On February 12, 1966, the first bullet of a rebellion was fired in Nigeria by a soldier who was a member of Niger Delta Volunteer Force led by one Isaac Daka Boro, a Major in the Nigerian Army. Isaac Boro’s troops that was more than 1,000 men strong was out to free Niger Delta area from the yoke of Nigeria and become an independent country on its own. He was not happy with the decadence ravaging the Niger Delta area. He was convinced that the bird that was laying the golden eggs that was giving Nigeria revenue for her development was never given a commensurate treatment and appreciation in terms of development projects that could benefit the people and raise their standard of living.. To Boro, this was annoying and must not be allowed to continue.
After his brilliant performance in secondary school, he became the president of the student union government at the University of Nigeria, Nsuka. That perhaps could be said to be the place whwere he cut his leadership teeth. At the time of this revolution, Nigeria was just about six years old as an independent nation. Nigeria severed her colonial umbilical cord from Britain, the mother country, on October 1st, 1960.
Isaac Boro who display streaks of leadership in his secondary school days, obtain the best school certificate result at Hussey College, Warri in 1957.
Ironically, a jackboot jaunta led by five majors’ failed coup was hijacked by Major-General Agui Ironsi who truncated the democratically elected government of the late Sir Tafawa Balewa. Thus, not only sacking the prime minister, but also the premiers, members of the houses of legislature at the federal and regional levels and, of course, suspended the 1962 Republican Constitution. The Niger Delta’s revolt was, to Major General Ironsi, who was the head of state, an affront and insult that must not be allowed to succeed. Ironsi who had faced fire hostility on different battle grounds in Africa and other parts of the world, was literally boiling with anger as he resolved to quickly wipe out the Niger Delta Volunteer Force in the Niger Delta area to avoid diversion of focus on his agenda for the development of Nigeria. Ironsi could not believe that a revolt in the army could come so soon after the first coup detat . It was nothing but balkanization of the country, which must be prevented. Named the Niger Delta Republic, it was a result of bold efforts of those could be called a rag tag army ready to confront the Nigerian army and succeed.
Ironsi who was the the supreme commander of the Nigerian Army wasted no time as he gave marching order to the then military governor of the defunct Eastern region, Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu, to crush the rebellion, arrest and bring its leaders to Lagos to face trial. It was 12-day rebellion. To prove its mettle, the Nigerian Army unleashed its its fighting force and weaponry on the Isaac Boro-led Niger Delta Volunteer Force, killing more than 1,000 of the soldiers who were largely made up of ijaw men. To the Ijaw people, the revolt was a duty to the fatherland that must carry out with determination to succeed. Regrettably, the Niger Delta Volunteer Force could not sustain its resolve to give the Nigerian Army a run for its money. On the 12th day, the rebellion crumbled. Major Boro and the force pther leaders were arrested and taken to Lagos in Nigeria in those early days, sheer mentioning of Ijaw evoked mental imagery of a people who live in the mangrove forest that grows out of hostile terrain of vast area of mud, a soft, slimy mud , that is not strong enough to carry weight of human beings, who are indigenes of delta region of Nigeria or what some people love to call Niger Delta area. The terrain is a proof that it will take determination cast in iron to survive in such a harsh and unfriendly environment. Nature that has thrown the Ijaw people on a soil that can’t support growing of food or cash crops to sustain the people, in His magnanimity, God keeps millions if not billions of crude oil barrels in the bowel of the Niger Delta land.
Niger Delta people were not unaware of this vast quantity of black gold under their feet especially after the British Petroleum founded and started drilling of crude oil at Oloibiri town in Rivers State in 1958. At the time it was founded and the beginning of exploitation, crude oil was not the major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria. Undoubtedly, however, it was a source of substantial foreign currency income for the country. Despite that Niger Delta has been for a long time foreign exchange earner for Nigeria, the area had little or next to nothing to show for it. Before Nigeria obtained her independence in 1960 and even after, there was not a modicum of development in the Niger Delta area to reflect that the geese in the area were laying golden eggs that were funding the development of the federal and regional capitals, Lagos, federal and, of course, Enugu, Eastern region’s capital.
Isaac Boro was put on trial and condemned to die. He was scheduled for firing squad in September 1966. Ironically, Major-General Ironsi never knew that he would not live till September of the year. In what was regarded a revenge or counter coup by the soldiers of the Northern extraction, Ironsi was killed in Ibadan on 15 July, 1966. His host, Lt-Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, the military governor of the defunct Western region was equalled slayed.
When Ojukwu later declared the Republic of Biafra in another rebellion against Nigeria and included Niger Delta area in the territory of the new republic, it was understandable that the Ijaw people were in open confrontation to the Ojukwu’s Biafra Republic. It was, therefore, not a surprise that when Major Isaac Boro was released by the then Lt-Col Yakubu Gowon, who became the Head of State after the death of Ironse, he chose to fight to end the Biafran Republic till he was killed at Okrika in Rivers State.
– Tajudeen Adigun
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