I just watched the new BBC Africa Eye documentary, and it shattered me.
It was incredibly difficult to sit through the raw pain, the hunger, the bombs, and the silent deaths of innocent children. What the Biafrans endured was not just a war, it was a calculated nightmare.
The documentary powerfully corroborates what Ojukwu stated after the Aburi Accord: an agreement for peace was reached in Ghana, but the authorities in Lagos had already made up their minds for war. While they preached unity, they prepared for war of aggression.
Britain stood as the arrowhead of that entire aggression. “Your oil or your life” was the unwritten policy. Human lives, millions of them were sacrificed on the altar of crude oil.
In the Aburi Accord meeting minutes, Ojukwu pushed hard for peace, arguing passionately that war was not necessary. But Britain wanted the oil by all costs.
Ojukwu warned it clearly while in Ghana: they talk peace with one mouth, while sharpening swords with the other. The documentary is the exact reflection of that betrayal. Oil came first. Human life came last.
This is not just history. These are the voices of the last survivors, grandfathers and grandmothers still carrying scars that Nigeria has never fully confronted.
If you have never seen the true face of that war, watch it now. But prepare your heart.