Nigeria: Declaration of Independence

Nigeria is dead.

We are Biafrans.

In the dawn's early light, the chant echoed through the streets of Enugu, the capital of Eastern Nigeria. Because Nigeria has been a troubled land of late, the word of its demise was not a total surprise—although perhaps premature. But who were the Biafrans?

Taking its name from the Bight of Biafra, a coastal inlet, Eastern Nigeria had finally carried out its threat to secede from Nigeria and become an independent state. Lieut. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, 33, the East's regional governor, announced the step and unfurled the banner of his new republic at a 3 a.m. conference, then threw a morning champagne party.

By opting for secession,' Ojukwu directly challenged a onetime pal, Yakubu Gowon, 32, the military head of the Nigerian government based in Lagos. Gowon, who last week raised his own rank from lieutenant colonel to major general, denounced the secession of the 12 million Easterners as "an act of rebellion which will be crushed," ordered a mobilization of federal forces and sent two army battalions to the eastern border. He also ordered a naval blockade of the Eastern coast to choke off Ojukwu's economy. Though no fighting had broken out by week's end, Ojukwu predicted that there will be civil war in Africa's most populous nation (57 million). To match a federal army estimated to number 10,500 men, including reservists, Ojukwu was relying on an army of 7,000, plus a large civilian paramilitary corps.

Persistent Enmities. Once thought of as a model for other young African democracies, Nigeria has buckled under the weight of persistent enmities among four major tribes—the Moslem Hausas and Fulanis in the North, the Yorubas in the West and the clever Ibos in the East. In January 1966, five years after independence, a group led by Eastern army officers toppled the Northern-dominated regime of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and exposed the raw nerves of those ancient rivalries. Northerners countered with a coup that installed Gowon, and their pent-up fury exploded in the massacre of thousands of Ibos living in the North.

Fearing the outbreak of renewed violence, hundreds of Ibos last week shuttered their shops in Lagos and crowded into Iddo Motor Park, eating palm-oil chop out of metal bowls and awaiting transportation to take them to the East. Thousands of Ibos fled in cars, mammy wagons and buses over the Niger River Bridge into the East, until Gowon ordered this last remaining road link with the East closed. Then they fled across the river in canoes. All along the swampy and grassy border areas, Ibo soldiers dug into foxholes. In the Eastern towns, however, the mood was ebullient, and many businessmen took to renaming their establishments after the new republic. In Onitsha, the Lucky Biafra Bar made its debut, while a freshly painted red sign advertised the No More Nigeria Garage.