Igbo's belitteled techincal abilities

The Igbo man’s techni­cal abilities must not be belittled. As someone whose father was a combat­ant officer during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of 1966-1970, I grew up seeing pictures of amazing inventions and im­provisations made by the Bi­afrans. Sadly, as kids we didn’t understand the historical and academic importance of pre­serving those pictures and ba­sically lost all of them. My fa­ther also disposed much of them being a Biafran officer who was keen to lay low after Biafra’s defeat.

Biafrans genetically im­proved on edible specie of Cassava which they cultivat­ed in special farms in Ohaji, Abakiliki and Nnewi areas. Biafrans built a missile called Biafran baby - a flying ver­sion of Ogbunigwe (bomb) - even though it was crude, but it was very effective. This bomb was used extensive­ly at Onitsha. In fact, Biafra’s airforce commander, Major Chude Sokei was killed in er­ror by one of those missiles which malfunctioned and re­turned to his direction where it exploded severely injuring him and his men. He was to die of his wounds. Biafrans built armoured tanks called ‘Red Devils’ which when they first appeared in battle caused some federal troops to flee. The tank was slow and pon­derous and overheated rath­er quickly, but it’s canon an 88mm calibre was highly po­tent. Some of them are this in­stant parked at the Umuahia war museum. Biafrans fabri­cated a coastline defence sys­tem called the ‘Shore Battery’ which was extensively used at Onitsha in an attempt to stop Murtala Muhammed and his battalion from crossing. The shore battery consisted of small floating Ogbunigwe mines created and connected by an assortment of wires, and couched with highly inflam­mable materials which were ignited to create a raging in­ferno accompanied by explo­sions when the boats bearing the troops made contact with the mines. This way the Bia­fran defenders slaughtered federal troops so endlessly that even some Biafran de­fenders cringed at the car­nage.

Even after the war in the mid 70s, I was told by my aunts that while they were playing at the banks of the River Niger, they used to see pieces of uniforms, boots, bayonets and the occasion­al skeletons. Biafrans also turned Count Rosen’s Mini­con light planes into bombers: fitting them with devices that allowed their cargo compart­ment to eject the explosives. They were also fitted with heavy machine guns. I could go on and on. Please note that these things were made nearly 50 years ago. Imagine what 50 years of federal government assisted research, support and encouragement would have fetched Nigeria. Prof. Kalu Ezera, the major force behind Biafra’s inventions was maliciously hunted down af­ter the war and murdered. Dr Felix Oragbu, a Nuclear Phys­icist and the brain behind the Scientific and Technological innovations that sustained Biafra during the war period was neglected and sidelined. Igbos, the very people whose past could build Nigeria’s fu­ture are sidelined, treated with hatred and hostility and sup­pressed. What do you have to say about the $29.96 bil­lion central government loan for the country, where South-East region is excluded. This type of thing has been hap­pening since 50 years now. Go to Onitsha, Nnewi or Aba and come away convinced that the Biafran ingenuity is still intact. You will be dis­mayed that these young men are pointedly ignored by the federal authorities. This is no exaggeration. What if Hausa and Fulani youth had been this dexterous? Would they be ignored? There is a strong nexus between fabricating war equipment and making peace time utilitarian items. Same kind of innovation cre­ates both. Biafrans need the leverage and instruments of a nation state to repair their broken land. I think this is what the struggle is about.

That Nigeria turned its back on these inventions to me is the greatest tragedy of this na­tion. The black race was de­feated the day Biafra went down, but as an incurable optimistic, the bone shall rise again.