Nigerian Civil War 'Faction': A Review of Valentino Alily's books "The Supreme Undercover" and "Nightwings"

The Supreme Undercover by V. Alily. John Bull Publishing, 2022, 240 pages, illustrations. ISBN 979-8843073428.

Nightwings by V. Alily. John Bull Publishing, 2023, 233 pages, illustrations. ISBN 979-8399828275.

The genre of historical fiction received an inestimable boost in 1971 when the ex-Reuters journalist and sympathiser for the cause of Biafran secession, Frederick Forsyth, published his political thriller The Day of the Jackal. It set the standard for writing a story within the confines of an unchanged historical reality in which the survival of Charles de Gaulle from an assassin’s bullet was assured, as much as Robert Harris’ Fatherland did for the genre of alternative history which situated a murder mystery within an imagined victorious German Third Reich.

With an emphasis on the former genre Valentino Alily, a Nigerian-born author, merges both writing species to some degree in two novels set against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War. The Supreme Undercover and Nightwings respectively published in 2022 and 2023 are styled by the author as works of ‘faction’, that is “fiction woven around facts.” While the plot of The Supreme Undercover is centred on intrigues at Federal Nigeria’s Supreme Military Headquarters where a Biafran mole operates, the storyline of Nightwings revolves around the mercy flights orchestrated by a range of organisations to bring relief to the humanitarian catastrophe which developed within the shrinking polity of Biafra. Like its predecessor, the theme of espionage lies at its pith.

In The Supreme Undercover a host of fictitious characters interact at a distance from real civil war era personalities such as Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, the fierce Commander of the Third Infantry Division and Lieutenant Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, the former military governor of the Eastern region who became the head of state of the breakaway Republic of Biafra. The storyline revels in a series of hypothesised causes of setbacks suffered by the Federal side during the civil war, and rumours at Nigerian headquarters surrounding several characters such as the Arab-Nigerien ‘Lieutenant Colonel Ali Ahmadu Barah’ and ‘Brigadier Ibrahim Saliba Dabar’, a confidant of Major General Yakubu Gowon, the head of the Federal Military Government. It reaches a dramatic denouement featuring a series of escapes and assassinations on the eve of the surrender of Biafra.

The plot of Nightwings centres on a race for time by Biafran intelligence agents to discover sabotage in the midst of the relief flights to Uli airport from destinations including Sao Tome and Libreville. It is a task which reaches its climax in the throes of the crumbled dream of Biafra. Before this, the author provides with a good measure of forensic detail the work carried out by pilots, Holy Ghost Fathers and aid workers under the severe circumstances of encirclement, blockade and famine. Scenes are crafted to reflect the international dimension of the civil war and as with The Supreme Undercover the plot is soundly developed to fit in with the chronology of developing events on the battlefields.

While the plots for both works are fictional, Alily, who comes from an extended family who have served in the armed forces both of Nigeria and Biafra, strengthens his creativity as a storyteller with the deployment of a tremendous amount of default knowledge of military culture and the history of the war. Each book is provided with a glossary of terms, maps and a range of bibliographic resources.

The use of espionage as the central theme for a novel is of course a long-established one. But those which are centred on the Nigerian Civil War are not only few and far between, they have been written by non-Nigerians such as the Britons William Boyd and Jeremy Duns. Boyd’s Solo which was published in 2013 is actually an Ian Fleming estate-approved James Bond novel set in a fictional African country which is a thinly veiled reconstruction of Biafra, while Duns’ Free Agent, published four years earlier, provides the Nigerian Civil War as the backdrop of a Cold War era intrigue involving the intended defection of a diplomat at the Soviet embassy in Lagos where British Prime Minister Harold Wilson may be targeted for assassination during a state visit in March 1969.

The area of espionage and its role in the Nigerian Civil War has been under explored by Nigerian academics and journalists. But the reason for this may indeed be that there are no known feats of infiltration and counterintelligence performed by either side. One missed opportunity as recounted by P.J. Odu, a Nigerian naval officer who aligned himself to the Biafran state, was his regret in not leaving a spy at naval headquarters after most of the navy’s personnel of Igbo origin defected to Biafra. Some did choose to remain and served on the Federal side during the war. And if an effective mole had been in place his first task would have been to ensure that the landmark amphibious operation by the Nigerian Navy in Bonny in July 1967 which effectively paved the way of Biafra’s encirclement would have met with disaster.

Alily’s efforts provide a pathway towards popularising a genre which if developed among a pool of sufficiently talented and historically informed Nigerian writers, would not only serve as a reservoir of entertainment, but also as a tool of education. History, many Nigerians are ruefully aware, has for decades been a neglected part of the basic curriculum.

