Mrs Roseline Udenkwo Obiakor was a mother of one child and a petty trader in Gboko, Benue state when the hostilities that culminated in the civil war erupted. Then 23, she managed to escape with her child to her hometown, Abacha, in the Idemili North local government area of Anambra state where she witnessed the gruesome 30 months of war. Now 76, Enyi-agbala, as she is fondly called, gave the account of her experience in this exclusive interview with OLISEMEKA OBECHE.
Where were you when the crisis that led to the civil war erupted?
I was in Gboko, Benue state with my husband, Alphonsus Chinemelu Obiakor and our first child when the crisis met us. I was a petty trader while my husband was a commercial transporter who engaged in short and long-distance trips. What happened that time used to feel like it was unreal. Life was cool then in Gboko until the political crises turned things upside down. When news of the first military coup [of January 15, 1966] reached us, we just took it, like everyone else, as soldiers doing their thing. We never envisaged that, many months later, it would affect our lives in a way that we never imagined. Even when the second military coup happened, we never thought the fallout would change our lives forever.
It happened so suddenly and I could remember that dramatic day when the news that northerners had started killing the Igbo in Benue reached us. We had been following the wave of killings in other parts of the north and feeling pity for those affected but never thought it would affect us in Benue. It all started like a rumour until we realised how bad things were and were called back from the market and told to pack our belongings for escape that night. I was shattered.
My husband had travelled to Onitsha on a trip and his vehicle developed a fault which he was fixing. And there was no way I could reach him to tell him what was happening. The only luck we had was that we have many people from Abacha resident in Gboko who were also engaged in transportation business at that time. They pooled their individual vehicles and arranged the transportation of all, including those who could not fund their passage, home. We sat at the back of vehicles with our luggage and family members and took off in a long convoy. By the time we reached our home town, Abacha, it was already night the next day. Our journey was uninterrupted because there were virtually no security checks on the road that particular day. We were the early travellers that enjoyed such privilege. Shortly after we arrived, word reached my husband where he was repairing his vehicle that we were safely back and he came home.
However, three days after we returned, my husband decided to travel back to Gboko with his newly repaired vehicle. He travelled with other colleagues and when they reached a town called Dunga, they observed that the atmosphere had changed and took cover somewhere. According to him, it was where they waited to know what was happening that one man from there called him aside and warned him that if he loved his life, he should turn back and go home. The man told them that the hunt for the Igbo had escalated in Benue. They abandoned the goods that he went to carry and turned back. On his way back to the east, he saw another convoy of truck drivers from Abacha that were heading back to Benue and he stopped them and told them what he was told. All his efforts to convince them to follow him fell on deaf ears as they laughed him off as lily-livered. The day after he returned home, the killings intensified in Gboko and some other parts of Benue. By that time, the roads had been blocked to vehicular movement. Those Abacha drivers that drove into the city, against warnings had to abandon their vehicles and look for ways to sneak out of Benue.
Luckily for them, they escaped being killed but had to trek their way back home. When they eventually came home and shared their stories of survival, it was unbelievable. According to them, they had to travel through the bushes to avoid being spotted and wherever they met military checkpoints, they had to disguise themselves as mad persons to be able to evade them. They trekked for more than two weeks on the road before they reached Enugu. It was at Enugu that they were able to board vehicles home. By the time they reached home, their legs were swollen up and had to treat them with local herbs before they could become normal again. It was an incredible thing that many of us escaped alive.
At what point did the war reach your area?
Well, after our return, we tried to start afresh and my husband resumed his transport business, now plying the Onitsha, Nkpor, Abagana, Awka route. Many of our people also started it. As the war broke out, most of our young men also joined the Biafran army. Because our area is close to Nigerian military-held territory, our people felt we were vulnerable to attacks and began early to make formidable plans to protect us from Nigerian attacks. They built a lot of bunkers in our town. Many people had as many as three bunkers in their compounds or close-by, where they normally ran to for cover each time there was gunfire and bombs. Even at night when the fighting became intense, everybody went into the bunker with all lights off to avoid detection. There were times men would assemble under the cover of big trees to keep watch over the town at such critical time while women and children stayed in the bunker.
Did the war eventually reach Abacha?
No. We spent the whole war time in our community, unlike other towns around. Gun fires, bombs did not penetrate our community. There was a spiritual dimension to that also. Whenever the Nigerians bombed Oye-Agu Abagana, the bombs would fly past our town and explode at other places, like Abatete. The only time we nearly fled the town was when we heard that they were coming to Azie road and everybody was confused where to run to. I was carrying my child on my back as we fled to Abatete only to discover that the place was worse off than our town. So, we had to return back. By the time we returned, Biafran soldiers had chased the federal troops back to Oye-Agu Abagana. After that incident, we heard that our elders went into our forest close to Oye-Agu and used charms to seal off the entire community spiritually. It was claimed that, as a result of that action, the whole of Abacha, to the enemy, looked like a sea in the enemy’s eyes. Whenever they turned to our direction, they just ‘saw’ water and that kept us from being invaded by Nigerian troops.
