Isaac Boro insurgency
Over fourty five years, Major Isaac Adaka Boro, an under graduatehe student of Chemistry of the University of Nsuka, declared the short-lived Republic of Niger through Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF) with about one hundred and fifty fighters who launched guerrilla warfare against the federal government of General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi against injustice and marginalization of the oil wealth of the people of Niger Delta.
Earlier in January 1966, Major Boro had proclaimed the Niger Delta People Republic . He headed the new republic as head of state and commander of the armed forces, seceded from Nigerian government. The federal forces of Nigerian government over ran Boro’s force in twelve days bloody confrontation with the federal troops suffered a greater casualty.
Consequently, the Biafran civil war broke upon and General Gowon Yakubu gave amnesty to Boro and his followers. Almost all Boro fighters were recruited into the Nigerian army, including the NDVF leader, Boro himself who was decorated a major of Nigerian army at the age of 3o years. The choice of Isaac Boro was mainly to tap the wealth of experience of guerrilla warfare and the amphibious war tactics into the Nigerian army to defend and conquer the dreaded Biafra soldiers.
Major Isaac Boro offered to give his military prowess to the Nigerian army because the Biafra map was questionable as it covered beyond the territories of the Igbo speaking enclave. This Boro sees as an affront on the part of the Biafra leaders, especially old rivers state and other parts of the Ijaw, Ibibio, Calabar, Urhobo, Isoko and Itsekiri were visibly made citizens of the fallen Biafra map. The people were angry and fought on the side of federal government to protect their lands and mineral resources against the Biafra . The Niger Delta people were scared that the Biafra Republic was another form of enslavement in their own land, if allowed to survive. The graphic design of the Biafra map was their major fear of Igbo domination and they fought against the survival of the Biafra Republic . The very ethnic nationalities in Niger Delta territories were carved into Biafra against their choice and they joined forces with federal troops.
The Igbos accused the people of Niger Delta of betrayal and they saw them as their major albatross from the actualization of Biafra Republic . But the Niger Delta people defended their action, saying that it was the Igbos that were trying to betray them by taken their territories into their map without consulting them and intimate them of the benefits they stand to gain at the successful realization of the Biafra Republic .
There is the school of thought that the decision by the Igbos to add Niger Delta region into Biafra map was due to the oil wealth of the region which they intended to boost their economy as a new nation. But it was a failed project. The Biafra Republic tentative map is seen as a satanic document by many in Niger Delta up till date.
The Nigerian government gained the military exploit of Boro and his co-Ijaw soldiers during the war. As the war was gradually fading away in 1968, Boro and his soldiers were returning from a victorious attack, evil was locking in the corner, as the Nigerian military authorities had done with the services of Boro and he was pinned down for assassination on May 9th 1968 by Col. Benjamin Adekunle, aka (red scorpion) a sniper pulled the trigger and brought to an end the life of a young promising brave revolutionary soldier. Boro was born September 10th 1938 in Oloibiri, hailed from Kaiama.
Why government assassinated Isaac Boro? Insiders at government quarter disclosed that the military prowess of Isaac Boro was overwhelming, especially during his confrontation with the military in twelve days revolution where countless federal troops fell to Boro’s revolutionary army. The government of General Gowon Yakubu was scared that if Isaac Boro is allowed that survive with additional heigher military training as a senior combatant officer, he was considered a security threat to federal government with his high dream of unaccomplished Republic of Niger Delta . He was assassinated to close the chapter of further Niger Delta republic and arms agitation in the region. But Isaac Boro’s ghost refuses to lie low in his grave over fourty five years as it continue to haunt federal government with more vehement violent arms struggle from Niger Delta in stage by stage.
