Between 1967 and 1970, the Nigerian State crossed weapons with the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from Nigeria.
Led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Biafra represented the nationalist aspirations of the Igbo ethnic group located in the Southeast region of the country.
The region wanted to break away from Nigeria over claims that the federal government was being dominated by the interests of the Muslim Hausa-Fulanis of Northern Nigeria.
The story of the Nigerian–Biafran War will not be complete without the episode that featured the respected Nobel Laureate who was infamously jailed over his surreptitious meeting with Ojukwu in Enugu State just before the war festered.
Though the most popular account of that event has suggested that Soyinka crossed the line to persuade Ojukwu to renounce the secession, the playwright has once again debunked such claims.
In a piece published by The Vanguard, Soyinka said his journey to the Biafra Republic at the dawn of the Civil War was first; to reconnect with his creative friends of Southeast extraction and also to meet Ojukwu to avert a full-blown war.
“We were more or less a family of artistes at Independence. There was a creative family and that family was being scattered. I was in Stockholm in 1967 for the Scandinavian-African Writers conference.
“And one of the saddest moments for me was that so many faces were missing from Nigeria – expected but not there: Christopher Okigbo, Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara – the Biafrans were missing even in safe Stockholm. The drums of war were no longer muted.
“It was the last chance for us to meet and talk about what was now inevitable but could still, just maybe, be averted at the last moment. I returned to Nigeria very sad and I was feeling as if I lost a limb – several limbs in fact. It was like – was this going to be it? We would become enemies confronting each other across the line of fire? There were people who were ready to take up arms – like Christopher Okigbo,” Soyinka narrated.
He continued, “At the time I had already run into Christopher Okigbo – it took place in Brussels – I even recall the name of the hotel – Hotel Koenisburg – purely by accident, and I knew he had come to purchase arms for Biafra. I challenged him and he admitted it. All these fortuitous encounters impressed on me a sense of urgency.
“Later I had a meeting earlier in London – I mention that in my IBADAN – where we talked about the possibility of going to Biafra on a last-minute mission of intervention. Again, as I disclosed in my memoirs, Aminu Abdullahi who is now dead, actually volunteered to go – this was at the meeting in London.
“We hooked up around a place called the Transcription Centre. We didn’t even know which way some of us would go. Would JP consider himself an Easterner or westerner? It was the breakup of a robust circle of creativity. We decided that Aminu should not go because he looked so clearly a northerner. We said, ‘Look, you won’t even get past the first roadblock.’
“Because at that time, there was such bitterness, murderous paranoia, and it was understandable… on account of the pogrom which had taken place earlier…. I went to the conference, my colleagues were not present and when I returned to Nigeria, the first skirmishes had taken place – on the northern border, and I realised that soon, it would be impossible to travel to Biafra. I was restless.
“I knew I couldn’t function until I had crossed the lines in search of them. I said, ‘When I get there, I will find Christopher (Okigbo) somewhere’ and then get to Ojukwu. That was the reason why I went, a chance at that last moment that something could be done. Some people continue to narrate that I went across to persuade Ojukwu to renounce the secession. No, I didn’t go to persuade Ojukwu to renounce anything – it was far more complicated.”