What was the most frightening moment of the war you witnessed?
Hmmmm! I will say it was the day that large convoy of Nigerian military trucks and troops got destroyed at Oye-Agu Abagana. It started with serious panic but ended on a happy note. Everything seemed normal that day until we heard loud booming sound, followed by others and gun fires in that direction. Thick flames and smoke filled the sky. People initially thought that our area would be consumed that day until news filtered that it was Biafra troops that launched a surprised attack on Nigerian soldiers and successfully destroyed their vehicles and virtually wiped them out. In that spontaneous show of joy, we raced to the scene to see things for ourselves. It was such a joy for us.
How did you cope with constant threats of attack and sounds of guns and bombs in the area?
It was indeed a frightening period when nobody knew what would happen next. The fear was so terrifying. For someone like me, who spent the early part of the war on sick bed and unable to freely move around, it was a horrible experience. I used to defaecate and urinate on my body. Whenever the gun fire and bombing become so intense as if our community was under attack, my husband would take my children and they would take shelter in the bunker, leaving me alone in the house. I had no means of joining them and he could not carry me into the bunker. I normally crawled close to the wall where I stayed during the strafing and bombing of the area. Sometimes, the attacks would start from dawn till dusk and I would remain there, praying. During such days, nobody would be allowed to cook to avoid emitting smoke that could expose us to the war planes. During those days, we constantly heard the roaring of war planes in the sky and their strafing of nearby towns. As they flew past, they dropped bombs with explosions so thunderous and the earth trembling as they pounded targets. We used to sympathise with those communities around us that were so attacked. Our people did everything possible to hide the community from their sights, including using palm fronds and leaves to mask our roofs and open places. That, I think, was what saved us.
Did your husband enlist into Biafran army?
Nope! He did not because he was an only son of his family. There was a policy in Abacha then that an only son would not go to war. So, he was barred from joining, even though he wanted to go and fight. In fact, he was later conscripted at one time but he managed to escape and return. It happened that during that early period of the war, I was sick and unable to move on my own or do things. So, he was the one taking care of me and his aged mother. That particular day, they were preparing a bunker near the house and suddenly, Biafran soldiers appeared from nowhere and arrested him and those with him. I was inside and overheard as my mother-in-law begged them to let him go because of her condition, a plea they ignored. My husband told his mother not to worry, that he knew how to sort himself out. He followed them. Where I lay inside, I felt devastated because he was the one providing food and other basic needs for us. They were taken to our market, Olise and from there to Umuoji, headquarter of a Biafran army division.
I was still pondering how I would survive the war without him when he showed up in the night. It was as if it was a ghost that appeared before me. He later told us he escaped from the facility where he was kept by climbing the roof of the house and, with his bare hands, tearing the roof open and making his escape. He said he also broke the door of the place and set other inmates free. He came back that night with many other Abacha people that were unwilling to join the army. They entered bush and traced their way back in the night. From that time, all able-bodied men in the town usually left their houses as early as 6am for the forest and returned after nightfall. During the day time, the whole town would be deserted with menfolk inside forest hunting for food they would bring home in the night. That time, I was sick, so he was the one providing food for us and taking care of me and his aged mother.
There was so much hunger during the war. Did you and your family experience this and how did you pull through?
It was indeed terrible period. There was severe hunger everywhere and kwashiorkor dealt with so many people that we resorted to eating all kinds of things just to remain alive. I remember that we used to peel unripe pawpaw, cook it and eat for meal. Then, those who didn’t have cassava would harvest from other people’s farms at the slightest opportunity, just to prepare meal for their family to remain alive. Then, we used to peel cassava tubers and quickly use it to make garri and use cracked palm kernel seed to drink soaked garri. It was survival at all costs. That’s why whenever people are talking of another war, I tell them to count me out. I don’t want to experience that kind of thing again or for my children or grandchildren to witness another war.
Did you take part in the dreaded trade behind the enemy line called Afia-Attack during the war time?
Luckily for me, I made full recovery and started moving around but it was during the later stage of the war. Even though, I did not trade like many others, I did a lot of trips alongside those traders. One of my brothers was in the army and stationed at Nsugbe while the second was at Nzam, present headquarters of Anambra West local government area of Anambra state. They usually sent for me to come and carry foodstuffs once in a while. Then, we would travel to Nkwelle Ezunaka and Otuocha setting off through Umuoji. From Umuoji, we passed through bush paths until we came out at Borromeo area of Onitsha. At that place, we waited to be sure that Nigerian soldiers were not close before we crossed to the other side, into the bush again and moved till we reached a place they called Odo-Odo. There were many streams around the area, particularly one that usually frightened me. Sometimes, if I had nobody to carry me over to the other side, I would just go back. It was so frightening. But many others didn’t care as they were desperate to make the journey and risked everything. The unfortunate thing is that, most times, when we got the foodstuffs, soldiers would collect some of them on the way. They usually extorted or stole from travellers because they too were hungry. We also heard that some of them would require that you shared whatever you had into two for them to take half while you went home with half. It reached a stage that most traders started using tricks to avoid losing their precious goods to soldiers. They came up with means of concealing some of them from soldiers.
