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzAoVKDJ_oIBWd5IJrsRkQFKeBsNlNB3XEEKzzsfQnZty_xY3vR72aClZA3aHbchrIflccH_p4Mx7UlOI_zVDNX1ILbiEAdmR3tBOzdHqGR2Q99LrwvghQG6-Kkcke6aZhBZFT0Y4VWDbDivWkeMwuE3hEB52sh7_Hz_1GTuE0wZ6dLv_kUT_qYrut-kU/s2207/Achuzia%20-%20Army%20Officer%20&%20Stowaway.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1412" data-original-width="2207" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzAoVKDJ_oIBWd5IJrsRkQFKeBsNlNB3XEEKzzsfQnZty_xY3vR72aClZA3aHbchrIflccH_p4Mx7UlOI_zVDNX1ILbiEAdmR3tBOzdHqGR2Q99LrwvghQG6-Kkcke6aZhBZFT0Y4VWDbDivWkeMwuE3hEB52sh7_Hz_1GTuE0wZ6dLv_kUT_qYrut-kU/w400-h256/Achuzia%20-%20Army%20Officer%20&%20Stowaway.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Colonel Joseph Achuzia (left) during the
Nigerian Civil War (Credit: Walter Partington/Camera Press London). On the
right 20-year-old Achuzia (centre) alongside two other stowaways in Plymouth, England
after their arrival on a Dutch ship in March 1950 (Source: The Western Evening
News, Saturday, March 25th, 1950).</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;">Joseph Oseloka
Achuzia was one of the standout military commanders to emerge during the
Nigerian Civil War. Known by the monikers ‘Joe Air Raid’ and ‘Hannibal,’
Achuzia achieved folk hero status among his kinsmen who sought to secede from
Nigeria and create the nation-state of Biafra. Reports at the time credited him
as the significant actor who inflicted humiliating defeats on Lieutenant
Colonel Murtala Muhammad during the initial attempts of the Commander of the
Federal 2nd Division to land troops across the River Niger in the quest of
taking the prized city of Onitsha, and of masterminding the spectacular ambush
of troops of the same division at Abagana. Achuzia was also credited with
retaking the town of Uzuakoli from Federal forces, albeit temporarily. These
were stunning achievements for a man who had risen from the ranks of Biafran
volunteer militiamen. When the war ended in January 1970, some in the
international press described him as a “legend in Africa” and “perhaps the
greatest guerrilla leader of them all''. But over the course of time doubts
began to emerge over the successes attributed to Achuzia. The memoirs of former
Biafran military officers such as Alexander Madiebo and Ben Gbulie served to
re-cast Achuzia’s exploits as exaggerated and in some cases fictional.
Furthermore, Achuzia’s claim to have been tutored in the art of war as a
British National Service conscript during the Korean war has been subjected to
scrutiny and found to be lacking a basis in fact. As this article will reveal,
Achuzia was a cunning and resourceful man with a chequered past that included
at least two periods of imprisonment during his sojourn in England. He had
arrived there as a stowaway on a Dutch vessel and after a spell as a postman,
he tried his hand as a club manager and later as the proprietor of a car-hire
business. He was for a time a pimp. Accepting that he had reached a dead end in
England, he headed back to Nigeria where he set up an electronics supply firm.
His biggest achievement was in re-inventing himself as an army field officer
and to many diehard supporters of the failed Biafran project, he remains the
embodiment of resistance to the ‘Nigerian invader.’ This examination of
previously undisclosed aspects of his early life, as well as of his military
career reveal a man prone to deviousness and of possessing a talent for
self-promotion, traits which enabled him to feed off a predisposition to living
dangerously. He was feared by many on his own side. He killed foot soldiers who
attempted to flee from battle and more than once, he drew his handgun while
threatening to shoot fellow officers. Indeed, some Biafran officers lived in
apprehension of being ambushed by “Achuzia’s men.” His transformation from a
self-admittedly “disinterested” observer of Nigeria’s crisis into a radicalised
warrior for Biafra was a remarkable one as indeed was his evolution from shady
entrepreneur to that of distinguished elder of </span><i style="font-size: 10pt;">Ndigbo</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;">, but studies of Achuzia have often veered from hagiography
to vilification. The objective of this paper is to provide a detached
exploration of this formidable yet flawed character.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There is little
information available about the early life of Joseph Achuzia. Both his parents
came from communities which are sub-groups of the Igbo. His father hailed from
Asaba, a town dominated by the Anioma people, while his mother was an Ezza, a
people situated to the northeast of the Igbo heartland.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">1 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">His precise date of birth is uncertain. Most
sources give it as 1929, although brochures and banners pertaining to his
funeral in 2018 provide it as 1928.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">2 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A British newspaper reported him as being a “19-year-old Ibo
student from Nigeria”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">3</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
And while court records in Britain record Achuzia’s claim that he was of royal
lineage in Asaba (the younger brother of the chief), this was not the case. The
level and extent of his formal education while in Nigeria is also in doubt.
When he arrived in Britain as a stowaway, Achuzia told the authorities that he
had studied “the classics and mathematics at a university in Lagos.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">4</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But Lagos did not have a
university until 1962.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">5</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
He would also claim that he had embarked to England to pursue studies in “law
and economics” under the auspices of the “Asaba tribe” which provided an annual
fund of £750. The source of the tribe’s income, Achuzia would say, came from
the operation of “plantations.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">6</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Again, there is no evidence of any of this. But what is certain is that by the
time he was in his late teenage years, he had become an articulate individual,
as well as an ambitious one who felt the urge to leave Nigeria for Britain.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1950
Achuzia, whose age may have been anything from 20 to 23, decided that it was
time to leave for what was then described as the ‘Mother Country’. The British
Nationality Act of 1948 had provided citizenship to all colonial subjects, and
in the post-war era the labour shortage provided an incentive to such subjects
to travel there to find work.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">7</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
However, travel costs were prohibitive to the average colonial. Moreover,
travel was predicated on the subject having arranged for employment or for
study at an educational institution. Achuzia did not fulfil either criterion,
but he remained undeterred. He was aware that a colonial subject could stowaway
on a vessel destined for a British port, and although risking a maximum jail
sentence of 28 days, would be guaranteed an indefinite period of stay so long
as they had documents on them which proved that they were a British subject.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">8</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In March 1950,
Achuzia surreptitiously boarded the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Amstelkerk</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
a Dutch passenger and cargo vessel which plied its trade on the coast of West
Africa.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">9</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> This was
likely executed while the crew were occupied with the task of loading cargo.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">10</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He made his way over the
ship’s coal bunkers and found a rope store where he concealed himself. The
steamer was destined for the port of Amsterdam, and he knew that if he remained
undetected until the ship departed Dakar, Senegal, the last port of call before
heading to Plymouth, he would accomplish his mission. There Captain R. DeWyn
ordered a complete search of the ship and later received an “all clear” report.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">11</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He survived the security
sweep, by which time he was down to a loaf of bread and a bottle of water, for
the remaining nine-day journey.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">12</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Dressed only in a cotton shirt and a pair of trousers, the nights became colder
once the ship crossed the Tropical Atlantic realm into the Temperate Northern
Atlantic realm. Achuzia would later insist that it “was so cold that I was not
hungry.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">13</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the eight
days which followed the ship’s departure from Dakar, four stowaways, one of
them Achuzia, emerged at intervals before the ship docked at Plymouth, the port
city situated in Devon, southwest England. It was Saturday, March 25th.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">14</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He had been unaware of
the others, one of whom did not have the requisite paper of identification.
Achuzia, along with two Gambian stowaways Kalifa Drameh and Samuel Maden, was
allowed to disembark.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">15</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Having no baggage, all three bare-footed men proceeded through the gates before
forty-one fare-paying passengers came ashore. The three were taken to the
Ministry of Labour office in Treville street to sign-on and receive the
benefits to which other British subjects were entitled. After completing the
registration process, Achuzia was taken by a Ministry of Labour welfare officer
to the offices of the Council of Social Services where along with the other
two, he was provided with “footwear and suitable clothing before arrangements
were made to secure them a meal and suitable accommodation.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">16</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He later conducted an
interview with the local newspaper, the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Western
Evening Herald, </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">which reported that Achuzia intended to go to London “as
soon as possible.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">17</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The unorthodox
arrival of Joseph Achuzia was one of many episodes involving West African
stowaways which was causing resentment among sections of the British public. In
an article published earlier that month on Sunday, March 12th, the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Sunday Sun</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> reported that “Coloured men
from British colonies who are getting into Britain by stowing away on ships are
creating an ever-growing problem”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">18 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It quoted an official of the National Assistance Board in
the northeast of England as saying that “almost without exception, they were
living on public funds in preference to working for a living.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">19</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The threat of prison
offered no deterrence because the presentation of relevant documents offered
protection from repatriation and a guarantee to the entitlements offered by the
welfare system created after the war by the Labour government headed by Clement
Atlee.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">20</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> It was the
lure of the “social services in Britain” which trumped the eagerness to find
work given the assessment by an immigration official that “the majority of stowaways
leave home where living conditions are 20 times worse than in the worst slums
of (Britain)”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">21</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After reading
the article on Achuzia’s arrival, one S.B. Philpott, a master mariner, felt
compelled to write to the editor of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Western
Evening Herald</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> about his amazement at the “solicitude” with which Achuzia
and the two other stowaways had been treated on arrival at Plymouth.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">22 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He asserted that a
stowaway is “a common thief,” adding that he “has stolen a passage and it seems
utterly immoral to condone the offence. He is as much a criminal as a burglar
or a pickpocket, and it is a pity that an aura of glamour is allowed to
surround him.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">23</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The letter came
to the attention of Achuzia who responded as follows:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">Sir,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">Could you
permit us space in your paper to answer the comment of Mr. S.B. Philpott,
master mariner.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;">Stowing away is
a tradition adopted from the Western civilisation. In the hot countries there
is nothing of such nature, but after the English people showed us what stowing
away means and its benefits, we also adopted it</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Being British
subjects we are entitled to a place on British soil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;">JOSEPH ACHUZIA
and M. UZOMA.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">24</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia made
his way to London where he found lodgings on Randolph Avenue in Maida Vale. He
found work as a temporary postman, a job for which he received £4 and 18
shillings a week.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">25</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
It was while working in this role that he experienced his first brush with the
law. In the early hours of the morning on March 11th, 1951, Achuzia was passing
the Noah’s Ark public house on Oxford Street in West London when he noticed
that the pub had a broken window. He helped himself to a bottle of brandy and
continued walking until he was stopped and searched by a police officer
identified as Detective Sergeant Hoskin who proceeded to apprehend him. Hoskin,
who had noticed the broken window before Achuzia had passed by, had taken the
precaution of counting the bottles of spirits on a shelf behind the hole in the
window. There were 18 of them. He kept a lookout and after Achuzia had passed
by, he recounted them and found 17 left. He proceeded to overtake Achuzia who
claimed that he had found the bottle “on the pavement.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">26</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> His explanation was rejected by the justices
of the peace at Marlborough Magistrates Court who had heard the pub’s licensee,
Frank Ernest Woodward identify the bottle of brandy as one item of £30 worth of
stock which had been stolen from his premises. Achuzia was convicted of theft
and fined £3.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">27 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It
was not the most auspicious start to life in Britain.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">At this point,
the recorded history of Achuzia goes blank. Although he would make repeated
references to his having come to Britain to study law and economics while being
sponsored by his community in Nigeria, there is no evidence that Achuzia
pursued any studies in these disciplines at any level. There is also no
evidence that he received training as an aeronautical engineer or as an
electrical engineer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The early part
of the 1950s saw the eruption of the war in the Korean Peninsula between the
communist-backed north and the south which was composed of a United States-led
coalition fighting under the auspices of a United Nations mandate.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">28</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Achuzia would claim that
he served as a conscript of the British Army during this war while using the
name “George Taylor” and that he was captured by northern forces and held as a
prisoner of war before he was released.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">29 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He also told Peter Worthington, a reporter for the Toronto
Telegram News Service that he had been “a lieutenant with the Australians in
the Korean War and later with Britain’s Kent Fusiliers in the abortive Suez
invasion of 1956”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">30</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">None of these
assertions are true.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The only result
of searches conducted for a person serving Commonwealth forces in Korea while
bearing the name “George Taylor” is that of Brigadier George Taylor, the
Commander of the 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">31 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia never gave a reason as to why he
would have needed to change his name. He modified his name on occasions to
include middle names such as “Christopher,” “Brown” and “Wilson.” He also went
by the name of “Joseph Patterson” but never “George Taylor.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">32</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The criteria for being
subject to peacetime conscription under the National Service system was that
the person be an able-bodied male age between 17 and 21, and a British subject.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">33</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> While Achuzia fulfilled
each criterion -he was officially reported to be still 20 years old at the time
of his conviction for theft in April 1951- the unofficial policy of the
authorities was not to conscript the vast majority of Black and Asian British
male subjects. Indeed, only a few hundred Black and Asian soldiers served in
the ranks throughout the years of National Service and Achuzia was not one of
them.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">34</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Two important
developments in Achuzia’s life during this period were his marriage to an
English woman named Audrey Holt and his relocation to the city of Manchester in
northwest England. It was not a happy union. In March 1954, the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> reported that
24-year-old Audrey Achuzia had been jailed for three months “for keeping a
brothel in Arnott street in Hulme, Manchester, and allowing her four-year-old
child to live there.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">35</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
The paper quoted her as telling the court that she and her two children had
been “left in desperate circumstances by her husband.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">36</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> They would have a total of four children but
by the late 1950s they had separated, and all children were put into the care
of Manchester Corporation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">37</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia himself
lived on the edge and continued to fall foul of the law. In May 1955, he was
charged on separate counts of fraud under the Larceny Act for “converting to
his own use household goods obtained on hire-purchase”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">38 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although he was described in court as having
become the proprietor of a Manchester private hire car service, he was impecunious,
and he informed the presiding stipendiary magistrate F. Bancroft Turner that he
could not afford to pay for a defence lawyer.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">39</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> As had been the case when he had previously
stood before a criminal court, Achuzia brought up the story that he had been
funded by the “Asaba tribe” in order to pursue his studies in “law and
economics.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">40</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Whereas
he had told the court in 1951 that he was receiving an allowance of £6 and 15
shillings, on this occasion he said that he had been provided a £750 annual
fund for his study expenses.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">41
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia told the court that his tribe financed him through income
received from their ownership of plantations. His application for legal aid was
accepted, with Turner wryly noting that he was not sure if the plantations in
Africa are not castles in Spain. Achuzia pled guilty and was sentenced to a
year’s imprisonment on both counts with each of the sentences running
concurrently.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">42</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The next year
Achuzia was in the news again, this time in connection with the discovery of
the battered body of a woman who had been murdered on a property of which he
had been identified as the non-resident owner</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">.43 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On the morning of August 30th, 1956,
Achuzia, whose living address was given as at Crumpsall Road, Manchester, went
to the house in Bramwell Street, Ardwick, Manchester and knocked on the door.
He had expected Anita Marjorie Butcher to answer and on getting no response
entered the sparsely furnished house through the wide-opened back door. Then he
climbed up the stairs and entered a bedroom where he found Butcher lying across
a bed. She had suffered various stab wounds to the chest and abdomen, and part
of her body had been burned. A wooden chair, which had been used to inflict head
injuries on Butcher, was positioned on top of the bed. Fragments of the chair
were embedded in her face, a testament to the savagery of the attack to which
she had been subjected to by the killer John William Speight.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">44</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On September
18th, Achuzia told Salford Magistrates Court, which was holding committal
proceedings, that he had initially thought that Butcher was sleeping, “but then
I saw the blood all over the place and I ran for the police.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">45</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Speight was subsequently
committed for trial at Manchester Crown Court for the murder not only of the
25-year-old Butcher, but also that of Mary Pearson, a 45-year-old married
woman, whom he had killed in Salford the day before he had subjected Butcher to
the same fate.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">46</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While he had
played no part in the homicide of Butcher, the case exposed Achuzia as a man
who lived off the immoral earnings of prostitutes. The court had been informed
that he had given the keys of the property at Bramwell Street to two women, one
of whom had been Butcher. The newspapers noted that the prosecutor made clear
that both women “were using the premises for the purpose of prostitution.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">47</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">That Achuzia
had become entrenched in entrepreneurial activities which traversed the
criminal law was made clear in another case brought before F. Bancroft Turner,
the stipendiary magistrate who had convicted him of fraud in 1955. The </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> of December 2nd,
1958 reported that the premises on which a club named The Students’ Social
Centre and Silvery Moon Club located in Upper Brook Street, Manchester had been
raided on three occasions by police.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">48 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The club had been selling drinks to customers into the early
hours in contravention of licensing laws. Achuzia admitted that he was the
owner of the premises but denied the claim by the police that he operated the
club. He was fined a total of £78 with the alternative of three months jail.
The club was also struck off the register.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">49</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The club may
also have been used by Achuzia as an alternative avenue to earn money through
prostitution. One of the plain clothes police officers who conducted the raid
claimed that a prostitute had approached him.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">50</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Achuzia had become a well-known figure to
Manchester police as the 1950s was drawing to a close. At his trial for
attempting to obtain a car logbook by false pretences, a police officer told
the court that Achuzia was a “former law student, son and heir of a chief of a
Nigerian tribe and now the owner of drinking clubs in Manchester.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">51</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Using the pseudonym of
“Joseph Patterson,” Achuzia had given cheques worth £100 to a Manchester dealer
to begin buying a car on hire purchase. The cheques were dishonoured. He had
not been given the logbook and applied for one in Middlesex where he was tried,
convicted and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">52</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He appears to
have kept out of trouble until May of 1964 when he was charged with obtaining
£300 by false pretences with intent to defraud.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">53</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Achuzia had made out a cheque of £300 to
cover the insurance for an order of 100,000 cycle registration plates he had
made with Charles Whitaker, a manufacturer of plastics. Later, he told Whitaker
that he did not have funds in his bank to meet the amount on the cheque and
showed Whitaker a cheque stub to support his statement. Whitaker had then
handed him a cheque for that amount. Liverpool County Sessions accepted
Achuzia’s argument that Whitaker had lent him the money as a private loan which
“had nothing to do with any business arrangement between them.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">54</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia had by
the beginning of the early 1960s begun adjusting his personal and business
life. He divorced Audrey and in 1962 married Josephine Ethel Hayes who had
given birth to their son Simon in 1960.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">55 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although his transaction with Charles Whitaker had gone awry,
he had been engaged in a legitimate form of enterprise connected to Nigeria.
This pointed to the future. He had begun to tire of Britain and burdened no
doubt by his criminal record and tainted reputation, he made the decision to
return to Nigeria with the intention of establishing a business which would
specialise in the manufacture of electrical components and their installation
in domestic and industrial settings.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">56</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">With the
backing of several British acquaintances he formed Electrical Power Engineering
Limited which he located in the seaport city of Port Harcourt and served as its
managing director.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">57</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Expansion was rapid according to Achuzia who wrote in his civil war memoir that
at the time Nigeria’s troubles broke out in 1966, the company had branches “in
every major town in the Eastern Region and the Mid-Western Region.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">58</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> In fact, he claimed that
after the Electric Company of Nigeria (ECN), his company was the largest single
employer within those two regions of qualified electrical operatives from
various Nigerian institutes of technology.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">59</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Life was good and as Ethel recalled to the
author Michael Gould in an interview in 2007, the family “lived in style”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">60</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But this would all begin
to change as Nigeria descended into chaotic uncertainty.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A concatenation
of politically motivated violence which had made the Western region ungovernable,
and which had brought insecurity to the Tiv areas of the Middle Belt reached
new levels in 1966. On January 15th, a group of middle-ranking officers staged
a coup which toppled the civilian government that had ruled the country since
it was granted independence by Britain in October 1960. The prime minister,
minister of finance, premiers of the Western and Northern regions, as well as
several senior army officers were assassinated.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">61</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> While the mutiny was crushed, the officer who
emerged as Nigeria's first military Head of State, Major General Johnson
Aguiyi-Ironsi, was unable to stabilise the situation as grievances mounted
owing to the perception that the mutiny had been orchestrated by mainly
officers of Eastern region origin while the victims had been from the Northern
and Western regions.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">62</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The subsequent
decisions of Ironsi, an Igbo from the Eastern region, did little to dampen the
sense of unease and on July 29th, he was overthrown in a violent uprising
staged by mainly Northern-origin military personnel.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">63</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Over 300 officers and men, mainly of Igbo
origin, were assassinated.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">64</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
This ‘revenge coup’ followed anti-Igbo pogroms staged in the Northern region in
May, and preceded further pogroms directed at Igbos in September and October of
1966.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">65 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The fracture
of Nigeria appeared to be imminent when the military governor of the Eastern
region, Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu refused to accept the authority of
Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon, the Christian officer who hailed from a
minority group in the Northern Region, as the legitimate successor of Ironsi.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">66</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Looking on from
his base in Port Harcourt, Achuzia admitted to having the attitude of a
“disinterested observer watching a tragic drama of life and death unfold before
me.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">67</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But this would
change dramatically, and he would credit a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel
Ogbugo Kalu, one of many Igbo military officers forced to flee from the
Northern region and other parts of the federation to the Eastern region, with
playing a major part in stimulating his “involvement and commitment to Biafra.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">68</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> One of his early
contributions to the cause was to accompany a delegation of Eastern region
officials on a clandestine mission to purchase weapons and ammunition in Europe
in October 1966.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">69</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Thus, months
before the failure of the meeting of Gowon, Ojukwu and other members of the
Supreme Military Council in the Ghanaian town of Aburi in January 1967, the
Eastern region was gearing up for secession which would be declared by Ojukwu
on May 30th, 1967.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">70 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
order to do this, the region would need to harness all the manpower and
components of industry it could manage to make a future independent state
viable. Achuzia’s company would have a part to play in achieving this by
repurposing much of its production capacity to servicing the military needs of
the yet to be declared nation-state. In this connection, Lieutenant Colonel
Kalu took him to Enugu, the capital of the Eastern region to introduce him to
Colonel Ejike Aghanya, a trained engineer whom Ojukwu had tasked with bringing
together scientists, engineers and others with specialist skills.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">71</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Aghanya became the head
of the Biafran Agency for Research and Production (RAP). The objective of RAP,
which was officially recorded as being founded in April 1967, would be to
produce indigenously made armaments for the soon-to-be mobilised secessionist
army.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">72</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia’s
meeting with both Aghanya and Dr. Mark Chijioke, Nigeria’s first engineering
professor, who would head one of the units within RAP, led to Biafra’s first
stanza of attack: a campaign of terror and sabotage in Lagos and its environs.
Ojukwu had directed that RAP create timed bombs and Achuzia’s factory was used
to manufacture them.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">73</span>
On Sunday July 2nd, 1967, four days before the shooting war began, a Biafran
saboteur drove a car packed with explosives to the entrance of Police
Headquarters at Lion Building on Lagos Island but was turned back when he could
not prove his identity. He then reversed the vehicle into a petrol filling
station across the road and fled just before it </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXap54ltMcY"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">exploded</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. An adjacent house was destroyed, and four of its occupants including
two children were killed. The explosion also wrecked the filling station and
ripped windows out of the five-storey police building. Two hours later, a
second explosion ripped through a garage in Yaba, a suburb of Lagos, and
injured three.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">74</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A third bomb
blast occurred on Wednesday, July 19th when a Biafran terrorist was driving an
empty petrol tanker carrying a large bomb which prematurely exploded on a
crowded street in front of the Casino Cinema in Yaba. Twenty people including
the saboteur were killed.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">75</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Achuzia noted in his memoir that he “regretted that the driver chose to drive
it to the cinema…instead of the target it was designed for.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">76 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">What target it was
designed for he did not reveal. He also recalled that a plan to send a boat
loaded with time bombs which would be detonated at Lagos harbour was abandoned.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">77</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Here Achuzia may have
been referring to the planting of a crude time-bomb at the Total and Mobil
depot at the Apapa port complex which was disarmed by an officer attached to
the army’s electrical and engineering corps.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">78</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> However, the attacks achieved little ends and
only succeeded in increasing anti-Igbo sentiment which threatened to imperil
the safety of thousands of Igbos who had continued to live in Lagos.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The “police
action” which the newly promoted Major General Gowon had announced would crush
the rebellion by the Eastern region quickly showed results. The university town
of Nsukka in the northern sector of Biafra fell in mid-July, and on July 25th,
the Nigerian Navy successfully landed troops of the 3rd Infantry Division at
Bonny, a continuum of the plan to encircle Biafra which had begun by the
institution of a sea blockade.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">79</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
In order to relieve the pressure on the northern sector, Ojukwu made the decision
to order the invasion of the Mid-West, the region from which Achuzia hailed. He
had been an elected delegate representing the Mid-West at the consultative
meeting at which the vote was taken to secede.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">80</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia had by
now joined the Biafran militia which his friend Lieutenant Colonel Kalu had
helped to create in Port Harcourt.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">81</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Although not formally a part of the Biafran military, the
militias would play an increasingly pivotal role in defending Igbo communities
and assisting in military operations conducted by the army whether geared
towards offensive manoeuvres or withdrawal. Achuzia became intimately involved
with designing the methods by which the men and women of the militia were
trained in both infantry and intelligence sections of the organisation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">82</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The first batch of 5,000
volunteers completed their training at the end of June 1967. A company was
dispatched down the Bonny river to defend the oil terminal island of Bonny,
while others were assigned to parts of Port Harcourt and “various riverine
hamlets” where they were to await instructions on how to aid the Biafran army.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">83 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Biafran military
presence in Bonny had been quickly overwhelmed by forces of the Federal 3rd
Division, so the next engagement for Achuzia’s militia would be as part of the
aforementioned invasion of the Mid-West.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Under the
military governorship of Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier) David Ejoor, the
region, which was reconstituted as one of the 12 states created by Gowon on the
eve of the Eastern region’s secession, had since the Aburi accord sought to
maintain a neutrality in a crisis prompted by what many acknowledged to have
been a rivalry between the Northern and Eastern regions.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">84</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> A key reason for this was that it was
home to the most diverse concentrations of ethnic groups in the federation.
Along with Igbo sub-groups such as Achuzia’s Anioma kinsmen were the Ijaw, Edo,
Uhrobo and Itshekiri. Most of Ejoor’s military staff were officers of Igbo
extraction who staged a coup as a Biafran force of 3,000 crossed the River
Niger and made its way to Benin, the capital city.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">85</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Seeing his position as being helpless in the
light of what he and the Federal Military Government viewed as the treachery of
his Igbo staff officers, Ejoor went into hiding.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">86</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On August 17th,
the Biafran leadership proceeded to appoint Major Albert Okonkwo as the
military administrator of the occupied state.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">87</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But the occupation was to be short and
tumultuous. During the invasion, some Biafran soldiers had paused to kill
people of Northern region origin who lived in the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogbe Awusa</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, or Hausa Quarter of Asaba, Achuzia’s hometown.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">88</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> This was in revenge for
the anti-Igbo massacres which had taken place the previous year in the North.
The conduct of Biafran soldiers and the policies pursued by the Biafran
administration generated a great deal of antipathy from the non-Igbo population.
Many in the new administration had taken the Mid-West stance of neutrality and
its failure to support secession as essentially anti-Igbo stances.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">89</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Soldiers of the
self-styled army of liberation often conducted themselves in an undisciplined
manner, particularly in urban areas such as Benin, Sapele and Warri. In Warri,
the men of the Biafran 18th Battalion went on looting sprees while searching
for anything they could convert to cash, while in other parts of the Mid-West,
non-Igbos were subjected to torture, imprisonment and death on suspicion of
having sympathy for the Federal cause. Rape, extortion and seizure of property
were common occurrences.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">90</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Federal counterattack
in late September and the rapid loss of ground only served to increase the
Biafran perception of the non-Igbo communities as saboteurs acting in support
of the Federal side. Biafran soldiers acted violently against the local
populace as they retreated. In Abudu, over 300 bodies were found in the Ossiomo
River and on September 20, many non-Igbos were slaughtered at Boji-Boji Agbor.
In Asaba, Ibusa and Agbor non-Igbos were taken into custody by Biafran soldiers
and transported in two lorries to a rubber plantation along the Uromi-Agbor
Road where they were executed.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">91</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It is no
surprise therefore that terrible reprisals were directed against Igbos as the
Federal army advanced. For instance, an estimated 200 Igbos lost their lives
when the Federal takeover of Benin City began on September 21st. Later, mobs in
places such as Warri and Sapele would turn on the Igbos. The slaughter
culminated in the Asaba Massacre which was conducted by federal troops between
October 5th and 7th. Between 500 and 700 townspeople were murdered, most having
been lined up and executed in the town square of Ogbeosowa village.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">92</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia had
been an active participant in the invasion which had been led by Brigadier
Victor Banjo, a Yoruba officer who was later accused of treason prior to his
summary trial and execution in late September of 1967.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">93</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Achuzia was tasked with arresting several
other Biafran officers whose loyalty was considered suspect. These included
Lieutenant Colonel Adewale Ademoyega, the Yoruba Chief of Staff of the Biafran
101 Division.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In his memoir,
Ademoyega recalled Achuzia and an officer of the Biafran army bursting into his
home as he breakfasted in his dining room. Pointing their guns at him while
bellowing “You are now under arrest. Hands up, or we shall (open) fire.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">94</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Angered by the threat,
Ademoyega claimed that he bolted from his seat to retrieve a submachine gun
from his bedroom, cocked it and promised to “finish” both men off if they
attempted to shoot him. Achuzia’s demeanour changed. He then informed Ademoyega
that he had not come to arrest Ademoyega but to summon him to see “His
Excellency,” that is, Ojukwu. Ademoyega finished his meal and handed over his
duties to Humphrey Chukwuka, an officer who like him had been involved in the
January 1966 coup.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">95</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It would not be
the last time that Achuzia would pull a gun on another officer and threaten to
shoot them. Rolf Steiner, Timothy Onwuatuegwu and Matthias Morah would be
subjected to the treatment during the course of the war.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">During the
occupation of the Mid-West, Achuzia, although still formally a militiaman,
inherited command of a portion of the troops used by Banjo who formed the
“Republic of Benin Division.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">96</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
He would remain attached to them despite his many later deployments at the
behest of Ojukwu.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In early
October, as Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Muhammed’s 2nd Infantry Division
continued to advance, the Biafrans retreated to Ukwute-Ugbor, a town a few
kilometres from Asaba. Achuzia, who was serving as a commander of troops, was
also forced to withdraw from the village of Umunede. Seeing that it would only
be a matter of time before federal forces reached Asaba, he felt compelled to
journey to Enugu to lobby Ojukwu to appoint him as the divisional commander of
Biafran forces of what remained of the Mid-West theatre. The commander
Brigadier Conrad Nwawo had been unable to resume his duties and Achuzia felt it
important that an Anioma native be given the responsibility of making this last
stand.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">97</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">After
convincing Ojukwu of this, Achuzia returned to Asaba to set up his operational
headquarters. He and the brigade-sized troops that remained would be all that
stood against the Federal army moving across the River Niger into Onitsha via
the River Niger bridge. The 2nd Division entered Asaba at Okpanam in the city’s
north end and confronted Achuzia’s force at St. Patrick’s College where the
defenders were dug in. It was a furious but futile battle and on the evening of
October 4th, Achuzia ordered his men to retreat to Onitsha. The bridge was
blown up the following day.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">98</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">With the
withdrawal completed, Achuzia was given a role in defending Onitsha from the
expected attempt by the Federal 2nd Division to cross the River Niger. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Murtala
Muhammed had two options. He could stage a risk-laden amphibious crossing. Or
he could lead his troops 160 km northwards to the town of Idah where the
crossing would present less danger and then proceed southwards to Onitsha. He
chose to disregard the advice of army headquarters in Lagos and opted for the
former. The 2nd Division pounded Biafran positions for just over a week before
sending 5,000 troops in 10 boats across the River Niger. They landed on the
other side of the bank at which point the Biafran soldiers of the 11th Division
withdrew from the centre of the city. But instead of pressing the advantage by
pursuing the retreating Biafrans, the Federal soldiers proceeded to loot and
burn down Onitsha Market.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">99</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The pause
enabled the Biafrans time to regroup. From a vantage point at the timber yard
of the Ministry of works, Achuzia, who was commanding the 11th Battalion of the
11th Division of the Biafran army, had watched the soldiers land and disembark
with their armoured cars before proceeding to destroy the abandoned market.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">100</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He was tasked with
defending the area between Atani and Ndoni and was part of a two-pronged counterattack.
Achuzia’s 11th Battalion made its approach through the New Market road while Colonel
Asam Nsudo’s 18th Battalion’s route of attack was through the Old Market road.
They proceeded to surround the Nigerian soldiers, many of whom were either
killed or taken prisoner.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">101</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Undeterred, Muhammed selected a fresh batch of 5,000 men to make a second
crossing. But many of them were cut down in a hail of bullets fired from gun
nests and artillery rounds lobbed from the east bank of the River.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">102</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Muhammed stubbornly
continued to ignore advice not to make a direct crossing and the third attempt
predictably ended in calamity.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The battle to
defend Onitsha was a personal triumph for Achuzia. Impressed by his efforts,
Brigadier Conrad Nwawo, the divisional commander, made a recommendation to
Brigadier Alexander Madiebo, the Biafran Army Chief of Staff, that Achuzia be
commissioned into the Biafran army. Achuzia subsequently received a commission
at the rank of major. It was a decision which Madiebo would later reflect on as
“the greatest mistake of my military career.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">103</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo’s
reminiscence reflected the sometimes extreme animus held by many Biafran army
officers towards Achuzia, a state of affairs that stood in stark contrast to
his popularity among the Biafran populace during the civil war. Lieutenant
Colonel Ben Gbulie remembered Achuzia as “a former militia officer, slow
speaking, with a kind of killer instinct … With a penchant for publicity, he
was reputed for claiming ghost victories. He was also a feared martinet.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">104</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo on his
part felt Achuzia to be a publicity hound whose reputation for competence and
achievement was vastly overrated:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Achuzia realised as soon as he got into the
Army that the two vital requirements needed by an officer to win the admiration
and respect of the people of Biafra were publicity and playing to the gallery.
He, in short, saw the vital need for doing and saying what the people wanted to
see or hear whether those things impeded the war effort or not. Like a few
others, he discovered the magic of speeches of glorious intentions among the
Biafran public, even if these were not followed up by action.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">105</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet, these
scathing appraisals of Achuzia invite the obvious question: why did Ojukwu
appear to favour him? The Biafran Head of State deployed Achuzia to virtually
all the sectors of Biafra’s war effort as though he were a kind of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">deus-ex machina</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Long after the war,
Ojukwu continued to hold Achuzia in high esteem, perceiving him as a dependable
commander who could motivate troops and get the job done.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Much has been
written about Ojukwu’s method of governance as having an undertone of
encouraging organisational conflict as a means of preserving his power and
authority. And while there may be some truth to that, it is clear that to
Ojukwu, Achuzia, a man who never wrote an operational order, represented the
composite of his idea of the essential qualities required for a warrior in the
service of the cause of the survival of Biafra. In other words, Achuzia had the
necessary levels of ideological indoctrination which Ojukwu clearly believed
many in the professional soldier class lacked. He said as much when he was once
asked about whether he subscribed to any theory of war:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">I wasn’t trained at Sandhurst … I found that
the classic mode of that war was wrong, and, in fact, I had a lot of problems
with my commanders. One of the first problems I had was this insistence that an
officer has to be a gentleman. Yes, in
peacetime you have to be; in warfare he has to be a beast … What I want from my
officer is victory in battle. If they ate with their feet, I didn’t care but
let them go (to) war and win battles … So there was a dichotomy in the Biafran
Army symbolised by the ex-Nigerian military men and people like Achuzia who had
joined them.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">106</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Thus, for
Ojukwu ardour, even fanaticism, trumped professional ability.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Just how much
faith Ojukwu had in Achuzia was demonstrated by his decision in January 1968 to
appoint Achuzia as the Division Operations Officer for the Biafran 11th
Division. One effect of the appointment was to effectively subordinate
Brigadier Nwawo to him. In a complete reversal of fortune, Nwawo became
Achuzia’s chief of staff. Another was that it enabled Achuzia to report
directly to Ojukwu, thus bypassing Nwawo within the division and Madiebo at
army headquarters.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">107</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Federal 2nd
Division seized the town of Awka in the same month of Achuzia’s elevation. Udi
also fell in the early part of February. This development created a direct
route to Onitsha and the city might have been for the taking if Muhammad’s
troops had pressed on. Instead, as had happened during the temporary landing at
Onitsha, they spent three days destroying the town which according to Frederick
Forsyth, the pro-Biafran ex-Reuters journalist, gave time for Achuzia to
organise the 29th Battalion to mount an attack against Nsukka, the university
town which Federal forces had taken only ten days after the formal start of the
war.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">108</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Several Biafran
army officers would later accuse Achuzia of consistently losing interest in
operations which he had started and occupying himself elsewhere only to return
when the situation was better.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">109
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The defence of Onitsha is given as one example where officers such as
Brigadier Nwawo and Colonel Aghanya maintained a presence as did Colonel Louis
Chude-Sokei, the Commander of the Biafran Air Force, who lost his life in
Onitsha in early March of 1968.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">110</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
But Achuzia’s rationale for going over 150 km from Onitsha had been to disrupt
attempts by the Nigerian 2nd and 1st Divisions from linking up. On Wednesday,
February 7th, a small Biafran contingent commenced the operation by attacking
the main supply artery south of Nsukka to Enugu and this was followed the next
day by reinforced units mortar shelling the southwest corner of Nsukka.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">111</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Forsyth, who
played a major part in shaping the legend of Achuzia, recounted Achuzia as
approaching Nsukka from the north, after having first taken the town of Adoru.
Before making a thrust into Nsukka, Achuzia is supposed to have gone into the
enemy-held town alone while posing as an “elderly farmer anxious to cooperate
with the Nigerians” and was “even greeted in passing by the Nigerian Commander
in Nsukka.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">112</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Satisfied with his reconnoitring adventure, Achuzia returned to his battalion
and donned his uniform before he and the 29th “swept in on the undefended
side”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">113</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He is then
claimed to have linked up with Colonel Michael Ivenso at Ukehe, a midway point
between Nsukka and Enugu, the latter which Achuzia also wanted retaken.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">114</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But the
veracity of this sequence of events is unclear. The Federal side declared that
they had foiled an attempt by the Biafrans to take the town. But even if a
portion of Nsukka had been retaken, both Achuzia and Ivenso were ordered by
Ojukwu to redeploy southwards so that they could join in the heavy
confrontation with Muhammed’s 2nd Division between Awka and Abagana. While
Muhammed’s main force continued inching its way south towards Onitsha, he made
a detour to the town of Ogidi, 13 KM from Onitsha. The taking of Ogidi was a
continuum of the conquests of Awka and Udi because Muhammed was turning the
flank of Biafran forces in Onitsha.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">115</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile the
2nd Division, spearheaded by the 102nd and 105th battalions, which were in the
overall command of Major Shehu Yar’Adua, finally broke through Onitsha’s
defences on March 21st and the centre of the town was taken four days later.
Achuzia’s thinking was to get behind the Nigerian formations and follow them
closely enough so that his force would spring at both Federal battalions before
they had a chance to dig in and take up defensive positions around Onitsha. But
this plan was foiled when another Biafran battalion came across Achuzia’s force
and mistook them for a Federal force. When the misunderstanding was clarified,
Achuzia continued to Onitsha where Nigerian troops were ‘mopping up’ the
suburbs and the outskirts of the city.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">116</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It was on the
city outskirts that Achuzia’s force came across the corpses of 300 members of
the congregation of Apostolic Church who were </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGVcWdLPW4U"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">slaughtered</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> by troops of the 2nd Division. While most civilians were fleeing as
Onitsha fell, they had stayed behind to pray for deliverance. Forsyth recounted
how the hands of the victims had been tied behind their backs and their bodies
found stacked on top of each other “piled as high as a man’s shoulder like logs
stacked on the roadside.”<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">117</span>
Achuzia’s troops reportedly refused to move any further until the bodies were
moved. The 18-hour delay meant that the battalions of the 2nd Division were
well dug-in by the time the Biafran 29th Battalion had them in their sights.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia, by now
a Lieutenant Colonel, surmised that he had two options. One was to storm their
positions in Onitsha, while the other would be to head northwards to intercept
a Federal force heading towards Abagana. A row supposedly broke out between
Achuzia and other Biafran commanders. Achuzia discounted the first option,
fearing that ammunition supplies were too low or, at least, less than optimum
to stage an offensive. Instead, Achuzia favoured the idea of staging an ambush
of a further batch of troops of the 2nd Division while they were passing
through Abagana.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">118</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Here the
passage of time has not provided clarity on whether the genesis of the ambush
plan was predicated on specific intelligence obtained by the Biafran side, or
whether it was a hunch of Achuzia’s. The disputant commanders are said to have
believed that there was no larger force following the Nigerian battalions which
had entered Onitsha and those which had swung eastwards towards Ogidi. There
was no immediate assault on Nigerian lines at Onitsha, but there was an ambush
which turned into one of the greatest military successes of the Biafran army
during the war.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Major Jonathan
Uchendu, the head of “39 Strike Force”, a unit carved out of Colonel Nsodor’s
18th Battalion of the 11th Division, was tasked with a force of around 500 men
to take positions around the main road going through Abagana. Armed with
mortars, rocket propelled projectiles and the RAP-made <i>Ogbunigwe</i> bomb, Uchendu lay in wait at the part of the road
situated on the outskirts of Abagana. Eventually, on March 31st a 102-vehicle
convoy of the 2nd Division materialised. Uchendu acted in correct military
tradition by insisting that his men were to patiently lay in wait until he gave
the signal to commence firing. Soon after he had given the signal, a direct hit
on an 8,000-gallon tanker by a mortar succeeded in creating a 400-metre
conflagration that spread backwards and incinerated men and 350-tons of
equipment within a short period of time. Most of those who survived the inferno
were cut down in a hail of gunfire. Around 600 Federal troops died in the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6-EAbHk7A8"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">attack</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">119</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The spectacular
success for the ambush came to be attributed to Achuzia whom officers such as
Madiebo begrudged for taking credit for a raid at which he was not physically
present. But the preponderance of evidence points to Achuzia as having
conceived of the operation, which was carried out by Major Uchendu, who of
course came under his divisional control. It was around this time in the
aftermath of the Abagana ambush that Achuzia earned the moniker ‘Hannibal,’ due
by large measure, Madiebo felt, to the efforts of Achuzia in selling his
version of events to the Biafran press who Madiebo recalled “christened him
Hannibal on the spot. In a matter of days, he ensured that his name was on the
lips of every Biafran.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">120</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After the fall
of Onitsha, the 11th Division retreated from the city’s approaches to Nnewi.