In 1994, Ken Saro-Wiwa took over the Niger Delta Struggle against injustice; a non-violent approach from the gun option to pen. But he was hanged to death through a kangaroo tribunal by late General Sanni Abacha and nine other Ogoni leaders. The death of Ken-Saro Wiwa was sponsored by Anglo-Dutch Shell Company operating in Ogoniland with no form of compensation to the locals on their damaged environment as result of SHEEL activities. Ken Saro Wiwa, an environmentalist took up a great fight against shell by exposing its atrocities to the people of Ogoniland to the world. In early 2000, the Isaac Boro gun violent arms agitation returned. This time, Isaac Boro’s ghost entered through Alhaji Asari Muhaji Dokubo who became very enraged against federal government and multinationals in Niger Delta, especially Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Asari Dokubo formed the Niger Delta People Volunteer Force (NDPVF) recruited thousands of youths returned to the violent arms struggle against the Nigerian authorities. Asari Dokubo became a bone in the throat of President Olusegun Obasanjo administration as NDPVF soldiers crippled almost Nigerian economy by blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping of foreign multinational staff for ransom. The violent arms struggle affected global oil price as it was sky-rocketed beyond unimaginable trend. The government lured Asari to submission by arresting him under a negotiation visit to Abuja with presidential jet one way air ticket
The arrest and detention of Asari Dokubo increased more agitation as various gropus sprang up to defend Asari’s course fearlessly. Tompolo, Boyloaf, Ateke Tom and others recruited hundreds of youths to prosecute the Niger Delta struggle. Then, another major persona Mr. Henry Okah who was seen brain behind the arms shipment to Niger Delta as an international arms dealer from Niger Delta who did not sells arms but dictate the pace for local fighters as their leader under the dreaded militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta. This group fought harder than all the groups in Niger Delta as in 1999 general election, due to the strong agitation. The vice presidential slot in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was zoned core Niger Delta, which if eventually won, may pipe low the agitators as a part of negotiation factor. Dr.Goodluck Jonathan was the choice of that arms struggle negotiation factor. The good luck shone on Dr.Goodluck Jonathan who became full President after the death of his boss President Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua through the invocation of the provision of the constitution of necessity. By divine providence, Goodluck Jonathan contested the 2011 presidential general election as sitting president and won in free, fair and credible polls.
However, before the federal amnesty programme, the government of Nigerian carried out different extra-judicial measures to tackle the Niger Delta insurgency with communities bombarded with military planes as the Niger Delta Struggle gets intensified. The region appeared like a war zone like Afghanistan or Dafur ( Sudan ). Soldiers of federal troops invaded civil population and caused genocide in many communities. Raping and abuse of human rights was rampart in Niger Delta region.
In 2009, the government of President Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua saw that the arms agitation of the youths of Niger Delta could translate to another civil war, if not carefully handled. President Yar’Adua implored the constitutional provision of amnesty to allow the young men to surrender their weapons to federal government voluntarily, when force for force had failed.
The Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF) led by a renegade ex-militant leader General John Togo abandoned the oath of amnesty after one year of federal government amnesty to launch another severe and bloody war on the Nigerian authorities. Reason for his fall-out from the amnesty programme was that federal government being run by a Niger Delta President Goodluck Jonathan had failed to implement the promises of former President Yar’Adua after his sudden death. Yar’dua had promised the ex-militants to develop the Niger Delta region after holding a post-amnesty conference with the various leaders of ex-militant leaders to come up with a Mou with the Niger Delta oil producing communities. But President Goodluck Jonthan had a different thought about the concept of the post-amnesty conference. The supposed death NDLF leader General John Togo in a shoot-out with federal troops during an aerial raid on his Israel barracks left an open wound on the federal amnesty programme unanswered question on developmental issues.
Last week, the worst had come from the NDLF as the militant group had demanded Republic of Niger Delta as a response to the incessant bombing and killing of innocent people by Boko Haram Islamic militant sects, victims especially South-South citizens soon after the 2011 presidential election was declared with President Goodluck Jonathan emerged in a keenly contested election free, fair and credible poll. The group had urged President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently convene sovereign national conference comprising all ethnic nationalities to address the togetherness or separation of Nigeria as a political solution to Nigeria ’s problem
NDLF spokesman “Captain” Mark Anthony said “In SNC, every ethnic nationality shall come forward through a delegation and put up a referendum for the interest of every geo-political region. The referendum shall determine the continued existence or separation of the contraption called Nigeria . Nigeria is a creation of falsehood and it is standing on a keg of gun powder being mismanaged by former military dictators.
“We use this medium to hail great men like Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, late Major Isaac Boro, Ken Saro-Wiwa and their followers, as well as all freedom fighters who had paid the supreme price with their lives for Biafra and Niger Delta, for their courage and patriotism. These great men were men of vision who saw the type of fake Nigeria left behind for us by the British imperialists.
“We also hail the people of the new South Sudan nation for their determination and doggedness. We the people of Niger Delta shall one day join the world to celebrate Niger Delta Republic . Nobody should deceive himself and play politics with our call for splitting Nigeria into segments for the interest of every geo-political region,” he added.
saharareporters.com/press-release/return-boro%E2%80%99s-ghost-militants-demand-republic-niger-delta-ndlf