On May, 30th 1967, the people of South-Eastern Nigeria celebrate Biafra Heroes day. Formerly Biafra Independence Day was declared by the late Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu after the succession of the region, leading to the Nigerian civil war. It is a day set aside to remember fallen heroes in the bloody civil war that lasted between 1967 to 1970 in Nigeria.
The civil war, say, members of the Biafran community, was actually a genocide that is rarely talked about. During that period after the Nigerian government banned the supply of medical aid and food to Biafra, the war is said to have resulted in some one million deaths, about ten times more than the Bosnian war.
On January 15, 1970, Biafra ceased to be a country, after it was reintegrated with Nigeria. But for the community, the battle for self-determination is far from over. While this massacre seems of little political relevance today, the Igbo people who suffered the most in the war, have not forgotten Biafra. Biafrans still look forward to a paradise and a promised land they hope to see someday they call “The Land of the Rising Sun”.
Biafra Heroes’ Day’ is part of agitation for the recognition of Biafra as a nation, and the movement has been picking up momentum, especially with the recent happening in Nigeria where the agitation for referendum and restructuring is high and demanded by the Biafran Community or exit from Nigeria.
It is on record the demand for Biafra exit from Nigeria is high and the continuous hold of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian Government who is said to be on the front line and leading his people to the agitation has given rise to more killings and continuous sit at home in South-Eastern Nigeria.
It is gathered that the Biafran leader was captured and apprehended in Kenya in June 2021 and since then has been under the Nigeria Government for Court trials.
