The Biafra Remembrance Day also known as Heroes Day is used to commemorate the 1967 secession of then Eastern Region of Nigeria.
Here’s what you need to know about the day:
1. On May 30, 1967, Lt Colonel, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, announced the separation of the Eastern Region from Nigeria.
2. The new nation was called Biafra with a flag which bore the half-sun image.
3. Ojukwu, who declared Biafra hails from Nnewi in Anambra state but was born in Zungeru, Niger State.
4. In 1966, Ojukwu became the military governor of the Eastern Region.
5. Representatives of the Supreme Military Council and secessionists met in Aburi, Ghana in January 1967 to find a middle ground. The result of that meeting was called the Aburi Accord. It failed to prevent the war.
6. Ojukwu’s declaration of Biafra on May 30, 1967 led to the civil war between that year and 1970.
7. The bloody war caused the death of many people in the old eastern region.
8. On January 12, 1970, Phillip Effiong, Ojukwu’s right-hand man and temporary successor, announced the end of Nigeria’s Civil War.
9. Then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon maintained a policy of ‘no victor, no vanquished’ to reconcile the warring factions.
10. After the war in 1970, Ojukwu went to Ivory Coast where he was granted political asylum and by 1982, the Federal Government granted him pardon.
11. In 1983, the government arrested Ojukwu again after a coup occurred and he was later released in 1984.
12. Since the civil war, agitations for secession has not completely ended in the South-East.