Elsewhere in the south where the 3rd Infantry Division led by Colonel Benjamin
Adekunle had expanded its base after the landing at Bonny, the situation was
looking dire for the Biafrans. Afam, Bori and Okrika had fallen by the midpoint
of May.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">121</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ojukwu
relieved Achuzia of its command and on May 19th, he was appointed as the
commander of the 52 Brigade in the Port Harcourt sector. He arrived while Port
Harcourt and its environs was being subjected to heavy artillery bombardment.
The sector had been softened up in the preceding weeks by Ilyushin bombers.
Achuzia’s effort to counteract the advancing Nigerians was severely hampered by
the mass of human traffic making its way out of the city in a north-eastward
direction to the city of Aba.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">122</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
The Biafrans gave a good account of themselves. Adekunle admitted to the press
that his soldiers were meeting “fierce resistance,” so much so that he dubbed
one district as “Hate Sector.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">123</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Yet, with far less resources at their disposal than that of the Federal side,
there was little that Achuzia could do to stem the tide of Adekunle’s forces,
and the city fell within a week of his appointment.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The capture of
Port Harcourt was described by </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily
Telegraph</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> correspondent Norman Kirkham as “the most important strategic
victory of the civil war.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">124
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The capture of the airport, Kirkham reminded, meant that the
secessionist republic would be unable to receive supplies via the Super
Constellations that flew in from the Portuguese-controlled island of Sao Tome.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">125</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia’s
failure to prevent Port Harcourt’s fall did not dim his rising star. Nor did it
dim his appetite for a fight. In an article published in the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Sydney Morning Herald</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> in June 1968,
Achuzia, described as “Ojukwu’s best commander in the field”, stated that “this
(war) is a contest in pain. We have suffered too much to go back.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">126 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Ethel, who went back to
England with their son Simon in September, echoed this when telling the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily Mirror</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> that “My husband is
determined to fight to the end, and if necessary to die there.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">127</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> She was photographed at
Gatwick Airport with three Igbo orphans who had arrived with her and sixty
other refugees from the war. She revealed that Achuzia had insisted that she
and Simon be evacuated, and although she had begged him to stay, her pleading
and her tears were to no avail. He feared for their safety. She told the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Mirror</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">I begged him to let me stay. But he was final.
I had to leave. The Nigerian fighter bombers were swooping and strafing
children in their schools, the hospitals and in their homes. Their troops,
drunk on root gin, and drugged on Indian hemp, were ravaging the villages
around us. I knew when I kissed him that it might be the last time. But for the
sake of the children, it had to be. There was only death and danger to face
them.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">128</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The 3rd
Division had in the meantime been taking the fight to the secessionist army in
the Igbo heartland. Colonel Adekunle had launched ‘Operation OAU,’ an ambitious
attempt to end the war by taking the key cities of Owerri, Aba and Umuahia.
Achuzia was in the midst of the defence of the city of Aba which had fallen on
September 4th, 1968, after Adekunle’s forces had successfully executed a
flanking manoeuvre. Forsyth recounted that Achuzia had “nearly had a head-on
collision with a Nigerian Saladin as he swept around a corner.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">129</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He was next
involved in a struggle for control of the newly created Biafran 14th Division
with Navy Captain Wilfred Anuku. But Achuzia lost out when Ojukwu ordered Anuku
to accompany him to peace talks scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa, and
Colonel Ben Nwajei was given the command. Although a loss in his continuing
contest of wills with Madiebo, Achuzia was part of the successful effort of the
division in retaking the town of Oguta from Nigerian forces on September 12th.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">130</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">An initial
assault was beaten back by soldiers of the 3rd Division. It was so disastrous
that Ojukwu, who was near the theatre of war, left for Umuahia sent a signal to
Madiebo which stated that efforts to take Oguta were “fruitless.” Part of his
message read: “There is no basis for Achuzia’s optimism. Nwajei only hopes
while Anuku is hopeless.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">131</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
However, the second attack later that day by Achuzia and his cohorts Nwajei and
Anuku succeeded in expelling the Federal soldiers.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">132</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Later that
month, while at the head of 54 Commando Brigade, he was tasked with the
responsibility of defending the Obilagu airstrip from the Federal side which
was led by Major Abdullahi Shelleng of the “Jet” 22 battalion of the Federal
1st Infantry Division.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">133</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
The airstrip was one of the last vital conduits for the receipt by the Biafrans
of food and medical aid via the International Red Cross, as well as for the
clandestine supply of arms and ammunition.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">134</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia’s
brigade prepared to meet the Federal onslaught by establishing machine gun
defence posts at various intervals between the front and the town’s outskirts.
His men were armed with Czech-made Taku sub-machine guns which cackled in the
direction of Nigerian positions as the Nigerians fired shells from 105-mm
howitzers and 81-mm mortars.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">135</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
But they were forced to retreat as the Nigerian artillery began to find the
range. Achuzia ordered what was described as a “last suicidal” counterattack by
a company-sized group of commandos, but it was to no avail. This last gasp left
50 of his men dead, while the Federal side lost 10 soldiers and sustained 90
wounded.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">136</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> His men
retreated in great haste on the evening of September 27th, as a Red Cross
aeroplane circled helplessly above before heading elsewhere. One of the last
Biafran soldiers left a scribbled-down note containing an excerpt from
Shakespeare’s </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Macbeth</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Out, out brief candle, life’s but a walking
shadow.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">137</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When Biafra had
been declared it held a population of 14 million people within a territory of
approximately 29,000 square miles. This had shrunk to 6 million inhabitants
living within a radius of 60 miles.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">138 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Federal Military Government believed that the capture
of Obilagu airstrip was a portent of the imminent demise of the secessionists.
Lagos claimed that the war would be over in three weeks, and many awaited the
departure of Ojukwu who would seek refuge with the French embassy in
Libreville, Gabon, which it was felt would handle his transit along with an
expected group who would form a government-in-exile.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">139</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This may have
seemed a distinct possibility as Federal troops were mounting a two-pronged
attack on Okigwe, which if taken, would leave the road clear for an assault on
the Biafran’s provisional capital at Umuahia. But those who were aware of the
level of resistance knew all too well that thoughts of a quick ending to the
war were being overly optimistic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Soon after
Okigwe was lost to the Federal side at the beginning of October after a
lightning attack, Ojukwu appointed Achuzia to take over command of the 13th
Division which had been commanded by Brigadier Nwawo. His first act on assuming
command was to change the name of the division to the 15th Division on account
of the superstitious belief in the ill-luck of the number 13.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">140</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> However, Achuzia’s
skills as a commander could not surmount the constant issue of lack of materiel
faced by the Biafran army. The Nigerians had a good amount of armoured vehicles
such as the British-made Saladins and Ferrets which accompanied by artillery
shelling often led to advances which the Biafrans could not contain. They were
also dogged by shortages in ammunition. The average federal soldier went into
battle equipped with weapons such as the FN FAL battle rifle and the AK-47 and
Gewehr 3 assault rifles. In contrast, the Biafrans from the outset had to rely
on old bolt action rifles. Even the infusion of French supplied weapons did not
improve the quality of weaponry as France sent World War 2-era guns captured
from German and Italian forces. Often, they would have to go into battle with
no more than 10 rounds of ammunition per man. And each gun would be shared by
two soldiers so that if one was killed, the survivor took control of the
weapon.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">141</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Battle of
Okigwe followed a peculiar pattern of Biafrans winning and then losing
territory. Federal soldiers would make irresistible advances during which they
took territory. Next would come a Biafran counterattack that would drive out
the Nigerian side only for the Biafrans to succumb and surrender to the
Nigerians after they ran out of ammunition.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">142</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> A common saying among the underequipped
Biafran soldiers was that the Federal army functioned as their quartermaster.
In other words, they had to overcome the opposition in order to acquire a good
deal of their weapons and uniforms. The typical Biafran soldier was barefooted
and dressed in ragged uniforms. And this included Achuzia’s men who had managed
to relieve the Federal side of weapons and one Saladin.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">143</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although he was
fielding 4,000 troops against anything from 12,000 to 14,000 Federal soldiers,
Achuzia, typically dressed in camouflage fatigues while imperiously swinging
his silver-knobbed swagger stick, exuded confidence and optimism when holding
court with international journalists at the front lines. He had reason to be
given that he had driven the Federal army out of most of the town five days
after it had been captured.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">144</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
This had been achieved despite the ferocity of the mortars and shells being hurled
at his troops. When interviewed by a journalist of the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Chicago Daily News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> on Sunday, October 5th, his men had captured
three of the four hills surrounding Okigwe. “This is only a beginning,” he
said, as his men dug trenches and set up firing positions around the town.
“Give us another month and we will alter the whole picture.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">145</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">His confidence
was also based on his feeling that while Nigerian firepower was capable of
driving the Biafran army out of urban areas, the expanse of the bush meant that
the Federal side was not in control of as much territory as they touted. To
Hugh A. Mulligan of the Associated Press he said:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Why do you newspapermen write about how small
Biafra’s remaining territory is? The bush is vast and unconquerable. We could
hold out there easily for years. Cities are only recently a development. The
people know well how to get along in the bush.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">146</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He hoped to
break the pattern of regaining and losing territory because he felt that his
troops had enough food and ammunition to hold onto Okigwe. But it was not to
be. Part of the problem lay with Achuzia’s harsh methods of enforcing
discipline on the battlefield. He was aware that most of the foot soldiers who
formed the basis of the Biafran army did not have years of experience of being
trained in a manner which instilled the level of discipline required to
withstand the physical and psychological pressures of actual combat. Recruits
had only about 2 to 4 weeks of training before being sent to the front. They
also received an average of 15 minutes practice of firing a rifle.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">147</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Many were prone
to lose composure particularly when facing counterattacks so much so that they
would run away from the field. This Achuzia found intolerable. He does not seem
to have developed units of blocking detachments and so took it upon himself to personally
enforce battlefield discipline by threatening to shoot - or actually shoot
soldiers who retreated or who refused to advance. When he had been asked by a </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">New York Times</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> correspondent in May 1968
whether he had “fired on any Biafrans who had ran from their position during
battle”, he replied:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Yes, I have shot at several on the spot. There
must be military discipline. If a man must be killed so that others will fight,
we have to do it.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">148</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">His methods,
which did provide necessary ‘motivation,’ were also debilitating. The fear
which he instilled among the men serving under him and others further afield
was palpable. It led to his other moniker “Air Raid” which materialised at the
end of the struggle to control Okigwe. The story was that on the day of the
commencement of the operation, a Biafran administrator was driving towards the
frontline in a car which resembled Achuzia’s staff car. Thinking that the car
approaching was that of their commanding officer, some soldiers hastily
scrambled out of their trenches and foxholes in literal terror at the prospect
that Achuzia would unleash his brutal form of discipline. Observing the
soldiers, the administrator had thought that the men were responding to an air
raid announcement. The subsequent sobriquet stuck.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">149</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It was in such
a state of panic that the final counterattack on Okigwe ended. When Nigerian
resistance appeared to be unwavering and Biafran losses continued to mount,
several of Achuzia’s field commanders, fearful at his wrath, proceeded to
desert their positions. The troops under their command followed suit.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">150</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia appears
to have taken something of a hiatus from being a frontline commander after the
fall of Okigwe, although as with the period between the operation at Abagana
and his deployment to Obilagu strip, he was involved in some warfare, as well
as personality clashes with Biafran officers including Brigadier Patrick Amadi.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">151 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia was also
involved in a contest of wills with Rolf Steiner which led to a chain of events
that ended with Steiner’s expulsion from Biafra in December 1968. The drama
with Steiner, the source of which is solely from Achuzia’s memoir, was played
out between Achuzia’s frontline assignments at Okigwe in October 1968 and
Owerri in March 1969. He became embroiled with Steiner, the Commander of the
Biafran 4th Commando Brigade, during the German’s steering of “Operation
Hiroshima”, an ill-conceived attempt to retake Onitsha from the Federal 2nd
Division.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A former
sergeant in the French Foreign Legion, Steiner was an arrogant, imperious
figure who was loath to take orders from Biafran officers. According to
Lieutenant Fola Oyewole, one of a few Yoruba officers who ended up on the
Biafran side, Biafran officers “loathed Steiner for his pompous attitude and
his lack of manners.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">152</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
In his memoir Oyewole recalled an incident in which Steiner pointedly told a
Biafran colonel: “You general in Biafra, in France a corporal!”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">153</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> A meeting between the
German and the Aniomaman, both stubborn and adept at ignoring the standard
chain of command by insisting on only taking orders from Ojukwu, was not one
which was likely to be cordial. As he noted in his memoir, Steiner became a
“thorn in the flesh.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">154</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Prior to
“Operation Hiroshima,” Steiner had recorded successful operations with his
troops at Amansee, Uku and Amieni.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">155</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He was instructed to work closely with Achuzia whose
tactical headquarters was at Obosi. Achuzia had gained intelligence revealing
that the Federal troops in Onitsha were “not more than two to three battalion
strong with no administrative support.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">156 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He informed the economist Pius Okigbo that the bulk of the
Federal 2nd Division were still at Abagana and that he would “work out and devise
a means of destroying them.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">157</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
But Steiner was given the task and Achuzia’s role was reduced to facilitating
the operation. Steiner’s men were given access to Achuzia’s training camp at
Nnewi and close to the commencement of the operation, he recalled spending a
whole day getting Steiner and his commandos to their battle location at the
Atani road on Onitsha’s southern outskirts from where they would set up an
attack at the Onitsha Textile Mills near the bridge-head.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">158</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The operation which
commenced on November 15th, 1968, would be an unmitigated disaster.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The first
situation reports Achuzia received were not at all promising and together with
his principal staff officer, one Major Nbosa, and an intelligence officer who
was a captain, he drove to a spot close to Steiner’s front near the Textile
Mills and then walked towards the frontline. He related the following in his
memoir:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As I came near
the bridge on the road towards the Textile Mills, I saw Major Steiner and two
of his expatriate lieutenants taking cover from Federal mortar shells falling
all over the place under the bridge. I stood on top of the bridge above them
and surveyed the battlefield while mindful of the falling mortar bombs. What I
saw and observed filled me with so much anger that I shouted for Major Steiner
to come out from under the bridge, for the soldiers who were no more than in
their teens were being cut to ribbons by falling mortar bombs which were
raining down on them. There were no trenches where they could hide. The area
was a complete flat surface devoid of trees except for a few mango trees
scattered in places and the grasses could scarcely reach one’s knees. The
Federal troops(ensconced) in trenches were cutting our troops down …. Each time
they made an attempt to reach their positions, and each time our troops tried
to retreat, they were decimated with a rain of mortar bombs.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">159</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Steiner
eventually came to join Achuzia on the bridge.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He said, ‘Ahh
mon pere colonel, I see you come.’ I said, ‘yes, what’s the meaning of this?’
Call off the battle immediately.’ He looked at me. I drew my gun from my
holster and shouted, ‘call off the battle!’ He gave orders to his two
lieutenants who picked up their walkie-talkies and pulled out the aerials and
started giving orders through the walkie-talkies.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">160</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After the
withdrawal began, Achuzia wrote that he turned to Steiner and flared at him
with “smouldering hate” in his eyes, turned and then left to return to his
headquarters.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">161</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He
related what he had seen to Dr. Pius Okigbo, the prominent economist, informing
Okigbo that he intended to ask Steiner to discontinue the operation because the
military hospital at Ozubulu was “overflowing” with casualties from the battle.
Okigbo responded by saying that he would bring up the matter with Ojukwu.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">162</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia next
sent a signal to Steiner “requesting” that Steiner journey to meet with him at
his Obosi headquarters at 9AM the following day. At 8AM, Achuzia received word
that Steiner’s Commando Brigade had been engaged in battle at the Textile Mill.
The clock struck 9 and then 10. Steiner failed to arrive. Once again, he
ordered Nbosa and his intelligence officer to accompany him to see Steiner.
When they arrived at Steiner’s caravan on the Atani Road, Achuzia encountered a
French woman and man drinking beer while music played in the background. Both
were reporters and the woman, he understood, was Steiner’s fiancée. They
informed him that Steiner had gone to the front. Fuming, Achuzia claimed that
he ordered their deportation from Biafra “on the spot.” He ordered Nbosa to
send a signal to both the Air Force Commander, Colonel Godwin Ezeilo, and
Colonel Ogbugo Kalu to effect the deportation of both reporters at the “next
available flight leaving Biafra.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">163</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia next
sought out Colonel Emmanuel Udeaja with whom he conferred with at 4PM, telling
Udeaja that “regardless of His Excellency’s orders”, meaning Ojukwu, the
Command of the Onitsha sector would revert to him. Steiner's soldiers, he
asserted, were Biafran troops who were subject to his command, and that his
ownership of them was reinforced by the fact that Steiner had used some of his
troops from his training camp at Nnewi to reinforce his rapidly depleting
force.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">164</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Accompanied by
Udeaja, Achuzia once again went to Steiner’s caravan at Atani Road. After
brushing off Steiner’s query regarding the fate of his fiancée, Achuzia told
Steiner to hand over his troops and leave with his lieutenants and any
equipment he brought with him. He told the German that it was now his
operational zone and that he could go back to Ojukwu to inform him of the
change. Achuzia claimed that Steiner accepted his intervention and only
requested that he and Udeaja have a drink with him before they left.” Cheers,
I’m glad you’ve seen things my way,” he responded.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">165</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia left
Udeaja and headed back to his headquarters to make arrangements for the
officers who would take over from Steiner and his lieutenants. He decided to
move his headquarters a few kilometres south from Obosi to Oba where he
conferred with Okigbo and Francis Nwokedi, like Okigbo, a senior advisor to
Ojukwu. During their discourse Achuzia recalled that a soldier came in to
report to him that Colonel Udeaja had been shot by Major Steiner and had been
rushed to Ihiala Hospital. Achuzia was shocked and immediately went to a table
to retrieve his gun-belt and buckled it on.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">166</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Steiner and his
lieutenants had been on their way to Oba and as they entered the building,
Achuzia moved towards them. But Dr. Okigbo gestured at him to calm down, saying
“Let’s hear him” as Steiner sat down.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">167</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Mon Colonel,”
Steiner began, “there has been an accident. When I was shooting in the air to
call my troops, by accident a bullet hit Colonel Udeaja. I’m sorry, it was an
accident.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">168 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia
was incandescent with rage. He stepped forward hurling curses at Steiner before
saying, “Accident? Draw out your gun and let’s shoot it out if you consider yourself
a man.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">169 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia’s
anger was fuelled by his gut feeling that Steiner had deliberately shot Udeaja
because he had thought that he was shooting at Achuzia. This was because while
still in Steiner’s presence, Achuzia had instructed Udeaja to make the
arrangements to collect the officers who would take over from Steiner and his
men. However, Udeaja had advised Achuzia that the task would be completed more
quickly if he made the arrangements himself. Achuzia told Steiner all of this,
ending his rant by saying, “Well, here I am … go on and draw because I am going
to kill you.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">170</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia wrote
that he cocked his gun and aimed it between Steiner’s eyes before Okigbo
finally intervened.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">171</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Operation
Hiroshima was officially called off on November 29th and Steiner, who managed
to get into an altercation with Ojukwu’s guards and Ojukwu himself, was placed
in handcuffs and along with four other mercenaries was deported from Biafra.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">172</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In February
1969, Achuzia again successfully lobbied for a command position and got one as
the commander of a portion of the ‘S’ Division, a unit which had been built up
from scratch by Colonel Timothy Onwuatuegwu.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">173</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The mission was to reclaim Owerri which the
Federal 3rd Division had taken eight months earlier. By now the Biafrans were
besieging the town within which the 5,000-man 16th Brigade of the 3rd Division,
led by Lieutenant Colonel Edet Utuk, was trapped. The Biafran army completed
its encirclement of Owerri on February 28th after it had cut off the last
supply route into the city.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">174</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The thinking on
the part of the Biafran High Command as it contemplated how to dislodge the
surrounded Nigerians, was that the ‘S’ Division would act as the hammer, while
the Biafran 14th Division, on the western flank of Owerri, would serve as the
anvil.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">175</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Yet, the
imbalance in weaponry did not make this an easy task for the Biafrans. Utuk and
his men had armoured vehicles: Ferrets, Saracens and Saladins, the last of
which possessed 90mm guns. They also had mortars and heavy machine guns. In
contrast, the rag-tag Biafran army lacked projectiles for its bazookas and
advancing infantrymen were provided with limited cover by a few mortar bombs.
As in other theatres, some of Achuzia’s men went into battle without rifles
until a colleague was felled in battle.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">176</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia’s
methods of commanding men remained unchanged after the debacle at Okigwe. He
remained convinced that the firm hand of a vigilant officer was always required
to ensure that the instinct to choose ‘fight’ prevailed over that of ‘flight.’
Peter Worthington of the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Toronto Telegram</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
News Service captured him in his element:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Colonel Achuzia was a one-man army himself … He
stormed into the front of the attack, cursed, scolded the troops into moving.
He threatened to shoot those seeking to find safety at the rear. He
tongue-lashed cautious officers, and on several occasions struck officers and
men … Troops were far more afraid to meet Colonel Achuzia in the rear than they
were to face the Nigerians at the front.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">177</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Worthington
noted that while the Federal side preferred to fight during daylight hours,
Achuzia favoured launching attacks during the night and described one such
advance as follows:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">Perhaps upwards of 100 to 150 fell in the fight
and Col. Achuzia wasn’t happy at the way things went. At dawn I went forward
with him where the Biafrans were trying to dig in and hold two road junctions.
When the Nigerians counter-attacked his troops on the left panicked and began
to run. They were met by a charging Colonel Achuzia, pistol brandished, and
they faltered, reconsidered, then reluctantly turned and faced the enemy again
- and drove the ‘vandals’ back. Then on the right the panic was on - a Nigerian
counterattack had momentarily routed the holding force which was running into
the bush. Achuzia cut them off, again screaming and threatening to shoot them
all and ordering them to return. They regrouped, wavered, then plunged back
towards the Nigerians and won back the road junction. When one considers the
firepower against them, it was quite a feat.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">178</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Worthington’s
despatch claimed that after the battle he found no empty shell casings while
inspecting the captured forward Nigerian bunkers which indicated to him that
the frontline federal soldiers had either “bolted or withdrawn rather than
fight.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">179</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Achuzia
succeeded in penetrating Owerri through the town of Egbu on its northern
approaches. But the advance -which came within a mile of the centre of Owerri-
was costly in terms of casualties. Onwuatuegwu reacted in fury, believing that
Achuzia’s methods had caused the large loss of men. He confronted Achuzia in
the presence of Madiebo and demanded the return of the rest of his division.
The argument between both men became so heated that each man drew his pistol
and threatened to shoot the other. Madiebo intervened and the matter was
referred to Ojukwu who ruled in favour of Achuzia who took control of the whole
division.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">180</span> However,
his follow up offensive ended disastrously with the division sustaining even
greater casualties before Ojukwu stepped in to abort it and restore the
‘rested’ Onwuatuegwu to his command.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia was no
longer in the Owerri sector by the time the city was reclaimed following the
successful breakout of the 16th Brigade. In early April he was in command of a
force tasked with taking Uzuakoli, a rail junction town 8 miles north of
Umuahia, as a first step toward the overall objective of protecting the
provisional capital which was being threatened by the Federal launch of
“Operation Leopard”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">181 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia
succeeded in retaking the town on Sunday, April 6th, and was quick to inform
the international press that he had “smashed” an entire Federal brigade after a
five-day battle.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">182 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Nigerians, he claimed, had been driven back to Ovim and his men had captured
large quantities of equipment. But he spoke in haste. Achuzia was unable to
consolidate his hold on the town and the Nigerians soon retook Uzuakoli en
route to Umuahia which fell on April 22nd.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">183</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Federal
side was winning the war. But even as Biafran-held territory continued to
contract, Major General Gowon was under continued pressure to bring an end to
the conflict. For all its advantages in men and materials, the Federal armies
had not struck the sort of decisive blows which made Biafran collapse
inevitable. The 1st Division remained inert for months on end, while the 2nd
Division appeared to be a spent and demoralised force after the exhaustively
prolonged effort at taking Onitsha. Both divisions were cut off from each other
by a road link and embroiled in what Alfred Friendly of the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">New York Times</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> described as “nearly
static trench warfare.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">184</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
The 3rd Division’s relentless progress up the mangrove swamps and dense
tropical forests of the Atlantic sector appeared to be stymied after the
failure to hold onto Owerri. Had Owerri being held onto, a push further north
to Oguta and from there to Uli-Ihiala, the site of Biafra’s last operational
airfield, would, the thinking went, have broken the secessionist resolve to
fight on. Instead, the division was kept unbalanced along a disjointed front
running from Ito to Aba and then to Owerri by sporadic Biafran counterattacks fuelled
by an injection of arms supplies from France.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">185</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gowon defended
the state of affairs by repeatedly stating that he was managing an internal
conflict and not prosecuting an external war, implying that a greater degree of
care was required when seeking the overall objective of post-war national
unity.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">186</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But he
himself had played the greatest part in creating the pressure to end the war
quickly. In a speech at the beginning of 1968, he had urged his countrymen to
“put our shoulders to the wheel and finish this by March 31st”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">187 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The New Year’s speech
of 1969 had a different tone when he suggested that an “all-out struggle” lay
ahead and that more “sacrifices” would need to be made.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">188</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> On May 9th, 1969, in a bid to spark his
forces back to life, Gowon reshuffled the divisional commanders. Colonel Gibson
Jalo took over from Colonel Ibrahim Haruna at the 2nd Division, Colonel Illiya
Bisalla replaced Colonel Mohammed Shuwa at the 1st Division and Colonel
Benjamin Adekunle of the 3rd Division was jettisoned in favour of Colonel
Olusegun Obasanjo.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">189</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia in the
meantime was based in Oraifite, a town close to Nnewi where he was in command
of a force nicknamed the “Republic of Benin Division.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">190</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> His aim was to use his men to wage guerrilla
warfare behind Nigerian lines in his home region of the Mid-West. The Biafrans
became aware that the Federal side was enabling the prospecting of oil and its
extraction by foreign oil companies, one of which, an oil prospecting camp, was
located in Okpai near the town of Kwale.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">191 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This discovery was to lead Achuzia into mounting a military
operation, the effect of which would reverberate around the world and change
the perceptions of many countries and agencies about the conduct of Biafran
secession.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">At around 6 AM
on the morning of May 9th, with the go-ahead given by army headquarters, a
group of his commandos crossed the River Niger and stormed the camp in Okpai.
Eleven men, ten of whom were Italian and another Jordanian, were killed. They
had been working for the Italian-owned AGIP company. A raid on a nearby camp
led to the capture of another eighteen workers, fourteen Italians, three West
Germans and a Lebanese, who were employees of the Italian State oil concern
ENI. They were taken back to secessionist territory where they were put on
trial for “fighting with Federal forces.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">192</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Raid on
Kwale was judged a success by the Biafrans. Madiebo would later write that the
“tremendous success of the operation, which was meant to be a limited raid,
came as a surprise to both Colonel Achuzia at his Headquarters at Oraifite …
and to me at Army Headquarters, Isu.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">193</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> They believed that Biafra had inflicted a blow against
Nigeria, as well as to those whom they accused of aiding the enemy. The use of
force was also justified because the Biafran authorities claimed that the oil
men had been armed and were thus combatants in a war zone.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">194</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The rest of the world
however viewed things differently.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A painstaking
reconstruction of the raid organised by AGIP claimed that most of the oilmen
were “probably asleep when the Biafran soldiers surged into the camp.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">195</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> They tried to hide but
were cut down by machine gunfire. The examination found that the victim’s
quarters were fired at from the outside although there was evidence that
shooting happened inside. For instance, one Italian was found to have tried to
hide inside a wardrobe but was shot dead, bloodstains having been found both
inside and outside of the wardrobe. Nine were shot inside the camp and another
outside.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">196</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> A
Nigerian survivor told the AGIP investigator that he had seen a white man
handing over the keys of a car to Biafran soldiers who were questioning him.
The man was later gunned down. The witness, himself an ethnic Igbo, watched
from underneath a trailer as Achuzia’s men breached the compound and fired
bullets at the camp from automatic weapons as they shouted “kwemu, kwemu”
(support, support). He had tried to alert his employers of the approach of the
commandos who fired off rounds as they neared the compound, but they replied
that they were Federal soldiers.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">197
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Biafrans returned back to the camp on three occasions to cart away
property they looted.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">198</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Biafran
soldiers remained on the west side of the Niger in pockets of forested territory,
and they initially repelled attempts by Federal soldiers to reach the camp
until a unit led by Major Sani Abacha captured it on May 29th.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">199 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Abacha’s unit was
accompanied by a team from AGIP and on June 1st, they found the eleven oilmen
buried under three inches of earth in a ditch located on the side of the camp.
The corpses of two Nigerian camp workers were also discovered.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">200</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The day after
the discovery, the special tribunal convicted each of the 18 kidnapped workers
and they were sentenced to die by firing squad.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">201</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The world reacted with horror and revulsion.
Pleas for mercy came from the Pope, the Italian government and statesmen such
as Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger of West Germany and Emperor Haile Selassie
of Ethiopia. Aid agencies such as the Red Cross and Oxfam also added their
voices. Pressure was also applied behind the scenes and with threats of
agencies cutting aid, as well as the denial of access to weapons supplies, the
Biafran government relented.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">202</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But the damage
had been done. The reputation of the Biafran leadership, which had projected
its case for secession on the moral premise of that of a wronged people, was
sullied now that it had employed tactics which many equated with state
gangsterism. There were rumours that the Biafrans had conditioned the release
of the men on the recognition of their polity as a state, as well as on the
payment of a hefty ransom fee.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">203</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia said
little about the episode in later years and when he addressed it, he played it
down. While it was assumed that the oil men were treated harshly during their
time in detention, Achuzia would tell Michael Gould that he had “entertained
them in his officer’s mess and accorded them every facility, including making
arrangements for them to attend mass at a nearby Roman Catholic church.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">204</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">To the casual
observer, the Raid on Kwale may have seemed to have been a one-off excursion by
the Biafran military from its decreasing borders into territory from which it
had been expelled in the latter part of 1967. Yet, the fact that a Biafran
force could prevent the Federal army from reaching the two camps for almost two
weeks after radio contact had been broken with the oil men suggested that they
were not “infiltrators” temporarily operating west of the River Niger. Achuzia
was in fact at the helm of a network of Biafran troops who continued to operate
inside what he had referred to as the “vast and unconquerable” bush.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">205</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">By no means as
complicated as the deep penetration missions conducted by Orde Wingate’s
Chindits in Burma during World War 2, the objectives of these Biafran
irregulars dotted around the eastern frontier of the Mid-West may have been
two-fold. First, they could be used to ambush Nigerian troops and supplies en
route to and from the warfront, and secondly, they could be used to gather
intelligence on the Federal army. But coordinating such forces would have been
a difficult task. It appears that some went off the rails as exemplified by a
story related by Macaulay Nzefili, one of the first generation of Nigerian
military officers and a lieutenant colonel at the time of the military
infighting in 1966.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">206</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A short while
after the Kwale raid, a Biafran army captain who commanded a company operating
behind enemy lines along the Aboh-Kwale axis west of the River Niger, journeyed
to meet Achuzia at Oraifite to complain about a company sergeant major who had
been subverting his authority. The CSM and his underlings ruled over a small
community near Aboh where they seized property, raped wives and took females of
their choice -including under-aged girls- to serve as their concubines. In
short, the CSM had morphed into a potentate figure who had imposed a form of
tyranny on the people while neglecting his military assignment.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">207</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia knew
that he had to confront the insubordinate CSM in order to restore discipline.
He gathered a platoon size of men and asked Nzefili to accompany him to Aboh.
Nzefili recounted the following dramatic happenings:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">On arrival at Aboh, we were almost ambushed by
the CSM and his men. He took aim at Joe Achuzia, but Joe was faster and gunned
him down. In a very swift movement, the other mutineers were rounded up by the
platoon we came with, tried in the open, and sentenced to death by firing
squad. At the point of execution, one of them shouted, “I am a Ghanaian, I am a
Ghanaian.” But (the) Aboh people pointed
at another one who was looking bemused and dumbfounded and told Colonel Achuzia
that the man was not one of the notorious men. He was accordingly released and
the remaining six executed publicly by firing squad.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">208</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Justice
dispensed and discipline restored, Achuzia decided to expand his mission to
include a search for miniature pumps used by AGIP to extract crude oil from
shallow wells. This meant trekking deeper into enemy-held territory in the
direction of Kwale through the town of Abalagada. Nzefili recalled that they
passed near the camp where the oilmen had been murdered and that he “smelt the
odour of decomposed and decomposing bodies.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">209</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> They also came “dangerously close” to
Nigerian lines so much so that he discovered later that the Nigerian side were
able to listen into his conversations with Achuzia and even discern that two
Biafran colonels were nearby, a discovery which made the Nigerians cautious to
react as they assumed that they were close to a much larger force. Achuzia, who
was furious at the captain’s lack of knowledge of the terrain, decided to
withdraw in haste.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">210</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The incident
with the renegade CSM underlined Achuzia’s zeal for maintaining discipline and
order within the Biafra army. And in doing so he did not shirk from employing
whatever methods he conceived as necessary in achieving his aim. This applied
in equal measure to men in the ranks, non-commissioned officers, as well as
those of the officer class. He struck soldiers and officers when enforcing
discipline during attacks and at one point Nzefilli recalled, slapped the
aforementioned captain during the excursion to retrieve miniature pumps when
the captain was unable to provide him with intelligence that he deemed
essential to accomplishing that objective.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">211</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He was prepared to shoot officers dead as
had transpired in two earlier incidents involving Lieutenant Colonel Matthias
Morah, his paymaster and Rolf Steiner.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Back in
September 1967, Morah had incensed Achuzia by absconding with a large amount of
money which had been part of a total of £12 million that had been appropriated
from the vaults of a Federal bank in Benin City by the retreating Biafran army.
Around £2 million was diverted to a bank in Asaba, while the balance of £10
million was expected to be transferred to the central bank of Biafra. Little of
the money ended up at the central bank which was initially located in Enugu.
Morah played his part in this debacle by taking approximately £33,000 which he
apparently intended to use to start a new life in the United States.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">212</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The incident caused
embarrassment to Achuzia who had intended to use part of the money to pay the
wages of men under his command. Morah was arrested while trying to escape into
neighbouring Cameroon and brought back to Achuzia who threatened to shoot him
for his “despicable” behaviour.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">213</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
However, before a summary trial could be convened, Achuzia was ordered by
Ojukwu to return Morah to Biafran Army Headquarters where he was promoted to a
new post.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">214</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As 1969
proceeded, the civil war had developed a noticeable pattern. While the Federal
forces fought for and largely confined themselves to the roads and towns of the
former eastern region, the secessionist side controlled large tracts of
surrounding bush terrain.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">215
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This meant that while the Nigerian army controlled the roads leading to
towns and cities such as Umuahia which they occupied, the Biafrans contrived
opportune guerrilla-style raids into such urban areas to harass the Federal
side and to disrupt supply routes. Sometimes, the modus operandi was to
temporarily cut the roads and follow this with a withdrawal. In others, the
Biafrans managed to hold on to their gains. An example of the latter occurred
at the beginning of August when a Biafran brigade of around 800 to 1,000 men
which had been stranded 5 kilometres east of Onitsha managed to cut through the
two-laned Onitsha to Enugu road and link up with its main force.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">216</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This put
further pressure on the embattled Federal garrison in Onitsha which had
repeatedly failed to break out to the town of Nnewi, 19 kilometres to its southeast.
Nnewi, the hometown of Ojukwu, was the last defence point prior to Biafra’s
last functioning airstrip at Uli.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">217</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> In mid-August, Achuzia participated in the Biafran attempt
to re-take Onitsha when what was described as a “heavy wave” of Biafran
soldiers came within half a kilometre of the city centre before they were all
pushed back in different directions of between 5 to 8 kilometres by
“overwhelming Federal firepower.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">218 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On Saturday, August 23rd, 1969, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed
Wushishi, the garrison Commander informed a visiting team of international
observers that his men had killed not less than a thousand Biafran soldiers and
took 20 prisoners over a two-week period.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">219</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This heavy loss
of life may have been what Madiebo referred to in his memoir when recalling
what was dubbed “Operation Do or Die.” The operation, which Madiebo recorded as
occurring in the early part of September, was a secessionist effort that had
the objective of supporting the Biafran 57th Brigade at Otuocha, a vital
food-producing area.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">220 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia
withdrew a brigade of his “Republic of Benin Division” to assist the 57th
Brigade which had been cut off from other Biafran forces by units of the
Federal 1st Division which sought to bring the vital Onitsha-Enugu road firmly
under Federal control in order to establish a direct route between Abagana and
Onitsha.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">221</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Biafran army
headquarters decided that the endeavour would involve attacking Federal
positions in Onitsha, and Major General Madiebo assigned Achuzia the task of
engaging the enemy at the Dumaz Quarters of the city. Achuzia had preferred to
attack from the south of the city, starting at the Textile Mills, then moving
to the bridgehead and then dislodging the Federal side from Fegge Quarters
which was just below the city centre. With great reluctance, Achuzia attacked
the Dumez Quarters. The battle cost Achuzia a great many troops, Madiebo adding
that he “achieved absolutely nothing except high casualties amongst his men.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">222</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As 1969 began
to draw to a close, the prevailing view was that Biafra, long encircled and
blockaded, was on the verge of collapse. Despite Ojukwu’s rousing speech at
Akokwa in early November, during which Ojukwu exhorted the youth of Biafra to
“fight on” and “destroy the invader,” many in the secessionist enclave had long
given up on the idea of a fight to the finish.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">223</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The fissures which had bedevilled the
secession from its onset, as well as those which developed as Biafra fought to
survive came to a head. As Raph Uwechue, N.U. Akpan and Madiebo confirmed in
their memoirs various layers of the society became pitted against each other.
These included the Igbos against minority groups, the civil servant against the
intellectual and the soldier against the mercenary.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">224</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Still full of
resolve, Achuzia was nonetheless aware of the equivocal attitudes within
sectors of the population, some of which amounted to defeatism. He was
undoubtedly aware of the “Ahia Attack,” or “Attack Markets,” dotted around the
River Niger at which cross border trading in goods and services occurred
between Nigerians and Biafrans. Often, both sets of troops would cease fighting
at dusk to enable the markets and then resume fighting at the first light of
dawn.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">225 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia
himself recalled the following:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">It was a fairly open secret that civil servants
from both sides met throughout the war at Ukei, in the Mid-West. Trading went
on at these meetings as well as intelligence swapping. I felt that this created
doubts in our people’s minds that we could ever win the war.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">226</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But Achuzia
earnestly felt that the Biafrans could continue resisting even if it meant
transforming its military capabilities into a guerrilla-style campaign. As he
had told Hugh Mulligan in 1968, “the bush was vast and unconquerable”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Several months before
Biafra’s collapse, he claimed that Ojukwu had instructed him that the army
would be divided into three sections. One would be a defensive army commanded
by Colonel Ogbugo Kalu and another under Achuzia would operate offensively. The
third component would be rotated for training and support for the two other
armies.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">227</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Ojukwu, like
Achuzia, had wanted to continue to fight until international recognition
materialised, but other senior figures within the Biafran establishment such as
Sir Louis Mbanefo wanted the war to end.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">228</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Widespread starvation, waning morale and the final
offensive launched by the Federal 3rd Division on December 23rd, 1969, all
pointed to imminent doom. This was certainly the feeling of Achuzia’s wife
Ethel, who wrote to her parents in Cheadle one week before Christmas Day: “God
help us now. Things are getting worse. I desperately need peace, and so do so
many of us.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">229</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The matter was
settled at a cabinet meeting held in Ogwa on January 8th, 1970, when Ojukwu
agreed to leave Biafran territory in “search of peace”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">His deputy, Efiong, took over the reins of
leadership and over the airwaves on January 12th, sued for peace.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">230</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the midst of
this Achuzia sought to get his family out of Biafra. Ojukwu had departed from
Biafran territory from Uli airstrip on January 9th, and the following day, a
Saturday evening, Achuzia was at the airstrip. Rifle in hand, he stood at the
bottom of the steel ladder of a French-owned DC1 plane, one of two which had
come from Libreville, Gabon, to ferry destitute children to safety. Instead
Biafran officials took over the planes and together with their wives and
friends availed themselves the opportunity to escape from the crumbling
republic. Achuzia was checking off the names of passengers as they got on. An
Associated Press writer waiting to board the plane noted that “Colonel Achuzia
started looking for his wife to get her on board, but he couldn’t pick her out
in the dark and he began calling for her, then left his post.” Moments later,
the journalist went up the ladder and shortly after one member of the plane’s
crew closed the door. “The colonel and his wife never got on.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">231</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile, the
Western press reported that Achuzia had been declared to be the “most wanted
man in Nigeria” by the Federal side. Yet, a dispatch by the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">London Express</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> claimed that as “Biafra
dies … one man continues fighting.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">232 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The report claimed that Achuzia “has vowed he will never
stop fighting, that he will take his army into the forests, regroup and strike
in the rear.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">233 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It
was in all likelihood hyperbole by a journalist who was relying on a previous
interview with Achuzia. Instead of fighting, Achuzia would become a central
figure in ensuring the disengagement of Biafran soldiers. It was to him, he
claimed, that the faction in favour of ending the war came to. Most of the
Biafran army, they reasoned, would refuse to lay down their weapons without the
knowledge that Achuzia was doing the same. Thus, Achuzia read out a statement
broadcast over the airwaves informing Biafran troops that “we had sent
emissaries to various Nigerian military formations to inform them that we had
decided to end the war.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">234</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The day after
Efiong’s radio broadcast Achuzia was waylaid by Nigerian troops.
