On this day (30 May 1967), 54 years ago, Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Odumegwu Ojukwu, then Governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria, with the authorization of a consultative assembly, declared the region a sovereign and independent republic under the name of Biafra.
The declaration of the Republic of Biafra led to the Nigeria/Biafra civil war which ended on January 15, 1970.
The Head of State at the time, General Yakubu Gowon famously described the war when it ended as one with “no victor and no vanquished”.
Every year, people of the Easter Region mark this day as a memorial to the millions that lost their lives during the war.
