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Quick Kill in Slow Motion:

The Nigerian Civil War

Major Michael R. Stafford, USA

April 2, 1984

Marine Corps Command and Staff College,

Marine Corps Development and Education Command,

Quantico, Virginia 22134

source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/SMR.htm

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe my sincere appreciation and gratitutde to the many

professionals who assisted and encouraged me during the

production of this paper. First, Lieutenant Colonel William

Isom, Director of African Studies, National War College, and

Lieutenant Colonel William Hubard, USA, Major Mary Becka,

USA, and Dr. William Stoakley (all of the Defense

Intelligence Agency), gave their time, considerable

expertise, and recommendations to the direction of this work.

Second, Lieutenant Colonel Musa Bitiyong, Nigerian Army,

provided substance to my research through his correspondence.

Finally, I need also acknowledge Lieutenant Colonel

Donald Bittner, USMC, Mrs. Mary Porter, the Reference

Librarian at Breckinridge Library, and Mrs. Marvella McDill,

Lieutenant Colonel Bittner's encouragement was substantial,

and he painstakingly edited the first draft of this

manuscript. Mrs. Porter amazed me with her dexterity in

obtaining relatively scarce documents which were used in the

research for this paper. Mrs. McDill diligently and

cheerfully typed this document.

To each of these kind people, I offer my thanks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Maps

I Africa iii

II Nigeria iv

III Nigerian Regions-January 1967 v

IV Midwestern Invasion, August-September 1967 vi

V Status, October 1968 vii

VI Airlift, November 1968 viii

VII Biafra, May 30, 1969 ix

VIII Final Collapse, December 1969-January 1970 x

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER

I ROOTS OF CONFLICT 5

Pre-War History 5

The Nigerian Military 10

The Ibo Experience 16

II THE COMBATANT FORCES 20

The Federal Side 20

The Rebel Forces 26

III THE WAR BEGINS 30

Initial Phase (June-July 1967) 30

The Midwestern Invasion (August-September

1967) 35

IV THE WAR DEVELOPS 43

The Influence of Gowon 43

1 Division Operations 45

2 Division Operations 50

3 Marine Commando Division Operations 54

V OJUKWU'S BIAFRA 62

IV TO THE END OF THE WAR (SEPTEMBER 1968-

JANUARY 1970) 71

VII THE AIR WAR 80

The Rebel Air Force 80

The Federal Air Force 86

VIII CONCLUSIONS 90

END NOTES 97

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 107

APPENDICES

A. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 113

B. LIST OF PROMINENT PERSONS 115

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INTRODUCTION

The Nigerian Civil War marked a significant milestone in

the military history of independent Black Africa. For the

first time, 20th Century technology reached a battlefield

where Black African met Black African in conventional combat.

The expansion of capabilities, from the chaotic

spears-and-knives of the Congo to the set piece, automatic-

rifles-and-jet-airplanes of Nigeria, introduced new

dimensions in devastation to Africa south of the Sahara.

The premise of this paper is that a study of the

Nigerian Civil War offers the opportunity to understand how

the introduction of sophisticated weapons affects the combat

capabilities and actions of the military in the developing

countries of the world. The quantities of modern weapons in

the Nigerian-Biafran conflict were not substantial, but their

impact was great. There were no tanks or heavy artillery

(122mm Russian Guns were the largest), so the individual

battle lethality can not compare to the Arab-Israeli

conflicts or other technology-intensive campaigns. However,

the Nigerian Civil War caused the deaths of hundreds of

thousands of people, primarily through the starvation

associated with seige warfare. In the end this war proved as

unjust and deadly as war can become. Those who suffered the

most were once again the very young and the very old.

Much has been written about the Nigerian Civil War.

There are many fine histories detailing the development of

the country and the factors which led to the Civil War of

1967 to 1970. For this reason, this paper only capsulizes

this information. Likewise, there is only limited space

expended here to review the Nigerian military's evolution,

growth and eventual initiation of two 1966 coups d'etat which

proved to be immediate causes of the Nigerian Civil War.

Robin Luckham thoroughly analyzes this subject in his book,

The Nigerian Military (Cambridge: University Press, 1971).

Other areas which have received considerable analysis

include international politics and foreign intervention, the

relief efforts and the implications of the policy of

starvation, the economics of civil war, and the propaganda

war waged within the civil war itself. Because of the wide

range of information available on these topics, I selected an

area of research more directly related to my profession--the

analysis of the military campaign.