Quick-wittedly, he told them that he had been sent by the Biafran leadership to
establish contact between senior Nigerian officers and Efiong.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">235</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He was released and
when he met with Efiong, requested that Efiong consent to him wearing a uniform
with a brigadier’s rank to provide him with more authority when negotiating
with the Federal side. This paved the way for the meeting between Efiong and Colonel
Obasanjo in Owerri to finalise the arrangements for disengagement and surrender
to Federal forces. Achuzia was part of the Biafran entourage which met Obasanjo
in Owerri.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">236</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Behind the
scenes, Achuzia wielded power. He ordered men under his command to shoot down
any relief-carrying aircraft attempting to take off or land at Uga airfield, an
order interpreted by Ben Gbulie to have been directed at Biafran officers who
had served in the federal army and especially those such as Gbulie who had
participated in the coup of 1966 and thus had good grounds for seeking an exit
route to exile.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">237</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Gbulie at the time feared that he would be summarily executed if apprehended by
federal soldiers, a fate believed to have befallen Timothy Onwuatuegwu.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">238</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> He reported Achuzia to
Efiong who summoned Achuzia and instructed him to rescind his order. Achuzia
refused.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">239</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the weeks
that followed Biafra’s capitulation all surviving Biafran military officers
including Achuzia were apprehended. They would eventually appear before a
constituted Board of Inquiry. In the spirit of Gowon’s “No victor, no
vanquished” policy, there were no court martials and executions. The purpose of
the board was to determine those who would be reabsorbed into the Federal armed
forces, as well as those who would be alternately discharged or dismissed.
Additionally, a number were going to be detained because of their role in the
January 1966 coup, in prosecuting the war in senior positions, or in the
plunder of the Mid-West treasury in 1967.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">240</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia,
although not a former Nigerian officer, was in 1971 among those who were subjected
to indefinite detention. In Achuzia’s case the reason given was what was
described as his “sadistic behaviour” during the war.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">241 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The seriousness of the designation was
apparent when in 1974 most of the officers were released. These included Conrad
Nwawo, Adewale Ademoyega, Ben Gbulie, Emmanuel Udeaja and Fola Oyewole. Achuzia
would remain incarcerated at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison until 1980.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">242</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On release, he
moved to Asaba where he penned his civil war memoir </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which was published in 1986. Between 2004 and
2007, he served as the Secretary-General of the Igbo socio-cultural
organisation,</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ohanaeze Ndigbo</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, under
which auspices Achuzia spoke up for the interests of the Igbos who while
largely reassimilated into Nigeria have persistently complained of
marginalisation. He continued to revel in the folk hero status as Biafra’s most
spirited and formidable army commander. When he died at the announced age of 91
on February 26th, 2018, at the Asaba Federal Medical Centre, many of the
tributes which poured forth were uniformly laudatory and predictably uncritical
veneration.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While the
oratorically gifted Ojukwu remains the political figurehead of the
disintegrated Biafran project, Achuzia is arguably his martial counterpart, the
one person who encapsulated the presumed never-say-die fighting qualities of
the Biafran soldier. Madiebo, one of his sternest critics admitted that he was “an
officer of extraordinary personal courage who was willing to sacrifice
everything to achieve his objective.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">243</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> It is an image he embraced to his dying breath. Yet, there
were moments when he elucidated on his legacy with greater nuance, this
reflecting the discordance between the generality of the Igbo populace and many
Igbo officers who prosecuted the war.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia
asserted in his memoir that he more than any other figure had ensured that
Biafra had survived for as long as it did. His response to a query as to why he
was not given the credit pointed to one of several crucial points of internal
division which played a part in Biafra’s eventual disintegration: “Very
simple,” Achuzia said, “Those that denied me or wanted to deny me the credit
are my professional colleagues. They never saw me as part and parcel of Biafra.
I am a Midwesterner. It was by the same token that Brigadier Nwawo was equally
denied his rightful place. That I performed was because they had no
alternative.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">244</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2024).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Notes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">1. Nweje,
Chukwudi. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“<a name="_Hlk160973067">Civil war veteran Achuzia is dead”, <i>The
Nigerian Sun</i>, </a>February 27th, 2018. “Asaba” is a British colonial
corruption of the correct spelling “Ahaba”.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2. “</span><a href="https://junglejournalist.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/photos-adf-ohaneze-others-pay-respect-to-achuzia-in-asaba-day-of-tributes/"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Photos:
ADF, Ohaneze, others pay respect to Achuzia in Asaba day of tributes</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, <i>Jungle Journalist dot WordPress dot com</i>, April 15<sup>th</sup>,
2018.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">3. “3 stowaways
land at Plymouth: Nigerian lived nine days on one loaf and bottle of water”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Western Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March 25th, 1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">4. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">5. According to
the institution’s </span><a href="https://unilag.edu.ng/"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">website</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, “the University of Lagos was established on 22<sup>nd</sup> October
1962 on the authority of the University of Lagos Act of 1962”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">6. “Tribal man
who came to study,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Manchester Evening
News</i>, May 3rd, 1955.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">7. British
Nationality Act (1948) </span><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/56/enacted"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">section
1, sub-section 1</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> provided: “Every person who under this Act is
a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or who under any enactment for the
time being in force in any country mentioned in subsection (3) of this section
is a citizen of that country shall by virtue of that citizenship have the
status of a British subject.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">8. </span><a name="_Hlk160975000" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Stowaways to Britain know all the ropes: Willing to take
punishment and then draw ‘benefits’,” <i>Sunday
Sun</i>, March 12th, 1950.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">9. “Stowaway
lived for nine days on loaf”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Leicester Mercury</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March 25</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">10. </span><a name="_Hlk160978565" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Stowaways to Britain know all the ropes: Willing to take
punishment and then draw ‘benefits’,” <i>Sunday
Sun</i>, March 12th, 1950.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk160978565;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">11. “3
stowaways land at Plymouth: Nigerian lived nine days on one loaf and bottle of
water.”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Western Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March
25th, 1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">12. “9 days-One
loaf: West African’s trip”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily Mail</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Saturday, March 25</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">13. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">14. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">15. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">16. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">17. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">18. </span><a name="_Hlk160978928" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Stowaways to Britain know all the ropes: Willing to take
punishment and then draw ‘benefits’,” <i>Sunday
Sun</i>, March 12th, 1950.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">19. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">20. “</span><a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/attlees-britain/"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Attlee's
Britain 1945-1951</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, The National Archives.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">21. “Stowaways
to Britain know all the ropes: Willing to take punishment and then draw
‘benefits’,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Sunday Sun</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March 12th,
1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a name="_Hlk160980947"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">22. Letter from S.B. Philpott. “Stowing away…,” <i>Western Evening News</i>, March 31st, 1950.</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">23. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">24. Letter from Achuzia, Joseph and Unoma, M. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Western Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, April 3rd, 1950.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">25. “Policeman counted twice”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Paddington Mercury</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, April 6</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1951.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">26. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">27. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">28. Hastings, Max. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Korean War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Michael Joseph, 1987.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">29. </span><a name="_Hlk160987748" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould, Michael. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria:
The Biafran War 1967-1970</i>. I.B. Tauris, 2012.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">30. Worthington, Peter. “Insight: At the scene of a soldier’s and
children’s war,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Gazette</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March
1st, 1969.</span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk160980947;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">31. “Brigadier
George Taylor (Obituary)”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Independent</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, August 9</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1994.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">32. “Christopher,”
(1951), “Brown” (1955 and 1956) and “Wilson” (1964). He also went by the name
of “Joseph Patterson” (1959).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">33. National
Army Museum. “</span><a href="https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/what-was-national-service"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">What was
National Service</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">?”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">34. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">35. </span><a name="_Hlk160982742" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Mother of two is goaled for 3 months”, <i>Manchester
Evening News,</i> March 15<sup>th</sup>, 1954.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">36. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">37. </span><a name="_Hlk160985921" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Tribal heir jailed for car claim”, <i>Manchester Evening
News,</i> February 19th, 1959.</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">38. “Tribal man
‘who came to study’”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Evening News,</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> May 3rd, 1955.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">39. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">40. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">41. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">42. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">43. </span><a name="_Hlk160985074" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Lift to Nottingham’ after alleged double murder,” <i>Nottingham Evening News</i>, September 18th,
1956.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">44. Ibid. Also
covered in “Anita hissed at me: I hit her with a table”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Evening
News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 18</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1956.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">45 “Man accused
of two ‘burn’ murders”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Coventry Evening Telegraph</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 18</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1956.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">46. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">47. “Lift to
Nottingham’ after alleged double murder,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nottingham
Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 18th, 1956.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">48. “Police
watch at the Silvery Moon,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester
Evening News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, December 2nd, 1958.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">49. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">50. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">51. </span><a name="_Hlk160986315" style="font-size: 12pt;">“Tribal heir jailed for car claim”, <i>Manchester Evening
News,</i> February 19th, 1959.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk160986315;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">52. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">53. “Pretences
charge”, </span><a name="_Hlk160986402" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Manchester Evening News,</i> May 27th,
1964.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">54. “Not guilty
of fraud”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Evening News,</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> July 9th, 1964.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">55. Achuzia,
Joseph O. and Hayes, Josephine E. (1962). </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" lang="IT" style="font-size: 12pt;">Manchester Vol. 10(e), p.231.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" lang="IT" style="font-size: 12pt;">56. <a name="_Hlk160989528">Achuzia, Joseph. </a></span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Requiem Biafra</span></i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">. Fourth Dimension Publishers, Enugu, 1986.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">57. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">58. Ibid. p.7</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">59. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">60. </span><a name="_Hlk160989701" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i>. </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">P.62</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">61. </span><a name="_Hlk160988601" style="font-size: 12pt;">De St. Jorre, John. <i>The Nigerian Civil War</i>. Hodder
and Stoughton, 1972.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">62. “Big
questions after the bloodshed in Nigeria”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily Mirror</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, January 19</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1966. See also Schwarz, Walter. “Gen. Ironsi’s trust in his friends leads
Nigeria back to tribal strife”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Guardian</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. June 25</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1966.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">63. </span><a name="_Hlk160989748" style="font-size: 12pt;"></a><a name="_Hlk160992551" style="font-size: 12pt;">De St. Jorre. <i>The Nigerian Civil War</i>.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk160989748;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">64. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">65. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">66. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">67. </span><a name="_Hlk160990159" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia, Joseph. <i>Requiem Biafra</i>. Fourth Dimension Publishers, Enugu, 1986. </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">p.7.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">68. Ibid. p.7.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">69. </span><a name="_Hlk160992909" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i>. p.185.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">70. De St.
Jorre. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Civil War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">71. </span><a name="_Hlk160992000" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia. <i>Requiem Biafra</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">72. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">73. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">74. </span><a name="_Hlk161045167" style="font-size: 12pt;">Makinde, Adeyinka, “Lagos Bomb Attack: Biafran Saboteur
Kills 4 including 2 Children | July 1967”, <i>YouTube</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">75. “Time bomb
blast in Lagos Nigeria”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Guam Daily News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, July 21</span><sup>st</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">76. </span><a name="_Hlk160992993" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia. <i>Requiem Biafra</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">77. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">78. Adekunle,
Benjamin. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigeria-Biafra War Letters: A Soldier’s Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Phoenix Publishing
Group, 2004.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">79</span><a name="_Hlk161073143" style="font-size: 12pt;">. De St. Jorre. <i>The Nigerian Civil War</i></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">80. </span><a name="_Hlk161068153" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i>. p.231.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">81. Achuzia. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">82. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">83. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">84. </span><a name="_Hlk161004635" style="font-size: 12pt;">Orobator, Stanley Eke</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Diplomacy and Conflict
Resolution in International Relations: The Soviet Union and the Nigerian
Crisis, Volume 76</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Uniben Press, 1997. p.109.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">85. “Midwest
region of Nigeria joins Biafra in rebellion”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Record</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, August 10</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">86. Ejoor,
David. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Reminiscences</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Malthouse Press Limited, 1989. p.137.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">87. On Friday,
August 18</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1967, Major Okonkwo announced that his region would be independent
of both Nigeria and Biafra.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">88. <a name="_Hlk161005965">Bird, S. Elizabeth and Ottanelli, Fraser M.</a></span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The Asaba Massacre: Trauma, Memory, and the Nigerian Civil War</span></i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">. Cambridge University
Press, 2017</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">p.13.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">89. Orobator,
Stanley Eke. “The Biafran Crisis and the Midwest”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">African Affairs</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Vol.
86, No. 344, July 1987. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">p</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.379.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">90. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">91. Ibid.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">92. Bird and
Ottanelli.</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The Asaba Massacre</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">93. “Ojukwu
blames ‘plotters’”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Guardian</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 23</span><sup>rd</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">94. Ademoyega,
Adewale. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Why We Struck: The Story of the
First Nigerian Coup</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Evans Brothers, 1981. p.238.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">95. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">96. Achuzia. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">97. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">98. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">99. </span><a name="_Hlk161043680" style="font-size: 12pt;">Forsyth, Frederick.<i>
The Biafra Story: The Making of a Legend</i>. Pens & Sword Books, 2001.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">100. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">101. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">102. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">103. </span><a name="_Hlk161042835" style="font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo, Alexander. <i>The
Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i>. Fourth Dimension Publishers,
Enugu, 1980.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">104. Gbulie,
Ben. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Fall of Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Enugu,
Benlie Publishers, 1989.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">105. Madiebo. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">106. <a name="_Hlk161043901">Omoigwu, Nowa. “</a></span><a href="https://www.segundawodu.com/omoigui33.htm"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Federal Nigerian Army blinders of the Nigerian Civil War – Part 10</span></a><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">”, <i>Segun Dawodu dot com</i>.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">107. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">108. </span><a name="_Hlk161044249" style="font-size: 12pt;">Forsyth.<i> The Biafra
Story</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">109. <a name="_Hlk161057729">Omoigwu, Nowa. “</a></span><a href="https://www.segundawodu.com/omoigui33.htm"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Federal Nigerian Army blunders of the Nigerian Civil War – Part 10</span></a><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">”, <i>Segun Dawodu dot com</i>.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">110. Colonel Chude-Sokei
died on March 5</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> 1968 after sustaining fatal chest injuries during
an air raid conducted by the Nigerian Air Force, but contemporary newspaper
reports, relying on information contrived by the Biafran Ministry of
Information & Propaganda, stated that he had died from injuries suffered
from a car crash while he was travelling to the besieged city of Onitsha.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">111. <a name="_Hlk161045384">Forsyth.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The Biafra
Story</i>.</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk161044766"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">112. Ibid.</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">113.
Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">114.
Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">115.
Ibid.</span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161044766;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">116. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">117. </span><a name="_Hlk161071352" style="font-size: 12pt;">Makinde, Adeyinka, “Frederick
Forsyth ITN Interview | Allegations of Federal Massacres of Biafran Civilians |
May 1968”, <i>YouTube</i>. </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">See also Forsyth, Frederick. “This killing must
stop now”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Leicester Mercury</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, May 23</span><sup>rd</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">118. </span><a name="_Hlk161051547"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Forsyth.<i>
The Biafra Story</i>.</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">119. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">120. Madiebo. </span><a name="_Hlk161060197" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>The Nigerian
Revolution and the Biafran War</i></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">121. Forsyth.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> The Biafra Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">122. Kirkham,
Norman. “Port Harcourt under Lagos control: Civil War end in sight,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily
Telegraph</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, May 20</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">123. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">124. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">125. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">126. Monks,
T.S. “Is it liberty or death for the Ibos of Biafra?: A nation faces massacre”,
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Sydney Morning Herald</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, June 23</span><sup>rd</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">127. Williams,
Sidney and Jenour, Kenelm. “The colonel’s wife flees with 63 refugees from the
hell of a battle-ravaged Biafra: War orphans fly in to find a new home”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Daily Mirror</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 21st, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">128. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">129. Forsyth.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> The Biafra Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">130. Osakwe,
Chukwuma and Udeagbala, Lawrence. “Owerri in the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970”,
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Historical Research Letter</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Vol.9, 2014.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">131. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">132. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">133.
Partington, Walter. “Battered, bleeding but not beaten – the Biafrans fight
on”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Toronto Daily Star</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, September 28</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">134. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">135. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">136. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">137. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">138. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">139. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">140. Achuzia. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">141. Mulligan,
Hugh. “Biafran troops confident of attempt to recapture key city from
Nigerians”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Meriden Journal</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, October 7</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">142. Chicago
Daily News Service. “Biafra hitting back, says tide is turning”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Ottawa
Citizen</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, October 10</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">143. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">144. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">145. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">146. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">147. New York
Times News Service. “Civil War: Boys for a man’s job”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Courier Journal</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
May 12</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">148. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">149. </span><a name="_Hlk161076862" style="font-size: 12pt;">Omoigwu. “Federal Nigerian Army Blunders.”</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">150. </span><a name="_Hlk161060304" style="font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo. <i>The
Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i>.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161060304;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">151. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">152. Oyewole,
Fola. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Reluctant Rebel</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Rex Collins, 1975.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">153. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">154. </span><a name="_Hlk161059162" style="font-size: 12pt;">Achuzia. <i>Requiem Biafra</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">155. Forsyth.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> The Biafra Story.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">156. Achuzia. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">157. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">158. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">159. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">160. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">161. </span><a name="_Hlk161059473" style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibid.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">162. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">163. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">164. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">165. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">166. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">167. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">168. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">169. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">170. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">171. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">172. New York
Times Service. “Mercenary leaders expelled by Biafra,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Richmond
Times-Dispatch</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, November 19</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1968.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">173. </span><a name="_Hlk161062497" style="font-size: 12pt;"></a><a name="_Hlk161065059" style="font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo. <i>The Nigerian
Revolution and the Biafran War</i>.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161062497;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">174. Forsyth. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Biafra Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">175. Worthington,
Peter. “Insight: At the scene of a soldier’s and children’s war,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Gazette</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, March 1st, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">176. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">177. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">178. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">179. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">180. Madiebo. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">181. Associated
Press. “Biafra claims victory over Nigerian brigade,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Winston-Salem Journal</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
April 6</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">182. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">183. Associated
Press. “’Talk peace or die’ speech wins promotion for Biafran,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Morning
Call</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, May 5</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">184. Friendly,
Alfred. “Civil War draining Nigeria of confidence”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Cincinnati Enquirer</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
February 6</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">185. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">186. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">187. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">188. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">189. Allan,
James. “Black Scorpion loses frontline job,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Daily Telegraph</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, May 10</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">190. Achuzia. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Requiem Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">191. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">192. Associated
Press. “Europeans shot, says Nigeria: oilmen ‘died in attack’”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Age,</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
May 28</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">193. </span><a name="_Hlk161076669" style="font-size: 12pt;"></a><a name="_Hlk161069783" style="font-size: 12pt;">Madiebo. <i>The Nigerian
Revolution and the Biafran War</i>.</a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161076669;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">194. The claim
that the oilmen were armed and that they were providing intelligence to the
federal side was false.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">195. </span><a name="_Hlk161066497" style="font-size: 12pt;">Reuters and Associated Press. “Red Cross bid to save
Biafran oilmen<i>”, Liverpool Daily Post</i>, June 4<sup>th</sup>, 1969.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">196. Associated
Press. “Biafra says oilmen to die”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Edmonton Journal</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, June 2</span><sup>nd</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">197. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">198. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">199. Reuter.
“Biafrans foil rescue attempt,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Birmingham Post</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, May 15</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">200. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">201. Reuters
and Associated Press. “Red Cross bid to save Biafran oilmen</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">”, Liverpool
Daily Post</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, June 4</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">202.Monks, T.S.
“Biafra agrees to free condemned oilmen”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Sydney Morning Herald</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
June 6</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">203. Interviews
conducted over the years, as well as the release of previously classified
documents point to the Italian government and AGIP as having paid a ransom fee
of (US) $3 Million to secure the men's release. See for instance, Doron, Roy. "Biafra
and the Agip Oil Workers: Ransoming and the Modern Nation State in
Perspective", </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">African Economic History</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Vol. 42 (2014), University
of Wisconsin Press. pp. 137-156.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">204. </span><a name="_Hlk161071561" style="font-size: 12pt;"></a><a name="_Hlk161069259" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i>. </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">p.81.</span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk161071561;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">205. His words
to Hugh Mulligan at the time of the Battle of Okigwe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">206. Omoigui,
Nowa. “</span><a href="https://www.dawodu.com/articles/witnesses-to-history-lt-col-m-o-nzefili-rtd-part-3-763"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Witnesses to History: Lt. Col. M.O. Nzefili (rtd) - Part
3</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, <i>Dawodu
dot Com</i>.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">207. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">208. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">209. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">210. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">211. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">212. </span><a name="_Hlk161076232" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gould. <i>The Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i>.</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">213. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">214. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">215. Associated
Press. “Analysis of Biafran War: Each side fighting a different war”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Berkeley
Daily Gazette</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, August 4</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">216. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">217. Associated
Press. “Battle in city: The Nigerian firepower beats back a heavy onslaught,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Kansas City Star Sun</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, August 24</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">218. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">219. Ibid.
Wushishi became the Nigerian Army Chief of Staff later in his career.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">220. Madiebo. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">221. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">222. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">223. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Makinde, Adeyinka, “Odumegwu
Ojukwu Speech in Akokwa, Biafra | November 1969”, <i>YouTube</i>.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">224. Akpan,
N.U. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Struggle for Secession, 1966-1970: A Personal Account of the
Nigerian Civil War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Routledge, 1972.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">225. Gould. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. p.84.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">226. Ibid.
p.109.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">227. Ibid.
p.109.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">228. “Biafra
Chief was pushed by aides”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The San Francisco Examiner</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, January 17</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
1970.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">229. “Peace
wish in Biafra letter,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Daily
Telegraph</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, January 14th, 1970.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">230. De St.
Jorre. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Civil War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">231. Vinocur,
John. “The last plane out of Biafra,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Standard Star</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, January 15th, 1970.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">232. London
Daily Express. “Guerrilla Chief continues war”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">San Francisco Examiner</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
January 13</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1970.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">233. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">234. Udeze,
Edozie. “Biafra did not surrender – Achuzia”, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nation</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, August 11</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
2013.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">235. Efiong,
Philip. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria and Biafra: My Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
Ibiono Ibiom Welfare and Development Union (IWADU), 2012.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">236. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">237. Gbulie. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Fall of Biafra</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">238. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">239. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">240. Agence
France Presse. “Nigeria is keeping military prisoners,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Atlanta Constitution,</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> December 20th, 1973.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">241. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">242. Gould. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Struggle for Modern Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. p.204</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">243. Madiebo. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.
P.221.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">244. Omoigwu.
“Federal Nigerian Army Blunders.”</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-43834015277691620472024-03-06T18:55:00.001+00:002024-03-06T18:55:30.346+00:00“Snake From The Tomb”: A 1945 Soviet Propaganda Poster About Ukrainian Nationalism<p><i><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYUaISRXQuDpkkUXh1eYpNfyvqDOlpdnOle1wt-CrAqwugJZQtjJon8yS0k_dbeLcgFWDdukh1ifXcdAT3WDaQVsDCw7B3RL6zObQ99mFLN5CUD_u77E3FfJD6-hvvyX__0nrt81M8invsOslQACIxE-Djw6z16HqimL4gHMlHg-jfb-ZUMKDHEQ7vkze/s1920/Snake%20From%20The%20Tomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYUaISRXQuDpkkUXh1eYpNfyvqDOlpdnOle1wt-CrAqwugJZQtjJon8yS0k_dbeLcgFWDdukh1ifXcdAT3WDaQVsDCw7B3RL6zObQ99mFLN5CUD_u77E3FfJD6-hvvyX__0nrt81M8invsOslQACIxE-Djw6z16HqimL4gHMlHg-jfb-ZUMKDHEQ7vkze/s320/Snake%20From%20The%20Tomb.jpg" width="233" /></a></i></div><i>Soviet propaganda poster
titled "Snake from the tomb" (1945) depicting the 'snake' of
Ukrainian nationalism emerging from a coffin decorated with a swastika and a
Waffen-SS helmet.</i><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Translation:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do you recognise this serpent?<br />
The bloody, devouring beast is slithering.<br />
Guarded by a spidery symbol (swastika),<br />
Its name is - Stepan Bandera.<br />
<br />
Its name is Judas, Cain.<br />
These are the deeds of its snaky hands:<br />
Fires across our land,<br />
The spilled blood of innocent children.<br />
<br />
And the people stood up defiant,<br />
The country gave its verdict:<br />
Crush the serpent and its protectors<br />
And pull out the reptile's sting and teeth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was based on a cartoon
which was published in </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Radians'ka Ukraina</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> newspaper in March 1945.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Designed by Semen Gadyatskiy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-63753356154676600652024-02-15T23:26:00.000+00:002024-02-15T23:26:06.168+00:00Francis Oladele: My Tribute to a Nigerian Filmmaking Pioneer<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEineLxeB4JQNOOSZxSKk3pebNwOKiRgBBGZG5wOvTnOYY0VnbBcHsO3P-dyIK6W28Bi4KtJO3oXgKmBct_k-cWuuschibOQYDukvMf-w9H5Vgxqv8EhyphenhyphenRSoaZjdDfrtbbepRdAnbpATkutq8p5a6nsaXZUimTj2NCFMcb-qtTzPZyf7fRKh_x4Bk0T4wBd4/s1342/241280925_10159629312550477_7275695395511198391_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1342" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEineLxeB4JQNOOSZxSKk3pebNwOKiRgBBGZG5wOvTnOYY0VnbBcHsO3P-dyIK6W28Bi4KtJO3oXgKmBct_k-cWuuschibOQYDukvMf-w9H5Vgxqv8EhyphenhyphenRSoaZjdDfrtbbepRdAnbpATkutq8p5a6nsaXZUimTj2NCFMcb-qtTzPZyf7fRKh_x4Bk0T4wBd4/w400-h268/241280925_10159629312550477_7275695395511198391_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i>My
tribute to Francis Oladele being read by torchlight before a generator was
switched on. The scene was at a Lagos exhibition relating to his life and the
wider celebration of 50 Years since the filming of "Things Fall
Apart". The exhibition ended on Saturday, September 4<sup>th</sup>, 2021.
(Photo Credit: Modern Film Archiv).<o:p></o:p></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is the text:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Remembering Francis
Oladele.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">"My uncle Francis
Oladele was the embodiment of the early Nigerian pioneer spirit. By this I mean
that as the time of national independence from the British colonial master drew
closer, the average person became increasingly more infused with a kind of
frontier spirit. This African Zeitgeist had many layers and forms of expression
such as the culture developed around the Onitsha Market Literature. But it was
firmly rooted in an ideology of self-progress and communal betterment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A key requirement for
attaining this was the idea that one had to travel abroad to secure a sound
education. For the typically conservative-minded Yoruba family, this
often-meant study of the law, medicine, accountancy, and other professional
disciplines in the United Kingdom. But for the free-spirited Uncle Francis, the
future was in the creative arts and in the United States. And it is in America
that, ever the inveterate networker, he sowed the seeds of his future
ground-breaking film projects.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The names startle: he was
friendly with Babatunde Olatunji, became a roadie for Ornette Coleman and
touched base with Melvin Van Peebles. The common denominator between all three
men was that they were pioneers. His reach was extensive as the name of his
film company “Calpenny” reflected. His backers were from California,
Pennsylvania, and New York, and as Ossie Davis noted the nationalities of the
crew which was assembled to work on Kongi’s Harvest -Nigerian, American and
Swedish was a testament to his go-gettedness and ability to get things done.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">He had the ability to
create a hub wherever he laid his hat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Kongi Klub in the
Adamasingba district of Ibadan was a venue at which he could keep a pulse on
the trends of the Nigerian music scene of the 1970s and where he could direct
foreign visitors.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although Nigeria today has
what may be termed a film industry, one which generates a sizable amount of
revenues, it is one which for the most part is bereft of the values and
cinematic culture which my uncle sought to create in </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Things Fall Apart</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (1971)
and </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kongi’s Harvest</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (1970). He told me that he felt unable to remain
“productive” in that climate and was content to spend his retirement
corresponding with researchers who wanted access to materials he had
accumulated during his film career.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What I remember most about
him was his gift for storytelling: anything from hair-raising tales of his
encounters with reckless drivers on Nigerian roads to his decision to spend
some time travelling America via the Greyhound Line.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There was a surreal tale
about attending the Moscow Film Festival at the invitation of the Soviet
authorities. When it was over, he had intended to fly to the United Kingdom to
complete the formalities of editing a film. But his Soviet sponsors would have
none of it and insisted that he leave Moscow via an already booked flight to
Lagos. The way Uncle Francis told it, after some discussion he felt obligated
to get on the Soviet plane lest he be forcibly taken onboard a waiting Aeroflot
plane and tied to his seat. There was perhaps some embellishment to the story,
but he did have to journey all the way back to Lagos only to take the next
flight to London.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On a more serious note he
did tell me of how he turned his Lapiti Estate home in Oyo into a safehouse for
his old friend Wole Soyinka when Soyinka was a fugitive from the security
agents of the Nigerian military dictator, General Sani Abacha. It was from
there that Soyinka made his escape through the border with the Republic of
Benin.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am delighted that he is
being accorded with the honour of the festival including the restoration of </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Things
Fall Apart</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. I hope that it can serve in some way as a means of
re-energizing or re-orientating Nigerian filmmaking towards a more purposeful
cinematic culture."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Adeyinka Makinde, Author,
Writer and Researcher, London, June 2021.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2021).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a
writer based in London, England.</span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-54862797226570772812024-01-20T15:59:00.001+00:002024-01-20T15:59:38.652+00:00The Lady Ojukwu Loved and Lost<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9eFSI7NvFFL5F1X07BVFV-gUuV7yZyggjdqVCXWkj0F4WxSab8Pxo2DtiFYJRVh-X8_bkVZc3mkhNH7O_aD8AqRsGPoOuezNz1gOxVnpmX_JtV5nohH4gGw3YIHDKwVmSNYjJUrANZMG-IMl7ZOBORaAK84YmjAvJ2LBxpDeqrdbEve8Qg5O-pIdenpC/s1200/a45c252341f1130091a39460480789497fd18364.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="738" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9eFSI7NvFFL5F1X07BVFV-gUuV7yZyggjdqVCXWkj0F4WxSab8Pxo2DtiFYJRVh-X8_bkVZc3mkhNH7O_aD8AqRsGPoOuezNz1gOxVnpmX_JtV5nohH4gGw3YIHDKwVmSNYjJUrANZMG-IMl7ZOBORaAK84YmjAvJ2LBxpDeqrdbEve8Qg5O-pIdenpC/w246-h400/a45c252341f1130091a39460480789497fd18364.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lady Iro Hunt pictured in the
1980s. (Photo credit: Giorgos Lanitis).</span></i></div></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Greek-Cypriot heiress Iro
Myrianthousi who was the publisher of <i>Lagos This Week</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">She was the niece of the
Greek-Cypriot business brothers A.G. and C.P. Leventis who established a large
trading firm in Nigeria and several other West African countries. She trained
as a social worker in England before becoming the proprietor of the Lagos-based
magazine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Photographed in the 1980s.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">NB.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There was apparently a
"tug-of-love" between Sir David Hunt, the British High Commissioner
to Nigeria (1967-1969), and Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu over Myrianthousi.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many, including the author
Michael Gould, have speculated that much of Ojukwu's antipathy towards Britain
emanated from the love rivalry with Hunt which Ojukwu lost.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Michael Gould: " I feel
he was very distressed to hear of Iro’s marriage to David Hunt, and I think
much of his antipathy towards Britain during the war emanated from the fact
that he and Iro had had an intense relationship, and that his sentiment for
Britain was coloured by this union ... There is definite acrimony between Iro
Hunt and Ojukwu, because he always sends her Christmas cards, signed with his
love, and she gets very agitated on receiving them because, as she said, of the
way he behaved towards Hunt during the war. Ojukwu seems to have come to terms
with the past, but Lady Hunt is in an unforgiving mood, even intimating that
Ojukwu’s vitriol towards Hunt led to his health being undermined."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-16663208929371659132024-01-14T21:35:00.000+00:002024-01-14T21:35:05.217+00:00Apartheid South Africa and Israel<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbkqVXq1mMFicKCOKFCYdjwqXYZ0I37HtZC6vbeo-H_gxMaclUUr3g21bWOEMn8UvaNHot023l81Q-b1ckY2FJVRtUZXfdtG1g77f8PVwIjGc2Gw67XBLYk221oEvHdwrVPmGKuj4ZmYfJUfAvqs8ev1CZQCXuIJH53aDSmm31Lgv_btJA59laV8FclwL/s1578/imago0062010107s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="1578" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbkqVXq1mMFicKCOKFCYdjwqXYZ0I37HtZC6vbeo-H_gxMaclUUr3g21bWOEMn8UvaNHot023l81Q-b1ckY2FJVRtUZXfdtG1g77f8PVwIjGc2Gw67XBLYk221oEvHdwrVPmGKuj4ZmYfJUfAvqs8ev1CZQCXuIJH53aDSmm31Lgv_btJA59laV8FclwL/w400-h320/imago0062010107s.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John Vorster, the Prime
Minister of Apartheid-era South Africa (left) and Yitzhak Rabin, the ex-Chief
of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces who was Israel's Prime Minister.</span></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Vorster’s four-day state
visit to Israel in April 1976 was the first visit by a South African premier
for over 25 years. South Africa had been one of the first countries to
recognise the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Among the places Vorster
visited was Vad Yashem, the Holocaust Museum. He also visited the town of Bethlehem.
At Vad Yashem, Vorster had said "I cannot understand how that tragedy
happened. I feel what you have built here is Israel is the answer to that
holocaust."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This was ironic because
Vorster had been a Nazi sympathiser who was a member of the neo-Nazi </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ossewabrandwag</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
which empathised with Adolf Hitler. Vorster was also a commander of the group's
militia who were known as</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Stormjaers</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (Stormtroopers). According to the
book </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Apartheid: A History</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> by Brian Lapping, the </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stormjaers </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“adopted
the Swastika badge, gave the Hitler salute, threatened death to the Jews and
provoked fights with army volunteers.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vorster was detained by the
British for being a security risk during World War 2.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At a state dinner, Rabin
toasted "The ideals shared by Israel and South Africa, the hopes for
justice and peaceful co-existence."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The visit elicited
speculation that both countries would strike a deal related to the supply of
arms and weaponry by Israel to South Africa. These included the Kfir or Lion
Cub jet fighters and possibly anti-insurgency weapons.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">By the late 1970s, it was
understood that both nations had been engaging in a secret collaboration on
nuclear weapons. In 1979, the Apartheid regime tested a nuclear weapon in the
South Atlantic using a delivery system which they had developed with the Israelis.
The South Africans also supplied Israel with uranium for its nuclear
establishments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">NB.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. General Moshe Dayan made a
secret visit to Pretoria in 1974 to enquire as to the possibility of Israel conducting
an atomic test on South African territory.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Shimon Peres had made at
least one secret visit to Pretoria over the question of nuclear cooperation.
One accounted visit occurred in early 1976.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Apartheid South Africa
initially resisted formally entering diplomatic relations with Israel because
of Israel's connections with many African states during the early years of
decolonisation. However, after the United Nations General Assembly vote in 1974
which declared Zionism to be a form of racism, South Africa, in an act of
solidarity, sent an ambassador to Israel in November 1975.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Israel abstained from UN
votes which condemned South African Apartheid.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Quotes:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. “there is a certain
sympathy for the situation of [white] South Africa among Israelis. They are
also European settlers standing against a hostile world.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- Seymour Hersh in his book <i>The Samson Option</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. "Israel and South
Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both situated in a
predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- <i>Official Yearbook of the
Republic of South Africa</i>, 1978.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. "(The blacks in South
Africa) want to gain control over the white minority just like the Arabs here
want to gain control over us … And we, like the white minority in South Africa,
must act to prevent them from taking over.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- General Rafael Eitan, Chief
of the Israeli Defence Force (1978-1983).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. “The people of South Africa
will never forget the support of the state of Israel to the apartheid regime.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- Nelson Mandela, shortly
after his release from prison in 1990.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qfcLU07MSQk" width="320" youtube-src-id="qfcLU07MSQk"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-39565292868516902802024-01-08T21:05:00.006+00:002024-01-11T21:35:52.960+00:00"Der Kaiser": Franz Beckenbauer (1945-2024)<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACubXDWc4Ea7oYWAIMC-A-9Jg5wgkWus8tKiXB1mzhhpGADRuXumayCYjbaqPi_gCGAjS5jyJWEEQCaM_XJJd2JnW_TF_5eZQ-9bLdtcGj52yzLSVFpd8YCclh7P1SDKd-0pbViQizNuYwFEY63SYCnmhgfgpFrf-6D576dFhD1RZc2Pq-_w_Y1Y_D6sn/s1974/51MRr1zMETL._AC_SX679_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1974" data-original-width="1328" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACubXDWc4Ea7oYWAIMC-A-9Jg5wgkWus8tKiXB1mzhhpGADRuXumayCYjbaqPi_gCGAjS5jyJWEEQCaM_XJJd2JnW_TF_5eZQ-9bLdtcGj52yzLSVFpd8YCclh7P1SDKd-0pbViQizNuYwFEY63SYCnmhgfgpFrf-6D576dFhD1RZc2Pq-_w_Y1Y_D6sn/w269-h400/51MRr1zMETL._AC_SX679_.jpg" width="269" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Franz Beckenbauer, one of
football's greatest ever, has passed.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">His career coincided with the
golden era of German football during which he won every honour coveted by
footballers: the FIFA World Cup (both as player and manager), the European
Nations Cup and the European Champions Cup.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He was also one of a number
of European and South American greats who tried to turn football into a major
part of American sporting culture by joining Pele at the New York Cosmos.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Beckenbauer was significant
not only as part of the generation of West German players who built upon the
post-war World Cup triumph at Berne in <a href="https://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rebirth-of-nation-west-germany.html">1954</a>, he also played a part in
developing the possibilities associated with the role of a ‘libero’, a position
excelled at by a select few including <a href="https://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2018/05/armando-picchi-in-memoriam.html">Armando Picchi</a>, Gaetano Scirea and Franco
Baresi.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">If Paul Breitner and Gunther
Netzer represented the rebellious face of German football, then Beckenbauer was
their ideological opposite. Where Breitner was a self-professing Maoist,
Beckenbauer was for the bourgeoisie. He was explicitly a supporter of the
politically conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria which ruled the
state of Bavaria for decades just as Beckenbauer, "Der Kaiser", ruled
the roost as captain of both the national team and Bayern Munich.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It was a testament to
Beckenbauer's power and influence that Bayern Munich accepted his
recommendation that Udo Lattek take up the reins as manager of Bayern. Lattek
then led Bayern to three consecutive Bundesliga titles, one German Cup and the
first of three consecutive European Cup titles.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Beckenbauer had an elegant,
imperious style of playing. He had industry and was resourceful. Above all he
was a tremendous leader of men.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He had many career highlights
but the one which sticks with me most is of the one-armed Beckenbauer, hand in
a sling, doggedly playing to the last minute in the losing effort in the FIFA
World Cup semi-final in Mexico when West Germany lost 3-4 to Italy in a game
which was dubbed the "Match of the Century".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AOq70ksEuDM" width="320" youtube-src-id="AOq70ksEuDM"></iframe></div><br /><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-81996007112780059722023-12-21T00:28:00.006+00:002023-12-21T00:41:24.989+00:00December 21, 1978: The Assassination of ETA Commander "Argala"<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5ztdcYCf6mrbhO60QZIUIbx-Zt6qeaY4B_dre1O0cw4jwD6FB8ATNw6v9BcwXt2-ypD3PSgqNPiB_6INa_1G95HzPYbzBtE-X8AFfuyzYn5zIiFk2wfAMlOYE3Jm4JBWbivNqIUibOdKhq5tnoU_2-0zc7QRWCmaDh_ESPbqdjwFBqR_8bvQVCcpu5b0/s1650/84971008_2827779943976376_3871043810452570112_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy5ztdcYCf6mrbhO60QZIUIbx-Zt6qeaY4B_dre1O0cw4jwD6FB8ATNw6v9BcwXt2-ypD3PSgqNPiB_6INa_1G95HzPYbzBtE-X8AFfuyzYn5zIiFk2wfAMlOYE3Jm4JBWbivNqIUibOdKhq5tnoU_2-0zc7QRWCmaDh_ESPbqdjwFBqR_8bvQVCcpu5b0/w291-h400/84971008_2827779943976376_3871043810452570112_n.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">"We don't
like armed struggle. Armed struggle is nasty, it is hard and as a result of it
you go to jail, into exile, be tortured and as a result you can die. You see
one forced to kill. It hardens the person, hurts him, but armed struggle is
essential to advance".</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="IT" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: IT; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">- José Miguel
Beñaran Ordeñana AKA "Argala".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">A "revenge
squad" of assassins led by a Spanish Naval Intelligence operative, Navy
Captain Pedro Martinez ("Pedro El Marino"), planted a car bomb which
killed José Miguel Beñaran Ordeñana, the ETA (<i>Euskadi Ta Askatasuna</i>) leader who
commanded the squad of Basque separatist guerrillas who assassinated Admiral
Luis Carrero Blanco in Madrid five years previously.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Pedro El Marino
was aided by a Spanish Army officer codenamed "Leonidas”, as well as by
ultra-rightist actors, one of whom, Jean-Pierre Cherid, had been a former member of the French O.A.S.