There could of course be pitfalls associated with the growth of this sort of literature. In Nigeria where the narratives and facts associated with the war are still vigorously and poisonously contested, the difference between fact and fiction can often be extremely blurred. Also, key facts that could serve as a point of unifying divergent views about the conduct of the war can often be left out. For instance, while Nightwings provides a compelling background of the dedication and willpower associated with effecting airlifts, it inevitably leaves out the fact that the war was prolonged by a “Keep Uli Open Campaign” by mercenaries on both sides of the conflict. The pact between highly paid foreign pilots on both sides ensured that the Federal air force did not knock out the landing strip.

That being said, Valentino Alily has produced two highly suspenseful and entertaining books, that reflect the dab hand of a creative writer and the ferocious attention to detail of a seasoned researcher.

They deserve the attention of a wide book reading audience.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

 Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

General Frank Kitson’s Posthumous Autobiography

Arrived a few days ago: General Sir Frank Kitson’s memoir titled Intelligent Warfare

"I did think just a little bit more like a terrorist than some of our commanders".
- General Frank Kitson (1926-2024).

General Frank Kitson's memoir was published in December 2024, eleven months after his passing at aged 97.

Back in 1977 Kitson wrote his military autobiography Bunch of Five, but it contained nothing about his service in Northern Ireland which was an extremely sensitive subject at that time.

Most will presume that he addresses it in this work which he wanted published only after his death. They will wonder if he covers the formation and activation of the notorious Military Reaction Force (MRF), a British Army counterinsurgency unit or "counter-gang" of which he was almost certainly the brains behind.

The precursor to the Special Reconnaissance Unit (SRU), the Force Research Unit (FRU) and 14 Intelligence Company, the purpose of the MRF was to take the fight to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the strongholds of the Republican community.

It meant that Kitson, according to Paddy Devlin of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, “probably did more than any other individual to sour relations between the Catholic community and the security forces”.

But while Kitson was later in his lifetime subjected to lawsuits from families from the Republican community for his role in the loss of innocent life, researchers have yet to find evidence of the MRF commencing its shooting until after then Brigadier Kitson left Northern Ireland in April 1972 to take up a post at Warminster.

Even the shooting of the innocent Conway brothers on April 15^th, 1972, for long erroneously attributed to the MRF, had in fact been committed by a three-man team from The Kings Own Scottish Borderers regiment led by Captain Julian “Tony” Ball.

Nonetheless, Kitson whom General Sir Mike Jackson opined “very much set the tone for the operational style in Belfast”, remains culpable to many Republicans who view him as the spiritus rector of the enduring covert policies of British Army intelligence which had a devastating impact on the Roman Catholic community.

I will most definitely be writing a review of the book.

Ranks of Frank Kitson:

1946 - 2nd Lieutenant
1948 - Lieutenant
1953 - Captain
1960 - Major
1964 - Lieutenant Colonel
1969 - Colonel
1970 - Brigadier
1976 - Major General
1980 - Lieutenant General
1982 - General

An essay of mine on Kitson:

Frank Kitson - A Soldier’s Legacy

. Blog

. Academia dot Edu

See also:

Britain’s Acronyms Of Terror – General Frank Kitson And The MRF, SRU And FRU – An Sionnach Fionn

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

The Arba Lijoch Armenian Children of Ethiopia

Group photograph of the Arba Lijoch Children. Photo credit: Haigaz Boyajian, royal photographer of Ethiopia.

Arba Lijoch (meaning "40 children" in Amharic) were a group of 40 Armenian orphans who had escaped the fate of millions of Armenians who were systematically killed and deported by Ottoman Turks.

Crown Prince Ras Tafari, later Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, encountered them while visiting the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem. He was so impressed by their abilities as a marching band that he obtained permission from the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem to adopt and take them to Ethiopia.

They arrived in Addis Ababa in 1924, and Selassie oversaw their continued education.

Led by Kevork Nalbandian, Arba Lijoch became the Royal Imperial Brass Band. Nalbandian went on to compose the music for "Ethiopia Hoy", the Imperial National Anthem from 1930 to 1974.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

Aftermath of an assassination attempt on Kwame Nkrumah on January 2nd, 1964

Photograph of President Nkrumah of Ghana pressing down the shoulders of Police Constable Seph Nicholas Kwame Ametewee who unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate him on January 2nd, 1964. Photo credit: Ian Russell.

Nkrumah faced several assassination attempts starting in the the early 1960s and it created a dilemma on how to preserve his rule.