This paper is not a detailed history of the war in

Nigeria. Rather, selected battles and campaigns are

discussed and analyzed based on their significance to the

outcome of the war, their edification of certain lessons of

the conflict, or their benefit in illustrating points

regarding the development of the forces involved or the war

itself. In all cases, effort has been exerted to use written

accounts from actual participants and observers, especially

military personnel, in formulating analysis of the subject

events. This proved necessary for two reasons. The first

was the propaganda war mentioned above. Press releases from

the two sides were so distorted that the New York Times, for

example, ran adjacent Biafran and Nigerian sourced stories.

The other reason is the bias exhibited by foreign

correspondents covering the war. On the Nigerian side,

access to the war zone was extremely limited since the

military controlled the movements of journalists, thus

effectively censuring much information. The Biafrans allowed

freer movement by the media, seeking every advantage in

courting world opinion. This often resulted in the co-opting

of journalists. As Frederick Forsyth noted about his

perspective, if "I may be accused of presenting the Biafra

case, this would not be without justification. It [his book]

is the Biafra story, and it is told from the Biafran

standpoint."(1)

Realizing that participants may have reputations at

stake, multiple accounts of individual incidents were a must.

This has been possible in most cases, since Biafran and

Nigerian versions of most episodes were available.

After assembling the military analyses of the selected

battles and campaigns, a summary of historical factors

leading up to the Civil War was compiled to aid the reader in

understanding the content of the conflict. This is found in

Chapter One. Finally, a brief summary of conclusions is

provided as the final chapter to highlight the most

significant aspects of the Nigerian Civil War.

For those interested in further reading or study on the

details of the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, the bibliography has

been annotated with this writer's comments on the content and

value of each listing to this research. It is important to

note that readings should be balanced between authors of

Biafran and Nigerian perspectives.

CHAPTER 1

ROOTS OF CONFLICT

Understanding the nature of the Nigerian Civil War

begins with a knowledge of the unique and complex factors

which led to the secession of Biafra and subsequent open

hostilities. By their nature, these causes drew worldwide

attention to the potential redivisions of Black African

boundaries along traditional cultural, tribal and

geographical lines. (The Organization of African Unity

attempted to avoid the possible disintegration of its states

into conflict and civil war by establishing in its 1963

charter the policy of keeping the national boundaries drawn

by the former colonial powers.) Later in this chapter, I

shall examine how the military in Nigeria was shaped and

driven by these influences and as an institution contributed

to the chaos that ended as civil war.

Pre-War History. Nigeria is the most populous country

in Africa. At the start of the civil war in 1967, she

possessed about 56 million inhabitants. Most of these people

belonged to one of three tribes--the Northern Hausa--Fulani,

the Western Yoruba, or the Eastern Ibo. The West and East

are collectively called "The South."

Before the imposition of European influence in the 19th

Century, these tribes shared little common experience. They

were separated geographically. The Northern Hausa-Fulani

tribes were situated in dry savannahs south of the Sahara and

accessible to the influences of the Mediterranean region,

especially Islam. City states there developed under the rule

of powerful emirs and the Islamic religion took root.

The Yoruba in the West maintained more contact with the

North than did the Eastern tribes, due to their highly

developed trading activities and moderately open territory.

Urban dwellers, the Yoruba were divded into states, each

centered on a city. The tribe was industrious; crafts were

numerous; and the religion complex due to interaction with

many outside cultures. The relative sophistication of

Yoruban society helped it withstand the trauma of European

rule.(1)

The Ibo of the Eastern region were initially quite

different from the hard-working, intelligent people that

developed after the arrival of the British. Isolated in the

dense, wet woodlands of the Niger Delta, the Ibo lacked the

sophistication of the Yoruba or the coastal minority tribes.

In contrast, the originally backward Ibo emerged from the

British colonial period as the most westernized tribe,

espousing Christianity (as did some Yoruba) and proving

adaptable to the imported work ethic due to their initiative

and vigor.(2)

Having earlier exploited the Niger area slave trade,

Britain decided to stop it in the early 19th Century. First

the Royal Navy patrolled the coastal waters with vessels

controlled from a consulate set up on Fernando Po, a Spanish

island possession 150 miles southeast of the Niger River

Delta. In 1861 Britain claimed control of Lagos with the

goal of ending the slave trading which originated at that

port. Having established a mainland foothold, British

influence gradually reached further inland.(3) The Oil

Rivers Protectorate was established in (what is now) Southern

Nigeria to administer traders doing business in that region,

and the Niger Company was chartered to trade in the Niger

River Basin.

By 1885, when Bismarch called the Berlin Conference.

Britain was firmly established in Nigeria. As was the

purpose of the conference, Africa was divided among the

European nations into spheres of influence. This division

was made wholly on the competitive political situations in

Europe and did not take into account those factors on which

western nation-states had historically been built.

Geographical and cultural influences such as natural

boundaries, tribal locations and tribal differences were

totally ignored. With the acceleration of British

involvement, this set the stage for the artificial fusion of

three distinctly different populations.