(<i>Organisation de l'armee Secrete</i>) and two neo-fascists: Jose Maria Boccardo from Argentina and the Italian Mario Ricci who belonged to <i>Avanguardia Nazionale.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The murder on
Thursday, December 21st 1978 was carried out in Anglet, a town in the Basque
region of France.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The assassins
had wanted to kill Argala on December 20th -the anniversary of Carrero Blanco's
death- but were unable to do so as Argala did not emerge from his apartment on
that day.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Argala, 29 years old at the time of his death, had activated the explosive that killed
Blanco. He was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1iovJYnpQ">buried</a> six days later on Spanish soil and in 1982, a memorial plaque was unveiled in his hometown </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Arrigorriaga.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The revenge
operation was claimed to have been financed by a personal bank loan with the
weapons being purchased in Belgium. However, Pedro El Marino is said to have
obtained the explosives from a US military base. He was at the forefront of a
state-financed and directed "dirty war" against ETA mainly through a
group known as the Spanish Basque Battalion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qpm0zvNh6o0" width="320" youtube-src-id="Qpm0zvNh6o0"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-14860019453459356422023-12-08T23:08:00.003+00:002023-12-08T23:08:58.415+00:00John Lennon (1940-1980)<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUPIjbPTdHgtQmGlJc_9PpEeHWRkO-1RcwpmfpxH5wAHc33O3mAL7b5UE6ZiqkERu8ovMzZcYhu9WzOumz6QYC18owfE6xDPhcPD5cHInPbw0zPCipKJIaYBMf5vC2cxEYgFDeJFc0slO3LNjMG1lGMOB0N_3GJATvh0vN7L-9Y7p0qnyzBl08amAy8k4/s1510/754_46736390476_2088_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1510" data-original-width="1130" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpUPIjbPTdHgtQmGlJc_9PpEeHWRkO-1RcwpmfpxH5wAHc33O3mAL7b5UE6ZiqkERu8ovMzZcYhu9WzOumz6QYC18owfE6xDPhcPD5cHInPbw0zPCipKJIaYBMf5vC2cxEYgFDeJFc0slO3LNjMG1lGMOB0N_3GJATvh0vN7L-9Y7p0qnyzBl08amAy8k4/s320/754_46736390476_2088_n.jpg" width="239" /></a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">John Lennon etching by
Adeyinka Makinde (1985).</span></i></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-49663379168986701812023-11-09T00:44:00.007+00:002023-11-09T05:47:52.014+00:00Failing Palestine: How the Arab and Muslim World has consistently fumbled the Palestinian quest for statehood<p><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoBYy956q37JA1zNTC2zLI_4pVR8SlxSE_jiitRb4pY16QIMUhE4FPCuh4vIQogE5ZyB_RaIx-yScX7tMGROl_NCzQabPp5Cy0LP4fn4q4RWAdfeUYXpXR2g_lXCWw1hJU4_NMbLkP-8gdX4u_64wVg0QEMlfj648bn8xjd1kMI1SaEM9JhXixorP581u/s1162/maxresdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="1162" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoBYy956q37JA1zNTC2zLI_4pVR8SlxSE_jiitRb4pY16QIMUhE4FPCuh4vIQogE5ZyB_RaIx-yScX7tMGROl_NCzQabPp5Cy0LP4fn4q4RWAdfeUYXpXR2g_lXCWw1hJU4_NMbLkP-8gdX4u_64wVg0QEMlfj648bn8xjd1kMI1SaEM9JhXixorP581u/w400-h184/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></i></div><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The present onslaught by Israeli military
forces on the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza brings into sharp focus not
only the stark imbalance between the military actors in the conflict, it also
serves as a reminder of the abject failure of the Arab and Muslim world in
militarily defending Palestinians and promoting the ultimate objective of
Palestinian statehood. A brief history of what was traditionally termed as an
“Arab-Israeli conflict” reveals a catalogue of shortcomings based on a range of
factors including a lack of strategic thinking, the disingenuous championing of
the Palestinian cause by various Arab regimes, as well as an indifference to
the plight of the Palestinians.</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The cause of
Palestinian Arabs who were dispossessed of most of their land by Zionist Jews
during the 20th century has often been framed as a clash between the modern
construct of Israel and the wider Arab world. And although composed of a
sizeable proportion of Christian Palestinians, the cause of Palestine has often
been taken up by the wider Muslim world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">However, the
historical record reveals a complexity of forces which have detracted from the
perceived unity and solidarity of Arabs and Muslims in defending the
Palestinians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A useful
starting point would be to examine the level of aid and assistance granted to
Palestinian guerrillas during the era of the British Mandate. They were never
substantively armed by neighbouring Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan who in
the 1930s were British client states. This remained the case after the creation
of the Arab League in 1945. It meant that Palestinian militias were no match
for the Haganah and its elite Strikeforce, the Palmach, the militarised
organisations attached to the Jewish Agency in Palestine.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Palestinian
resistance had been severely degraded after the anti-British Palestinian
insurgency conducted between 1936 and 1939. Widely known as the “Arab Revolt”,
Jewish auxiliaries backed the British army and police in suppressing the
Palestinian guerrillas in a counterinsurgency effort which in its late stage
was decisively orchestrated by Captain Orde Wingate, an artillery officer and
ardent Zionist.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The cumulative
effect of the dismantling of an organised Palestinian force after the revolt
and the subsequent failure of the Arab League to arm Palestinians severely
affected their ability to resist well-armed Jewish forces during the crucial
years leading up to 1948 when Plan Dalet was implemented during the war between
Arab armies on the one hand, and the armies of the Jewish Agency (alongside the
Jewish terror groups Irgun and Lehi) on the other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The ensuing
Nakba or “Catastrophe” was the inevitable consequence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Contrary to the
view imposed in Western consciousness that the aim of invading Arab armies was
to destroy the about-to-be-declared Jewish state, the soldiers sent by
countries such as Egypt and Lebanon – by all estimates numerically less than
the Jewish combatants - were fighting not to push the Jewish settlers “into the
sea”, but to hold onto territory apportioned to Arab Palestinians under the
so-called UN Partition Plan of 1947.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Also, Jordan,
then in possession of the finest army in the Arab world, had reached a secret
nonaggression pact with the Jewish Agency. The only bone of contention would be
over the city of Jerusalem which the Jordanian Army successfully defended
against attacks by the Haganah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Approximately
750,000 Palestinians were expelled from the territories controlled by the
Jewish state declared by the Jewish Agency in Palestine. Egypt and Jordan took
control of Palestinian land respectively in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While
Palestinian Fedayeen attacked Israeli territory from these locations during the
1950s and the 1960s, the cause for Palestinian statehood was not taken
seriously by Arab nations until the Battle of Karameh and Yasser Arafat’s
emergence as a global figure of resistance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Arafat, a civil
engineer turned guerrilla, was the leader of al-Fatah, one of several groups
which were part of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) of which he
served as Chairman. He engineered a direct confrontation with Israeli forces by
consciously making Karameh, a village in the Jordanian-controlled West Bank,
the location for an almost certain suicidal last stand against the Israeli
Defence Forces (IDF). Arafat did this by contravening the first rule of
guerrilla warfare by making the village his fixed base of operations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Moshe Dayan,
the former IDF Chief of Staff who was then Israel’s defence minister mobilised
an IDF force to destroy Arafat and his Fedayeen. In response, the Commander of
the Iraqi forces stationed in Jordan until King Hussein’s army could be
reorganised and re-equipped after the defeat sustained during the Six Day War
solemnly advised Arafat that he should withdraw his men to nearby mountains.
The Jordanian Army gave the same advice.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But Arafat
refused to heed their advice, opting instead to make a stand. In the light of
the Arab humiliation inflicted by the Israelis in June 1967, he replied that a
group needed to give an example of Arab courage, adding that he was prepared to
“fight and die”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Arafat had 297
guerrillas including child soldiers, one of whom asked him if they could defeat
the Israelis. Arafat replied by saying “We cannot defeat them, but we can teach
them a lesson.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Arafat’s
al-Fatah fighters initially shocked the invading force. The IDF arrived to find
what appeared to be a ghost town, but the guerrillas sprung out of their hidden
positions and threw themselves at the Israeli tanks. Some planted grenades on
the tanks or exploded themselves on the tanks while strapped with grenades. A
number of Israeli tank crews responded by leaping from their tanks and taking
flight. But after recovering from this early jolt, the firepower of the IDF
began to tell. With about two-thirds of the Palestinians killed, the Jordanians
entered the fray, using artillery which enabled Fatah fighters to attack the
Israelis from behind their lines.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Abu Jihad,
Arafat’s right-hand man, had arranged for the Jordanians to give covering fire
to the Fatah guerillas to facilitate their withdrawal. But many Palestinians
and their sympathisers continue to strongly believe that the Jordanian units
spontaneously came to the aid of the Palestinians out of a sense of shame at seeing
the Palestinians fighting the Israelis alone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Whatever the
truth, at some point Dayan decided to withdraw the IDF who lost a total of 28
men. The Palestinians lost 93 guerrillas while 128 Jordanians were either
killed or wounded.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Karameh
reinvigorated the cause of Palestinian nationalism. But it also forced Arafat,
on the advice of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser, to begin to devise a
political programme for achieving Palestinian statehood, an objective which
Arafat knew could only be achieved by compromising with the Jewish state.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The task of
negotiating and actualising a two-state solution would be a tough one which he
knew would, at least initially, be resisted. He was also fully aware that it
could lead to his assassination. However, before Arafat could begin the journey
which would lead to the Oslo Accord, he had to contend with hardline members of
his organisation and other groups within the PLO who sought to use other
methods.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">There were
those Palestinian groups who, bemoaning the timidity or outright indifference
of many Arab regimes to their cause, felt that the Palestinians should work
towards overthrowing these governments as the route towards liberating
Palestine. Arafat refused on the grounds that the PLO should not interfere in
the internal affairs of Arab states, but the likes of George Habash of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) sought this route
beginning with the attempt by the PFLP and other radical Palestinian groups to
overthrow the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan. The result was that in September
1970 King Hussein ordered his army to confront them leading to the expulsion of
all Palestinian militia from Jordan. The PLO relocated to Lebanon.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Arafat’s
political programme had to be stalled for a good period of time because of the
decision of various groups to resort to international terrorism. The Black
September Organisation carried out attacks against Israeli targets, including
at the Munich Games, and Jordanian ones, including the assassination of Wasfi
Tal, the foreign minister. The PLPF faction led by Waddie Haddad proceeded to
stage a series of plane hijackings with the help of non-Palestinians such as
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos The Jackal) and the West German Revolutionary
Cells. The involvement of the PLO and other Palestinian militias in the
Lebanese Civil War also served as a setback to Arafat’s plans.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While the
Palestinian cause remained dear to the heart of many ordinary people in the
Arab world, the commitment to Palestinian liberation was not nearly as strong
among Arab regimes. The fourth Arab-Israeli war of October 1973 is proof of
this. Just as was the case in 1948, the main protagonists Egypt and Syria did
not go to war to dismantle the Israeli state and liberate Palestine. The
objectives of President Anwar Sadat and President Hafez Assad was to retake the
land each nation lost to Israel in 1967, respectively the Sinai and Golan
Heights. Syria totally failed. Egypt on the other hand crossed the Suez Canal
and made gains before losing territory after an Israeli counterattack. Sadat,
who declared the effort of his military to be a sufficient victory, went on to
sign a peace accord with Israel which involved the Israelis handing back the
Sinai peninsula.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But the signing
of peace treaties between individual Arab states and Israel inherently works
against the objective of establishing a Palestinian state. This is true not
only in regard to the US-brokered Camp David Agreement between Egypt and Israel
in 1978 and the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty of 1994, it also applies to the
so-called “Abraham Accords” reached in 2020, as well as the proposed
normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A just and
lasting solution to the Palestinian quest for statehood can only come to
fruition peacefully by a comprehensive agreement involving Israel, the
Palestinians and Israel’s Arab neighbours.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Arab League
which could have been the instrument for the application of pressure on Israel
to bring about a Palestinian state has been impotent. But it should be noted
that the Saudi-led Arab Peace Plan adopted by the League at its 2002 summit
held in Beirut did offer Israel a comprehensive peace. In return for a full
normalisation of relations with Israel, the plan called for Israel to end its
occupation of Arab territory seized during the war of 1967, Israel’s
recognition of an independent Palestinian state composed of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital, and what was termed a “just
solution” to the Palestinian refugee issue.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As Arafat had
realised when formulating his political programme in the late 1960s, a
compromise solution would inevitably mean that many Palestinians would not be
able to re-settle in the lands from which their forebears had been expelled. He
was explicit about this during the years when he painstakingly repeatedly spoke
to PLO leaders until he managed to turn the majority around to his thinking to
pave the way for the Oslo accord of 1994. But Israel, under the leadership of
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, unreasonably dismissed the Arab Peace Plan as did
Binyamin Netanyahu when the plan was revived in 2007.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Yet, the Arab
League has always possessed the means to aid the Palestinian cause by employing
a host of diplomatic and economic measures against Israel and its Western
backers. For one, the Saudis unilaterally agreed not to impose the weapon of
oil sanctions. The oil embargo was used to devastating effect in 1973. But it
could have been used in 1967 as a means of pressuring the West to get Israel to
accept United Nations Resolution 242 which was adopted in November 1967. It
could also have been used in 1982 to prevent Israel’s destructive invasion of
Lebanon which resulted in the PLO’s expulsion from the country. The threat of
using the oil weapon is one which could have been used as a powerful tool with
the objective of resolving the Palestinian issue on the negotiating table.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The truth of
the matter is that many Arab regimes, particularly those who are ruled by
conservative monarchies, have often preferred for the Palestinian issue to be
buried and forgotten. Many wished for the PLO to have faded away after its
expulsions from Jordan and Lebanon. Countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi
Arabia have been compromised by their levels of dependency on the United States
which over the decades has backed Israel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The present
conflagration in Gaza arguably exposes the shortcomings of Arab states and the
wider Muslim world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While Gaza is
presently being destroyed by Israel whose leaders have explicitly invoked the
genocidal Old Testament doctrine of Amalek in response to the operation
undertaken by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, there is little of substantive
reaction by Arab and Muslim governments in pressuring Israel and its Western
backers who have effectively given carte blanche to Binyamin Netanyahu’s
government to carry on the slaughter.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Arab and
Muslim world are not purposefully applying pressure economically,
diplomatically and militarily.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">For one, the
employment of the oil weapon would serve as a means of registering their
collective disapproval in the strongest manner short of war. Iran’s suggestion
that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) impose an oil embargo and
other sanctions on Israel was met with muted response. The Organisation of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of which Saudi Arabia is a prominent
member issued a statement saying that “no immediate action or emergency
meetings were planned by the group in light of Iran's comments.” The secretary
general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also announced that the
organisation would not be taking any action stating that the GCC was “committed
to energy security” and would not use oil “as a weapon.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Arab states could
also withdraw crucial investments made within America’s fragile, debt-ridden
economy, with the confidence that they can cast their lost firmly with the
rising institutions of the germinating multipolar world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In the sphere
of diplomacy, none of the five Arab states who have diplomatic relations with
Israel have signalled their intent to break off their ties. Further,
no Arab or Muslim state appears to have considered the application of universal
jurisdiction which would enable each of them to claim criminal jurisdiction
over Israeli leaders if they believe individual leaders have been complicit in
the perpetration of specific war crimes against the Palestinians of Gaza,
including genocide. That this would be a useful tool is illustrated by the US
State Department’s public denial that it was applying pressure on Mahmoud
Abbas, the leader of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), not to
invoke the 1948 Genocide Convention at the International Criminal Court.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Finally,
notwithstanding Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s recent bellicose statements
regarding a possible “Crescent versus Cross” war, there is no sign that Turkey
or Egypt, who possess powerful militaries are prepared to resort to the
military option of rescuing Gazans from their gruesome predicament.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Polls have
consistently indicated that the vast majority of Arabs have a different posture
towards Israel than their leaders. It is a source of considerable embarrassment
to a sizeable segment of Sunni Muslims who comprise 1.7 billion of the world’s
population that many Sunnis look to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia, as
the force who could neutralise Israeli aggression.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Hezbollah is
the only military force in the Arab world to have inflicted defeats on Israel.
It is Hezbollah which caused Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000
after an 18-year occupation. And in 2006, Hezbollah inflicted substantial
losses on the invading IDF which forced the Israeli military to withdraw after
34 days. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">That Hezbollah
has the capacity to inflict a strategic defeat on Israel was made clear by the
pessimistic results of Exercise 'Firm Hand' and Exercise 'Chariots of Fire'
conducted by Israel respectively in 2023 and 2022. Each war game posited the
IDF fighting multifront wars including uprisings in the Palestinian West Bank
and Gaza, as well as a confrontation with Hezbollah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While
Hezbollah’s skirmishing with the IDF on the Israel-Lebanon border has tied
Israeli forces down in northern Israel from where Israeli settlements have been
relocated at great cost to the country, there is no sign that Turkey, perhaps
in combination with Egypt, are seriously considering taking military action to
create a buffer between Israel and Gaza in order to stop the slaughter of
Palestinians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Turkey has the
military capacity to defeat Israel in a conventional war. It has also developed
a strategic relationship with Pakistan which has a nuclear weapons production
capacity. Pakistan has in the past promised Islamic nations, most notably Saudi
Arabia, use of what has been termed its “Islamic Bomb” if Israel threatens them.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While it is
clear that a wide war in the Middle East involving Israel and a combination of
Muslim adversaries would risk a devastating, even apocalyptic aftermath, the
Arab and Muslim populations are wondering at what point the slaughter of a
considerable number of innocent non-combatants in Gaza will reach a threshold
at which point Arab and Muslim states will act in concert to use not only the
full panoply of available economic and diplomatic measures, but also as a last
resort, orchestrate a military intervention.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The
implementation of one or a combination of these measures are arguably the only
means through which the Palestinians of Gaza will be saved from being
ethnically cleansed and further, could form the basis for the creation of the
state Palestinians have been denied since 1948.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England. He has an interest in history and
geopolitics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-439191741992781852023-10-29T10:29:00.007+00:002023-10-31T14:18:52.720+00:00Israel-Palestine at War: Understanding Israel's enduring "Sacred Terrorism"<p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJgH6hbxdGyQJ4PMIznUBnmn-WjLKZpbBYesBcj-CqrzIpuZ_tbK17jfhiDRIUQrZHVJ7IfNerFHeVPtXGRpq8J6cm8ONdxBGacSWwB2uvFJf-Odi5MoZS9yEIhpgJXFZeTR-3SbWHOZJBAHKzuoAZn0EYanqIipRCI9FntLRGjnjEVqHbTVHpn3Pw82z/s2048/Smoke%20from%20Israeli%20bombardment%20is%20pictured%20over%20the%20Gaza%20City%20seaport%20on%20October%2011,%202023.%20(MOHAMMED%20ABED-AFP).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJgH6hbxdGyQJ4PMIznUBnmn-WjLKZpbBYesBcj-CqrzIpuZ_tbK17jfhiDRIUQrZHVJ7IfNerFHeVPtXGRpq8J6cm8ONdxBGacSWwB2uvFJf-Odi5MoZS9yEIhpgJXFZeTR-3SbWHOZJBAHKzuoAZn0EYanqIipRCI9FntLRGjnjEVqHbTVHpn3Pw82z/w400-h266/Smoke%20from%20Israeli%20bombardment%20is%20pictured%20over%20the%20Gaza%20City%20seaport%20on%20October%2011,%202023.%20(MOHAMMED%20ABED-AFP).jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">Israeli bombardment at the Gaza City seaport, October 11, 2023.
(MOHAMMED ABED/AFP)</span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The present crisis prompted by the raid by
Palestinian guerrillas of Hamas on settlements and security installations in
southern Israel has been condemned by the Israeli authorities as an act of
wanton terrorism. This has been echoed by Western governments who have invoked
the perennial mantra that Israel “has the right to defend itself”; a position
which many point out provides the government of Israel with the justification
for responding with disproportionate force that will necessarily involve the wholesale
commission of war crimes against innocent Palestinians within the Gaza Strip, a
piece of land which is often referred to as the world’s largest open air
concentration camp. But the mainstream media’s compartmentalisation of events does
a disservice to comprehending the overall picture of the Israel-Palestine
conflict as one which is predicated on the decades long calibrated ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians and the expropriation of their land. Moreover, this
narrative fails to address the issue of Israel’s enduring policy of
provocation-and-retaliation, as well as an equally long-term military strategy
of deliberately attacking civilian populations; a policy described by early
Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett as Israel’s “sacred terrorism.” Israel’s
terror strategy is explicitly acknowledged by contemporary political and
military analysts. While Israel is often touted as a Middle Eastern nation
which espouses “Western values,” this totally distorts the true picture of its
relations with Palestinians which is informed by an exceptionalist morality
consistently enunciated by the leaders of Political Zionism and practised by
successive generations of Israeli military and political leaders. Further, it
obscures the reconfiguration of Israeli society in terms of the rise in
influence of extremist religious and ideological forces.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The raid
conducted in southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, by members of the Izz ad-Din
al-Qassam Brigades, guerrillas of the Palestinian Islamist organisation known
as Hamas, led to the </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-19/ty-article-magazine/israels-dead-the-names-of-those-killed-in-hamas-massacres-and-the-israel-hamas-war/0000018b-325c-d450-a3af-7b5cf0210000?fbclid=IwAR0p22gGQoeZUUPnBKxO5Hb2xfHaNqg5Fd9FmoobhI40d7B7v-WZfu-OVgg" style="font-size: 12pt;">killing</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
of over 1300 Israelis and the taking into captivity of over 200. Hamas did not
only attack settlements, its fighters overran border guard posts, military and
police installations and in the process entered into firefights with Israeli
security personnel. Several senior officers of the Israeli Defence Forces
(IDF) were killed. These included Colonel Yonatan Steinberg, Commander of the IDF’s 933rd
"Nahal" Brigade, Colonel Roi Levy, Commander of the IDF's special
forces "Ghost" Unit, and Lieutenant Colonel Eli Ginsberg, a former
naval special forces officer of Shayetet 13 who commanded LOTAR, a special
forces counter-terrorism unit of the IDF. In all, just over 300
Israeli military and over 50 Israeli police lost their lives. Apart from
killing elite military personnel, the raiders destroyed communication
installations and captured equipment.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The raid has
left Israelis understandably enraged at the murder of civilians from infants to
the elderly. Many are also outraged by the apparent grossly negligent lapse in
state security and there are claims by survivors that a large number of deaths
were of Israelis caught in the crossfire between security teams and the
raiders. Yasmin Porat, an Israeli survivor from the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri
near the Gaza boundary, claimed Israeli forces </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/" style="font-size: 12pt;">killed
their own</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> civilians when firing tank shells at houses in the kibbutz where
Hamas gunmen were holding hostages. Israeli Apache attack helicopters were also
scrambled into action. But with almost no intelligence on which to rely to make
“fateful decisions,” one pilot later commented that “I find myself in a dilemma
as to what to shoot at, because there are so many of them.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It may take
some time, perhaps until an inquiry along the lines of that undertaken by the
Agranat Commission, before clarification is given about Israeli citizens whose
lives were taken in the crossfire, as well as whether the Israeli military’s
shelling of homes and use of hellfire missiles directed at hostage-taking
Palestinian gunmen was an application of the “Hannibal Directive”, a secret
field order issued in 1986 through which the IDF seeks to kill its own soldiers
(and by extension Israeli civilians) to prevent them being taken hostage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">That lies in
the future. Presently, Israel wants its revenge in the course of which it seeks
to destroy Hamas, a pan-Islamist organisation, which Israeli intelligence
services had ironically helped build up to serve as a counterweight to
al-Fatah, the secular nationalist body headed by Palestinian Liberation
Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But Israel’s
subsequent actions of bombing Gaza and its threatened ground invasion are seen
as a means by which it will exact a large-scale form of collective punishment.
Certainly, Israel’s decision to cut off water, food, fuel, electricity, and the
Internet is seen as part of a disproportionate series of acts which will affect
innocent civilians, thus amounting to war crimes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Israeli
authorities have sought to justify their actions by referring to heinous acts
committed by Hamas during its invasion of Israeli territory, insisting that
murder, rape, and the desecration of corpses accompanied what they proclaim as
the largest amount of Jewish life taken since the anti-Jewish massacres of
World War 2. Some high-ranking Israeli officials have declared Palestinians to
be “animals” and the civilians in Gaza to be effectively complicit in the
actions of Hamas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Yet, this
compartmentalization of Hamas’ deadly attack of October 7 does a great
disservice in detracting from the wider basis of the conflict including the
cycle of revenge undertaken over the years by both sides. The position of Gaza,
a densely populated territory, which is constantly monitored and subjected to
an Israeli blockade encompassing land, air, and sea, arguably nurtures the
conditions in which pent up rage is cyclically unleashed against Israel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Several of
Israel’s leaders have made clear what the objective is of blockading Gaza. In
2018, </span><a href="https://www.makorrishon.co.il/news/12431/" style="font-size: 12pt;">Avigdor Lieberman</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
when serving as the defence minister under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,
told readers of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Makor Rishon</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> that “We allow them to keep their heads
above water, but not beyond that”. Speaking to </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ma’ariv </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">in 2021, his successor,
</span><a href="https://www.maariv.co.il/news/military/Article-822723" style="font-size: 12pt;">Benny Gantz</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
a former IDF Chief of Staff, stated “We will not allow real and long-term
development in the Gaza Strip”.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The instigators
of the raid of October 7th, would doubtlessly have had on their minds the abuse
and humiliations constantly heaped on Palestinian communities. In the West
Bank, Palestinians are deprived of their land by encroaching Israeli settlers
who seize their homes and destroy their farms. At the same time, their homes
are regularly destroyed by Israel’s security forces as a means of exacting
collective punishment for acts of resistance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Palestinians
also have limited rights of access to freshwater aquifers. The “Apartheid-like”
impositions in the West Bank means that they are subjected to daily
humiliations by the occupying Israeli army at checkpoints and they cannot use
highways that are the preserve of the gun-wielding Israeli settlers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Moreover, many
Palestinians have been killed by both Israeli security forces and settler
militias in incidents where they are not held accountable for their deeds. It
should not be forgotten that many Palestinians, including minors, are regularly
arrested, and detained by Israeli security services. Indeed, in July of this
year, the <i>Times of Israel</i> ran an
article stating that over </span><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-1100-palestinians-said-held-by-israel-without-trial-highest-figure-since-2003/"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">1,100</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Palestinians were being
held without trial, the highest figure since 2003. Thus, a key motivation for
the taking of Israeli military and civilian hostages was based on securing the
release of </span><a href="https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention/statistics"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">1,117</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Palestinian adults and up
to </span><a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_detention"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">700</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Palestinian minors.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The desperation
and the long-standing grievances of the Palestinian people as relates to the
dispossession of their land along with their long-term incarceration in Gaza
and the emasculation of their leadership in the West Bank are thus key issues
that need to be borne in mind when reviewing the events of October 7th. Also,
an examination of Israel’s apparent willingness to commit genocide in Gaza and
to oversee the removal of its population has to be seen in the context of the
ideology of Political Zionism and the policies Israeli leaders have developed
over the period in which it has existed as a state.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The ultimate
goal on which Zionism is predicated is to effect the removal of Palestinian
communities and to correspondingly expand territory on what is termed Eretz
Yisrael or “The Land of Israel.” And in linking this to the present war with
Gaza, it is important to understand the moral postulates on which Zionism’s
early leaders operated and the policies they developed which encompass
“provocation-and-revenge” and the targeting of civilians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The morality of
Political Zionism regardless of its designation as “accommodationist” or as “Revisionist
Zionism” or “left” or “right” is consistent about finding the ways and means to
remove Arabs from a Jewish state.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Zionism’s
founding father Theodor Herzl wrote of the need to transfer the Arabs, and in
private Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion was adamant about the
need to expel the Arabs preferably under the cover of war. Vladimir Jabotinsky,
the leader of the Revisionist Zionism school of thought, was frank when stating
in his tome </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Iron Wall</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> that the
Arab population were a living, breathing people whose natural attachment to
their land meant that they would not voluntarily cede their rights and
therefore would have to be forcibly dispossessed by military means.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">General Moshe
Dayan also understood the pervading mindset with which the Zionist settlers
would have to be inculcated in order to hold on to the land. His eulogy for Roi
Rotberg, given in April 1956, after Rotberg, a settler, had been ambushed
and killed by Arabs near Gaza, expounded the idea that Israelis
should accept the hatred which dispossessed Palestinians directed at them and
that they should therefore embrace the sword:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing
that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs
who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken. This is the
fate of our generation. This is our life's choice - to be prepared and armed,
strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives
cut down.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Dayan’s words
are seen as the defining <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-moshe-dayan-delivered-the-defining-speech-of-zionism/">speech </a>of Zionism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Moshe Sharett,
an early Prime Minister of Israel, quoted Dayan as saying “Israel must see the
sword as the main, if not the only instrument to keep morale high and keep the
tension … we must invent dangers and adopt the method of
provocation-and-revenge. Above all, let us hope for a new war with the Arab
countries so we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire our space.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Israeli
modus operandi of acting provocatively before claiming victimhood as a prelude
to retaliation and a land grab was articulated with clarity by Dayan in 1967:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">The taking of the Golan Heights was for the
farmland - not security. We would send a tractor in to plough to get the
Syrians to shoot. If they didn’t, we would advance further and further until
they did shoot. Then we would use artillery and air force.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In his private
diary published posthumously in 1979, Sharett bemoaned what he described as
“the long chain of false incidents and hostilities we have invented, and so
many clashes we have provoked.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The ongoing
Israeli assault of Gaza and the inevitable destruction of innocent human life
is a deliberate strategy aimed not only at physically eradicating Palestinians
but is also a continuum of the impositions of the Gazan siege and harsh
occupation of the West Bank which were designed to demoralise Palestinians to
the point at which they will leave their ancestral land. Israel is fully aware
that levelling Gaza from the air is not destroying the military assets of Hamas
which are largely ensconced beneath the ground. Such action will inevitably
cost civilian lives including those of Palestinian children.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Israel has
targeted civilians as part of an enduring policy, which has been alluded to by
successive Prime Ministers, high-ranking military officers, diplomats, foreign
ministers and military analysts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In 1948 Ben
Gurion wrote in his Independence War Diary that Israel must “strike
mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the action is inefficient.
At the place of action there is no need to distinguish between guilty and
innocent.” The massacre of Palestinian villagers, most of them women and
children, in the West Bank village of Qibya in October 1953, exemplified this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1978 during
Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon, Lieutenant General Mordechai Gur, the IDF’s
Chief of Staff, spoke frankly to </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Al
HaMishmar</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> about the war waged against Arab civilian populations living in
cities and villages. A few days later in a review of Gur’s interview published
in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ha’aretz</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ze’ev Schiff, a military
analyst, wrote the following:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">In South Lebanon we struck the civilian
population consciously because they deserved it, …the importance of Gur’s
remarks is the admission that the Israeli Army has always struck civilian
populations, purposefully and consciously… even when Israeli settlements had
not been struck.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1981, Abba
Eban, when a former UN Ambassador and Foreign Minister, wrote in the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Jerusalem Post</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> a response to a letter
written by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin. According to Eban, “the picture
that emerges (from Begin’s letter) is of an Israel wantonly inflicting every
possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent
of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor myself would dare mention by name.” But
Eban supported the policy given that Israel’s monopoly of violence ensured that
ultimately “there was a rational prospect for the cessation of hostilities.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The bombing of
civilian populations for political purposes was evident during the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Most of the 20,000 people killed were civilians.
Even Lieutenant General Yitzhak Rabin, the future hope for peace noted in the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Jerusalem Post</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> in 1988 that Israeli
raids in remote Lebanese villages inflicted civilian casualties which “is
precisely our aim”.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Today, the
"Dahiya Doctrine", which was drawn up in 2006 by Gadi Eizenkot, a
future chief of staff of the Israeli army, specifically promotes the
annihilation of civilian populated areas in Lebanon when Israel takes military
action against its northern neighbour. Its concomitant action against Gazans is
known as “mowing-the-grass.” Here the idea is that Israel hits at Hamas,
degrading its capabilities while inevitably inflicting collective punishment by
physically destroying a sizeable proportion of Gaza’s civilian population
during periodic outbursts of violence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It should also
be noted that the killing of civilians also has the sanction of certain rabbis.
During the 2014 crisis, the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Jerusalem
Post</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> reported a rabbi’s claim that Jewish law permits the </span><a href="https://www.jpost.com/operation-protective-edge/rabbi-lior-jewish-law-permits-destruction-of-gaza-to-bring-safety-to-israel-368605" style="font-size: 12pt;">destruction</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
of Gaza in order to bring safety to Israel. It echoed an uncompromisingly
brutal counsel from Rabbi Manis Friedman, a prominent figure in the Chabad
movement who, in response to a question posed in a 2009 edition of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Moment</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> magazine’s “Ask the Rabbis”
feature, stated that the “only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way:
Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women, and children (and cattle).”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The late Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, the late chief rabbi for Israel’s Sephardic community and
spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party called for the annihilation
of Arabs during a Passover sermon delivered in 2001:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You
must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable …
waste their seed and exterminate them and vanish them from this world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It would be
remiss not to add the religious background to the attack of October 7th. The
choice of the codename “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” was a deliberate allusion by Hamas
to the invasions of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque in recent times by Israeli
zealots and by Israeli security. The mosque, the third holiest site in Islam,
is also the location of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. It is
where two Jewish temples of antiquity were built and crucially where Jewish
fundamentalists aim to build the Third Temple. The building of a Third Temple
would, it is claimed, necessitate the destruction of the Muslim mosque.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Just two days
before the October 7 raid, 832 intruders consisting of rabbis, settlers and
far-right university lecturers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa compound to
commemorate the ending of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The continual
invasions of the mosque by Jewish extremists, as well as the raids conducted by
Israeli police who also impose restrictions on the site are seen as
provocations, not only by Palestinians, but also by the wider Muslim world.