"On 1 August 1962, after a lull in a series of bomb explosions that rocked Accra during the last few months of 1961, an assassination attempt was made on Nkrumah. Returning from Tenkodogo in the bordering republic of Burkina Faso (then Upper Volta), the president stopped at the northern village of Kulungugu where he narrowly escaped death in a hand-grenade attack. Several people were killed. One of these was Superintendent Kosi, a bodyguard. Fifty-seven others, including the president’s ADC, Captain Buckman, were injured. Nkrumah himself received minor shrapnel wounds in the back.

Six weeks later, on 18 September, a Ga army warrant officer, Sergeant-Major Edward Tetteh, who was in charge of the Burma Camp ammunition depot and was suspected of providing grenades for the Kulungugu plot, jumped, or was pushed, to his death from a fourth-floor window whilst under interrogation at police HQ. His alleged complicity threw suspicion on the army but no further evidence emerged after his fall.

A further spate of five bombings against Nkrumah occurred between September 1962 and January 1963; however, none of them came near to success. In these attacks, more than a dozen people were killed and over 400 hurt. However, the identity of those responsible was never discovered. The immediate consequences of these events was a tightening up of security measures throughout the country far exceeding those following the 1966 coup. The government’s restrictions were taken one step further on 23 September 1962 when, following simultaneous bomb blasts in Accra and Tema, a state of emergency was declared. The army was given widespread emergency powers, conducting house-to-house searches for weapons, ammunition and explosives and manning a blockade of the capital until 1964. Over 500 persons were imprisoned under the terms of the 1958 Preventive Detention Act; and in January 1963, public meetings were banned.

Despite the clampdown, these measures failed to prevent another serious assault on the president, this time not from an anonymous figure in a public place but from a policeman in the grounds of Flagstaff House. On 2 January 1964, an armed constable with four years service, Seth Ametewee, fired several close-range rifle rounds at Nkrumah before being overpowered by his police colleagues. Yet another unfortunate bodyguard was killed; this time it was the head of a special police guard, Assistant Superintendent Salifo Dagarti. Nkrumah’s only injury was a bite on the cheek received whilst wrestling his would-be killer to the ground.

There is some evidence to suggest that Ametewee, who was hanged in 1965 for the murder of Dagarti, was in the pay of senior police officers who had him specially posted to Flagstaff House with promises of £2,000 and further education overseas if he did the job. At about the same time, news leaked to the press revealed another unsuccessful plot, on this occasion involving the officer in charge of the police band. The bandleader’s plan apparently involved shooting Nkrumah with revolvers when he came over to congratulate the musicians on their performance.

Whatever the truth about the Kulungugu and Flagstaff assassination attempts, the events convinced Nkrumah that both the army and the police harboured potential, if not actual, sources of opposition. The resulting purge of the police command, together with the reassignment of security responsibilities to National Security Service agencies, reflected one of the central dilemmas of Nkrumah’s personal rule: how to protect the regime whilst simultaneously preventing the security forces from gaining too much power."

- "The Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana" by Simon Baynham. Published by Westview Press (Boulder and London) in 1988.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025)

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

Jimmy Carter: Legacy

Oil on canvas painting of President James Earl Carter. Artist: Herbert Abrams.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States of America, has passed away at the age of 100.

But what will be his legacy?

His detractors will claim that he presided over a "weak" America during times which were characterised by high levels of unemployment and inflation. The Iranian hostage crisis and the subsequent disastrous failure of an attempted rescue mission by U.S. Special Forces. The Shah of Iran, a vassal of the United States since the CIAs Operation Ajax brought him to power, was overthrown two years after Carter had asserted that Iran was "an Island of stability" in an unstable region of the world. It was also under his watch that his National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski oversaw the arming of local and foreign Mujahideen militias to fight the Soviet military in Afghanistan, a policy which after the Soviet withdrawal led to the evolution of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

His supporters will point to the election of Carter, an ex-naval officer-turned-Peanut-farmer from the state of Georgia in the American South as representing a kind of final reconciliation between the protagonists of the American Civil War. He continued the advances made by Black Americans and other minorities since the Civil Rights era by appointing an unheard of amount of Blacks to Federal positions. Carter consciously strove to practice an ethical type of foreign policy by returning the Panama Canal to Panamanian control after decades of it being controlled by the US military. He also refused to support the tyrannical regime in Nicaragua led by the Somoza family. He sought to improve the relationship between the United States and the African continent and was the first president to activate policies regarding renewable energy. And as a peacemaker he presided over the landmark Camp David Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. His commitment to global peace and stability was underlined by his negotiating of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 2) with the USSR., which was implemented despite the fact that it was not formally ratified by the U.S. Senate because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Carter was a one-term president whose time in office is adjudged by many to have been a "failure". But these conclusions tend to be based on politically partisan inclinations, as well as those who developed an animus towards him because he showed an interest in bringing Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) to the negotiating table after Camp David.