In 1886 the National African Company (also known as the

Royal Niger Company) was granted a royal charter to oversee

the territories north of Oil Rivers Protectorate; by 1893

this had become the Niger Coast Protectorate. The National

African Company was empowered to establish a police force and

provide government services in the north.

In 1897 the kingdom of Benin was brought under British

control. After the annexation of other southwest areas, the

Protectorate of Southern Nigeria was established in 1900. In

the same year, the charter of the National African Company

was revoked and the North redesigned the Protectorate of

Northern Nigeria. The two southern protectorates were united

in 1906, and by 1914 the British consolidated control over

all of Nigeria. What had in fact happened was the joining of

three different foreign administrative organizations rather

than the unification of three different indigenous

peoples.(4)

The first governor of the unified Nigeria was Frederick

Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard. He introduced in Nigeria

the system of indirect rule, in which local government was

essentially delegated in toto to tribal chiefs or indigenous

ruling bodies. These local authorities acted under the

supervision, or more accurately in many cases, the advice of

British administrators. In Nigeria, this allowed the

continuation of strong regional political differences.

Little progress occurred in Nigeria until the end of

World War II, when nationalistic movements surfaced in Africa

as well as much of the rest of the colonial world. This was

actually part of the unrest in the European empires as

peoples in various areas sought to remove outside rule from

their homes. Powerful political parties developed n each

sector of the country. Chief Awolowo founded the Action

Group in the West. However, the old city-states remained,

dividing the West between local and regional interests. The

East saw the formation of a single democratic party, the

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC). The

theme of this party, which was led by Dr. Azikiwe, was

national unity--the formation of a single, powerful

independent state. The Northern emirs responded to the

growing political awareness in the South by submerging their

region in the "designedly local and monolithic" Northern

Peoples Congress.(5)

With British assistance, these three regions negotiated

a constitutional government which resulted in the loosely

constituted federation established when independence was

achieved in October of 1960. In this federation, two of the

three parties had to form a coalition to gain control of the

government. Incredibly, the Ibo of the East who advocated a

strong federal union and the more conservative Northerners

who favored a weak confederation united.(6) Dr. Azikiwe

became President and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the North was

named Prime Minister.

The Westerners, as oddman out, vented their frustration

in a division of their party between Awolowo and his

followers, and local party segments led by Western Regional

Premier Akintola. Akintola's faction aligned with the North,

and formed the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA), while the

other factions united with the Eastern Ibo to establish the

United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA).

Open hostility in the West resulted in Federal

intervention, under strange circumstances, and the discovery

of "immense defalestions of regional revenues into party

funds and private hands"(7). Awolowo was tried, convicted

and imprisoned for treason, and his rival, Akintola, gained

power based on his alignment with the Northern Party.

Civil unrest was increased by other incidents during

this time. The 1962 census results were released in 1963 and

showed a total Nigerian population of 55.6 million people, of

which 29.8 million were identified as living in the Northern

Region. This outright majority caused other regions to

vehemently discount the accuracy of the census.

As the 1964 parlimentary elections neared, corruption

was rife. Local political activity was marked by

intimidation, and cheating was rampant, especially in the

North. The UPGA boycotted the elections, but later accepted

a second election in 1965 and garnered about a fourth of the

seats. In that year the events surrounding the Western

Regional legislative election bordered on civil war. Clashes

between Akintola's NNA and the UPGA brought about many deaths

and recorded another episode in the headlong tumble from

independence to civil war (8).

The Nigerian Military. Into this cauldron of seething

historical, political and cultural antagonism stepped the

military in the first coup attempt of January 1966. The

discord between regions was based on tribal differences

accentuated by religious and social disparities. The

military, as an institution, was intertwined with these

contradictions and could not act independently from the rest

of Nigerian society. Hence, instead of stabilizing the

country, the armed forces led it to civil war with a coup in

Jaunary 1966 and a counter-coup in July of the same year.

Former military ruler Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo

maintained that these coups were the immediate causes of the

Nigerian Civil War. He has noted that the political equation

was altered, and the fragile trust existing among the three

major tribes was shattered.(9)

But the military lacked the size to control Nigeria. At

the time of the first coup, Nigerian forces totaled only

10,500. The Army was the largest with 9,000 soldiers. The

Navy numbered 900, including 80 officers, and the newly

formed Air Force boasted about 700 men. In a country more

than twice the size of California, the military was spread

too thinly and was without the training, equipment and

sophistication to suitably dominant Nigeria's vast area and

population. Additionally, this small organization

reverberated with the ethnic turmoil confronting the rest of

the country which further reduced its ability to handle the

civil strife.

The Nigerian Army traced its roots back to the West

African Frontier Force created in the late 19th Century by