Indeed, when in September 2000 serving Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
accompanied by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, visited the mosque, it was seen
as a provocation and led to the Second Intifada.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Pressures
related to the building of the Third Temple may in part be due to the anxieties
held by extremist Israelis about Israel’s long-term survival. Although not a
fundamentalist, the former Prime Minister and IDF chief Ehud Barak summed up fears
related to Israel’s future in an interview with </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Yedioth Ahronoth</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> in May
2022:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Throughout Jewish history, the Jews did not
rule for more than eighty years, except in the two kingdoms of David and the
Hasmonean dynasty, and in both periods, their disintegration began in the
eighth decade.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The
developments fixated on the Al-Aqsa Mosque are not necessarily a niche
preoccupation of marginal Jewish zealots. They strike at the heart of the
demographic evolution of Israeli society which has led to tensions among
Israelis. Israel’s traditional dominant class of liberal secular Ashkenazi Jews
are being superseded in population size and political influence by the previous
underclass of Mizrahi Jews who in alliance with settlers and other
fundamentalist Jews have tired of the presence of Arabs on Eretz Yisrael and
feel that the time has come to establish Israel proper. In other words, for
them, the time is now ripe to expel the Arabs, annex the remnants of Arab land
and build the Third Temple.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It was with
this constituency in mind that on May 21st, 2023, Binyamin Netanyahu’s
coalition cabinet, the most right-wing in Israeli history, which includes the
ideological disciples of Rabbi Meir Kahane, met inside a tunnel underneath the
Al-Aqsa Mosque. Much of the support for Netanyahu’s judicial reforms have come
from Mizrahi communities while most of the demonstrations against the bid to
limit the powers of the Ashkenazi-dominated judiciary were of Ashkenazi
background.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Israel’s future
as a right-wing authoritarian state was predicted 75 years ago by a group of
American Jewish intellectuals including Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein who
wrote to the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">New York Times</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> to warn
that the acceptance into mainstream politics of Menachem Begin’s Herut Party
which evolved into Likud, would lead Israel down the path which would
legitimise “ultra-nationalism, religious mysticism and racial superiority.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The rise in
influence of extremist parties such as Shas and Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power)
who ally with Likud has created the conditions for this. And the programme
aimed at limiting the power of the Supreme Court is arguably one manifestation
by which such ultranationalism is becoming embedded in Israel. But it could be
argued that the route to this state of affairs was an inevitable evolution of
Political Zionism just as the goals of “accommodationist” or revisionist
Zionist were ultimately the same.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">For instance,
the primary objective of Political Zionism was from the outset to found a
Jewish state in Palestine to the exclusion of all other races and religions. Israel’s
formal declaration of itself to be a racialist, ethno-state came to fruition in
2018 through the passage by the Knesset of the </span><a href="https://avidichter.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/leom_law_en_press_18.7.18.pdf"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Basic Law on Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Further, the
rumpus over the curtailment of the power of the Supreme Court has little
bearing on the plight of Palestinians even if the complex aspects of what is
motivating this could be reduced to a narrative positing the opposing sides as
fundamentalist oriental Jews on the one hand, and liberal,
Enlightenment-believing Ashkenazi Jews on the other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Palestinian
view is that the Supreme Court has upheld the status quo as far as the
occupation of Palestinian land and anti-Palestinian discrimination is
concerned. For example, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the legality of the
blockade imposed on Gaza and the right of the Israeli government to cut
electricity and fuel flows into the enclave despite the implications related to
its habitability.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In 2022,</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">
Ha’aretz</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> described the Israeli judiciary as the “</span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2022-05-08/ty-article-opinion/israels-high-court-of-justice-the-occupations-rubber-stamp/00000180-a356-da52-adef-f7f73f5f0000" style="font-size: 12pt;">Occupation’s
Rubber Stamp</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">” because it permitted the expulsion of Palestinians from their
homes to make way for an IDF training site. The Supreme Court has facilitated
the expropriation of Palestinian land and the expansion of Jewish settlements,
both of which have served to constrict Palestinian land into a series of
enclaves on the West Bank and thus make a two-state solution a non-viable
proposition.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Many
applications have been made by Palestinians to the Supreme Court but only a few
have been heard, among those dismissed include a petition related to the murder
and maiming by IDF snipers of unarmed Palestinians during the Great March of
Return in 2018.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This is a
summary of the background to the present Israel-Gaza conflict. It is
disingenuous in the extreme to proceed on the basis that the attack of October
7 happened in a vacuum. So too is the attempt to construct the conflict as
being one between Israeli “Western democratic and civilisational values” on the
one hand, and Palestinian “barbarism” engineered by “radical Islam” on the
other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">On the
contrary, the central issue from the time of Israel’s creation was and remains
one of ethnic cleansing and land dispossession. And the present onslaught on
Gaza, sanctioned by Israel’s political and military classes and approved by
Western leaders, are a war crime of a magnitude in excess of what Hamas is
claimed to have committed on October 7</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It is a
continuum of Moshe Dayan’s “provocation-and-revenge” strategy, in other words, Israel’s
“sacred terrorism” in application and it has the objective of completing the
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e8ytZWVQyt1XncFPeDT9n1RoD_mZJRUk/view">removal</a> of Palestinians from the Palestinian homeland.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-6207965635728927432023-09-06T14:01:00.002+01:002023-09-10T11:22:18.891+01:00The paramount issue concerning Nigeria is not electoral integrity but on having a political & intellectual leadership capable of plotting a path to creating a national industrial base.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtNHgfr4NmpaYZgtlSLFNqnpXNuS_vc_o7E8fbX6j5VnUTKXhZSLz2z9gcvHomR4dd9WvxfioIs846AyCtBeXPcgFqxoq4NL3IkgMCNPnUuWm-VZrSCkFyQSx5CkKe2T83ksVlvAgFZmuhWisuGmyjqDVbD1hhhqM_KRVBVs0Dv3egLBvtljMeNJ_MSQD/s800/Flag-Nigeria.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHtNHgfr4NmpaYZgtlSLFNqnpXNuS_vc_o7E8fbX6j5VnUTKXhZSLz2z9gcvHomR4dd9WvxfioIs846AyCtBeXPcgFqxoq4NL3IkgMCNPnUuWm-VZrSCkFyQSx5CkKe2T83ksVlvAgFZmuhWisuGmyjqDVbD1hhhqM_KRVBVs0Dv3egLBvtljMeNJ_MSQD/w400-h200/Flag-Nigeria.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">. The SIDE
issue</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">So today I
believe is the day the Nigerian Supreme Court decides on whether Bola
"Chicago" Tinubu was validly elected to serve as President of
Nigeria. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The 3rd
Republic, which began in 1999 after the last era of military rule, is replete
with court-settling of election disputes. One or two disputed gubernatorial
results come to mind. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It means that
theoretically, Tinubu could be stripped of the presidency and a re-run ordered
or another of the candidates would be installed in his place.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">I think the
most likely result would be to throw out the claims. While such a verdict would
be seen by the supporters of Peter Obi as evidence of judicial corruption, it
would be based on the sound logic of preventing a disruptive procedure.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Obviously, a
strong counter-argument would materialise if the cost of keeping Tinubu in
power would be to make the country ungovernable.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">I don't see
that happening.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The country is,
as always, disunited and its long-suffering citizens are incapable of employing
an effective version of "People Power".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">. The REAL
issue</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The realist in
me sees all of the commotion as a total distraction; a continuum of Nigerians,
especially those well-meaning ones who as concerned citizens, activists or
legal experts insist on what they deem to be "electoral transparency"
and "constitutional propriety".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">You see,
Nigerians and the populations in post-independence Black Africa, have set the
bar low.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The true quest
of Nigeria is to create a post-colonial system of government and institutions
which do not merely ape the hand-me-down systems of Western Europe and North
America, this quest to evolve an indigenised, modern and practical system of
governance being a natural corollary of a national programme aimed at creating
for the country an industrial base which ineluctably would serve as the
guarantor of economic independence because it would transform the country from
a consumer-oriented economy to a productive one and one which is no longer an
appendage to the global economic order.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What would such
a programme look like?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Well, it would
involve building up production in steel, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, textiles, cement,
modernising infrastructure (roads, railroads, harbours, communication networks,
water processing and power plants) and mechanising the agricultural sector. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Specific
industrial centres would need to be created around the country. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Focusing on
heavy industry would be the natural prerequisite to the production of consumer
goods. It would also provide the basis for financing the effort of
industrialisation. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Naturally, such a plan would involve investment in technology.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">A necessary
concomitant of such a national project would be to embark on a programme of
mass education which covers basic, vocational and university and postgraduate
levels. Most programmes on the African continent have focused on trying to
educate their population to basic literacy. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Creating a
manufacturing base would enable Nigeria to be solely responsible for extracting
its mineral and other resources and converting them into goods which would be
exported under a single currency regime.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Running a
"rental" state in which others extract your minerals and where you
sell mining rights lasting decades to foreign corporations whether Chinese or
Western is demeaning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The question is
whether Nigerian and other African people can get beyond the thinking that
economic prosperity can come from some form of evolution.That</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">people who consider themselves to be educated
continue to think like that is sad beyond measure.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Beginning the
process of securing an industrial base will involve planning and implementing
by visionaries who can unite the people in a common cause. True leaders would
find a means of transcending the barriers of tribal, ethnic and religious
affiliation and building up a minimum level of cultural homogeneity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It would also
necessarily involve the strong hand of the state to direct the stages of
development and to a greater or lesser degree, the "regimentation" of
society. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The leaders of
such an endeavour inherently cannot be in the mould of the lazy, corrupt,
sell-out despots of the still existing neo colonial era. It is important to
note that the route to economic development in nations such as the USSR,
Singapore and South Korea was not achieved through fixations on copying
so-called democratic systems.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigerians have
to demand this kind of vision from their leaders. The motivation for Nigerians
and other Black African nations should be image of desperate Africans fleeing
from their countries and embarking on perilous journeys across the Sahara and
Mediterranean Sea during which they are prepared to risk the degrading
circumstances of hunger, kidnap, rape, incarceration, enslavement and a
pitiless death. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And even if
successful in reaching their destinations, the stigma of second or third class
status awaits them as will the limitations imposed by racial and
nationality-based discrimination.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Again, Nigerians and
other Africans have for far too long set the bar low.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">They need to
ask themselves which of their leaders has presented a plan of several decades
duration which is geared to plotting a path to achieving an industrial base.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">It is time that
they demand more from those who hold themselves out to be the political and
intellectual leadership of their country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde writes about global security, military history and a wider range of
issues.</span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-16668892320317128142023-08-27T10:24:00.000+01:002023-08-27T10:24:12.688+01:00/ˌɪn ˈkam(ə)rə/<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeI8uOVbdo2yD-fEqRd9KBE5TxWUhLWF1tKJVWK5P-8X2O0zurQxqUFmI9SwfCYXbChj-jSu6wVTPoqR47TpajzMJGWNhFxgqeixrr98DA03lqGvUiqDOvz0yj4m4UVU3ARwSCoMTygsF9ZLS-hKV5bdvJKiT6572L5sqCJzYWUfgXwKhE6HYLarovAk8/s3968/IMG_20230826_161232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2976" data-original-width="3968" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeI8uOVbdo2yD-fEqRd9KBE5TxWUhLWF1tKJVWK5P-8X2O0zurQxqUFmI9SwfCYXbChj-jSu6wVTPoqR47TpajzMJGWNhFxgqeixrr98DA03lqGvUiqDOvz0yj4m4UVU3ARwSCoMTygsF9ZLS-hKV5bdvJKiT6572L5sqCJzYWUfgXwKhE6HYLarovAk8/w400-h300/IMG_20230826_161232.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Location shoot in London
yesterday afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's a secret...</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p><br /><p></p></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-5743401740907646402023-08-12T18:08:00.008+01:002023-09-04T18:53:58.755+01:00The Niger Crisis: The Case Against War<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq8nfHKT7RrdtCUw2g7wxl-isj9_mSsf4wA3gDP7TlcnXebu4rmgWQwC3avXQGkmj9dbvigar_cknrpCSrhgVKqlyClU7mQESg1d_sTO_E678OeJ2jpc_CItPlkStyNEnY9XApymrBJyIK8l0uU9VgcHwsJfY58nC5rXhtXQlf3qTWoCpT5D__R8SFV6F/s2480/369667508_10161142461465477_2424815189785384824_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1394" data-original-width="2480" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaq8nfHKT7RrdtCUw2g7wxl-isj9_mSsf4wA3gDP7TlcnXebu4rmgWQwC3avXQGkmj9dbvigar_cknrpCSrhgVKqlyClU7mQESg1d_sTO_E678OeJ2jpc_CItPlkStyNEnY9XApymrBJyIK8l0uU9VgcHwsJfY58nC5rXhtXQlf3qTWoCpT5D__R8SFV6F/w400-h225/369667508_10161142461465477_2424815189785384824_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">The recent coup d’état in the West African
nation of Niger has sparked a crisis that seems to be heading precipitously to
war. Encouraged by the United States and France, ECOWAS issued an ultimatum to
the Nigerien junta: relinquish power and restore President Mohamad Bazoum or be
removed by a Nigerian-led military coalition. For those who argue that the
seizure of power was a coup to far, the policy is justified. However, others
concerned that the junta’s coming to power is based on a sound rationale
predicated on the enduring plunder of its economic resources by France, its
former colonial ruler, as well as by the failure of Franco-Nigerien security
cooperation agreements to turn the tide against jihadist insurgents, contend
that eschewing the route of diplomacy in favour of military force will create a
geopolitical catastrophe on par with that which ensued after NATO’s
intervention in Libya just over a decade ago.</span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A. What
sparked the coup?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">1. The issue of national sovereignty.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The military takeover in Niger is part of a
trend of dissatisfaction among Francophone African countries about French
neo-colonial policies which has been disadvantageous in terms of these
countries functioning as fully sovereign entities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The exploitation of the mineral resources of
these former colonies (in Niger’s case that of uranium), as well as the
stranglehold over the monetary apparatus of their nations has bred a
deep-seated resentment of France.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">2. The question of national security.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerien junta specifically referred to
the failure of the French and American military presence in their country to
combat jihadist-inspired terrorism within Niger.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerien junta has seen France’s
counter-terrorism operation in Mali which was codenamed “Operation Barkhane”
end in abysmal failure. It cannot be overemphasised that this French military
operation has been universally considered to have been an unmitigated disaster.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">And the people of Niger can see that the
presence of U.S. troops has also failed to stem the tide of jihadist violence.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">When in 2002, at the outset of its flawed “War
on Terror”, the United States made its first military presence in Niger, the
level of jihadist violence was low. But since the U.S. has widened its presence
on the African continent under the auspices of AFRICOM, Islamist terrorist
attacks have risen by over 30,000 per cent on the continent.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerien junta and the other countries in
the Sahel consider the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) to be more
effective in combating Islamist insurgencies. That is the view in Mali. And it
should be noted Wagner certainly played their part in defeating the Islamist
insurgency in Syria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What is more, the military regime in Niger is
quite aware that the NATO operation which destroyed Libya in 2011, of which the
US and French militaries played key roles, is directly responsible for the
expansion of jihadism in the Maghreb and Sahelian region.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigeriens are not stupid. They can see
that the role of French and U.S. forces inside their country is not to fight
jihadism but to protect their own interests and assets, in the case of France,
the flow of cheap uranium to their nuclear plants, and in the case of the
United States, its 280-million-dollar drone base near Agadez.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">So while the idea of viewing a coup d’état as
an occurrence which should be treated with suspicion and even hostility justifiably resonates, we
must not lose sight of the fact that coups are not always the product of an
adventurism that is predicated on a lust for power or with a backdrop of tribal
or ethnic feuding.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">On the contrary, many coups have been
undertaken to serve as “corrective” endeavours, and the Nigerien one is clearly
an example of this kind of a putsch.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Its rulers are acting with the overwhelming
approval of the population of Niger.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">B. What
will be the consequences of pursuing the military option?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">If ECOWAS chooses to eschew the path of
diplomacy and opts for military action, it will be risking unleashing a wave of
unintended consequences that will destabilise the West African region.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Intervention may lead to any combination of
the following results:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">1. An all-out war in the Sahelian region.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The military regimes of Mali and Burkina Faso
have stated that any intervention will be seen as an attack on their respective
nations. Algeria has also pledged to support Niger in the event of war breaking
out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerien regime also appears to be
soliciting the help of Wagner PMC which is composed of seasoned veterans who
have successfully fought in war theatres such as Syria, eastern Ukraine and
Mali. They will be more battle hardened than any troops of ECOWAS or of the US
and France.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">2. A guerrilla or Insurgency-type of
resistance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerien army is a small one. It may
decide to disperse and fight a guerrilla-type of campaign. They will have the capacity to do a
great deal of damage to a larger and better equipped force by choosing where
and when to fight on terrain that they know better.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">3. Population displacement and an ensuing
refugee crisis.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">When war comes the affected population will
seek refuge in other countries. This, in the first instance, will affect
neighbouring countries such as Nigeria. It would also likely increase the
numbers of poverty-stricken Africans who undertake the perilous journey through
the Sahara to the Mediterranean shores from where they hope to get to Europe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">4. Rise in Islamist terrorism</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Each Western-promoted intervention on the
African continent has led to a steep increase in Islamist terrorism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">. In 2006, the U.S. encouraged Ethiopia to
invade Somalia to combat Islamism but the operation led to an expansion of the
terroristic power of Al-Shabaab.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">. In 2011, U.S.-led NATO forces utilising
proxies in the form of al-Qaeda militias, prominent of which was the Libyan
Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), used UN resolution 1973 as a pretext to
overthrow the government of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and in the process
destroyed Libya. It led to the raiding of the armouries of the fallen Libyan
Army which developed into an arms supply network across the Maghreb, the Sahel,
and the Lake Chad Basin, thus facilitating the rise of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb
(AQIM), Boko Haram and the so-called Islamic State in West Africa Province
(ISWAP).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Now in 2023 the United States and France are
encouraging a Nigerian-led ECOWAS force to invade Niger, </span><a name="_Hlk142744335" style="font-size: 12pt;">a
course of action that </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">would invite an expansion in the violent activities
of militias such as AQIM and ISWAP whose numbers would be swelled further by any
overt military actions on the part of France and America.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">C.
Summing up.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While it is true that ECOWAS member states
such as Nigeria are correct to construe the Niger coup as a threat to the
development of democratic institutions in the region, their decision to eschew
the route of diplomacy as a means of peacefully managing the crisis is highly
suspect given the fact that military action was not pursued after coups in
Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Conakry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The “last straw” argument is a less convincing
one than that which posits the United States and France as foreign powers which
are desperate to hold onto their interests in Niger. France is seeing its long
standing “shadow empire”, the construct of Gaullist-era figures such as Jacques
Foccart, collapsing around it and the United States, its status as the sole
global hegemon under threat from the rise of China, wishes to preserve intact
its network of military bases.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The loss of access to cheap Nigerien uranium
for its nuclear plants would be disastrous for the French economy, while the
United States, reliant for years on a not insignificant amount of Uranium
produced by Russia, wants to redirect its uranium consumption to that produced
by Niger.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There is ample evidence that the coup in Niger
is supported by the overwhelming majority of the country’s population. The
regime arguably embodies the will of the Nigerien masses to be rid of the
French whose military presence in their country is seen as threatening.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">President Charles de Gaulle evicted NATO from
France in 1966 because he knew the Atlantic military alliance posed a threat to
French sovereignty. Similarly, the Nigerien military regime construe the
presence of French troops on their soil as an infringement on their economic
and political sovereignty. And the refusal of the French government to abide by
the order given by the junta that its forces leave Nigerien territory is seen
as evidence of France’s longstanding imperial attitude to its former colonies.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The French government asserts that the junta's
renunciation of existing security pacts is void due to its constitutional
"illegitimacy", while failing to appreciate that the foundational
pact regarding technical military cooperation of 1977 which was signed by the
military regime led by Lt. Colonel Seyni Kountche would by the same reasoning
also be void.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The anti-French sentiment expressed in the
policies of the Nigerien junta and its counterparts in Mali and Burkina Faso, mirror
the change in perspective of many other African states who believe that they
will be able to better develop their economies using the alternative model of
international trade being offered by China and Russia. To them, the BRICS
system represents a new and more equitable method of economic interaction in the
burgeoning multipolar world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It is on issues concerned with ensuring the
respect for national sovereignties, increasing security cooperation, and
devising an overarching economic development plan with the objective of
transforming their minerally rich but poverty-stricken nations into
self-sufficient countries possessing an industrial base that the leaders of
ECOWAS ought to engage with the Sahelian juntas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">An engagement based on waging war is a recipe
for disaster. It would likely trigger a tsunami of events which would surpass
the bitter aftermaths of the aforementioned operations in Somalia and Libya.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Speaking to RIA Novosti on August 9, 2023, Antinekar
al-Hassan, political adviser to Mohamed Bazoum, the ousted president of Niger, opined
that he did not think that ECOWAS will “make the mistake of intervening
militarily in Niger, because if they intervene militarily, that means all of
Africa will be at war.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It remains to be seen if Nigerian President
Bola Tinubu, egged on by his Western backers, is able to appreciate the lessons
of history.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer and lecturer with
an interest in international security and geopolitics.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-85974334815957289492023-08-10T23:09:00.002+01:002023-08-11T00:29:51.919+01:00Remarkable Capt. Rawe: Navy News Obituary for Captain James Rawe (1925-2023)<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbYThiXnaOfIf0NqVlFVFQiSSCwejU0fYkOyqMv6wuxJ6E9WiPL1Nwij8VZoaYAYQb8IWNTHO8jy0JJ0kFJwNfwfaeXOpjBujKhWfQhQ6zlMY2F_AbPxj1KnYK7jyLJPiiFwDP_lmhUpgux2fBUqQSgxz6KK1A1wnhAJIoMAHdENBnuPfM0k77AgkIiKj/s5184/200.%20James%20Rawe,%20Legion%20of%20Honour%20Ceremony,%20London%202016.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKbYThiXnaOfIf0NqVlFVFQiSSCwejU0fYkOyqMv6wuxJ6E9WiPL1Nwij8VZoaYAYQb8IWNTHO8jy0JJ0kFJwNfwfaeXOpjBujKhWfQhQ6zlMY2F_AbPxj1KnYK7jyLJPiiFwDP_lmhUpgux2fBUqQSgxz6KK1A1wnhAJIoMAHdENBnuPfM0k77AgkIiKj/w400-h266/200.%20James%20Rawe,%20Legion%20of%20Honour%20Ceremony,%20London%202016.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></i></div><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Captain James Rawe (1925-2023) photographed in
2016 after receiving the Legion d'honneur.</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The passing of
Captain James Rawe at the age of 97 will be felt in the USA, France and Nigeria
as well as his native UK.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As a teenage
midshipman James Rawe safely navigated a Landing Craft Tank, delivering the HQ
Battalion of the US 12th Infantry Regiment onto Utah Beach in the first wave on
D-Day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Unlike the
landings at nearby Omaha Beach, the invasion of Utah ran remarkably smoothly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A qualified
commando, he also served with Combined Operations before being sent to the Far
East as a specialist hydrographer to conduct extensive survey work around the
coasts of Malaya, Borneo, and Hong Kong, as well as the South China and Java
Seas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">That led to an
invitation to help “start a Royal Navy type survey service and possibly a
Nigerian Navy.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The result was
that then Lieutenant James Rawe became the first person, Nigerian or British,
to sign up for the Nigerian Naval Force established in 1956 (it became the
Royal Nigerian Navy in 1958, and upon becoming a republic in 1963, simply the
Nigerian Navy).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The early part
of his new career was spent surveying Nigeria’s coastline in command first of
HMNNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Pathfinder</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and later HMNNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As a founding
father of the country’s navy, he was involved in recruitment drives, sat on
several courts martial and boards of inquiry and supported VIP visits such as
Queen Elizabeth II, and Lord Mountbatten, the Chief of the Defence Staff.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In the
mid-1960s, while serving as the Commanding Officer of Apapa Naval Base, Capt
Rawe was caught up in coups and unrest which engulfed the country and the
military especially.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A man filled
with a strong sense of duty, he dismissed suggestions to leave the country,
arguing that he was in Nigeria at the request of the Queen and did not wish to
besmirch Britain’s good name, nor leave the fledgling navy without a senior
staff officer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The turmoil
eventually boiled over into the eastern region of Biafra breaking away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">James Rawe’s
survey work and his wartime experience with Combined Operations led to his
involvement with amphibious landings in 1967 and 1968, landings which paved the
way for the eventual capitulation of Biafra.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Captain Rawe
retired from the Nigerian Navy the following year and became a senior probation
officer in Oxfordshire.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Captain Rawe
was decorated widely during his naval service - at least half a dozen medals
from the Nigerians alone - and he received the Legion d’honneur from the French
government in 2016 for his role on D-Day and the liberation from Nazi tyranny.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He is survived
by his widow Irene, three sons, nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">With thanks to Adeyinka Makinde.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Published in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Navy News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, June 2023 (<a href="https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/images/navynews/archivepdfs/2020s/2023/navy-news-june-2023-issue-827.pdf?rev=1030c2a2296f499fbcb4f9cf05a9724d">Issue 827</a>).</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-59855002609961588492023-07-25T00:00:00.016+01:002023-08-03T11:56:04.255+01:00The Nigerian Civil War: A New History of the Bonny Amphibious Operation, July-September 1967 <p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAVVE_q_6P9G8ffegZ7ipoNWgKChxM6H43xHl45dV0QnViawp2QEFF2P_Sb3AvRPuKh_cTOmHW6v41mv7DFgZ5U1yIzjc0pm5rvfVSqyRXiBRgtpGOt_3EFlLW5oQpukeuyO8k-MNzQITjg_I7j8O5OpAuQXHlUraVGmtIHH9Mx0LHp9RltJfkYuVNTEZ/s2134/thumbnail%20(13).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1349" data-original-width="2134" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAVVE_q_6P9G8ffegZ7ipoNWgKChxM6H43xHl45dV0QnViawp2QEFF2P_Sb3AvRPuKh_cTOmHW6v41mv7DFgZ5U1yIzjc0pm5rvfVSqyRXiBRgtpGOt_3EFlLW5oQpukeuyO8k-MNzQITjg_I7j8O5OpAuQXHlUraVGmtIHH9Mx0LHp9RltJfkYuVNTEZ/w400-h253/thumbnail%20(13).jpg" width="400" /></span></a></i></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Commander James Rawe and the crew of NNS
Penelope during the amphibious operation in Bonny</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Photo credit:
Archive of Captain James Rawe.</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Abstract:</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The amphibious landing of troops belonging to
the federal army of Nigeria at Bonny during the Nigerian Civil War is often
described as a landmark feat accomplished by the military of a modern Black African
state. It was the first of a total of five seaborne landings undertaken during
the conflict which along with the instituting of a naval blockade formed the
basis of the encirclement and eventual defeat of the secessionist state of
Biafra. This paper captures the rapid transformation of the Nigerian Navy from what
many may have perceived as a glorified civilian marine department into a
battle-ready force which asserted itself during the tumultuous period of bloody
divisions in the army before going on to orchestrate the first of a series of
combined operations during which it successfully transported, landed, and
afforded covering fire to troops of the Third Infantry Division. In elucidating
on the anatomy of an amphibious operation, the paper will explain the wider
implications of the endeavour in terms of its military and political
objectives. It also reveals the pivotal role played by James Rawe, an
expatriate British naval officer and veteran of the Normandy landings, in the planning
and execution of what would become Naval Operation (No.1) of 1967.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The background</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Navy was barely a decade old when
it was called upon to perform the first amphibious landing of troops by a
modern Black African armed force in July 1967. Nigeria did not have a maritime
organisation dedicated to warfare until 1956.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">1 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although Nigeria’s 850-mile-long coastline lay
adjacent to the strategically important sea lanes within the Gulf of Guinea,</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">2</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> its British colonial
ruler preferred the Royal Navy to provide an umbrella of military protection
while it operated a civilian-orientated Marine Department for the country. The
Marine Department of the Niger Coast Company which was formed in 1894 was
succeeded in 1914 by a Marine Department which consisted of the merged Marine
Departments of the Northern and Southern Protectorates.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">3</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> As independence dawned, pressure from segments
of the native political class to create a conventional navy grew. Therefore the
creation of the Nigerian Naval Force, was an effort to establish an armed
institution dedicated to protecting the soon-to-be independent nation’s
littoral borders from external aggression, along with miscellaneous duties including deterring and
apprehending those involved in smuggling.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">4 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The body was renamed the Royal Nigerian Navy in 1959</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">5</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and it finally became the
Nigerian Navy in 1963 after the country became a republic.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">6</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Providing an overview of the Nigerian Navy
during the period of crisis which commenced in 1966 and the organisation’s
reaction to events is important for two reasons. First, the navy responded by
embarking on a remarkably rapid transformation into a state of military
preparedness. Secondly, while it had evaded the violent divisions which had
ripped through the Nigerian Army, it would nonetheless endure episodes of
sabotage, as well as the defection of personnel. The latter element left the
leader of the secessionist region firmly convinced that the navy’s capacities
had been neutralised to the extent that it was not expected to play a prominent
role in the overall effort of the federal government in attempting to crush the
rebellion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Unlike the Nigerian Army whose predecessors
had accumulated a good deal of experience in campaigns in various parts of the
African continent and as far as Burma, the Nigerian Navy had no such tradition
of campaigning save that of the limited activity of the old Marine Department
against German Kamerun forces during the Great War fought by the European
powers.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">7 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And unlike
the army, the Nigerian Navy was not required to perform peacekeeping duties
during the upheavals in the Congo in the early 1960s.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A coup led by middle-ranking officers of the
army in January 1966 was followed in July by a reprisal coup which caused even
greater bloodshed than the first. During these upheavals, the navy remained a
stable organisation under the leadership of Commodore Joseph Wey, the marine
engineer who had become the first indigenous Chief of Naval Staff in 1964. Under
Wey, the navy participated in the efforts aimed at stabilising the country and
providing legitimacy to the two military governments which were formed in 1966.
Commodore Wey also attended the peace talks held under the auspices of the
Ghanaian government in the town of Aburi in January 1967</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">.8</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The image of the navy as a glorified marine
department began to change after it was put on alert as a reaction to the
January 15</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> coup. For the first time, members of the public saw
naval officers carrying service pistols and ratings wearing blue-shirted combat
uniforms and steel helmets while armed with L1A1 Self-Loading Rifles. Armed
naval ratings formed part of the defensive ring around the old Parliament
building inside which Commodore Wey appeared alongside Major General Johnson
Aguiyi-Ironsi, the head of the newly formed military government. Behind Wey was
his aide-de-camp, a sub-lieutenant whose right hand appeared much of the time
to be positioned above his gun-holster.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">9</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The tense situation necessitated the
imposition of emergency naval base defences at Apapa. In January, the navy
asserted itself by refusing to hand over army coup suspects being held as
prisoners at the base to army officers until this was done through the correct
channels. The army provost marshal who had arrived with an escort of soldiers
was first made to walk past a set of 20mm Oerlikon cannon and Vickers machine
guns before continuing through layers of seamen who were armed with rifles and
submachine guns. Ratings were also armed and dug in at various sectors of the
base. Similarly, after the July coup, a request made by army officers to search
the base for weapons was resolutely refused. It is worth noting that the navy
provided shelter to senior army officers and the Inspector General of Police at
the base. Coffins for two of the prominent officials assassinated in January
1966 were also prepared at the base and the navy oversaw the transporting of
the body of the fallen Supreme Commander to his hometown in the Eastern region
in January 1967 where Commodore Wey attended the funeral.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">10</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">During the crisis, naval personnel from all
regions continued to serve side-by-side but there was an unavoidable uneasiness
given the prevailing circumstances in the country. The drift towards an
internal war and the fear that naval force would be used in such a war if it
was waged against the Eastern region led to acts of sabotage. In April 1967,
the base was plunged into darkness by a power cut. This was followed by the
vandalising of electronic equipment on board many of the navy’s vessels. These
included navigational aids and communication apparatus. Armaments, gunfire pins,
communication sets, and engine parts were either totally removed or disabled.
In the meantime there were defections of officers and men to the Eastern region
before its secession on May 30th,1967 under the leadership of Lieutenant
Colonel Emeka Ojukwu.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">11</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The build-up to the first amphibious landing
was preceded by important military tasks which were undertaken by the navy.
Prior to the declaration by the Federal Government of a “police action” on July
6th, 1967, the promulgation of the Territorial Waters Decree (No.5) of 1967
which extended the limit of Nigeria’s territorial sea from the customary 3
nautical miles to 12 nautical miles paved the way for the navy to mount an
economic blockade against the seceded eastern region.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">12 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The objective was to blockade the littoral
space where oil was exported with the prime targets being the
harbours in Port Harcourt and Bonny.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The strategic dimension of this blockade was
to prevent arms being smuggled into the secessionist state and the economic
dimension related to stopping international trade with the former Eastern
region. From the early part of July, no ships were allowed to be loaded at any
ports including the oil terminal and the Federal Military Government warned oil
companies against paying royalties into a suspense account when royalties
became due in July. If they persisted in doing so, the government informed them
that the Nigerian Navy would be used to prevent the departure of any tanker.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">13</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The next step was to mount an amphibious
landing of Federal troops, a move that would be orchestrated by the Nigerian
Navy. Commodore Wey was handed a list of possible sites by Major General Yakubu
Gowon, the head of the Federal Military Government.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">14</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The authors Ian Speller and Christopher Tuck
define amphibious warfare as:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif">A
type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project
ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a
designated landing beach.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd;">15</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; tab-stops: 95.4pt;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Amphibious operations are traditionally
classified into four types namely the “amphibious assault,” “amphibious
withdrawal,” “amphibious demonstration” and an “amphibious raid". A fifth,
namely that of “amphibious support" is often added these days.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">16</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The operation at Bonny was designed and
executed as an amphibious assault. It was not an exploratory exercise solely
intended to inflict damage on the enemy, collect information or otherwise
create a diversion as is the objective of a “raid.” It was also not an
amphibious “demonstration,” that is, a deception designed to divert attention
from other landing sites. Nor was it a mission designed to offer "support on the basis of providing humanitarian aid or disaster relief or a “withdrawal,”
which is an operation designed to extract forces from a hostile shore.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">17</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Orchestrating a landing that is not opposed is
an inherently difficult endeavour, it is not surprising therefore that
conducting an amphibious operation where the enemy is waiting is considered to
be among the most onerous and dangerous military operations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The conventional pattern of an amphibious
assault would be to begin by bombarding the defensive positions of the enemy,
which in the Nigerian case would be limited to naval bombardment. Once the
opposition is “softened,” troops will be taken to the shore on transport
vessels and landing craft in successive waves during which time beachheads are
seized and a perimeter established to enable the introduction of heavy
reinforcements composed of armaments and vehicles, along with stores. These
accumulated efforts then provide the basis of the landed force advancing inland
and transforming maritime warfare into a land campaign.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">18</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Thus, the idea behind the Bonny operation was
for a Nigerian naval task force to land and establish soldiers of the newly
created Third Infantry Division onto territory held by secessionist forces and
begin the effort of regaining territory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It is important to emphasise the point that
Nigeria was a young nation which had not developed any substantive naval
traditions in the modern sense. It did not have what might be described as a
“military intellectual complex” from which to draw from decades or even
centuries of tried and tested naval operational concepts. The Nigerian Navy had
its small but increasing naval warfare personnel trained at foreign
institutions most notably at the Britannia Naval College in Dartmouth, England
but it lacked relevant indigenous institutions including that of a Naval War
College and specialist departments in higher education organisations where the
built-up intellectual resources of naval and civilian thinkers composed of
analysts, strategists and senior officers would have laid down the theoretical
foundations of Nigerian sea power.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">19</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">And even though it could be argued that
national military doctrines would be focused on combating external threats
rather than on an internal war, the fact remained that the Nigerian Navy had no
experience whatsoever in planning and implementing a seaborne landing
operation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Those operations which had taken place on the
African continent had been conducted by European and North American militaries.
“Operation Menace” in September 1940 was an attack jointly mounted by Free
French and British naval forces on Vichy-held Dakar, Senegal,</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">20 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">while “Operation
Ironclad”, the first British amphibious assault since the disastrous landings
at the Dardanelles in February 1915, was an Allied attack on Vichy-held
Malagasy which was staged in May 1942.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">21 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">And in November 1942, “Operation Torch” was the Allied
attack on French Morocco and French Algeria where German and Italian armies
were in control.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">22</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although the possibility had existed prior to
the Bonny assault of an inter-service operation of the Nigerian armed forces:
one over political tension with Cameroon</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">23 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">and another relating to a planned invasion of Togo to aid
President Sylvanus Olympio in the event of a war with Nkrumaist Ghana, the
Nigerian Navy and Army had never performed a combined operation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">24</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Apart from its deficiency in the
aforementioned “military intellectual complex,” the Nigerian Navy did not have
an Indigenous “military industrial complex” from which it produced its own
weapons including naval ships.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">25</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
The reliance on foreign manufacturers and suppliers would be an issue which
would hover over the navy for the duration of the war.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The starting point for any exploration of how
the Bonny Landing was conceptualised and put into effect must be with the
figure of Commander James Rawe who at the time of the crisis was serving as
Principal Staff Officer and Commander of the Naval Base in Apapa.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">26 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The son of a linguist in
the service of British naval intelligence and grandson of a naval architect who
became the superintendent of the Ottoman Sultan’s arsenal, Rawe was a veteran
of the Second World War when as a teenaged midshipman of the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve </span><a name="_Hlk132589525" style="font-size: 12pt;">(RNVR), he served as the navigation
officer of a landing craft and had landed the first wave of American troops on D-day
at “Utah Beach”.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">27</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><a name="_Hlk132654044"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As the only officer
serving in the Nigerian Navy who had faced gunfire while landing on a beach it
was quite obvious that his knowledge and experience would be central to the
planning and execution of the forthcoming operation.</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The other handy bit
of experience brought to the table by Rawe was that of his role as a hydrographer.
His long-term experience of surveying the coastline of Nigeria including the
rivers and creeks of the Niger Delta would be crucial because he came to know
the coastal area better than any of his navigator colleagues.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">28</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Thus, he became the author of what would be
known as Naval Operation (Order Number 1) of 1967 and the subsequent
operational orders. Also, in conjunction with the newly promoted Rear Admiral
Wey, he formulated an overall naval strategy.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">29</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe went on to produce a paper which he
divided into three segments. First, he outlined some general points related to
the nature of seaborne operations. Secondly, he scrutinised the viability of
three potential landing sites prior to offering a justification of his choice
as the most suitable one, and finally he assessed the capacities of the naval
and merchant vessels which would be available to carry out a landing.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">30</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The preparation</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The first segment of the top-secret paper
produced by Rawe which was titled “General information and remarks on landings”
focused on pre-landing operations, which would in modern parlance be described
as “shaping the littoral battlespace.” He outlined the necessity of having
intelligence on the physical terrain of the proposed landing site and the
resistance that was likely to be met. Among other considerations, he emphasised
the absolute necessity of degrading any prepared enemy positions and examined
the methods which would be employed in the battlefield. The weaponry and
manpower available to both adversaries were also considered. Finally, he looked
at failures in a select number of amphibious operations undertaken by combined
forces during the Second World War.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">31</span></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk140423936;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">An essential component part of the preparation
of an amphibious assault is the gathering of intelligence data. The Nigerian
Navy alongside the army needed in the first instance to gather clear and
reliable intelligence on the physical geography of the area which would
eventually function as a landing site, as well as on the concentrations of
enemy forces in the vicinity of the targeted area.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">32</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As far as physical geography is concerned, one
vital piece of information commanders need to be fully informed of should be
the nature of the beach. From this, they will be able to assess whether
vehicles will be able to move over it, as well as the chances of the landing
craft being damaged. Factors which need to be considered include the gradient
of the beach and any natural and man-made obstructions on such a beach.
Knowledge of the gradient of the beach allows commanders to assess the depth of
water through which men and vehicles would have to wade through before reaching
the shore. They will also need to be aware of any potential obstructions, such
as the presence of a seawall or steep-rising land, either of which would be an
encumbrance to landing equipment and enabling troops to break out from the
beach.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">33</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Of particular concern to the naval command,
Rawe noted the importance of having knowledge of the tidal stream and the
amount of rise and fall of tide. This would then determine the angle of
approach which the landing craft would make to the beach and the length of time
that the craft would be able to remain on the beach without being stranded.
Another issue of concern to the navy would be the sea conditions. In other
words, they needed to have an idea of the level of surf or volatility of waves
once the landing craft had beached.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">34</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The second major issue, namely that of dealing
with enemy concentrations around the designated area of beaching, was of
particular concern to Rawe who stressed the need for enemy positions to be sufficiently
weakened by initial bombardment. In the case of a first landing, the Nigerian
Navy would have to accomplish this without the assistance of an air force.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">35</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The navy would of course be responsible for
getting troops of the Third Infantry Division onto land. The best method to
begin the enterprise would be to first send a small craft “carrying few men and
offering small targets.” Once the beach is made secure, the larger landing
craft would be brought in to build up the landing force. The navy would be
intimately involved in the method of supplying the force once it is landed and
facilitating the transporting of vehicles, stores, and equipment from the point
at which the craft beaches to firm land.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">36</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe’s paper assessed the relative strengths
of both federal and secessionist forces and noted that while the enemy was
limited in terms of the weaponry it would bring to the arena of battle, the
Nigerian forces were also limited. For one, the navy did not possess any small
landing craft; dinghies would provide a substitute of sorts, and it only
possessed one landing craft tank. The stakes were high. For as Rawe noted, if
Nigeria’s sole landing craft were damaged before landing the first wave of
troops, there could be no landing. Furthermore, if the landing craft was
damaged after landing the first troops but before a jetty was captured, where
ordinary vessels could berth, then the troops on shore would be unable to be
reinforced or be supplied with additional stores.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">37</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe was able to offer practical insight into
the question of landings given his experiences during World War 2, offering
three painful lessons the Allied forces endured. As far as the prior knowledge
of</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">physical geography</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">of the selected landing site was concerned,
he offered the examples of the amphibious operations conducted at Dieppe in
1942 and at Omaha Beach in 1944. Dieppe, an operation that was overseen by
Admiral Louis Mountbatten, failed because no account had been taken during the
planning of the seawall which prevented tanks and other vehicles from leaving
the beach. The element of surprise was lost. In the case of the landing at
Omaha Beach, American forces found themselves unable to break out from the
beach area because the terrain behind the beach consisted of steep cliffs.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">38</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The failure of the amphibious raid at Dieppe
and the near failure of the landing at Omaha Beach were also due to the failure
to degrade enemy positions by bombardment. This was also at the heart of the
costly loss of life among Royal Navy personnel during the operation to capture
the Belgian region of Walcheren, which controls access to the seaport of Antwerp.
Sorties carried out by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy bombardment did not
successfully neutralise several potent German batteries one of which scored a
direct hit on a landing craft which killed around 300 allied personnel. This
incident had a profound effect on the young James Rawe who knew many of the
naval officers who took part in the operation and several friends of his died.
Although he did not participate in the operation as he had at Normandy, he
learned lessons from the mistakes made by the operation commanders, one of
which was relying too much on the element of surprise.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">39</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The city of Port Harcourt was a strategically
important town which featured high on the list of possible candidates. Its
harbour facilities as well as its connection with Nigeria’s then burgeoning oil
production marked it out. It was of critical importance that it come under
Federal control as soon as possible to prevent the secessionist state from
conducting a lucrative international trade which would economically empower it
and therefore enable it to build up a more formidable arsenal.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">40</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But Port Harcourt was over 40 miles up from
the Bonny fairway buoy, and it would take between 4 to 6 hours to get there,
depending on the tide, after entering the Bonny River. The task force would
surely be sighted which would give the enemy plenty of opportunity to prepare
defensive positions. Moreover, the approach to Port Harcourt for the last 20
miles becomes narrow which would enable the opposition, if armed with mortars
or rocket-propelled short-range weapons, to inflict heavy damage on the convoy.
Even if the naval force successfully beached, the civilian vessels would make
for large easy targets and the supply chain of ships would have to take
enormous risks during a 40-mile journey until the banks of the Bonny River were
cleared of the enemy.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">41</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“From a naval point of view,” Rawe concluded,
“to embark on an attack on Port Harcourt, direct, would invite disaster.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">42</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Opobo ostensibly presented a more promising
location. There were suitable locations to beach and there was sufficient depth
of water to enable vessels to manoeuvre once vessels passed the bar. However,
there were difficulties, the most critical of which was the river bar. There
was great uncertainty about the depth of the waters in this area. The river was
not used commercially and the last survey which had been done in 1961 recorded
a depth of seven feet. The lack of water on the bar would mean that only the
landing craft would be able to enter the river and that the landing would have
to take place without naval fire support.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">43</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Adding to the potential problems was the
question of weather conditions. River bars are vulnerable to the effects of
heavy rain, fierce winds and crashing waves. If the weather was bad in the
Opobo area, it would mean that even the navy’s landing craft would be unable to
enter the river. It would be too much to risk the only landing craft ending up
stranded on one of the sand spits on either side of the river channel. Still
another impediment was the lack of intelligence on the presence and visibility
of marker buoys and the beacon. The marker buoys would of course enable the
task force to negotiate the navigable parts of the river, while the beacon
would aid the ships in fixing their positions prior to entering the river.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">44</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The elimination of Port Harcourt and Opobo
left Bonny as the only site where from “a naval point of view,” as Commander
Rawe put it, “a landing would have a fair chance of success.” It ticked most of
the boxes. The water was deep all the way up to the town; the wideness of the
river would give ships room for manoeuvre; there were several spots which were
suitable for the landing craft to beach; there were jetties at which ships
could berth and supply stores even if the landing craft was disabled; naval
vessels would be able to provide fire support to the troops being landed; and
enemy vessels intending to bring reinforcements down the river would be
stopped. Additionally, occupying Bonny would seal off Port Harcourt 40 miles up
the river and landing on an island and taking it had the added advantage of an
island being easier to defend than an area of mainland.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">45</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A successful landing and the subsequent capture
of Bonny would, Rawe noted, yield great benefits for the federal war effort.
Firstly, it would release the navy from blockade duty off Bonny River and allow
it to concentrate on other areas. Secondly, the navy would have an area close
to the base of operations and would be in a better position to support the
army. Thirdly, military forces could be built for an advance on Port Harcourt.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">46</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There was also the obvious political and economic importance of capturing Bonny Town and the adjacent oil terminal.