After his presidency, Jimmy Carter competently performed the role of a global elder statesman. For instance, he frequently acted as an observer at elections around the world. His Presidential Library and the Carter Centre, a non-governmental organisation, have adeptly carried out their respective objectives over the years, the former as a reservoir of historical data and the latter in its promotion respectively of conflict resolution, democratic values and health.

As a human being, Carter struck many as a God-fearing Christian and a man of endearing humility. He was also a man of conscience and moral courage. He spoke up for the rights of the Palestinian people and criticised Israel's policies of perpetual militarism and its denial of Palestinian humanity. Carter warned Americans about the entrenchment of oligarchic power and the licence given them by electoral legislation which has created the circumstances for he described as “unlimited political bribery”. He also left the Southern Baptist Convention because of its opposition to women pastors.

That must have been an extremely painful thing for Carter to have done. While Carter had sought throughout his private and public life to fight against and make amends for the legacy of Southern racism, he was a man whose whole being was suffused in his Southern heritage.

He was understandably conflicted about the issue of Confederate statues because a number of his not-too-distant ancestors had perished during the civil war at the bloodiest encounter between North and South at the Battle of Gettysburg.

He was a distant cousin of the pioneering Carter Family who are revered as the "first family" of Country music. He was friends with the likes of Willie Nelson and Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers band who respectively were exponents of the "Outlaw Country" and "Southern Rock" genres.

While evaluation of his presidency continues to stir controversy, his post-White House activities arguably provide a model of what a former president can achieve. He helped build homes for the poor, actively fought against diseases and promoted sound agricultural techniques around the globe. And his aptitude for conflict resolution continued resulting in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. The lesson of James Earl Carter’s life was his unfailing display of both commitment and conscience in his various roles as naval officer, farmer, state senator, governor, president and elder statesman.

Jimmy Carter was born on October 1^st, 1924, and died on December 29^th, 2024. His wife Rosalynn predeceased him, and he is survived by four children and many grandchildren.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

A Summary of the Military and Political Career of Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco

  

Capitán de fragata (Commander) Luis Carrero Blanco as the face of an original 1937 Spanish Civil War ration coupon.

Luis Carrero Blanco was a close associate of Generalissimo Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War which lasted from1936 to 1939. Franco, the leader of the Nationalist side became the undisputed head of state after victory over the Republican side and continued to lead Spain until his death in 1975.

Military education:

. 1918 - Naval Infantry School

. 1924 - Submarine School Course

. 1932 - Naval School, Paris

Military ranks (select):

. 1926 - Lieutenant 

. 1935 - Commander

. 1945 - Captain

. 1957 - Rear Admiral

. 1963 - Vice Admiral
. 1966 - Admiral

He held the following military positions:

. Ship Captain

. Submarine Commander
. Professor at the Naval College, Madrid
. Commander of the Cruiser Division of the Spanish Navy 
. Chief of Operations of the Navy High Command
. Chief of the General Staff

Carrero Blanco became an important functionary in Francoist Spain. He held the following appointments:

. 1940 - Under Secretary to the Presidency

. 1943 - Vice President of the Cortes

. 1967 - Deputy Premier

. 1973 - Prime Minister of Spain

Carrero Blanco authored at least three books:

. Spain and the Sea (1941)
. The Art of Naval Warfare (1943)

. The Victory of Christ of Lepanto (1947)

He was assassinated in a bomb attack by ETA, the Basque separatist group, on December 20, 1973.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

French Navy Tribute Recalls A Dramatic Connection Between Charles de Gaulle And Notre Dame Cathedral

FS Charles de Gaulle displays Notre Dame Cathedral on its deck (Source of photo: Chef d'état-major de la Marine on "X", formerly "Twitter").

A photograph released by the office of the French Chief of Naval Staff on Saturday, December 7, 2024, commemorated the re-opening of the refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was gutted by a fire in 2019.

The overhead shot of the aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle, the flagship of the French Navy, depicts the revered Cathedral using 922 members of its crew to reconstruct its façade.

Notre Dame Cathedral was of course the site of an assassination attempt on General Charles de Gaulle in August 26^th, 1944. De Gaulle was in Paris to attend a thanksgiving service to celebrate the Liberation of the city.

As "Le General" strode into the Cathedral at the head of a procession of French soldiers and members of the resistance who had marched from the Arc de Triomphe, shots rang out from the dark corners of the Cathedral’s roof.

But as people threw themselves downwards to take cover, an unperturbed de Gaulle continued walking at his full height towards the altar and remained untouched by the hail of gunfire.

The echo of bullets exchanged between the snipers and the French security team of gendarmes and soldiers soon died down and was replaced by the sound of the congregation singing the Latin Christian hymn “Te Deum”.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.