For instance, salt was the precious commodity of that time in Biafra. If you managed to buy it and took it home, you were rich because many people were looking for it to add to their meals because of kwashiorkor. So, what the traders started doing was that they would buy two bags of salt, then raw cassava. They would use the raw cassava to lay foundation inside a big basket, then park the salt inside and use raw cassava to cover it, adding yams on top. By the time they reach army checkpoints, they would be seeing only cassava and some tubers of yam. They usually preferred to take yams, leaving the cassava. That time, if you successfully brought back two bags of salt from Otuocha, you were already in money. At a later stage, we started going to a place called Nkwo Igbo to buy palm fruits after we ran out of stock in our area during the war. We would trek all the way to the place passing through Oraukwu, Adazi before getting there. The market usually held at night and was conducted with lantern. The whole suffering was to ensure that we had enough oil and salt in our diet to avoid kwashiorkor with its signs of swollen stomach, often accompanied by passing of watery stool because of insufficient diet and lack of food. Even some of us who were lucky to be receiving relief materials at the time still suffered purging because of insufficient nutrients in our diets. Heavily salted stock fish was our saviour then because, once we got it, we scraped the salt from it and stored it. What we did was to cut the stock fish into pieces and soak it. After a while, we poured the salty water into a container and kept it for use as salt whenever we cooked.
Did you, at any time, have encounter with the army?
Yes, there was a time they started mobilising women from the area to be cooking for Biafran army. I was part of the group that used to go to Oraukwu to cook for the soldiers whenever it was our turn. It was a massive cooking operation that involved women from towns in the area who did the cooking in turns. That was the only area I contributed.
Where were you when the war ended?
I was at home that day when people started trooping in to say that the war had ended and people started jubilating and shooting in the air.
Did you know some people that did not survive the civil war?
There are many people from Abacha town that went to war that did not return till date. There were families that waited and waited for their sons to return but they did not see them and they had to do burial. That was why I was so happy when my two brothers returned after the war. It happened that my two brothers joined Biafra army, leaving only me to cater for her. It was because of my mother that they usually sent food back home during the war. Incidentally, she could not live to see them return from the war front. As people were busy shooting in the air in jubilation, my mother was asking after her two sons. “Ifuru (Did you see) Tony? Ifuru Mbanu? She was asking those that returned early. With no assurance of their safety, she lost consciousness and died that day. Mbanu later returned but, by the time Tony came, we had already finished her funeral. It was the saddest point of my life. Even though, she was advanced in age, losing her at that time was heart-breaking to us. Same thing happened to many others who also lost their loved ones at that time. There was so much death everywhere that even when your family was not directly affected, there must be someone you knew that had one form of misfortune of the war or the other.
I remember that, few days after the war when we decided to stroll to Onitsha to see things for ourselves, what we saw was horrifying – mass graves by the road side where they dump bodies of people killed around the place. In one of those pits, we could see some body parts like leg sticking out of the grave, an indication that many corpses were dumped there. At Onitsha, the whole place was in ruins with most buildings either destroyed with bombs and bullets or razed down. There was a place we went to where they used to sell palm fruits and we saw smoke still billowing. We were later told that the fire started when the city fell to Nigerian troops and continued till the end of the war. I thank God that Onitsha later recovered from such extensive damage and destruction.
Looking back now at Nigeria before and after the war, how do you feel about the way the country has gone so far?
The truth is that Nigeria has not turned out to be the country we hoped for. Some of us that went to live in the north in those days believed that the one Nigeria they preached to us was real but what we saw proved us wrong. And to think that up till now, the Nigerian government has not taken measures to address the issues that divided us so we can live peacefully as one country makes me sick. I do not understand the logic of denying the Igbo that opted to form their own country as Biafra that opportunity. Do they want to keep us as their slaves for ever? Nobody should be slave for another in a country. It’s either we remain together and coexist on equal terms or we go our separate ways. They used to say that Nigerian unity is not negotiable. That’s a lie. You can’t force someone to remain in a union that is not favourable to him or her. The Igbo have been marginalised since the second coup in 1966 till date and, since they don’t want to address that, why not let us stay on our own. If we will need visa to be going to Nigeria, let it be.
Some say Igbos are better off in Nigeria than outside of it. What do you think?
That’s another lie. They use that to put fear in the minds of Igbo people. As far as I am concerned, Igbo people are better off as Biafra than being second class citizens in Nigeria. If hunger will kill us, let it kill us.
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The truth is that Nigeria has not turned out to be the country we hoped for. Some of us that went to live in the north in those days believed that the one Nigeria they preached to us was real but what we saw proved us wrong. And to think that up till now, the Nigerian government has not taken measures to address the issues that divided us so we can live peacefully as one country makes me sick.