Shell-BP was still mulling over whether to pay the secessionist state
royalties. Capturing Bonny would make it quite clear to Shell BP that it was
Federal Nigeria that would control the export of oil.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">47</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The third and final section of Rawe’s paper
set out the vessels which were available to serve as a task force.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">None of the vessels, naval or merchant, had
been built in the country, the result of Nigeria having not developed an
industrial base. The Nigerian Navy owned ships which had once been in the
service of the navies of the United States or Western European countries such
as Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. The lack of a manufacturing
base invites the dangers associated with over reliance on foreign suppliers, as
well as with the costs associated with maintenance.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">48</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Still, the Navy had more vessels at its
disposal than the secessionist side which had acquired </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a
minesweeper which had been on patrol off the Eastern region during the crisis. Arrayed
against that sole vessel would be a frigate, a patrol boat, three seaward
defence boats (SDBs) and one landing craft. Although he did not include it
among “available vessels,” </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Rawe’s old survey ship, was
converted into a fighting vessel. Merchant ships would also be available to
serve as troop carriers and to transport stores.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">49</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a Dutch-made frigate, was 314 feet in length
and had a maximum speed of 24 knots. It had one set of twin MK XVI “HA/LA”
naval guns which were quick firing and used by the Royal Navy and other
Commonwealth navies. It also had 4 Bofors anti-aircraft guns. NNS <i>Ogoja</i> was a U.S.-made patrol boat which was gifted to the
Netherlands by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War. It
was a 185-foot-long corvette armed with a 3-inch gun, four 40mm Bofors guns and
six 4mm Oerlikons and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) equipment. It had a maximum
speed of 18 knots.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">50</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Navy also had three</span><u style="font-size: 12pt;"> </u><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">seaward
defence boats namely </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, and </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Kaduna</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, all 110-foot long and armed with one 40mm Bofors and
anti-submarine equipment. Each had a speed of 13 knots. The landing craft </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was 188-foot in length and had two 20mm Oerlikons. It had a
speed of 8 knots. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was a 79-foot-long survey
vessel which was converted into an armed ship possessing one 20mm Oerlikon and
two Vickers machine guns. They would be accompanied by two merchant ships named
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">MV</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Bode Thomas</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and the </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">MV </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">King Jaja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">51</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After considering all the issues of the three
sections it was up to the Federal Military Government to determine whether, as
Rawe put it, the information and assessment “are such that the military
necessity of the landings outweigh the risks involved.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">52</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The decision to stage the landing in Bonny was
soon confirmed and Commander Rawe drew up a mission plan which specified the
role to be played by the Commanding Officer of each ship from the moment they
were issued with sailing orders to the landing operation. Command
responsibilities were clearly delineated and issues such as communication
procedures, logistics, medical and tidal information were dealt with.</span><a name="_Hlk131719433" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">53</span></a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk131719433;"></span>
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The preamble to Naval Operation Order Number
One of 1967 was succinct and straightforward.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The situation was that the Bonny Town area was
“occupied by enemy forces approximately 300 strong in prepared positions,” and
the mission was to “transport, land and afford the support of naval fire power
to federal troops, in order to facilitate the capture of Bonny Town and the
island”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">54</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The three seniormost commanders of the mission
were identified as Captain Nelson Soroh, Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Adekunle
and Commander James Rawe. Soroh was designated as the “officer-in-charge” of
the operation</span><a name="_Hlk140505589" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Adekunle</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, the General Officer
Commanding the Third Infantry Division was the “officer commanding land forces,”
and </span><a name="_Hlk140505612" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe </a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">was given the roles of “naval liaison
officer” and “forward control officer.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">55</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Soroh, the officer in charge of the mission,
had like Rear Admiral Wey been transferred from the Marine Department to the
Royal Nigerian Navy where he became a pioneer naval warfare officer. He had commanded
several ships including NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and was earmarked as the eventual
successor to Wey as the Chief of Naval Staff. Trained in England at Mons
Officer Cadet School and at the prestigious Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst,
Adekunle had on the eve of war been a commander at the small Lagos Garrison
Organisation. But the onset of war meant that he had to build two battalions
into the size of a division which would be assigned the formidable task of
attacking the secessionist state large via the route of seaborne landings.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">56</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe’s plan provided for the task force to
land troops in three waves. The first wave would consist of troops on the
landing craft </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which would beach on the
northern part of Bonny Town. The second wave of troops would be landed by</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> when the situation permitted. And the third wave would be
landed after Bonny Town was captured.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">57</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The timeline regarding the commanding of the
operation was that during the seaborne assault, the officer-in-charge of the
mission, namely Captain Soroh, the Commanding Officer of</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, would exercise control through
the forward control officer, Commander Rawe, the Commanding Officer of</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Rawe would lead the
task force into battle while </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a prized asset which the navy
would not place in unnecessary risk in shallower and more confined waters would
bombard enemy placements within Bonny.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">58</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> In doing this, Rawe was adhering to the naval maxim cautioning
against risking big ships for which the protagonist will not get an equivalent
amount of military value.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">59</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Only when the enemy positions covering the
Bonny River were silenced would </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> enter the river and command be
transferred from the Forward Control Officer to the Officer in Charge of the
Operation. After completing the landing operations, sea and land commands would
then divide.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">60</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Apart from Soroh and Rawe, the other
commanders of the vessels taking part in the mission were designated as
Commander Apayi Joe, NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">; Lt. Commander Akin Aduwo, NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">;
Lt. Commander Huseni Abdullahi, NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">; and Lt. Commander Robert
Adegbite, NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">61</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The movement of vessels was also carefully
choreographed for the three different stages of the operation. First was the
initial movement of vessels from Lagos to the theatre of operations. Second was
the movement of vessels to the area of operations and third was the function of
the vessels during the landing operation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">62</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The movement of vessels from the naval base in
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Lagos</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> had to be staggered as each of the types of ships had different
capacities of speed. </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, sailing at a speed of 8 knots,
was scheduled to leave first. It was destined for Escravos but would rendezvous
first with the </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">MV </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Bode Thomas</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, a ship of the Nigerian
Ports Authority, at Ogidigben and embark the assault troops. After this it
would sail to meet the main body of the task force at Escravos Fairway Buoy. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> sailed after </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">moving at 7 knots and would
rendezvous with the task force at Bonny Fairway Buoy. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, alongside</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> were scheduled to leave very shortly after</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> at a speed of 12 knots and
scheduled to rendezvous with </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
at Escravos Fairway Buoy. From Escravos, they would proceed to rendezvous with </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> at Bonny Fairway Buoy.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">63</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GzxqyL45Nhwg8cwCqLtsHNb99opPbA_fIqCSggnf78zCwzgW6eKnedcTT-tjJcqPT2W-38vqVlPXUcIJh98aFLJgHoTCwKpjCZMRyCRSaXpgmNJAR12fXfjjUQux5o8dkxMvoJRwRPkEJnh--Wm4WOGiXtqHUSb25RwU4L9ZNeyNnaQ_0yMH2EhswkYO/s1758/m_merged.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1758" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GzxqyL45Nhwg8cwCqLtsHNb99opPbA_fIqCSggnf78zCwzgW6eKnedcTT-tjJcqPT2W-38vqVlPXUcIJh98aFLJgHoTCwKpjCZMRyCRSaXpgmNJAR12fXfjjUQux5o8dkxMvoJRwRPkEJnh--Wm4WOGiXtqHUSb25RwU4L9ZNeyNnaQ_0yMH2EhswkYO/w400-h253/m_merged.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 10pt;">Left: Designated areas of operation on the
Bonny River and the Atlantic Ocean, and right, sectors designated within Bonny
Town by Naval Operation (No.1) of 1967</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After the ships assembled on the Atlantic
Ocean, at the mouth of the Bonny River, the movement of the vessels into the
area of operations would begin. As is the tradition in military planning, Rawe, <span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">converting a nautical
chart created by the Nigerian Ports Authority into a theatre of operations map</span>, <span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">divided the waters of
the Atlantic Ocean and that of the Bonny River that is adjacent to Bonny Island
into separate designated areas</span>. From south to north the areas were named “Osca,” “Papa,” “Quebec,”
“Romeo,” “Sierra,” “Tango,” “Uniform,” “Victor,” “Whiskey” “X-ray,” “Yankee”
and “Zulu.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">64</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">At the same time, Bonny town was divided into
a number of sectors in which the ship commanders were assigned tasks relating
to shore bombardment. From south to north the sectors were “Mike” (Shell area),
“India,” “Hotel,” “Golf,” “Foxtrot", “Echo,” “Delta", “Bravo” and
“Alpha.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">65</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In summary the
battleplan was that</span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ogoja</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> under Lieutenant
Commander Aduwo was scheduled to move northwards into “Area Sierra,” while NNS <i>Enugu</i> and NNS<i> Benin</i> to be commanded respectively by
Lieutenant Commander Abdullahi and Lieutenant Commander Adegbite would advance
further into “Area Tango.” The landing craft <i>NNS Lokoja</i> commanded by Commander Joe and escorted by NNS<i> Benin</i> would then proceed into the next zone designated as “Area
Uniform.” NNS <i>Penelope</i> would operate flexibly with
Commander Rawe communicating orders to the ships and simultaneously apprising NNS<i> Nigeria</i> of the combat situation while <i>Nigeria</i> remained in the southernmost areas in the Atlantic Ocean
respectively named “Area Papa” and “Area Osca.” NNS<i> Nigeria</i> would use
its large guns to bombard enemy positions, with bombardment being supplemented
by those ships carrying Bofors guns. The Oerlikon guns and the Vickers guns
could be used to provide covering fire for advancing federal troops.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">66</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A more detailed rendition of Rawe’s plan was
as follows: Captain Soroh in </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was to remain in either the
“Papa” or “Osca” areas until it was safe for her to enter into the Bonny River.
Its role at the commencement of the operation was to silence any artillery or
gun positions in the theatre of war, waiting for an appropriate moment to enter
the battle zone after the first wave of troops was landed by </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Soroh had on board ten assault boats, and it would be up to
him to decide whether to use them to disembark the troops who were onboard </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> or to transfer them to Joe on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which was supposed to re-join </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> after it disembarked the first
wave.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">67</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">During this war flares or star shells were used
as a means of conveying military signals, so Lieutenant Commander Adegbite on </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was expected to communicate when the SDBs opened fire to
Soroh by sending up “one green very light.” Rawe, the Forward Control Officer
on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, was to back this up
verbally via radio channel.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">68</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Aduwo on </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was to
remain within “Area Sierra” in order to provide bombardment and cover fire in
“Sector Golf” in Bonny.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">’s task
was to engage enemy troops and prevent them from moving north where the landing
was taking place. It was also expected to engage any enemy troops if they
retreated southwards. In order to avoid casualties caused by “friendly fire,”
Aduwo and other ship commanders were advised of the procedure associated with</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">indicating the position of friendly troops. The troops of the Third
Division engaging the enemy in Bonny were expected to indicate their position
to naval vessels by firing “one green Very light.” In doing so, the troops
would be indicating their most southerly position which would permit relevant
naval vessels to fire ahead of them. This is because the commanding officers on
the vessels would presume that the troops to the north of the point from where
the Very light was fired were “friendly” and those to the south were “enemy” troops
unless the relevant vessel commander had strong reason to believe otherwise.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">69</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In “Area Tango,” Abdullahi and Adegbite,
respectively on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> were tasked with first firing at
the jetties situated at the northern end of Bonny after which they would
bombard the landing area situated between the two northernmost jetties.
Abdullahi was charged with arranging the bombardment so that the whole target
area was covered. Both commanding officers were under instructions not to fire
from north of their position in “Tango” unless necessary in order to prevent
stray shells from landing in the high-density area of Bonny “Sector Foxtrot.”
Abdullahi had the responsibility for issuing “one green Very light” when firing
commenced and both he and Adegbite were to cease firing on the landing area
once Joe in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> fired “one red
Very light.” Once </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> completed their bombardment, they
were to move north into the next zone, “Area Uniform” where they were expected
to engage any enemy vessels or enemy aircraft coming down the Bonny River.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">70</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was expected to land
between the two northernmost jetties of Bonny Town with the exact position of
the landing to be decided by Joe. Joe was as mentioned expected to fire one “red
Very light” in the final stage of her beaching run. Throughout all of this,
Rawe in<i> Penelope </i>would function as
the forward control for both sea and land forces until Soroh entered the Bonny
River in <i>Nigeria</i>.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">71</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe reminded all commanding officers that
their ships were to be prepared to defend themselves against air attack and to
post lookouts to give warning of approaching aircraft. They were expected to
engage with any enemy in their vicinity, and where this was not the case, they
were to forward pertinent information to “control,” that is Rawe’s ship. Voice
traffic was to be kept to a minimum and ship captains were reminded not to fire
into the high density “Sector Foxtrot '' unless essential.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">72</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In addressing the issue of logistics, which covered
supplies of ammunition, fuel, and food, Rawe stated that all vessels were to
stock up on their full outfit of ammunition before sailing and to cram in as
much as possible if there was enough stowage space. Each vessel was to be
fuelled to no less than 95% of its capacity and to have enough water which
would be rationed. So far as food was concerned, all vessels were to be stocked
with as much fresh and dry rations as could be stowed. Further, they were
instructed not to leave Lagos with less than seven days rations of food.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">73</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The ships were supposed to have first aid
medical supplies with access to a doctor and other medical personnel on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Those wounded who required more
than first aid would be transferred to </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
as soon as it was expeditious. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> would also be carrying additional
personnel for replacement purposes. Tidal information specific to the high
water and lower water estimates regarding both Bonny Bar and Bonny Town was
also given, covering four periods during the day on Monday, July 24th, Tuesday
July 25th and Wednesday, July 26th.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">74</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Finally, Naval Operation (Order No. 1) of 1967
laid out the command and communications structure of the mission. As previously
mentioned, the three key officers were Captain Soroh, Lieutenant Colonel
Adekunle and Commander Rawe. Rawe would be at the centre of the communication
network which on one side consisted of the ships </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">and on the other Captain Soroh in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, who would provide communication to naval headquarters and
merchant ships. This format would endure until circumstances permitted </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> to enter the Bonny River and
take direct control of the operation. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
would keep guard on circuit 201 and Captain Soroh would order each of the ships
to keep guard when appropriate on designated frequencies in voice and morse
code. Each ship was given a call sign.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">
Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was “Beauty,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
was “Sparrow,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Kaduna</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was “Love” and
so on. All ships shared the call sign “Loco.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">75</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian armed forces faced a range of
challenges in mounting its first combined operation. Apart from the logistical
and intelligence aspects, there was the daunting task of harmonising the roles
needed to be played by the navy and army, within a brief period of time. This
of course needed to be achieved with the backdrop of the sabotage of naval
equipment by about-to-defect naval personnel from the Eastern region. These
setbacks were perceived to have been so extensive as to convince the
secessionist side that the Nigerian Navy would be rendered impotent for a
considerable period of time.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">76</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In a conversation between the secessionist
leader, Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, and the respective deputy high
commissioners of the United Kingdom and the United States in Enugu, Ojukwu had
expressed contempt when informed by both men of the rumours of a planned
federal invasion from the sea. Ojukwu insisted that the Nigerian Navy was not
patrolling off the coast of the former Eastern region, and in a separate
utterance he warned that his forces would line the bottom of the creeks of the
Niger Delta with the ships of the Nigerian Navy if they ventured close to the
coast.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">77</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But Ojukwu was wrong.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In his 2004 memoir, Adekunle noted that due to
“the excellent relationship between the navy personnel and their foreign
suppliers,” the navy was able to replenish her stock “in a very short time”.
The navy also competently organised second level maintenance by well-trained
technical staff. And in an intelligence triumph, the navy and its service counterpart undertook to conduct their preparations under the greatest level of
secrecy. Adekunle recalled that all non-essential civilians from Ikeja
cantonment were dismissed, and a regime of mail censorship and telephone
tapping was imposed.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">78</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While the country lacked an industrial
military complex, it was able to adapt and innovate solutions for a range of
issues using local resources. For instance, it was clear that the troops would
need life jackets. But the question arose as to the amount of buoyancy a
soldier with full kit, steel helmet and rifle would need to stay afloat. Rawe
therefore arranged for Major Tony Ochefu to bring a soldier to the naval base
in full kit. The soldier was fitted with a canvas jacket with blocks of
polystyrene and a rope was tied around him before he was dropped into the ocean
from a harbour. It took four drops to calibrate the required amount of buoyancy
by incremental additions of polystyrene.</span><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-themecolor: accent1;">79</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Also, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was provided with matting and expanded metal to cover any
soft spots on the beach to help with the landing of vehicles.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">80</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The navy was also faced with the task of
undertaking combat exercises, as well as building up the requisite esprit de
corps with their counterparts in the army. On both accounts, Rawe would prove
influential. </span><a name="_Hlk132589652" style="font-size: 12pt;">He had been part of “Combined Operations”
during World War 2 and he completed the commando training course near Fort
William in Scotland. Thus, his training and experiences had made him a great
believer in the need for integrated operations and the need for the branches of
the armed forces to work closely together and to know how the other arms
operated. It was also important to Rawe that the service branches trusted each
other.</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">81</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> This
ethos was in keeping with the ideas set down by Julian Corbett, the British
naval historian and geostrategist who lay stress on army-navy cooperation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">82</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The exercises which were conducted at Tarkwa
Bay sought to go through drills in a practical manner and strove to create a
cohesion between the navy and army. Both Soroh and Adekunle wrote about the
exercises in their memoirs. Adekunle described the naval manoeuvres undertaken as
having included “ship pitching, embarkation and disembarkation in daylight and
darkness”,</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">83</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> while
Soroh recalled that the army was trained in handling dinghies and outboard
engines because they needed boats for moving their men in the creeks as soon as
they were put ashore by the naval ships.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">84</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> And to solidify the sense of camaraderie between naval and
army officers, a series of joint mass dinners was organised.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">85</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As the naval liaison officer, Rawe would succeed
in building up a solid working relationship with Adekunle, a talented but
decidedly mercurial figure, with whom many officers had difficult relations. Starting
with the Bonny operation and continuing the pattern in subsequent ones, both
men would formulate their battle plans after which they would meet to coordinate
their operational orders. As Rawe later recalled they both shared “danger and
discomfort” and had “complete trust in each other when in the face of the enemy.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">86</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">However, Adekunle’s working relationship with
Soroh would be less than stellar. He was taken aback by Soroh’s apparent
contentment at leaving Rawe alone to draft the operational orders.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">87</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The strained relations between
both men would cause difficulties, notably in the aftermath of the capture of
Bonny and later during the assault on Calabar when Adekunle stopped responding
to signals from </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">which were expected to be relayed back to
Supreme Headquarters.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">88</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The battles</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Thorough preparedness for battle does not
totally obviate the danger of having to cope with unexpected setbacks. It was Moltke
the Elder to whom the saying “No plan of operations extends with certainty
beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength.” Thus, the German
field marshal believed in developing a series of options for battle instead of
a single plan.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">89</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But with its modest collection of ships
including only one landing craft tank, the Nigerian naval task force did not
have a multiplicity of options in so far as conducting the amphibious assault
was concerned.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">90</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Yet,
as the task force began their staggered journeys, they would have been
comforted by the fact that the enemy had far fewer men and material to oppose
them.</span></span><span style="color: #4f81bd; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 16px;">91</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;"> Each of the naval ships carried a quota of infantrymen. For instance in
addition to Adekunle, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;"> carried 40 soldiers. The MV </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">King Jaja </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">carried
1500 troops.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sailing orders were given on July 22</span><sup>nd</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
of 1967, and the rendezvous of all participant vessels at Bonny Buoy happened
without a hitch at dawn on the designated D-Day: July 25th. At first daylight the
order to execute was given by Captain Soroh who began pounding enemy positions
from</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> as Commander Rawe on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> led the landing force
into the Bonny River.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">92</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As the ships sailed past the Bonny Oil
Terminal, an expatriate manager was preparing to have his breakfast when his
steward drew his attention to the five grey “Biafran” war ships steaming upriver.
While the manager was doubtful of the ability of the secessionist side to have
acquired the vessels, his Biafran steward felt that his leader, Lieutenant
Colonel Ojukwu had made good on his promise to assemble a naval force. While
this conversation was going on Rawe in </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS
</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">gave the order to
fire on the signal station and telegraph office to cut off Bonny’s connections
to Port Harcourt. Both men immediately took cover and when they met under the
table, they agreed that it was not the Biafran Navy after all.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">93</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">As the flotilla proceeded it encountered the
former </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which had been rechristened </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">BNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. The
captain of the secessionist ship Lieutenant Commander P.J. Odu recalled that
three ships were in the process of bombarding Bonny when contact was made.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">94</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was
retreating into the Bonny River in the direction of Port Harcourt when Rawe
ordered Lieutenant Commander Aduwo to detach </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> from the convoy and give chase.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">95</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">opened
fire with its 3-inch and 40mm guns and Odu, in his words, with his
“comparatively puny Bofors anti-aircraft gun” replied by firing a salvo.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">96</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">’s gun kept jamming at intervals, “after every third or
fourth round”. So Odu decided to turn his ship around whenever it jammed to
keep its distance from Aduwo's ship.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">97</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But it eventually entered shallow waters and
was unable to manoeuvre back to the open sea. Now stranded, it became a
stationary target.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">98</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> A cannon from </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> scored a direct
hit on Ibadan's engine room, creating an intense fire which melted the ladder
below deck and trapping the men there to certain death. Above, the smoke
billowed out through the funnel on the deck which was itself littered with
bodies.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">99</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Surveying
the wreckage from his bridge, Aduwo could see Odu clearly through his
binoculars. He went on the megaphone to appeal to him to join him on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and was preparing to send a lifeboat
to collect Odu and his surviving crew.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">100</span></span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But Odu and his men escaped into an adjoining mangrove
swamp.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">101</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Aduwo
re-joined the task force to report to Rawe that an enemy vessel had been sunk,
adding “I hope the captain got away -he was a friend of mine”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">102</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">With </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> sunk, the bombardment of
Bonny continued with suspected enemy positions being cannonaded by </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, as well as by </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">103</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> It was effective enough to disorientate and dislodge the Biafran forces
stationed there and according to Soroh, they “offered little or no resistance.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">104 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Commander Joe beached </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
at a chosen site in the northern part of the town. According to Aduwo, this was
because of the intelligence revelation of the sparse concentrations of
secessionist soldiers in the area and also to deny the Biafran side the
possibility of being “reinforced from Port Harcourt.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">105</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe and Adekunle found a small jetty for </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
and disembarked with 40 troops to minor resistance. The other ships which all
carried a quota of troops also found jetties at which the soldiers were put
ashore. Bonny was captured within 2 hours of the first salvo of cannon fired by
the Nigerian warships.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">106</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Resistance was roughly what Rawe had expected. There were around 200
casualties, most of whom were secessionist soldiers.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">107 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Unable to contact Soroh by radio, Rawe made
his way down the river to inform him that all was safe to enter the estuary
with the merchant ships.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">108</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There had been some mishaps which the
opposition had been unable to exploit. For instance, both </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> ran
aground at different points during the operation. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Lokoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> became stranded while attempting to land a second batch of
troops and could not get out until high tide, while </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Benin</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> suffered the same fate on the second day of the operation and
could not extricate itself for six hours. These incidents would have been disastrous
if the enemy had more formidable resources to have exploited them.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">109</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">On receiving the news that Bonny had been
captured, Major General Yakubu Gowon sent the following message of commendation
to the officer-in-charge of the operation, Captain Soroh:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“…You have got all the right to feel proud, happy,
and contented with the result of the recent combined operations at Bonny which
was your responsibility to see come off successfully. The Army Commander has
sent me a signal saying how nobly well the Navy did in the conveying, landing,
and support fire role which the Navy gave to the Army at the operations in
Bonny.”</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">110</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Bonny island was not the only location taken. Peterside
beach, which was opposite Bonny island, was captured by a party of troops who
landed in rubber dinghies and small crafts.</span><u style="font-size: 12pt;"> </u><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Dawes Island, 20 miles north
of Bonny in the direction of Port Harcourt also came under federal control.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">111</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The days after the
landing were, as Rawe recalled, “full of activity”. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> landed small parties of troops on various knolls of
dryland on the riverbank which was mostly mangrove swamp. These excursions up
the Bonny River went as far as the oil refinery city of Port Harcourt.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">112</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Odu’s war diary recorded on August 4</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
that Nigerian Navy SDBs came up the main channel and fired at the</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">refinery
jetty in Port Harcourt which caused negligible damage. The ships then withdrew
to Bonny.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">113</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> But Rawe
recalled a different scenario albeit that it also ended in a withdrawal. On one
occasion, NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, with Lt. Colonel Adekunle onboard, pushed closer
to Port Harcourt where the Shell-BP Oil refinery was situated. It came under
machine gun attack from the jetties to which</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> made a spirited
reply with all the weapons at their disposal including the use of revolvers
when ammunition came low. The secessionists withdrew and the crew entered the
refinery. But the complex was too large to hold onto with the little manpower
they had left, which amounted to six soldiers.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">114</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A central tenet of Julian Corbett’s theory on
sea power was his insistence that the primary goal of naval warfare must always
be to secure the command of the sea or to prevent the enemy from securing it, whether
directly or indirectly.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">115</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> This reasoning is as applicable to the contested Bonny river area as it is to
the high seas. Contrary to the inscription of “R.I.P. Biafran Navy” which
Nigerian sailors had put on the sunken ship </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, the secessionist
navy was not yet toast. While cognisant that what passed as the Biafran navy
could not compete symmetrically with them, they would find that they were dealing
with a cunning and resourceful opponent which would soon come close to
regaining Bonny. The Biafran Navy found a floating dock which, as Odu recalled,
was to be used as a tool to slow down or deter the Nigerian Navy from capturing
Port Harcourt by sea. The idea was to use the floating dock as a forward
observation post or to anchor it in the main channel so that Nigerian Navy
vessels could be run aground while trying to avoid it. Sub-Lieutenant Nicholas
Ohaeri was placed in charge of the floating dock which had a small crew.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">116</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">During one of many forays up the Bonny River
with </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Commander Rawe in the
company of Lt. Colonel Anthony Ochefu and some of Ochefu’s men, encountered a
Biafran tug and the floating dock after rounding a bend in the river. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">proceeded towards the tug and
dock at full speed but when the order to fire was given by Rawe, he was
perplexed by the continuing silence. He discovered his conscientious gunner had
dismantled the ship’s Oerlikon which he was about to clean.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">117</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">However, while </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> evaded the machine gun fire from the floating dock, </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which had been accompanying </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope </i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">scored a hit on
the tug with its 3-inch gun. The tug let go of its tow and retreated to Port
Harcourt. An exchange of gunfire followed, which ended with the surviving crew
of the floating dock either jumping over or surrendering. Ohaeri was among
those captured. The members of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
then boarded the floating dock and removed parts of its vital machinery before
withdrawing after coming under a bomb attack from a helicopter.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">118</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The presence of helicopters appropriated from
oil companies and converted to bomb-carrying aircraft were a nuisance to
Nigerian troops, and while vulnerable to Nigerian ships armed with
anti-aircraft machine guns, they could contrive ways to menace lone vessels.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">119</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While surveying the wrecked </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> and clearing the ship of debris
and dead crew, Rawe and a group of his men came under attack from an enemy
helicopter which dropped a bomb alongside the wreck. With great haste, they
scrambled onto a dinghy and returned to </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> which headed down river
back to Bonny. The helicopter, which was manned by a French crew, gave chase,
and positioned itself directly above</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">
Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">; a tactic that meant that its Oerlikon machine gun could not aim
at it. The helicopter began to release its payload of bombs while the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> zig-zagged to evade them. Rawe
kept the helicopter at a higher distance than it would have wanted by firing at
it with his FN FAL rifle. He knew that the helicopter carried a total of seven
bombs and so it was a question of counting the number of explosions which
created fountains of spray until it ceased its mission. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Penelope</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
returned to Bonny unscathed, but the incident provided the navy with the lesson
that in order to counteract the menace of helicopters, its ships would have to
operate in pairs.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">120</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The continuing operations proved that the navy
and army could work together as mutually supporting joint forces. The
relationship between Rawe and Adekunle was germinating into a close and
fruitful one as this undated note from Adekunle to Rawe indicates:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Bonny.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Dear Jim,</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The unit Commander of the troops at Dawes
Island saw me at 1 a.m. to report that it will be essential to locate a ship at
the island even if it is for 24 hours.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The reasons are: 1. To scare away the
helicopters. 2. To revive the low morale of the troops there.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">I do endorse the plea and would graciously
request you to send one of your SDBs for 24 hours only. Without being
overbearing, may I suggest Ogoja?</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Thank you for your cooperation.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Benji</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.<span style="color: #4f81bd; mso-themecolor: accent1;">121</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But the Nigerian forces also found themselves
needing to cope with the physical and psychological traumas associated with
war. As Rawe recalled field medical assistance was “non-existent” during the
Bonny operation, and one occasion when the federal soldiers sustained
casualties, he remembered that Adekunle “borrowed a bottle of brandy and went
around the deck lifting the heads of the dying men saying there is nothing we
can do for you but inviting them to have a drink before they left”. He also
noted one disadvantage of giving the soldiers life belts. The bodies of “those
who had been killed during the initial landing drifted up and down the river
with the tide, often with the seagulls sitting on their heads, and this did
nothing for the troop’s morale.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">122</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Two weeks after the start of the Bonny
operation, the navy could claim a successful landing, the reclamation of
Nigerian territory, as well as the degrading of the enemy's manpower and
resources. Over one hundred prisoners were taken to the naval base in Apapa.
Apart from equipment such as those taken out of the floating dock, Rawe and his
crew salvaged the 40mm gun and engines found on </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">123</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although the Nigerian navy and army had
demonstrated an amphibious operations capability, the achievement at Bonny came
perilously close to being undone two months later when secessionist forces
launched “Operation Sea Jack”, a determined attempt to retake the town.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">124</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> One contributing factor
for this malaise was arguably the breakdown in the relationship between Captain
Soroh and Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle, while Rawe, the naval liaison officer, was
away on leave. Adekunle claimed, not without merit, that the navy was not
making aggressive patrols of the Bonny River and at one point sent Soroh an
irate signal which asserted that if Soroh was not prepared to order aggressive
patrols of the Bonny River that he had better go back to Lagos as naval ships
were not supposed to adorn the area for their good looks only. Adekunle felt
that this lack of aggression had emboldened the Biafran navy to send boats on
attack runs down the river to shell Bonny.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">125</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But the fault did not reside only with the
navy. The rapid expansion of the Nigerian Army had meant that there was a
problem of finding senior officers to command battalions. This was compounded
by the fact that the 3rd Infantry Division had withdrawn its best officers,
first to stage a landing at Escravos to counter the secessionist invasion of
the Mid-West in August 1967, and secondly, experienced officers and men were
transferred from the Bonny theatre to prepare for the landings in Sapele, Warri
and Koko. Those who were left were mainly poorly trained and poorly led.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">126</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Biafran intelligence on the number of naval
ships operating on the Bonny river was used effectively. Shelling operations on
Bonny via converted vessels were undertaken at night when the numbers of ships
on patrol were reduced. The number of these missions was particularly
pronounced when </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, the most feared component of the Nigerian fleet,
was absent from the area.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">127</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In late September 1967 while the federal side
was expelling secessionist forces from the Mid-West, Bonny was attacked when
left in the hands of the 7th battalion of the Third Infantry Division commanded
by one Lieutenant Colonel Abubakar. Neighbouring Peterside only had a company
commanded by Captain Bello. At Peterside, a battalion-strong group of
secessionist soldiers had been landed after been conveyed there by barges and launches.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">128</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The federal side was vastly outnumbered by the
secessionist attackers and in danger of being overwhelmed when naval
headquarters was informed.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> NNS</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was despatched and was joined
in the battle by</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Soroh
recalled arriving in the midst of a furious gunbattle in which Peterside was
ablaze and some federal combatants were being literally “pushed into the water”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">129</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> In the frantic and
desperate circumstances of the confrontation, Aduwo had to refuse a request
made by a Federal troop commander to take him onboard </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, compelling
the officer to stand and fight.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">130</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The enemy was eventually driven back largely through the firepower provided by
naval warships.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">According to Soroh’s memoir, Abubakar admitted
that the timely intervention of the Nigerian Navy had spared the Federal army a
defeat at the hands of the Biafran forces.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">131</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Bonny and Peterside were held on to, but the
secessionists took over previous advance positions held by the Federal side
including Dawes Island and they were able to construct a boom across the Bonny
River.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">132</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Biafran
forces would not be removed from the approaches to Bonny until January 1968,
and Port Harcourt did not fall until May of that year.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">133</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The operation in Bonny was a triumph of James
Rawe’s ability to process prior experience into a practical plan of action
which the officers and men of the Nigerian navy capably executed. The plan,
which he had insisted be kept as “straightforward as possible,” successfully
followed what at the time was the conventional approach to staging an
amphibious assault, that is, by using a concentration of troops to force a
landing in the presence of the enemy. While subsequent operations presented greater
challenges related to unfavourable topography, the confined circumstances of
riverine warfare, and enemy deceptive tactics, surmounting the hurdle of
landing forces on enemy territory presented a tremendous psychological boost to
the federal forces and a commensurate blow to the secessionist military.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">134</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It demonstrated that the navy and the army
could mount a successful combined operation and paved the way for further
landings, all of which provided the basis for the encirclement and eventual
defeat of the secessionist state.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The capture of oil installations at Bonny
proved to the oil companies, most notably Shell-BP which controlled over 80 per
cent of oil production, that the federal government and not the secessionist
side would control access to petroleum in the Niger Delta. This prevented the
Biafran side from being in a position to use monies garnered from oil revenues to
pay for the import of arms and ammunition.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">135</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The combination of landings and blockade were
of inestimable importance. As Rawe would later opine: “If it were not for the
Third Division and the navy capturing all the ports and coastline held by the
rebels, the course of the war would have been very different. Ojukwu’s
propaganda had moved world opinion on his side. If he had ports available for
the import of heavy weapons, (supplied) by foreign powers such as France, and
if the navy had not stopped his export of oil, the Federal government may have
found the rebels very hard to beat.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">136</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a Visiting Lecturer in Law
at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom. He has a research
interest in military history. He is the son of the Late Captain Emmanuel
Makinde. F.S.S., who served as a Nigerian naval officer between 1964 and 1982.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Notes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">1. Nigerian
Navy Ordinance, 1956 (No.28 of 1956). This was followed by the Nigerian Navy
(Establishment of Force) Notice, 1958 by which the Governor-General
“established the Nigerian Navy with effect from the 1st day of May 1958.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">2. Excluding
the coast of what was the British Southern Cameroons which is now part of
southern Cameroon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">3. Stapleton,
Timothy. “The Origins of the Nigerian and Ghana Navies (c.1930–1960)” in
Stapleton, Timothy (Ed), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African Navies:
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</i>, Routledge, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">4. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">5.
Correspondent. “Royal Nigerian Navy,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily
Telegraph</i>, Monday, August 10th, 1959. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Report that the
Federal House of Representatives had passed a bill to give the Nigerian Navy
the prefix “Royal” with the Queen’s permission. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">6. Nigeria
became a republic on October 1st, 1963.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">7. It should be
noted that the old marine departments did ferry British forces </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">embarked on
colonial campaigns of subjugation including those concerned with the conquest
of the Benin Kingdom and the Aro Expedition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Also see
Osuntokun, Akinjide. “Anglo-French Occupation and the Provisional Partition of
the Cameroons 1914-1916”, <i>Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria</i>, Vol.7,
No.4, June 1975.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">8. “Nigerian
Crisis 1966: The meeting of the Supreme Military Council, held at Aburi, Accra,
Ghana, 4-5 January 1967”, Vol. Six, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Government Printer Enugu</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">See newsreel “</span><a href="https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/223121"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Ghana: Nigerian Military Governors Conclude Secret Talks on
Constitutional Problems</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, <i>Reuters News</i>, January 6th, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">9. See newsreel
“</span><a href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/nigeria-after-the-coup-nigeria-lagos-ext-various-shots-of-news-footage/827533552"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Nigeria After the Coup</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, ITN
News, January 19th, 1966.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">See also the
newsreel “</span><a href="https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/237522"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Nigeria: Head of Military Government, Major-General
Ironsi, Outlines How Country Will Be Governed</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, <i>Reuters News</i>, January 18th, 1966.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">10. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Privately
published memoir, 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">11. Soroh,
Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream: Autobiography
of Rear Admiral Nelson Bossman Soroh</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Crucible Publishers, Lagos, 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">12. The decree,
which was issued in March 1967, modified section 18(1) of the Interpretation
Act of 1964.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">13.
Commonwealth Correspondent. “Pay now or no oil, says Nigeria,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Guardian</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, June 15th, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">See also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Meisler,
Stanley. “Nigerians Shell Ship in Biafran Port Blockade,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Los Angeles Times</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, July 5th, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The
"Reigel", a Panamanian-registered vessel, was hit on its quarter-deck
and the crew detained after it had left Bonny. It was later escorted back to
the naval base in Apapa, Lagos. The incident occurred a few days before the
formal start of the "Police Action" which would later become a
full-blown civil war.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">14. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">15. Speller,
Ian and Tuck, Christopher. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Amphibious
Warfare: Strategy and Tactics: The Theory and Practice of Amphibious Operations
in the 20th Century</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. The History Press Ltd, 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">16. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Examples are
the Normandy Landings of 1944 (“assault”), Dieppe and St Nazaire in 1942
(“raid”), the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 (“withdrawal”), and feints conducted
by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy between January and February prior to
the Gulf War in 1991 (“demonstration”).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">17. Ibid</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">18. Ishizu,
Tomoyuki. "</span><a href="http://www.nids.mod.go.jp/english/event/forum/pdf/2014/11.pdf"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Amphibious Warfare: Theory and Practice</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">." International Forum on War History, 2014.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">19. The Naval
War College Nigeria which is located in the city of Calabar was established in
2017.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">20. Marder,
Arthur. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Operation Menace: The Dakar
Expedition and the Dudley North Affair</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Oxford University Press, 1976.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">21. Lloyd,
Cliff. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Operation Ironclad: The British
Invasion of Madagascar</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. History & Latte, 2017.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">22. Gelb,
Norman.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> Desperate Venture: The Story of
Operation Torch, the Allied Invasion of North Africa</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. William Morrow &
Co, 1992.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">23.
Commonwealth Correspondent. “Steam Up Over Man O’ War Bay: Nigerian objections
to ‘base’,” </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Guardian</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Friday,
April 1st, 1960.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">24. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Lieutenant
Commander Rawe in command of the original NNS <i>Nigeria </i>an Algerine-class
minesweeper which was formerly HMS <i>Hare</i>, ferried Nigerian troops to the
British Cameroons on several trips. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Both Rawe and
Navy Lieutenant Nelson Soroh recalled naval and army officers meeting onboard </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.
Rawe commended the “considerable esprit de corps” of the army officers, while
Soroh noted that the officers shared their service experiences. There was a
ship’s exercise off Victoria (now Limbe).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See Soroh,
Nelson. </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. 2001.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Ghanaian
leader Kwame Nkrumah had a disagreement with his former ally Sylvio Olympio
over the status of the former German Togoland which came under British control
after the defeat of Germany in the Great War. The territory was absorbed into
the Gold Coast and later Ghana after a plebiscite. While Olympio wanted the
land returned to Togo, Nkrumah insisted that Togo should merge with Ghana.
Nigeria pledged to help Olympio resist an invasion by Ghana, but since it was
unlikely that Dahomey (now Benin) would allow Nigerian troops through its
territory, the only means of aiding Togo would have been by orchestrating a
seaborne landing. Lieutenant Commander James Rawe journeyed to England to order
fresh supplies of ammunition and returned to Nigeria to plan a clandestine trip
to Togo to survey the coastal area in order to determine suitable landing
sites. However, his trip was aborted, and the planned operation cancelled when
Olympio was assassinated in January 1963.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">25. The issue,
which persists, has been addressed by several former Nigerian Navy officers
including Captain Ian Wright and Commodore Olatunde Oladimeji. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">See: Wright,
Ian. “Recent Developments in African Navies,”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Naval Force</i>s, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1988.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">See also:
Oladimeji, Olatunde A. "</span><a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1990/march/where-are-african-navies-going"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Where Are the African Navies Going</span></a><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">?", <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Proceedings</i>, U.S.
Naval Institute, Vol. 116/3/1,045, March 1990.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">26. Makinde,
Adeyinka. “</span><a href="http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2023/04/captain-james-rawe-obituary.html"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Captain James Rawe - Obituary</span></a><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">adeyinkamakindeblogspot dot
com</i>, April 17th, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">With the
backing of the British High Commissioner, Rawe was advised by the British
military attaché to leave the Nigerian Navy immediately after the first coup.
But he refused, arguing that his resignation would injure the good name of
Britain and potentially undermine the fragile military government.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">27. Telegraph
Obituaries. “</span><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/05/30/james-rawe-naval-normandy-nigerian-civil-war-died-obituary/"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Captain James Rawe, naval officer who served on D-Day and
later helped to develop the Nigerian navy – obituary</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,” <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, May 30th,
2023.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe delayed
his early retirement in 1967 at the request of Major General Yakubu Gowon. In
1974, he won damages against the author John de St. Jorre and the publishers of
de St. Jorre’s book </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Civil
War</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> for implying that he had been a mercenary for the federal side,
pointing out that he had served for many years in the Nigerian Navy prior to
the outbreak of war and that his salary had been paid by Her Majesty’s overseas
civil service. Rawe had been the first person, Nigerian or expatriate, to sign
up for the Nigerian Naval Defence Force.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">28. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">29. Captain James Rawe via e-mail communication with Timothy Rawe, February 20th, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">30. Rawe,
James. “Landing by sea on enemy-held territory.” Paper prepared for the Supreme
Headquarters of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">31. Rawe,
James. “Landing by sea on enemy-held territory,” 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">32. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">33. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">34. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">35. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">36. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">37. Ibid</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">38. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">39. E-mail
communication with Timothy Rawe, February 20th, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">40. Rawe,
James. “Landing by sea on enemy-held territory,” 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">41. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">42. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">43. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">44. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">45. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">46. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">47. Prettie,
Terence. “Britain still trying to keep up flow of oil from Nigeria,” </span><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The Guardian</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, July
11th, 1967.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The
secessionist government demanded that Shell-BP, a British multinational company,
pay oil revenues into the treasury of what had been Nigeria’s Eastern region
and it agreed to make an interim payment scheduled for July 15th. The Nigerian
government denounced the decision to pay dues as “ill-timed and unfortunate.”
But payment was purportedly held up because of Biafra’s insistence that
Shell-BP pay in a currency other than Sterling. When the company’s managing
director, Stanley Gray travelled from Lagos to Port Harcourt on July 23rd, he
was summoned to Enugu, the capital city of Biafra and promptly arrested. He was
later released and returned to Lagos where he held a press conference to
announce that Shell-BP would withhold payment until the following year or when
“the situation becomes normal.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">For an
assessment of the dilemma faced by Shell-BP see:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Raji, A.O.Y.
and Abejide, T.S. “</span><a href="https://www.arabianjbmr.com/pdfs/KD_VOL_2_11/3.pdf"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Oil and Biafra: An Assessment of Shell-BP’s Dilemma
During the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-1970</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”. <i>Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of
Business and Management Review</i> Vol. 2, No.11. July 2013.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">48. For
instance, the official neutrality of the United States and its policy of
imposing an arms embargo on both federal and secessionist sides posed a problem
for obtaining supplies of the three-inch shells used by NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ogoja</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, an American-made patrol boat
which Nigeria had obtained from the Netherlands as part of the deal to build
the frigate which would be named NNS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Nigeria</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.
Rawe overcame the problem by getting the U.S. military attaché in Lagos to
arrange for the required shells to be sent to the Netherlands, following up by
liaising with the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria to ensure that the ammunition was
delivered by air.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">49. Rawe,
James. “Landing by sea on enemy-held territory,” 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In his memoir,
Rawe recalled that during the crisis, Wey and he had initially decided not to
aggravate the situation by recalling</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">
Ibadan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> from its station in Calabar. However, when they ordered it back to
Lagos it conveniently broke down and was eventually coopted as a Biafran vessel
after the declaration of secession.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">50. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">51. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">52. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">53. Naval Order
(No.1) of 1967, Copy No.2.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">54. Naval Order
(No.1) of 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">55. Ibid</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">56. Both Soroh
and Adekunle wrote memoirs.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">See:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Soroh, Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream: Autobiography of Rear
Admiral Nelson Bossman Soroh</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Crucible Publishers. 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Adekunle,
Benjamin. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigeria-Biafra War Letters:
A Soldier's Story (Vol. 1)</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Phoenix Publishing Group. 2004.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">57. Naval Order
(No.1) of 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">58. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Nigeria</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> had a high
freeboard which made it impossible for her to depress her four-inch guns low
enough to fire back at short range.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">59. The
vulnerability of large vessels engaged in naval combat was vividly illustrated
three months after the landing at Bonny when INS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Eilat</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, an Israeli Z-class destroyer which was formerly the Royal
Navy’s HMS </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Zealous</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, was sunk by an
Egyptian Komar-class missile boat positioned 13 miles away within the harbour
of Port Said during the Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">For an appraisal
of the sinking of INS <i>Eilat</i> see
Colvin, Robert D. “</span><a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1969/october/aftermath-elath"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Aftermath of the Elath</span></a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">”, <i>Proceedings</i>, U.S. Naval Institute, Vol. 95/10/800, October
1969.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The captain of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Eilat</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, Commander Yitzhak Shoshan wrote a
book published in Hebrew:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Shoshan,
Yitzhak.</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> The Last Battle of the Destroyer
INS Eilat Shoshan</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Ma'ariv Publishing House, 1993.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">60. Naval Order
(No.1) of 1967.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">61. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">62. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">63. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">64. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">65. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">66. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">67. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">68. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">69. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">70. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">71. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">72. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">73. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">74. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">75. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Lokoja</span></i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was “Parrot,” <i>Ogoja</i> was “Dog,” <i>Enugu</i> was “Cat,” <i>Kaduna</i>
was “Love,” and <i>Benin</i> was “Tiger.”
Also, <i>Beecroft</i>, the operations base
in Apapa, was “Ginger,” while naval headquarters, COMNAV (H.Q,) was “Uncle.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">76. Osakwe,
Chukwuma C. C. and Udeagbala, Lawrence Okechukwu. "Naval Military
Operations in Bonny during the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970", </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Advances in Historical Studies</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Vol.04,
No.3. 2015.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">77. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">The Deputy High
Commissioners were respectively the Briton James Parker and the American Bob
Bernard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">78. Adekunle,
Benjamin. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Nigeria-Biafra War Letters:
A Soldier's Story (Vol. 1)</i>. Phoenix Publishing Group, Atlanta, 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">79. Rawe,
James. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Reminds Me</i>. 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">80. Naval Order
(No.1) of 1967.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">81. E-mail
communication with Timothy Rawe, February 20th, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">82. Corbett,
Julian S. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Some Principles of Maritime
Strategy</i>. Longmans, Green & Co., 1918.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">83. Adekunle,
Benjamin. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Soldier's Story</i>. 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">84. Soroh,
Nelson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Sailor's Dream</i>. 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">85. Adekunle,
Benjamin. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Soldier's Story</i>. 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">86. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">87. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">88. Soroh,
Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">89. Von Moltke,
Helmut (The Elder). “Second Part: Article from 1871 on Strategy,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moltke’s Military Works: II. Activity as
Chief of the Army General Staff in Peacetime</i>, Ernst Siegfried Mittler und
Sohn, 1900.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">90. Rawe did
not dwell on back up plans in his paper and operation order. He was clear about
the circumstances in which a landing could not be made and insisted that the
plan be a “straightforward” one. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">91. “The side
with the most ships almost always wins”. See Tangredi, Sam J. “<a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2023/january/bigger-fleets-win">Bigger
Fleets Win</a>.” <i>Proceedings</i>, Vol.
149/1/1,439, U.S. Naval Institute, January 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">92. Rawe,
James. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Reminds Me</i>. 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">93. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">94. Odu, P.J. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Future that Vanished: A Biafran Story</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.
Xlibris, 2009.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While some
sources provide that the sea battle occurred on the second day of the
operation, that is, on July 26th, 1967, Rawe’s memoir places the confrontation
as occurring shortly after the commencement of the invasion. This is
corroborated by Odu who, having established a patrol routine “from Port
Harcourt to Bonny and out to sea,” recorded that he encountered three Nigerian
Navy ships and a troop ship in the process of assaulting Bonny during the
morning of July 25th.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">95. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">96. Odu, P.J. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Future that Vanished</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2009.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">97. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">98. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">99. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">100.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Osakwe and Udeagbala. "Naval Military
Operations in Bonny.” 2015.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">101. Odu, P.J. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Future that Vanished</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2009.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">102. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Aduwo and Odu
had been friends within the Nigerian navy. According to the authors</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Femi Omosefunmi and Foluso Akinlonu, when
Odu was made ineligible to pursue his choice as a specialist naval navigator on
account of his eyesight, Aduwo waived his nomination as a specialist in the
area of communication in favour of Odu. Odu did not mention such an arrangement
in his memoir. Noting that the “Long C” course is the most “most prestigious”
course available to young executive (warfare) officers and is open only to “the
brightest”, he was not certain as to how he came to be selected, speculating
that his frequent benefactor Commodore Alexander Kennedy, the last British Chief of
Naval Staff, may have engineered it, or that it might have been due to the fact
that he had graduated at the top of the New Commonwealth class at Dartmouth.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">See Omosefunmi,
Femi and Akinlonu, Foluso. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">30 Days in
Power, 4 Years in Command the Story of Vice Admiral Akin Aduwo</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Advent
Communication Limited, 1997.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">103. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">104. Soroh,
Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">105. Osakwe and
Udeagbala. "Naval Military Operations in Bonny.” 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">106.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rawe, James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">107. James Rawe via e-mail communication with Timothy Rawe, February 20th, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">108. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">109. Yusuf,
Idris Uru. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Nigerian Navy: Development
Amidst Contemporary Challenges</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. Daily Graphics Ltd, 2015.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">110.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Soroh, Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">111. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">112. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">113. Odu, P.J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Future that Vanished.</i> 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">On August 9th,
Odu recorded another Nigerian mission towards the refinery jetty, identifying<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Ogoja</i> and one SDB as the attackers. BNS
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ikwerre</i>, a former Nigerian Ports
Authority tugboat, “attempted to block the enemy but was seriously damaged.”
However, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ogoja</i>, he wrote, came within
the range of small arms fire and Biafran troops reportedly mowed down “up to 50
Nigerian soldiers” on the upper deck of the ship. Odu does not say if the
Nigerian soldiers, who would presumably have been armed, were returning fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">114. Rawe,
James. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Reminds Me</i>. 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">115. Corbett,
Julian S. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Some Principles of Maritime
Strategy</i>. Longmans, Green & Co., 1918.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">116. Odu, P.J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Future that Vanished.</i> 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">117. Rawe,
James. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Reminds Me</i>. 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">118. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">119. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">120. Ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">121. Archive of
Captain James Rawe.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">122. Rawe,
James. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Reminds Me</i>. 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">123. Ibid.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">See newsreel “<a href="https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/207400">Second Group of War
Prisoners Arrive in Lagos</a>”, <i>Reuters
News</i>, August 6th, 1967.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">124. Odu, P.J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Future that Vanished</i>. 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">“Operation Sea
Jack” commenced on September 25th, 1967. Wrote P.J. Odu: “It was designed to
recapture Bonny from Nigerian troops.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">125. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adekunle went as
far as to say that “it was only when Soroh was present that the Biafran boats
had the guts to come down and shell Bonny.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">126. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">127. Odu, P.J. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Future that Vanished</i>. 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">128. Udeagbala,
Lawrence Okechukwu. “A Comparative Study of the Nigerian and Biafran Navies
During the Nigerian Civil War” in Stapleton, Timothy (Ed), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">African Navies: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives</i>,
Routledge, 2022.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">129. Soroh,
Nelson. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Sailor's Dream</i>. 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">130. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">131. Soroh,
Nelson. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">A Sailor's Dream</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2001.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">132. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">133. Odu wrote
of his pride in Port Harcourt not being “taken from the sea”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">134. The
operation to capture Warri, Koko and Sapele in September 1967 involved the
naval vessels navigating the 20-mile-long Nana creek. Rawe recalled in his
memoir that “if the leading vessel sunk or the creek was blocked by rebels,
there would be no room for the other ships to advance, and if a craft in the
rear was disabled, the ships ahead, even if able to turn, would be unable to
pass the disabled vessel.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Calabar
operation in October 1967 was an assault against Biafran soldiers in well-dug
positions on high ground overlooking the river where the landing would take
place, while the final assault on Oron in March 1968, as with the
aforementioned operations, was rife with the threat of ambushes, booby traps,
river mines and recordings of intermittent machine gun fire that came from tape
recorders which the Biafrans had placed in trees.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">135. Duyile,
William Abiodun. “Nature and Impact of Involvement of the Navy in the Nigerian
Civil War, 1967-1970”. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">International
Journal of Naval History</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 2016.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">136. Rawe,
James. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">That Reminds Me</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. 2021.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023).</span><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-23539600980352839212023-07-07T19:49:00.001+01:002023-07-07T19:53:50.332+01:00CrossTalk | "NATO’s insecurity" | Broadcast on RT on Friday, July 7th, 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyCQyBiBYeIs0vHF3urHjdhsEV1Nu4_WpsCtRak0UQgP5LMNidIe80WnwuMYLhpGFw6Btapceqis78Ubt50P1h9zAI7yv3q3UyaxDy5iaEit4mOM4cyD7rWHKj5eazOcawX1TlUdZZfEgmqZ3cXNIRH7CoDnfOXeW3nYCAh2QTx_6rrCleYpj1a07b9fs/s1708/CrossTalk%20-%20NATOs%20Insecurity%20(July%207,%202023)_Moment(14).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1708" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyCQyBiBYeIs0vHF3urHjdhsEV1Nu4_WpsCtRak0UQgP5LMNidIe80WnwuMYLhpGFw6Btapceqis78Ubt50P1h9zAI7yv3q3UyaxDy5iaEit4mOM4cyD7rWHKj5eazOcawX1TlUdZZfEgmqZ3cXNIRH7CoDnfOXeW3nYCAh2QTx_6rrCleYpj1a07b9fs/w400-h225/CrossTalk%20-%20NATOs%20Insecurity%20(July%207,%202023)_Moment(14).jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><p><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">My latest appearance on
CrossTalk the flagship programme of RT.</span></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The topic was “NATO’s
Insecurity”.</span></span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Preamble:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">"NATO is a peculiar
organization. It claims to be a defensive military alliance, but also claims it
must constantly expand. Add to this the alliance’s claim to project stability.
The reality is it projects instability and insecurity – and has made Russia its
primary enemy."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">CrossTalking with Nicolai
Petro, Evan Reif, and Adeyinka Makinde.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It was recorded on Thursday,
July 6th, 2023, and broadcast the following day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">CrossTalk: "NATO’s
insecurity"</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">. <a href="https://swentr.site/shows/crosstalk/579293-nato-russia-primary-enemy/">RT</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><a href="https://rumble.com/v2yok5g-crosstalk-natos-insecurity.html" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rumble</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><a href="https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/NATOinsecurity:9" style="font-size: 12pt;">Odysee</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© RT (2023).</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-65404345696208890292023-07-06T20:21:00.001+01:002023-07-14T10:38:20.228+01:00Prelude to my appearance on RT's CrossTalk (July 2023): My thoughts on a range of issues linked to the forthcoming NATO summit to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgbUjZ8_zxFuf6jWq0njn3Kfqy9drl2qUyDV2tLQlT8M9RX6TLAp1OKHl2XH8sdwkehB2DMbDR26TW8dOL7l2OVkYjwa40hod22_hkHg2rABNx7s_tVB28h-b0zCpyeRF9rKteqdbqY4eD9nJzO63dYJoeASSZ6u3osAY2eoC5prAMxKoSDiJnU_8mPJG/s1446/crossTalk%20Logo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgbUjZ8_zxFuf6jWq0njn3Kfqy9drl2qUyDV2tLQlT8M9RX6TLAp1OKHl2XH8sdwkehB2DMbDR26TW8dOL7l2OVkYjwa40hod22_hkHg2rABNx7s_tVB28h-b0zCpyeRF9rKteqdbqY4eD9nJzO63dYJoeASSZ6u3osAY2eoC5prAMxKoSDiJnU_8mPJG/w276-h400/crossTalk%20Logo.jpg" width="276" /></span></a></b></div><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Q. What
can we expect from the upcoming NATO summit?</span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">We can expect more pledges of supplies of arms
and ammunition to Ukraine, as well as plans to train Ukrainian military
personnel. That is the import that must be given to the pledge that “the
decisions (NATO members) will take in Vilnius will bring Ukraine closer to NATO.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It is very unlikely that Ukraine will be
admitted as a member because Turkey or Hungary would surely block such a move.
Jens Stoltenberg has made it clear that Ukraine cannot join under the present
circumstance of war and President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted this in June of
this year 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP)
which Ukraine would need to satisfy by fulfilling a range of political, economic,
and military criteria is not capable of being met.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">First, Ukraine cannot be considered to be a
“functioning democracy.” Zelensky has cancelled elections, even though both
Abraham Lincoln and Bashar al-Assad managed to hold elections during war
conditions. Both former President Petro Poroshenko and President Zelensky have
banned opposition parties and jailed journalists and political opponents.
Zelensky is also persecuting the Orthodox Christian Church.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Secondly, Ukraine cannot be said to “treat its
minorities fairly.” The policy of Ukrainianization in place since the
US-sponsored coup of 2014 has effectively denied ethnic Russian Ukrainians the
right to use their language at state and municipal level. Their children are
denied the right to be taught in Russian. Ethnic Russian Ukrainians are denied
the status as an indigenous people of Ukraine. Such attacks on the use of
language and culture would lead to serious fractures in Western countries such
as Canada and Belgium and this has happened in Ukraine.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Thirdly, Ukraine cannot commit itself to the
“peaceful solution of conflicts” as evidenced by the bad faith regarding the
Minsk accord. Zelensky, who came to power on a mandate to find peace, was
prevented from implementing the Steinmeier Formula by far-right Ukrainian
troops stationed in the Donbas. Also, the agreement reached between Russia and
Ukraine to end the war in 2022 was sabotaged by NATO using former British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson as the emissary who blocked the agreement.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Fourthly, while Ukraine has shown that it is
“able and willing to contribute militarily to NATO operations” because it has
been functioning as NATO’s proxy army in a war against the Russian Federation,
it is clearly not able to join NATO when it is effectively bankrupt and totally
reliant on external aid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Q. In
what way would Ukraine becoming a NATO member enhance European security?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The preamble to the conference agenda asks,
“How will the Alliance continue to protect its one billion citizens and every inch
of Allied territory?” If I were an invited guest or just an officious bystander,
I would remark that the surest way of achieving that goal would be for the
organisation to disband and for the European states to contrive a new security
architecture on the continent involving its Eurasian neighbour Russia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Specifically answering the question, one has
to respond by saying that Ukraine becoming a NATO member would not enhance
European security and in fact would grievously imperil it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This is because Ukraine has effectively
operated as a de facto NATO state since 2014. Its armed forces have been
trained and equipped by NATO countries before and after the Russian
intervention in the civil war. Being granted membership would serve as the
ultimate “redline” given the warning of President Vladimir Putin to the
administration of President George W. Bush about the admission of Ukraine and
Georgia into the Atlantic alliance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This was understood by people in the West
including former ambassador now CIA head William J. Burns whose memo “Nyet
Means Nyet” of February 2008</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">predicted
that NATO membership would provoke a civil war between the Ukrainian and
Russian-speaking people of the country, and that Russia, although reluctant,
would be compelled to intervene.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As Ukraine would come under what is described
as the “protective umbrella of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty”, it would
amount to a formal declaration of war against the Russian Federation because
Russia is viewed as the aggressor while Russia argues that it is effectively
defending the rights of the people of the Donbas who have exercised their right
to self-determination because of the war waged against them by the government
in Kiev which along with the key NATO states of France and Germany negotiated the
Minsk Agreements in bad faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Q. Are
there any benefits for Europe surrendering its “security sovereignty” to
Washington?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Absolutely not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">While the smaller states and less prosperous
ones may obtain a certain amount of economic advantage, the overall effect has
been to entrap European nations into a form of vassalage. Allowing Washington
to meet their security needs has meant that they have been obliged to follow
the policy dictates of the United States whose militarist foreign policy is
formulated by a combination of neoconservative ideologues, American
exceptionalists and the military industry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This has meant that NATO members have given
cover to the series of illegal military operations - both covert and overt -
which the United States has embarked upon in the post-Cold War era.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Each intervention, namely those in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, has led to successive waves of migrants trying
to find a way into Europe via Asia minor or the Mediterranean Sea. The role
played by NATO states in provoking the conflict in Ukraine has also led to a
flood of refugees.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">And as can be seen the sanction regime which
European states have been obligated to impose on Russia has backfired
spectacularly and has led not to the destruction of the Russian economy and the
overthrow of President Vladimir Putin but to the degeneration of their
economies, many of which are stagnant, in recession or as in the case of
Germany have been set on a course of de-industrialisation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This has made the European nations more
dependent on Washington. They now have to pay more for energy whether it is
liquefied gas from the US or Russian gas being re- sold to them by India.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">All-in-all it has been a disadvantageous
arrangement which breathes new life into Lord Ismay’s often referred to quote
about the purpose of NATO being to “keep the Americans in, the Russians out and
the Germans down.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">As for Ukraine, which post-Maidan has served
as a client state of the United States, there has been no benefit at all. Just
national destruction and dismemberment. As a writer for the <i>Tablet</i> wrote at the
time of the Russian intervention “By tying itself to a reckless and dangerous
America, the Ukrainians made a blunder that client states will study for years
to come.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Q. Agree
or disagree: We should accept NATO and Russia will be enemies-adversaries for a
long time to come.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Reluctantly agree.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This is because Russia has learned from bitter
experience that the US-led NATO will not see Russia as anything but an enemy
because it refuses to surrender its sovereignty. Russia has to be balkanised or
be made pliant enough to be dictated to through the Western financial system
and have its mineral reserves controlled by Western corporations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">They will remain adversaries because Russia
cannot enter into any formal or informal agreement and trust in the good faith
of NATO member states.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The reneging of the post-Cold War agreement
that NATO not expand an inch eastwards and the admissions respectively of
former Chancellor Angela Merkle and former President Francois Hollande that
Minsk was merely to buy time while a Ukrainian army was built up is evidence of
this as is the fact that Ukraine was prevented from entering into a peace
agreement in 2022 when former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, acting as
an emissary for NATO forbade such agreement.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Q. Agree
or disagree: At this point, it is very unlikely we will see a negotiated end to
the conflict in Ukraine.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Reluctantly agree.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A negotiated end is impractical given the
aforementioned breaches of promise on the part of the West. Russia will have no
choice but to end the conflict on its own terms. Russia has stated that it will
not accept a “frozen conflict” like Korea or Syria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The Polish government would block such moves
as it appears to be composed of many members who appear heedless to the warning
of the Polish nationalist Roman Dmowski who cautioned those of his countrymen
who “hated Russia more than they loved Poland.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A negotiated settlement is also not in the
interests of those neoconservative ideologues like US Senator Lindsey Graham who
feels Russians getting killed is the “best money we’ve ever spent.” Nor is it
in the interests of the military industry and the middlemen in the corrupt
Ukrainian state for whom this war represents a great transfer of US taxpayer
wealth to their coffers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It may be that Russia will hope for a change
of regime in Kiev with leaders distinct from the post-Maidan era and free of
control by the United States and NATO with whom Moscow can negotiate a treaty
of neutrality along the lines of that of the Austrian State Treaty of 1955.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London,
England. He has an interest in Global Security issues.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-35193973546110983202023-06-27T20:20:00.000+01:002023-06-27T20:20:01.392+01:00Putin and Prigozhin: Russian History and the Voluble Political Emigre<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCy4DT9JYAAMD2-vS07vK1HEbtXEOYv8dYJr8wJbzC61tUU4Ob_ad17kTx98wYHT6U9Ij098JSF2eDfhUp6bPTZeF0iP2yn1ZB__v67KkbTf2Ue52FZd46hxNEs8c2UiU1CoBgNrgBvwAeNzMoJidhbRkpxgoqWlGih4em7Dk6eGtuzMUVZJEoGaRvy22L/s2044/d0b31a65cfa9ac243d2dc4501f625d8befd41490%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1361" data-original-width="2044" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCy4DT9JYAAMD2-vS07vK1HEbtXEOYv8dYJr8wJbzC61tUU4Ob_ad17kTx98wYHT6U9Ij098JSF2eDfhUp6bPTZeF0iP2yn1ZB__v67KkbTf2Ue52FZd46hxNEs8c2UiU1CoBgNrgBvwAeNzMoJidhbRkpxgoqWlGih4em7Dk6eGtuzMUVZJEoGaRvy22L/w400-h266/d0b31a65cfa9ac243d2dc4501f625d8befd41490%20(2).jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Both Ivan IV, the Rurik Tsar,
and Iosif Stalin, the Red Tsar, endured a series of angry, often vitriolic
epistles from exiled political critics; in Ivan’s case from Prince Andrei
Kurbsky and in Stalin’s case Leon Trostky.</span></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Will we witness a similar
phenomenon develop between Russia’s most recent political emigre Yevgeny
Prigozhin and President Vladimir Putin?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England. He has an interest in geopolitics.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-16965370628363712592023-06-24T13:59:00.006+01:002023-06-24T19:36:48.855+01:00Explaining the madness of Prigozhin’s mutiny<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUL69a1hfOVjc6s2SRv8p7q9huMiW49PyGh9_5mcfqxiGo3oBLeSv9Cw1HWbCkpbEdqNGpxaTnUhp9D7CkX9QqZkekDPmT7YRQ4vNGxJLI_sP7VS1b08DU0h1lb8CvSLgbeyeqmIrbjwoJVJG045vm5bizJqAiBPas_YzFG-BdROy5plDX-DxoZpp1lggI/s2490/141997d8-bc0c-4252-bfb0-d832452d35d2_w996_r1.7766497461928934_fpx48_fpy36.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="2490" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUL69a1hfOVjc6s2SRv8p7q9huMiW49PyGh9_5mcfqxiGo3oBLeSv9Cw1HWbCkpbEdqNGpxaTnUhp9D7CkX9QqZkekDPmT7YRQ4vNGxJLI_sP7VS1b08DU0h1lb8CvSLgbeyeqmIrbjwoJVJG045vm5bizJqAiBPas_YzFG-BdROy5plDX-DxoZpp1lggI/w400-h225/141997d8-bc0c-4252-bfb0-d832452d35d2_w996_r1.7766497461928934_fpx48_fpy36.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;">Image montage: Mikhail
Metzel / SNA / IMAGO; AP / dpa; RIA Novosti / SNA / IMAGO; REUTERS; Valentin
Sprinchak / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO (via Spiegel International)</span></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The
extraordinary action of Yevgeny Prigozhin is predicated on a conflict
between him and the Russian Ministry of Defence which is headed by Sergei
Shoigu.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In a nutshell,
the root of the matter is based on the fact that the Russian intervention in
eastern Ukraine - limited to the ethnic Russian-speaking area of the Donbas -
has relied heavily on the use of the Wagner Private Military Company, and
Wagner’s leader, Prigozhin, feels that he and his soldiers have not got enough
credit from the Russian Ministry of Defence.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">To be clear,
Russia has barely used members of its army except some detachments of special
forces. Therefore the burden of urban fighting which is aimed at
“demilitarising” the Donbas of Ukrainian military forces has been shouldered by Wagner
PMC with support from the Donas militias of Donetsk and Luhansk (who had been
fighting the Ukrainian military since 2014) and from Chechen forces in 2022.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Instead of
using air power to inflict colossal damage on all forms of infrastructure
before sending in ground troops as is the style of NATO, Russian military
planners opted to use Wagner for hand-to-hand fighting in order to p</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">hysically
destroy the Ukrainian army in Donbas, as well as to systematically d</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">ismantle
the fortified structures built up by the Ukrainian army for 8 years.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This has meant
that since the beginning of the Russian “Special Military Operation” (SMO) in
February 2022, the Wagner PMC were largely responsible for effectively
destroying two separately constituted Ukrainian armies.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The first
Ukrainian army in the Donbas was destroyed by June 2022 and a
second one by October 2022.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A third army
raised, ill-equipped and under-trained, is presently being slaughtered in an
ill-conceived, doomed-to-fail "counter-offensive".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">For Prigozhin
things appear to have come to a head in regard to the Battle for Bakhmut.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He felt that
taking Bakhmut, which is physically the last line of defence in Donbas (after
which it is open land in a westwardly direction) and which Ukrainian political
and military leaders had said was of paramount importance, was a tremendous
accomplishment for which he and his group were getting little or no credit in
the Russian media. He even claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defence had deliberately undersupplied the Wagner PMC with ammunition.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Prigozhin was
correct to highlight the fact that his group was largely responsible for
destroying two differently constituted armies of Ukraine which had been trained
and equipped to NATO standard over the 8 years since the US-orchestrated coup
in Kiev in February 2014.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It is also
important to note that Russian forces have always been outnumbered by Ukrainian
forces right from the commencement of the SMO. This is no mean feat and
something Prigozhin is proud of, albeit that Wagner and others on the ground
have been aided by Russian air forces, Russian rocket forces and Russian naval
forces who have maintained air supremacy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Despite being
outnumbered, Wagner, with the aid of Russian superiority in artillery,
consistently inflicted substantially more on the Ukrainian side than they sustained.
This ratio has ranged from one Russian loss for four Ukrainian losses to one
Russian loss for ten Ukrainian losses.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">However, the
losses to Russia of which Wagner bore the brunt, weighed heavily in the mind
and ego of Prigozhin whose erratic and bombastic behaviour bore traces of post-traumatic
stress syndrome. One example was his decision to film the corpses of his dead
comrades during the battle for Bakhmut.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He was
instructed by the Russian Ministry of Defence to detach himself and Wagner PMC
from the warfront and demobilise.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But instead of
doing this, he has announced a “March of Justice" to Moscow.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Some
commentators have sought to compare his actions to previous acts of rebellion
in Russian history, drawing parallels to Stenka Razin, the 17th century Cossack
leader who led a rebellion against the Tsar, and Yemelyan Pugachev who led a peasant’s
rebellion against Catherine the Great in the 18th century.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But it might
actually be closer to the "Putsch des generaux", the 1961 coup by
French generals stationed in Algeria.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This itself is
a decidedly tenuous analogy since Prigozhin is himself not a general (he is not
a military man) and while the French generals did have support among the French
community in colonial Algeria and among French nationalists on the mainland,
there is no support for Prigozhin among the Russian population.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">General de
Gaulle ensured that the coup fizzled out and President Vladimir Putin will also
want to act resolutely but in a manner in which Russian blood is not spilled.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Russian
nationalist critics will again blame the Kremlin’s policy of
limited intervention in Ukraine for creating the conditions for Prigozhin’s
mutiny.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">They insist
that Putin and the Kremlin should have brought the full weight of the Russian
armed forces to bear </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">at the start of the
intervention </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">in 2022 by mounting a devastating air attack on cities and
by sending a much larger military force composed of the Russian army proper
despite the huge loss of life this would have caused </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">in terms of collateral
damage. The Kremlin has held firm to its policy of striving to minimise the
deaths among a people they consider to be fellow Orthodox Christian Slavs.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But by conducting a
cut-price, limited war, Putin, they charge, opened up avenues through which
NATO could intervene by sending military equipment to Ukraine. By relying on
the Wagner PMC and Donbas militias to slowly and surely dismantle Ukrainian
armies in attritional warfare, they claim that he has enabled Western
mainstream media to assert that the Russian army is overrated and incompetent -
despite the fact that Ukraine has lost all the battles and an extraordinarily high number of personnel.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">After securing
the city of Bakhmut, Prigozhin hoped to show that Russia could not cope with
the counter-offensive. But as even admitted by the Western mainstream media,
the Ukrainian army has been soundly defeated, losing large numbers of
ill-trained and under-equipped soldiers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The fact that
Wagner is dispensable to Russia’s war effort has stirred Prigozhin to pursue his
desperate act of mutiny which Putin in a speech described as “a stab in the
back to our country and our people.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Instead of
taking a break and basking in glory for defeating successive Ukrainian armies, he will, in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the Russian population, go
down as a traitor whose egotistical behaviour, fuelled by probable post-traumatic
stress syndrome, led to his downfall.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka
Makinde (2023).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka
Makinde is a writer based in London, England.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/61Vcoeij62s" width="320" youtube-src-id="61Vcoeij62s"></iframe></div><br /><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-31624524423742614282023-06-11T22:07:00.003+01:002023-06-11T23:01:11.143+01:00From Hegemony to Multipolarity: How Post-Cold War U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Russia is Creating a Modern Eurasia (Abridged Version)<p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHevUvMcnx2-La0Pgc2ILLyjm1Vp2V9JD4ClJ1GqFxSe5GUn6uwpTe35UR95k8y-yWOwYrnuXrUtkZjfe1s6MzKq_uk-JXKrL_jKgCYJVOR9dhq1DQjiB981paz5qqPa_Z-_g3_3-jdeckR_BT0Yjd-88st00Zwnlmapjqs5avVB_g9yRCkiUbgdS7-w/s1700/04_from_hegemony_to_multipolarity_00001%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1700" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHevUvMcnx2-La0Pgc2ILLyjm1Vp2V9JD4ClJ1GqFxSe5GUn6uwpTe35UR95k8y-yWOwYrnuXrUtkZjfe1s6MzKq_uk-JXKrL_jKgCYJVOR9dhq1DQjiB981paz5qqPa_Z-_g3_3-jdeckR_BT0Yjd-88st00Zwnlmapjqs5avVB_g9yRCkiUbgdS7-w/w400-h220/04_from_hegemony_to_multipolarity_00001%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
background: <i>‘The End of History’</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Any proper documentation and analysis of the
conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the ongoing fissure between
Russia and China on the one hand, and the Western world on the other, must
begin with the period covering the ending of the ideological Cold War between
the United States and the Soviet Union.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The collapse of the Soviet Union, which came
with the declaration of independence by some of its constituent soviet
republics such as Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic States, as well as the
de-Sovietisation of Eastern Europe, was bound to create a new global order. Much
would depend on the United States, the sole remaining world power, as to how
this new state of affairs would take shape. It had as an option recourse to its
foundational precepts as a republic which cautioned against entangling
alliances to pursue a course of isolationism. The withering away of the Soviet
Union and prior to that, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, opened up the
possibility that the U.S. led-North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) would
be disbanded and a new security architecture developed on the continent of
Europe that included Russia. This fresh, innovated pan-European set up could
have developed out of the framework of the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and might have included an economic dimension
centred on measures aimed at integrating the German economy with that of
Russia; a development of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ostpolitik</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This did not happen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Describing the development as “the unipolar
moment”, Charles Krauthammer, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, argued
the case for a “serenely dominant” United States which would not withdraw into
its hemisphere and, instead, act as one bastion of power in a multipolar world</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">.1 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">For some like Francis Fukuyama, a political
scientist, the fall of the Soviet Union represented the “end of history”. According
to Fukuyama, history was characterised as a struggle between ideologies, and
liberal democracy had triumphed over all others.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">2</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
His views were readily adopted by those who identified with the neoconservative
school of thought. These intellectual descendants of Wilsonian idealism and fervent
believers in American Exceptionalism were already deposed to be promoters of
democracy. Thus, in the aftermath of the victory of liberalism and free market
capitalism over Marxism, the United States, they argued, should proceed to
mould the world in its image.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">This line of thinking came to be reflected in
the theorising and application of U.S. foreign policy. The idea that America
should operate as the sole global hegemon is reflected in the so-called
"Wolfowitz Doctrine"; named for Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. deputy under-secretary
of defense for policy during the administration led by President George H.
Bush.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The overarching objective of the “Defense
Planning Guidance” for the 1994–99 fiscal years which was published for
internal consumption in February 1992 by Wolfowitz and fellow under-secretary Scooter
Libby, was that the United States would use the vacuum caused by the breakup of
the Soviet Union as an opportunity to prevent the rise of any nation attempting
to take up the mantle of a global competitor.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">3 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
seeking to achieve this, it explicitly disavowed being bound by multilateral
agreements and envisaged destroying by military action or the application of
economic pressure any nation which operated in a way which was inimical to
America’s declared political and economic interests.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The influence of adherents to the
neoconservative ideology, as well as those promoting the interests of military
contractors, has loomed large in American military action, both overt and
covert in the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and of Iraq in 2003, NATO’s
destruction of Libya in 2011 and the covert attempt to overthrow the Ba’athist
government of Syria which also commenced in 2011. Neoconservatives have also
been in the vanguard of calling for the United States to attack Iran.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It was to neoconservative ideologues that
Wesley Clarke, a retired 4-star U.S. Army general and supreme commander of
NATO, was referring when in 2008 he spoke of a “policy coup” in the immediate
aftermath of the attacks of September 11th 2001, in which a group of “hard-nosed
people took control of policy in the United States.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">4
</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Clarke spoke of a visit that he
made to the Pentagon while preparations were afoot for the “police action” that
would be taken in Afghanistan. A former colleague had shown him a classified
document which set out a plan to attack and destroy “seven countries in five
years”. They included Iraq, Libya, Syria and as Clarke would state, the
programme was scheduled to “start with Iraq and end with Iran''.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It is also important to note that while
Wesley Clark asserted that American foreign policy had been “hijacked” and that
there had been no public debate about the “policy coup”, Jeffrey Sachs, a
prominent American economist and academic, considers the conflict in Ukraine to
be the latest in a line of neoconservative-inspired foreign policy disasters.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">5</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">But it is also clear that forces other than
neoconservative ideologues - who have been well-represented in successive
administrations - are not alone in perpetuating America’s cycle of endless
wars. The military industry and an accompanying “Deep State” establishment is a
responsible but unaccountable facet of this continuum of militarism, despite
the changes of administration. In 2014 Michael J. Glennon, a professor of
international law at Tufts University, offered some explanation in a lengthy
journal article-turned-book entitled "National Security and Double
Government".</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">6</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> Borrowing from the
writings of the 19th century English constitutionalist Walter Bagehot about a
hidden government, educator Glennon posited that the unbending trajectory of
U.S. foreign policy came from a powerful but unacknowledged evolved institution
that he designated as “Trumanite”. The Trumanite Institutions are composed of
ex-military, security officials and other vested interests associated with the
military industry and the intelligence services who he argued run national
security policies at the expense of the “Madisonian’ institutions”; that is,
the separated organs of state which function to constitutionally check the power
of each other and who are accountable to the electorate. The Trumanite network
weakens Constitutional safeguards and boundaries in place to check the government,
resulting in less democracy.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It would be remiss not to add the influence
of Zbigniew Brzezinski, a one-time U.S. National Security Adviser, on the
conduct of American foreign relations. Although not a part of the neoconservative
movement, he endorsed the view that no power should be allowed to rise and
challenge American supremacy over the globe. A major part of his focus was on
Russia. In his book</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"> The Grand Chessboard</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
Brzezinski set out his views on how Russia should be militarily intimidated and
economically weakened to achieve the goal of breaking it up as a nation or
otherwise reducing it to a state of vassalage, with its role being restricted
to that of supplying the energy needs of the West.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">7</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The pressures applied by successive U.S.
administrations on Russia have been three-pronged: military, economic and
informational. As the late Professor Stephen Cohen argued, Western pressure has
been demonstrably proactive and Russia’s actions largely reactive. These
pressures are informed by the policy which germinated in the post-Cold War environment
and applied by many political actors imbued with the neoconservative mindset
who are supported by “Trumanite” institutions including the burgeoning Military
Industrial Complex of which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American
people in his farewell address of January 1961.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt;">8</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
military dimension:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> “not one-inch
eastward”</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The first line of military-related pressure
which has been applied against Russia is one that lies at the heart of the
Russia-Ukraine conflict. This has been the decision to expand NATO to Russia’s
borders. When expansion was first touted by the administration of President
Bill Clinton in the 1990s, it raised protests from the Western-friendly
government of President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin’s successor, President Vladimir
Putin whose government assumed a more nationalist posture than that of Yeltsin,
made it clear after the incorporation of the Baltic States, Poland and others
that further expansion to Ukraine and Georgia would constitute a “redline”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Russians have contested the enlargement
of NATO as presenting not only an existential threat to their country, but also
as an abrogation of an agreement reached by the leaders of the United States
and the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. The substance of this uncodified
accord was that in return for allowing the reunification of Germany, which
would automatically become a member of the Atlantic Alliance, the United States
gave assurances to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand
“an inch” eastwards. There is an ample trail of evidence in the form of
documents and oral histories that confirm a consensus was reached.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">9</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
economic dimension:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> “Nord Stream must
end”</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Economic pressures including outright economic
warfare by the punitive tool of sanctions represents another dimension through
which the United States-led West has sought to weaken post-Soviet Russia. The
late Professor Stephen Cohen summarised the overall pattern of relations
between both as one of proactive conduct on the part of the United States with
Russia being largely reactive. This has meant that Russian reactions to Western
provocations such as the United States-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev in
February 2014 have given the West the opportunity to respond by imposing
sanctions. In the case of the Maidan coup, the Russian response of protecting
its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol consisted of initiating a referendum in
Crimea to provide the basis of its annexation in March 2014.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">10</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Today, German, French and British leaders
conduct a relationship with the United States which is more akin to vassalage
than partnership. The lack of strong leadership has arguably led to the lack of
restraint on the aggressive and disastrous foreign policy adventures undertaken
by NATO, as well as the handling of relations with Russia. It meant that the
leaders of the German<span style="color: #4f81bd;"> </span>and French governments
disingenuously served as guarantors of the Minsk accords – assurances designed
to bring peace to Ukraine where a civil war had been kickstarted by the United
States sponsored coup in Kiev.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The “shock and awe” sanctions imposed by the
United States and its European allies, designed to sink the Russian economy and
bring about the overthrow of Vladimir Putin, have proved to be a spectacular
failure. As the economist J.K. Galbraith outlined in May 2022, Russia has
survived because it is a self-sufficient nation which has developed an
industrial base.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">11</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
informational dimension: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Putin as the
new Hitler”</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The economic and military pressures placed on
Russia have been supplemented by a campaign using the Western dominated “soft-power”
of the media, which has consistently demonised the Russian leader Vladimir
Putin and his country. Putin, whose portrayal is based on that of an
oriental-style dictator, is often referred to in the press as an “ex-KGB thug”<span style="color: #4bacc6;">12</span> and as a “new Hitler”.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">13
</span>Speaking in 2017, Stephen Cohen felt that American media accounts of
Putin were “tabloid, derogatory, libellous” and “without context, evidence or
balance”.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">14 </span><span style="color: black;">Cohen
argued that “falsely demonising” the Russian leader made the new Cold War even
more dangerous</span><span style="color: #4f81bd;">.15</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Western leaders who meet with Putin have
indulged in pseudo-psychological examinations of what they perceived to have
‘seen’ when they looked into his eyes. Although George W. Bush opined a neutral
stance by saying that he got a “sense of his soul”,<span style="color: #4f81bd;">16</span>
Joe Biden differed and claimed that he told Putin in a 2011 meeting, “I don’t
think you have a soul”. Biden found Putin’s eyes to belong to “a killer,”<span style="color: #4f81bd;">17</span> while French President Emmanuel Macron
perceived "a sense of resentment";<span style="color: #4f81bd;">18 </span><span style="color: black;">a condition which some argued made Putin “more aggressive
and unpredictable than ever”.</span><span style="color: #4f81bd;">19.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The language and tone of these utterances reflect
a decline in the standard of political discourse, as well as a diminution of
statecraft and the art of diplomacy in recent times. During the ideological
Cold War, the leaders of both superpowers sought to reduce tensions. They often
resorted to diplomacy and were careful in their use of language in the public sphere.
The opposite may be averred to be the case now; intemperate language is used to
increase tensions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A summary of the approach of the United
States is encapsulated in a paper presented by the RAND Corporation in 2019
which was titled “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of
Cost-Imposing Options”. Under the heading “Ideological and Informational
Cost-Imposing Measures”, it outlined a plan of attack which had the objective
of diminishing the faith of the Russian people in their electoral system, creating
the perception that Putin was pursuing policies not in the public interest,
encouraging domestic protests and undermining Russia’s image abroad.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">20</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
road to the Russia-Ukraine War</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is only with insight into the geostrategic
thinking of American neoconservatives and the doctrinal philosophy of Zbigniew
Brzezinski - who believed that Russia could not be a power without Ukraine - that
an assertion that the United States has chosen Ukraine as a battleground with
the Russian Federation can be readily appreciated.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Contrary to the narrative provided by Western
political leaders which has been faithfully disseminated by Western mainstream
media, the war in Ukraine did not begin on February 24th, 2022, when President
Putin launched what he termed a Special Military Operation (SMO).<span style="color: #4f81bd;">21</span> It was merely a development in a chronology of
events started by NATO threats of expansion to Russia’s border. There followed
a struggle for the soul of Ukraine which developed as follows: Set against a
backdrop of the Ukrainian government’s mulling over whether to accept economic
aid from Russia or the EU, the Maidan protests, a series of manipulated public
demonstrations, culminated in an American-orchestrated coup in Kiev in February
2014. The use of certifiable neo-Nazi and ultranationalist groups in the
overthrow of the democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, who
was viewed by the West as pro-Russian, kick-started an internal conflict
between the central government and ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatists of the
Donbas in the eastern part of the country. The Minsk peace accords followed:
the Minsk Protocol of September 2014 and its follow up, Minsk II in February
2015. However, the failure of these accords and the continued build-up of Ukrainian
military forces in the Donbas - armed and trained by countries of NATO in a
conflict which claimed an estimated 14,000 lives - ultimately led to the
Russian intervention.<span style="color: #4f81bd;">22</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">That the exertion of pressure by the West
within Ukraine would create the conditions for a civil war was predictable. In
his internal memorandum of February 2008, Ambassador William J. Burns had noted
the following in Paragraph 5(c):</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried
that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the
ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split,
involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would
have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to
face.</span><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="color: #4f81bd; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">23</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A key plank of Russian objectives in
launching Putin’s SMO was to effect the “demilitarisation” of the Donbas region
and the city of Mariupol where concentrations of well-armed Ukrainian forces in
fortified positions were located. The small, and ill-equipped Ukrainian Army
existing in 2014 was increased in size and began to be trained and armed by
NATO.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">24 </span>The Russians had detected a rising
tone of bellicosity on the part of the Ukrainian government which by 2021 had
made the objective of re-taking Crimea official military doctrine.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">25</span> Its trained-to-NATO-standards military was also
the beneficiary of a marked increase in arms sales from the United States.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">26 </span>In his speech to the Munich Security Conference
in February 2022, President Zelensky revived the threat of joining NATO. He
also suggested that Ukraine would abrogate its obligations under the Budapest
Memorandum of 1994 and pursue a course of re-nuclearisation.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">27 </span>The issuance of those threats alongside
briefings from Russian intelligence of Ukrainian forces being poised to strike
the areas of Donbas controlled by the militias of the ethnic Russian
secessionists almost certainly signalled the tipping point for the Kremlin.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">28</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Towards
multipolarity: Russia’s divorce from the West and the dawning of Eurasia</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">One development emanating from the pressures
applied to Russia in the aftermath of the Cold War has been the ignition of a
closer state of relations between the Russian Federation and the People’s
Republic of China. Tentative at first but intensifying in recent years, these
two nations are now in a <i>de facto</i> alliance against the United States-led
West.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In its rawest form, the geostrategic theory
postulated by the British geographer and scholar Halford J. Mackinder, provided
a theoretical basis upon which the United States acted towards preventing a
unification of the contiguous landmass which encompasses Europe and Asia. In
his paper titled “The Geographical Pivot of History”, published in 1904,
Mackinder postulated what he termed the ‘Heartland Theory’. It divided the
globe into three geographical regions. The Americas and Australia were referred
to as “outlying islands” and the British Isles and the islands of Japan he
labelled “outer islands.” The combination of Africa, Europe and Asia he termed
the “World-Island.” And at the centre of the “World-Island” is the “Heartland”,
which stretches from the Volga River to the Yangtze River and from the
Himalayas to the Arctic Ocean.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">29</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">He refined his thesis in his book </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Democratic Ideals and Reality</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, published
in 1919. In it, he summarised the essence of his theory as follows: “Who rules
East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the
World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">30</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Mackinder’s explanation of global power that
had rested in the hands, first of the British Empire - an “offshore Island” - and
later with the United States - an “outlying island” - was</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">that sea power which had enabled the rise of
Britain and the United States would give way to land power situated in the heartland
of the world island unless measures were undertaken to ensure that the power
wielded by the heartland could be balanced. The heartland encompassed most of
the lands controlled respectively by the Russian empire and the Soviet Union.
Mackinder suggested that one of the ways through which the power of the heartland
could be balanced was by controlling eastern Europe.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">31</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Although there have been modifications of
Mackinder’s thesis by other theorists while others have argued that it is
outdated and has never been proven in all its component parts, this does not
diminish the importance of Russia and China in any calculations related to the
geopolitical balance of power.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">32 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A key tenet
of Mackinder’s argument lies in the distribution of global resources and access
to where such resources lie. Russia’s abundance of natural resources and the
U.S.-led West’s objective of controlling these resources lie at the heart of
its policy towards Russia regardless of whether it is ruled by an “autocrat” or
by a “democrat”.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It is not difficult to appreciate how the
Mackinder thesis helped shape and inform U.S. policies geared towards containing
the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It is not hard appreciate its influence
in the formulation of the Brzezinski Doctrine as a template for seeking to
diminish Russian political and economic sovereignty by prising it apart from
Ukraine and by maintaining its hegemony within Eurasia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A concomitant aspect of U.S. policy towards
Russia has been an enduring hostility on the part of the U.S. towards any
substantive economic relationship between Germany and Russia. As geopolitical
forecaster George Friedman has noted on several occasions including in his 2010
book </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Next Decade</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, collaboration
between Europe and Russia has been frowned on by the United States, but
Russian-German cooperation in particular needed to be “nipped in the bud”.
Thus, he concluded, “maintaining a powerful wedge between Germany and Russia is
of overwhelming interest to the United States”</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">.33 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
a lecture given in 2015, Friedman characterised Germany as “Europe’s basic
flaw.” It was, he asserted, a country that is “economically powerful and
geopolitically fragile.” If it left the EU, it would gravitate eastward and
seek cooperation with Russia and revive the enduring fear of “German capital
and technology” allied to that of “Russian resources and manpower”.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">34</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> This backdrop is extremely important in
understanding U.S. hostility toward the Nord Stream and earlier gas pipelines
and the suspicion that the U.S. was responsible for carrying out the undersea
act of pipeline sabotage in September 2022.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The accumulation of pressures on Russia
through the implementation of the “shock and awe” sanctions has only served to
push Russia towards China, creating a Eurasian economic entity which will
likely develop an alternate form of international payments system and work
towards developing trade in Asia and the rest of the world under the aegis of
BRICS. Thus, in addition to Brazil, India and South Africa, Russia and China will
seek to provide an economic umbrella for other countries, several of which have
applied to join the organisation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">If BRICS is expanded to include countries
such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Argentina, it would
encompass over half the global population, 60% of global gas and 45% of global
oil reserves.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">35 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Moreover, the sale of
Russian gas in rubles - and more recently Russia’s increasing use of the Yuan
for payment of oil exporters, as well as in facilitating commercial loan
transactions and as a preferred currency for household savings -can only hasten
the trend of de-dollarisation.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">36</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The status of the American dollar as the
global currency is thus under threat. In the early 1970s, the administration
led by President Richard Nixon entered into a bargain with the House of Saud
which involved the United States guaranteeing the security of the Saudi state
in return for the Saudis selling oil in dollars. This arrangement, which was
made possible due to Saudi dominance within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC), ensured the survivability of the U.S. dollar as the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">de
facto</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> reserve currency of the world.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There are arguably two pillars on which the
dollar's status as the world reserve currency rests. First is the perception that
the U.S. has the world’s largest economy. While this is presently true in terms
of calculations based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is not the case when
based on measuring China’s Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="color: #4bacc6; font-size: 12pt;">37 </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The second pillar involves the tradition of conducting
oil transactions in U.S. dollars. If the three largest oil producers in the
world - Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia - trade under an alternative currency,
then it will signify the demise of the US dollar as the global reserve currency.</span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Apart from the expansion of BRICS, there is
the threat to the United States of the development of both already existing
institutions and brand-new institutions which would offer an alternative to
those created at Bretton Woods in the aftermath of World War 2. The New Development
Bank (NDB)<span style="color: #4bacc6;">38</span> created after the Fortaleza
meeting of BRICS in 2014 is one such institution. Apart from BRICS, the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian body that encompasses
political, economic, International security and defence functions, as well as
the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) also present an institutional basis of an
alternative global economic framework to that which has been dominated by the
United States-led West.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">39</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Assessing the future of the world in terms of
a distinct and powerful Eurasian region within a new multipolar order is no
longer within the realm of speculation but is in fact now a reality. U.S.
foreign policy pressures have led to the conflict in Ukraine and served to
create a deep and, at least for the foreseeable future, an unmendable fissure
between Russia and the West. Similar pressures have also been applied against
China which is now preparing for a separation from the West.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">For Russia, whose leaders, including Vladimir
Putin and Sergey Lavrov, had over the years continually referred to “our
Western partners”, the breach is now permanent and irreversible. In his speech
to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2022, President
Putin excoriated the United States for operating as an imperialist empire which
did not accept the right of other nations to act as politically and
economically sovereign states. He included the states of the EU as being
subject to this vassalage when accusing the organisation of not being ready to
play the role of an “independent, sovereign actor” during the Ukraine crisis.
Putin used the occasion of his speech to specifically declare that “the era of
the unipolar world is over.”<span style="color: #4bacc6;">40</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The, one month later, in July Putin made a statement
in the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) forum, a gathering that
met under the banner “Strong Ideas for the New Time”. Here, Putin appeared to
suggest that a new global economic model was needed to replace what he termed the
West’s “Golden Billion” model. That was not all. His added insistence that this
model, inherently “racist” and “neo-colonial” in nature, and which “took its
positions due to the robbery of other peoples both in Asia and in Africa”, appeared
to be an appeal to the nations of the Global South.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">41</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">China, whose contemporary rivalry with the
United States was officially inaugurated by President Obama’s doctrinal ‘Pivot
to Asia’, has been on the receiving end of U.S. economic measures that began to
be ramped up during the Trump administration.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">42 </span>While
accusations of its bullying of neighbours over the South China Sea are not
without foundation, Beijing has been aggrieved by what it claims is the United
States abrogation of its acceptance of a “One China” policy during the 1970s
through a series of agreements which followed President Nixon’s historic visit
to China in 1972 and the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">43</span>
The release by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs of two policy documents
in February 2023, “The Global Security Initiative Concept Paper”<a name="_Hlk137410225"><span style="color: #4bacc6;">4</span></a><span style="color: #4bacc6;">4</span> and “US Hegemony and Its Perils”,<span style="color: #4bacc6;">45</span> confirm that China considers itself to be in an
adversarial relationship with the United States.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">This means that the U.S.-led West will likely
face a military alliance of nations led by Russia and China in addition to an
alternate economic global framework composed of nations transacting in
currencies pegged to gold.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Conclusion</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The route from the unipolar world bestridden
by the United States after the breakup of the Soviet Union to the contemporary
situation of a fast-developing state of multipolarity is one which can be
strongly argued to have been facilitated by the mismanagement of United States
foreign policy. The influence of neoconservative ideologues who espouse a
particularly aggressive form of American exceptionalism, as well as those of
the National Security State and interests in the Military Industry, have led
the United States from one foreign policy disaster to another.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The era following the ending of the Cold War
has been characterised by the conspicuous absence of the employment of sound
statecraft of the sort seen in previous generations of leaders. This has
created the circumstances in which tensions between Russia and China, both
economically and militarily important nations, have been allowed to rise to
increasingly intolerable levels. The lack of a genuine application of diplomacy
has led to the wholesale dismantling of the nuclear treaty system painstakingly
built during the Cold War, as well as to the avoidable creation of a destructive
conflict in Ukraine, a conflict noted political scientist and international
relations expert John Mearsheimer says has led Ukraine down the primrose path
with the result of its being wrecked.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">46</span> Lee
Smith of <i>The Tablet</i> forecasted in an article published the day after the
launch of the SMO that by” tying itself to a reckless and dangerous America,
the Ukrainians made a blunder that client states will study for years to come.”<span style="color: #4bacc6;">47</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The conflict in Ukraine presents foreseeable
openings to an open confrontation between the West and Russia, just as the
mishandling of China’s rise - a case study of the “Thucydides Trap”<span style="color: #4472c4;">48</span> - threatens a Pacific War in the near future.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is symptomatic of the present era that
American foreign policy has united the Eurasian landmass against it, whereas during
the Cold War era it assiduously strove to maintain the divisions between the
Russian-dominated Soviet Union and Red China through the endeavour of reopening
trade and diplomacy with the latter. The American empire it appears has failed
to grasp from its predecessor Anglo-Saxon global power, the British empire, the
stratagem of an "economy of enemies" policy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Equally symptomatic <a name="_Hlk129813125">of
the times is how U.S. militarism and the weaponization of trade through the use
of sanctions, has succeeded in alienating large swathes of the world. It has
been estimated that as much as a quarter of the global population is placed
under some form of sanctions.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">49</span> Many nations
in the Global South have reacted negatively to American and Western European
criticism of their resistance to joining in the sanctions placed on Russia
since the escalation of the war in Ukraine. Members of governments have accused
the United States and the EU of hypocrisy in regard to the criteria used for
justifying the imposition of sanctions.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">50</span>
They are also likely weary of the invention of the “democracies”-versus-“autocracies”
rationale for the antagonistic international climate which has been fomented</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The redundancy of the policies pursued are
evident in so far as the conflict in Ukraine is concerned: The EU states are facing
economic hardship including Germany which is grappling with
deindustrialisation. The Ukraine war has also shown that Russia is capable of
Industrial warfare in a manner which the United States, with its diminished
industrial base, would find hard to match.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">51 </span>And
as with the case of the lengthy engagement in Afghanistan, the billions spent
on shoring up a corrupt state is only serving to facilitate a wealth transfer
from U.S. taxpayers to military contractors.<span style="color: #4bacc6;">52</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The lack of public debate to which Wesley
Clarke referred when explaining how neoconservative ideologues had “hijacked”
American foreign policy persists, as does the lack of accountability on the
part of the National Security State which in concert with the neoconservative
movement has ensured the diminution of American moral prestige around the globe
and the growth of its sovereign debt.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">These forces have unwittingly assisted in the
creation of a Eurasian-centred New World Order.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Abridged version for the Zambakari Advisory’s
Spring 2023 Issue, "</span><a href="http://www.zambakari.org/special-issue-spring-2023.html?" style="font-size: 12pt;">The Great Power
Competition in Eurasia</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">".</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">About
the author</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister.
He is a visiting lecturer in law at the University of Westminster, London, and
has research interests in military history and global security. He has served
as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">BBC World Service Radio</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">China Radio Internationa</i>l, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Voice of Russia</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Russia Today</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Notes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">1. Krauthammer, Charles. “<a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1990-01-01/unipolar-moment">The
Unipolar Moment</a>”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Foreign Affairs</i>,
-January 1st, 1990.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. Fukuyama, Francis. </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The End of History and the Last Man</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Free Press, 1992.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">3. </span><a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2008-003-docs1-12.pdf" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Defense
Planning Guidance for the 1994–99 Fiscal Years,</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> February 18, 1992.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. Wes Clark - </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2DKzastu8" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">America's Foreign Policy</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
"</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2DKzastu8" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Coup</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">5. Sachs, Jeffrey D. “</span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/28/ukraine-latest-neocon-disaster" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ukraine
Is the Latest Neocon Disaster</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Makinde, Adeyinka. “</span><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-syrian-tragedy-western-foreign-policy-and-its-useful-idiots/5552621" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Syrian Tragedy: Western Foreign Policy and its ‘Useful Idiots’</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Global
Research Canada</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, October 23</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2016.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">6. Glennon, Michael J. “</span><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2376272" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">National
Security and Double Government</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.” 5 Harvard National Security Journal 1
(2014).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">7. </span><a name="_Hlk130065675" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brzeziński,
Zbigniew <i>The Grand Chessboard: American
Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives</i>, Basic Books, 1997.</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">8. U.S. National Archives. </span><a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">President
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (1961)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">9. Savranskaya, Svetlana and Blanton, Tom (2017).
“</span><a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">NATO
Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, National Security Archive Briefing Book
#613, December 12th, 2017.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">10. “</span><a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Address by President of
the Russian Federation</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kremlin </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">website March 18</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
2014.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">11. Galbraith, James K. “</span><a href="https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/the-dollar-system-in-a-multi-polar-world" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Dollar System in a Multi-Polar World</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Institute for New Economic
Thinking</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, May 5</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">12. “</span><a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/in-the-news/john-mccain-was-right-vladimir-putin-is-a-thug/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">John
McCain Was Right: Vladimir Putin is a Thug</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">McCain Institute</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February
12</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">13. Rucker, Philip. “</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clintons-putin-hitler-comments-draw-rebukes-as-she-wades-into-ukraine-conflict/2014/03/05/31a748d8-a486-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hillary
Clinton’s Putin-Hitler comments draw rebukes as she wades into Ukraine conflict</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,
</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Washington Post,</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> March 5th, 2014.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">14. “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOH_VF9hWnA" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rethinking Putin: A Talk by
Professor Stephen F. Cohen</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Nation</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> YouTube Channel, Delivered
on the annual Nation cruise, December 2, 2017.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">15. Cohen, Stephen, “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/who-putin-is-not/">Who Putin Is Not</a>”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Nation</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, September 20, 2018.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stephen Cohen also forcefully poured scorn over
“Russiagate,” by stating that Robert Mueller turned up no credible evidence to
back up the allegation. Cohen pronounced the two original documents on which
the whole "Russiagate" saga relied on as "impotent".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">16. “</span><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4718091/user-clip-bush-putins-soul" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">User
Clip: Bush saw Putin's soul</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, C-SPAN</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">17. Troianovski, Anton. “</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/world/europe/russia-biden-putin-killer.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Russia
Erupts in Fury Over Biden’s Calling Putin a Killer</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The New York Times</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, March 18th, 2021.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">(Biden comments in an interview on ABC with
George Stephanopoulos on March 16th, 2021)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">18. Tapper, Jack. “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BT5nXDhtOo" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One-to-one with French
President Emmanuel Macron</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">CNN</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
September 23rd, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">19. Seddon, Max. “</span><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c039db89-7201-4875-b31f-b41a511496f1" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vladimir
Putin, Russia’s resentful leader, takes the world to war</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Financial Times</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 25th,
2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">20. Dobbins, James, Cohen, Raphael S. et al.
“</span><a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overextending
and Unbalancing Russia: Assessing the Impact of Cost-Imposing Options</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,”
RAND Corporation, 2019.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">21. </span><a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/67843" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Address by the
President of the Russian Federation</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Kremlin </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">website, February
24</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">22. </span><a name="_Hlk130101260" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sachs, Jeffrey. “</a><a href="https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/yjae8gc8hp2p293tmt4dlr4z2dpe2s" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Ninth Anniversary of the Ukraine War</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,”
<i>Jeff Sachs dot Org</i>, February 28th,
2023.</span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk130101260;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">23. "</span><a href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nyet Means Nyet:
NATO's Enlargement Redlines</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">". Diplomatic cable by William J. Burns</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">24. Michaels, Daniel. “</span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-military-success-years-of-nato-training-11649861339" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Secret of Ukraine’s Military Success: Years of NATO Training</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Wall
Street Journal</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, April 13</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">25. Melanovski, Jason. “</span><a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/20/ukra-m20.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ukraine
approves strategy to ‘recover’ Crimea, threatening all-out war with Russia</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,
</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">World Socialist Web Site</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, March 19</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2021.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">26. </span><a href="https://www.forumarmstrade.org/uploads/1/9/0/8/19082495/screen-shot-2022-03-18-at-2-51-22-pm_orig.png" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
generated March 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">27. “</span><a href="https://kyivindependent.com/national/zelenskys-full-speech-at-munich-security-conference" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Zelensky's
full speech at Munich Security Conference</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kyiv Independent</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 19th 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See also: Herszenhorn, David M.; Lynch, Suzanne
and Anderlini, Jamil. “</span><a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/zelenskiy-ukraine-defiant-munich-security-conference-speech-russia-threat/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
defiant Zelenskiy promises Ukraine will defend itself ‘with or without’ allies</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,”
February 19th, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">28. "</span><a href="https://tass.com/politics/1414915" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The military operation in Ukraine,
including Kiev, is aimed at disarming Ukraine. Russia will not let Ukraine
obtain nuclear weapons</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">," Sergey Lavrov. See “Russia will not let
Ukraine obtain nuclear weapons — Lavrov,” TASS, March 2nd, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">29. Mackinder, Halford. “</span><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1775498" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Geographical Pivot of History</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,
</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Geographical Journal</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Vol. 23, No. 4 (April 1904), pp. 421-437.
Published by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British
Geographers).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">30. Mackinder, Halford J. </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Democratic Ideals and Reality</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Henry
Holt, New York 1942.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">31. Ibid.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">32. For modern interpretations of Mackinder’s
theory see for instance:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Scott, Margaret and Alcenat, Westenley. “</span><a href="https://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/user/CCAS/departments/PoliticalScience/MVJ/docs/The_Pivot_-_Alcenat_and_Scott.pdf" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Revisiting
the Pivot: The Influence of Heartland Theory in Great Power Politics</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,
2008.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Iseri, Emre. “</span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650040802578658" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The US
Grand Strategy and the Eurasian Heartland in the Twenty-First Century</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Geopolitics</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Volume 14, 2009.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">33. Friedman, George. </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Next Decade</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
Doubleday, New York, 2010.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">34. </span><a name="_Hlk130150674" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Friedman, George.
</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><a href="https://globalaffairs.org/events/europe-destined-conflict" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Europe:
Destined for Conflict?</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, Lecture before the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs, February 23rd, 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">35. Devonshire-Ellis, Chris. “</span><a href="https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2022/11/09/the-new-candidate-countries-for-brics-expansion/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
New Candidate Countries For BRICS Expansion</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Silk Road Briefing</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
November 9</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">36. Dulaney, Chelsey; Gershkovich, Evan and
Simanovskaya, Victoria. “</span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-turns-to-chinas-yuan-in-effort-to-ditch-the-dollar-a8111457" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Russian
turning to the Chinese Yuan in a bid to marginalise the U.S. dollar</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Wall Street Journal</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 28th,
2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">37. Tang, Frank. “</span><a href="https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3085501/china-overtakes-us-no-1-buying-power-still-clings-developing" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">China
overtakes US as No 1 in buying power, but still clings to developing status</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,
</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">South China Morning Post</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, May 21st,
2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">38. Chin, Gregory T. “</span><a href="https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/14/04/2022/evolution-new-development-bank-ndb-six-and-beyond-new-commentary-series" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Evolution of the New Development Bank (NDB) at Six and Beyond - A New
Commentary Series</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Global Policy Journal</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, April 14</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">39. “</span><a href="https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-rethinks-the-eurasian-economic-union.html/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Russia
Rethinks The Eurasian Economic Union</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Russia Briefing News</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, March
15</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But see also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lehne, Stefane. “</span><a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/2023/02/28/after-russia-s-war-against-ukraine-what-kind-of-world-order-pub-89130" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">After
Russia’s War Against Ukraine: What Kind of World Order?</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Carnegie
Europe</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), February 28</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">40. Kottasová, Ivana; Pokharel, Sugam and
Gigova, Radina. “</span><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/17/europe/russia-president-vladimir-putin-speech-spief-intl/index.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Putin
lambasts the West and declares the end of ‘the era of the unipolar world</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">’”,</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> CNN</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, June 18th, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The unipolar model was significantly
fractured by Putin’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September
28</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2015 shortly after which Russian forces intervened in the
Syrian war. See Makinde, Adeyinka. “</span><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/vladimir-putin-and-the-patterns-of-global-power/5486083" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Vladimir
Putin and the Patterns of ‘Global Power’</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, November 2</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">41. Kaul, Apoorva. “</span><a href="https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/russian-president-putin-criticizes-golden-billion-model-calls-it-unfair-and-racist-articleshow.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Russian
President Putin Criticizes 'golden Billion' Model; Calls It 'unfair &
Racist</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">'”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Republic World</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, July 20</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Putin’s speech in October 2022 at the Valdai
Discussion Club referred Russia’s desire to rekindle friendships with its
Soviet-era allies and “non-Western friends” for creating a new world order. The
title of the forum which was held in Moscow from October 24-27 was “A
Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69695" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Valdai International
Discussion Club meeting</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,”</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Kremlin</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Website, October 27</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,
2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kibii, Eliud. “</span><a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/big-read/2023-03-07-a-new-multipolar-world-is-being-born--russian-envoy/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
new multipolar world is being born — Russian envoy”</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (Interview with Dmitry
Maksimychev),</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The Star</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, March 7th,
2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">42. Tellez, Anthony. “</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2023/02/08/here-are-all-the-us-sanctions-against-china/?sh=68a6774715b4" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Here
Are All The U.S. Sanctions Against China</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Forbes</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 8th, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">43. Liff, Adam P. and Lin, Dalton. “</span><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/one-china-framework-at-50-19722022-the-myth-of-consensus-and-its-evolving-policy-significance/090825F25AB75868FBB3E6A9C63A9B30" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
‘One China’ Framework at 50 (1972–2022): The Myth of ‘Consensus’ and Its
Evolving Policy Significance</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The China
Quarterly</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Cambridge University Press, Volume 252, September 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">See also:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Echols, Conor. “</span><a href="https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/08/01/as-pelosi-taiwan-visit-looms-menendez-bill-would-gut-one-china-policy/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
Pelosi Taiwan visit looms, Menendez bill would ‘gut’ One China policy</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.”</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Responsible Statecraft</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, August 1st, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">44. “</span><a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230221_11028348.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Global Security Initiative Concept Paper</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
the People’s Republic of China, February 21, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">45. “</span><a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230220_11027664.html" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">US
Hegemony and Its Perils</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s
Republic of China, February 20, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">46. John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison
Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of
Chicago, in speech "UnCommon Core: The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine
Crisis", September 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Video:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why is Ukraine the West's
Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">University of Chicago</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> YouTube
Channel, uploaded September 25</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th,</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">47. Smith, Lee. “</span><a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/ukraines-deadly-gamble" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ukraine’s
Deadly Gamble</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Tablet</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 25</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">48. Allison, Graham, “</span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/united-states-china-war-thucydides-trap/406756/n" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?”,</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The Atlantic,
September 24th, 2015.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">49. MacLeod, Alan. “</span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/coronavirus-quarter-worlds-population-under-us-sanctions-appeal-to-un/266096/" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">With
a Quarter of the World's Population Under US Sanctions, Countries Appeal to UN
to Intervene</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mint Press News</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, March 27</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">50. “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTzJXBZs5E" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jaishankar jibes Europe's
hypocrisy on Russian energy purchase; 'Only Indian money funding war?</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">'” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hindustan
Times</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">YouTube Channel.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In February 2023, Jaishankar also stressed that
the world was “rebalancing” and “less Euro-Atlantic”. His thinly veiled words
directed to the West he noted that “there are still people in the world who
believe that their definition, their preferences (and) their views must
override everything else”. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds1WOXQICRc" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">'Old,
Rich, Opinionated And Dangerous...': S. Jaishankar Hits Back At Billionaire
George Soros</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">CNBC-TV18</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, February 18</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2023.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">51. Vershini, Alex. “</span><a href="https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/return-industrial-warfare" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Return of Industrial Warfare</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">”,</span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Royal
United Services Institute (RUSI)</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, June 17th, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Note: The Russian military complex has
demonstrated its ability to ramp up and produce vast quantities of weapons,
equipment and ammunition during the Ukraine War. (Infantry fighting vehicles,
missiles, rockets artillery systems). The U.S. does not have the industrial
base dedicated to production of military equipment to this scale.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">52. Makinde, Adeyinka. “</span><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-racket-us-war-afghanistan-validates-general-smedley-butler/5753880" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">War
Is a Racket: The US War in Afghanistan Validates General Smedley Butler</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">,” </span><i style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Global
Research Canada</i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, August 24</span><sup style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, 2021.</span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-7162907330318584862023-05-28T02:34:00.010+01:002023-05-29T09:32:22.645+01:00My Grandfather Floris Simmons: A Botanist in the Making<p><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3bzcbPSSYkySSqvdxCqoKzPQTU-AADipAYTWtq89S9qnavDzwNKRwne8k4nYmE_CW2_-oeD2XWHizP0GW2IU5Y3VZObsLd_o7XLCCyyohNL9J8eKnmZVGJc025eK1udcpBD3jnN-i_wK6893Fi6Y6CrobYo_7Cz_bt-qhgVxDr8TigugMnbmtThqxg/s1497/m_merged.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1497" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD3bzcbPSSYkySSqvdxCqoKzPQTU-AADipAYTWtq89S9qnavDzwNKRwne8k4nYmE_CW2_-oeD2XWHizP0GW2IU5Y3VZObsLd_o7XLCCyyohNL9J8eKnmZVGJc025eK1udcpBD3jnN-i_wK6893Fi6Y6CrobYo_7Cz_bt-qhgVxDr8TigugMnbmtThqxg/w400-h268/m_merged.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My grandfather Floris Simmons
in his later years. (The journal is Agricultural News, Volume X, No. 231, Page
75. Published March 4, 1911).</span></i></i></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This is a copy of a report on
the examination performance in agricultural school of my maternal grandfather
Floris Simmons in a 1911 edition of </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Agricultural News</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Agricultural News</span></i><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> was
a fortnightly review of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the British West
Indies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">The young Floris was a pupil
at St. Vincent Agricultural School located on the Island-Colony of Saint
Vincent in the British West Indies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">His result in the half-yearly
examination was reported by the examiner to have been "the best" among
the senior boys.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In 1916, he obtained a second class certificate following an Examination in Practical Agriculture held under the auspices of the Imperial Department of Agriculture.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">After training as a botanist he was appointed as the Foreman at the Experiment Station of the Department
of Agriculture, a post which he held for many years. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He held additional responsibilities. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">For instance, a Report on the Agricultural Department, St. Vincent in 1919 recorded that when the Assistant Agricultural Superintendent was partially seconded to carry out research work in connection with cotton under the auspices of the British Department for Scientific and Industrial Research, and under the direction of the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, my grandfather was appointed to "undertake travelling instruction duties in addition to his own".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">A 1943 report published by the Saint Vincent Department of Agriculture records him as serving as the Agricultural Assistant in Carriacou, the Grenadine Island on which my Mother was born. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">He later entered politics and in 1956 was elected as Chairman of the district council of Bequia, the island of his
birth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">A few years ago, the present
prime minister of Saint Vincent, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, referred to my
grandfather as one of the "political icons" of the island-nation. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Pa
Floris was one of the "Eight Army of Liberation" of the island of
Saint Vincent. He and the others were members of the Saint Vincent Labour Party
which is often described as the "political arm of the St. Vincent Working
Men’s Cooperative Association (WMA)".</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-61626791332096551532023-05-28T02:34:00.006+01:002023-05-28T02:38:16.833+01:00Publication of a Book on Counterinsurgency By the Serving Nigerian Chief of Army Staff<p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yvidrq7xPmp27N70cc1whKWQIcQ5HZqsPVZBVTPFILCkWJaWquCWQKXZlJhhnJir6Sq0oylEa1Hl8ftnlV-mLF9q0ZrbvoxbAaqN1bROECvR8gt9Ho-FBfl5XJlR-_C59vNbyU_FJ66FR3Ry1fIrfH537hJnaGvZ06rU-uFRJJua_deVoH6Z3PsPiw/s1360/71PwMxNfM+L.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="907" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Yvidrq7xPmp27N70cc1whKWQIcQ5HZqsPVZBVTPFILCkWJaWquCWQKXZlJhhnJir6Sq0oylEa1Hl8ftnlV-mLF9q0ZrbvoxbAaqN1bROECvR8gt9Ho-FBfl5XJlR-_C59vNbyU_FJ66FR3Ry1fIrfH537hJnaGvZ06rU-uFRJJua_deVoH6Z3PsPiw/w266-h400/71PwMxNfM+L.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This is a book which I would like to read and formally review.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I was notified by an e-mail
circular from Adonis & Abbey publishers who have published a book </span><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">on
counterinsurgency by the serving Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant
General Faruk Yahaya.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">I don't want to pre-judge Lt. General Yahaya's work but I would have appreciated something more in the book
description which gives an idea of what personal ideas and philosophies he has
on the conception and implementation of a national counterinsurgency (COIN)
effort.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">It would also be interesting
to find out, given the length of the Islamist insurrection of the "Boko
Haram" and "Islamic State West Africa Province" terror groups
(as well as ethnic-related insurgencies in the Niger-Delta and other national regions),
whether the Nigerian Armed forces have developed a "national style"
and a resulting "strategic culture" related to dealing with insurgent
forces in a low-intensity conflict.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">In other words, one would
want to know whether Lt. General Yahaya is shaping an overarching
counterinsurgency doctrine which is specific to the circumstances in which the
Nigerian military have found themselves. This would be based on factors such as
organisational discipline, national mentality, the geographical features of the
arena of battle, the ideological inclination of the insurgents, their
objectives, their capabilities and so on.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">What lessons has he learned
from his own experiences, as well as the counterinsurgency experiences of other
nations involved in asymmetric or unconventional warfare?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 16px;">Military history is replete with army officers who have emerged as influential theoreticians in the area of counterinsurgency warfare. The Frenchmen Roger Trinquier and David Galula, and the Britons Robert Thompson and Frank Kitson stand out as examples of officers whose experiences of fighting guerrillas in the waning days of empire were turned into academic tomes and practical training manuals. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 16px;">The activity of waging irregular warfare has also been apt at producing unconventional but intriguing figures whose campaigns have provided ideas which have been developed on by subsequent generations of officers. The British officer Orde Wingate comes to mind as indeed does the American Edward Lansdale, a pioneer in psychological warfare who wrote the manuals used by U.S. special forces when training at Fort Bragg.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">So for me, it is of utmost
importance that the Nigerian military officer class visibly produces profound
thinkers who are able to set down foundational precepts and ideas which
establish identifiable doctrines as relate to land, sea and airpower, as well
as to the specific efforts aimed at defeating insurgent groups.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Link:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">LT. Gen Faruk Yahaya </span><a href="https://www.adonis-abbey.com/book_detail.php?bookid=290" style="font-size: 12pt;">| Counter
Terrorism & Counter Insurgency Theory Meets Practice</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> | Adonis &
Abbey Publishers</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">NB.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">I was published on one of Adonis
& Abbey’s journals back in 2005 and 2006. One was a reflection on the state
of Nigerian boxing and the other two were chapter excerpts from my biography on
a Nigerian world boxing champion which is titled "Dick Tiger: The Life and
Times of a Boxing Immortal", published by Word Association, Tarentum, PA (2005).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-15848097291434779682023-05-22T20:48:00.004+01:002023-05-23T00:35:58.484+01:00The End of United States Neoliberal Foreign Policy Will Not Be The Panacea To Economic Underdevelopment In The Global South<p><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSwBwYVQyyPFp01Hd42PRyr4HSZw-QjLLUN3le8ZKhzMZDmyqXKlOhgUQQ_p33NE22D_EUVk2NdOeA3doSpAJxcWghbY_7fEpHvm83yvolSeFbKOJVFLL4jd83BF8vxn4NhVjLqfHQQP1U2YZWm1LJnGNKIxJovDx-cnwG0dG0JHY7h0vGgf059JOCGg/s2400/neoliberalism-primary_9b35ce4b0a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="2400" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSwBwYVQyyPFp01Hd42PRyr4HSZw-QjLLUN3le8ZKhzMZDmyqXKlOhgUQQ_p33NE22D_EUVk2NdOeA3doSpAJxcWghbY_7fEpHvm83yvolSeFbKOJVFLL4jd83BF8vxn4NhVjLqfHQQP1U2YZWm1LJnGNKIxJovDx-cnwG0dG0JHY7h0vGgf059JOCGg/w400-h225/neoliberalism-primary_9b35ce4b0a.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><br />‘For communities around the
world, especially in the global south, it’s been clear for decades that the
neoliberal “Washington Consensus,” which emerged in the 1980s and focused on
deregulation, privatization, austerity, and trade liberalization, was a
predatory and destructive model.’</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">– </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Foreign Policy Magazine</i><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">,
May 18, 2023.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The aforementioned passage
from an article penned by Matthew Duss and Ganesh Sitaranam titled “</span><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/18/neoliberal-foreign-policy-biden-sullivan/" style="font-size: 12pt;">Joe
Biden and Jake Sullivan Have Declared That the Era of Neoliberal U.S. Foreign
Policy Is Over</a><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">” encapsulates what many discerning geopolitical and economic
analysts have consistently asserted over the decades.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">But even if the words of the present
serving United States president and his national security advisor do come to
pass, the idea that the demise of the neoliberal agenda would inexorably bring
an end to capitalistic opportunism, economic exploitation and the quest for
global hegemony is open to serious doubt.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
The advent of the neoliberal age can be traced to the appointment of Paul
Volcker as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in 1979, and the coming to
power of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher respectively in 1981 and 1979.<br />
<br />
Prior to the introduction under the neoliberal order of economic "shock
treatments" typified by the "Structural Adjustment Programmes"
implemented in the 1980s, the Bretton Woods institutions were amenable to the
Keynesian economic method and worked with aspiring socialist states such as
Tanzania then under Julius Nyerere using a model that could be referred to as
"development economics".<br />
<br />
The defects in Nyerere's <i>Ujamaa</i> economic plan notwithstanding, the
raison d'etre of the Western global economic order, which is predicated on
usury, is decidedly to achieve a permanent state of indebtedness among client
nations. John Perkin's <i>Confessions of an Economic</i> <i>Hitman</i>, which
was published in 2004, is a suitable reference point on that issue.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Therefore if it can be assumed
with a great deal of certainty that a change in the method by which the United
States conducts its foreign trade relations with other nations will not
significantly change the fortunes of the nations of the Global South, it is all
the more important to instil the idea among the political and intellectual
classes of the “Global South”, particular those on the minerally rich African
continent, that economic prosperity and self-sufficiency will come about only
when these nations embark on serious, long-term national projects aimed at
industrialising their economies.<br />
<br />
They must eschew the culture of dependency which inevitably comes from the
institutionalising of foreign aid and neocolonial arrangements such as has
characterised the relationship between France and its ex-colonies in
Francophone Africa.<br />
<br />
They must realise that they can only transform their nations from
consumer-orientated economies to productive, self-sufficient ones by embarking
on national industrialisation projects.<br />
<br />
Instead of borrowing from Western or Chinese financial institutions, they must
focus on efforts geared towards raising capital within their own borders in
order to invest in the creation of heavy industry and the modernisation of
their agricultural sectors.<br />
<br />
The objective of industrialisation cannot be a piecemeal one or a substandard
type such as what critics have derisively referred to as the
"peasant-is-king" mentality typified by the failed policies of<i>
Ujamaa</i> socialism.<br />
<br />
Failure on the part of their policymakers to conceptualise and implement this
economic vision will only ensure that whatever the economic models employed by
the West or China to engage with African states, they will remain an appendage
to the global economic system.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It would be remiss not to add
that developing an industrial base would correspondingly provide such nations
with the capacity to develop their militaries in a way which would make them
less susceptible to the intervention of powerful industrialised nations. It is
clear that the neoliberal agenda has been imposed on them not only through the
threat of economic reprisals, but also by military intervention; in this
regard, the U.S. arm of economic enforcers headed by the "shadow CIA"
or "privatised CIA" which is an amalgam of the miscellaneous
subsidiary organisations of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) who use
NGOs to foment so-called “colour revolutions". Bodies modelled on the
"Open Society" foundation have appeared to work hand-in-glove with
regime change operations in eastern Europe and elsewhere.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet, in many ways the “colour
revolution” is not much of an innovation, but more of a modification of an
enduring modus operandi of imperialist powers. For today, while NATO and the CIA
function as enforcers-in-chief of American corporate and financial interests,
it is merely a continuum of the old CIA policies established under Allen Dulles.
Under Dulles, the overthrows of Mohamed Mossadegh in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz in
Guatemala, and after Dulles, the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, had
the undercurrent of the establishing or re-establishing America's corporate
interests.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Before the creation of the
CIA, Major General Smedley Butler, a U.S. marine who participated in American
interventions in places such as Cuba, the Philippines and China, acknowledged
that he had spent most of his time being a “high-class muscleman for Big
Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And before the rise of the
U.S. hegemon, its predecessor Anglo-Saxon empire, had its commercial and
trading interest enforced not only by the army of the East India Company, but
on many occasions by the Royal Navy which was tasked to serve as a Leviathan Monster
such as occurred during the Don Pacifico Affair.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is of course tempting to
see Biden and Sullivan’s declaration of a shift from neoliberal foreign policy
as an attempt to assuage the resentment of those countries of the Global South
who have found the Chinese model of economic relations to be preferable to the U.S.-led
Western model.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But regardless of the models
offered by Western and the germinating Eurasian bloc, it is imperative that the
leaders of the nations of the Global South think about industrialising their
nations in order to resist the sort of “predatory and destructive” interactions
which have led to their continued exploitation and contributed to the
retardation of the development of their economies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">© Adeyinka Makinde (2023).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Tahoma",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Adeyinka Makinde is a writer
based in London, England.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021716376952212791.post-31988533970489704862023-05-17T16:25:00.010+01:002023-05-24T14:10:17.239+01:00CrossTalk | "NATO's illusions" | Broadcast on RT on Wednesday, May 17th, 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGjKqQ2zNF8aZhSEouPKaho_udIhGbupU2hfVfdxaVp4ZI_iLibsgkBJRMWIjlSzUgUUntbQYzW7pqvVCNpH1NKQLz2IHwR2oaEGwkCvuyfBD-iSYV23UO0UpDd1Ge_R6br4FJWT4JM-68In1Sdn-BP8bSO4OlVlTi70rI9InKSK1V1AP2Smem_ElMFA/s1920/CrossTalk%20-%20Nato's%20Illusions%20-%20Panel%20inc.%20Adeyinka%20Makinde%20(broadcast%2017.05.23)_Moment(14)%20-%20Copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGjKqQ2zNF8aZhSEouPKaho_udIhGbupU2hfVfdxaVp4ZI_iLibsgkBJRMWIjlSzUgUUntbQYzW7pqvVCNpH1NKQLz2IHwR2oaEGwkCvuyfBD-iSYV23UO0UpDd1Ge_R6br4FJWT4JM-68In1Sdn-BP8bSO4OlVlTi70rI9InKSK1V1AP2Smem_ElMFA/w400-h225/CrossTalk%20-%20Nato's%20Illusions%20-%20Panel%20inc.%20Adeyinka%20Makinde%20(broadcast%2017.05.23)_Moment(14)%20-%20Copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I was part of a panel on RT’s
flagship programme CrossTalk on which the topic was “NATO’s Illusions”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Preamble</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">"NATO’s approach towards
Ukraine is full of contradictions. We are told a win for Russia is a defeat for
the west. But Ukraine is not a member of the military alliance. We are told
NATO is not part of the conflict. But it has been supporting Kiev militarily
since 2014. NATO says it wants Russia to be defeated but says nothing about
peace."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">CrossTalking with Garland
Nixon, Anthony Webber, and Adeyinka Makinde.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It was recorded on Tuesday,
May 16</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">, 2023 and broadcast the following day.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">Links:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><a href="https://rumble.com/v2o8t40-crosstalk-natos-illusions.html" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rumble</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span face="Tahoma, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">. </span><a href="https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/CT1705:3" style="font-size: 12pt;">Odysee</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;">© RT (2023).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwfoxKE-voo2j_3WWHOBcnS5pppI58WOSnU-Lz5h7zKUf2OY-hcGPD9-3psHx-knQIg05Ti_dZOsaQcftbzIg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0