The last days of Biafra
Sir: In the past few days the British press, radio and television have made much of Dame Margery Perham's visit to Nigeria and her appeal to the Ibos to surrender. This has been construed as good advice given by a Biafran sympathiser to her friends.
Strangely enough, no one has sought to ques- tion the conception that Dame Margery was ever a Biafran sympathiser. There is no evi-
dence whatsoever of Dame Margery's, support for the concept of Biafra as a sovereign entity.
Indeed, as a personal friend and biographer of Lord Lugard, whose creation Nigeria is, it would be unnatural for Dame Margery to advo- cate the liquidation of her friend's life work and dream. What Dame Margery has done in the past is to write letters to the press questioning the wisdom of arms shipments to Nigeria by the British government.
It is significant that Dame Margery has con- sistently referred to her concern for the lives of the Ihos and has called on the lbos to surrender. This attitude only attempts to give the impres- sion that `lbos' and 'Biafra' are interchangeable whereas, in fact, Ibos and non-Ibos are involved in the struggle for a Biafran nation.
The government of Biafra has always main- tained a standing invitation to interested parties to go to Biafra and 'see for themselves.' Dame Margery did not avail herself of this invitation but went to Nigeria, stayed for ten days -and ended her visit by broadcasting to her 'friends' from the enemy capital of Lagos.
On her return to England, Dame Margery reported that she saw thousands of Ibos living h_12pily in Nigeria and holding top jobs, with one of them even being the Permanent Secre- tary of a Ministry. What Dame Margery did
not add, conveniently, was that this top civil servant is an Ibo from the mid-west state of Nigeria, an area that has never been claimed to be part of Biafra. There is no reason why an Ibo from mid-west Nigeria should Dot be a top civil servant in Nigeria. It is like saying
that a Jordanian Jew (if there were such a per- son); who is a top civil servant in Jordan, proves the fact that Israelis are safe and can hold top posts in Jordan. As for the thousands of Ibos Dame Margery saw living happily in Nigeria, I sometimes wonder how a visitor to Nigeria can identify a happy (or any other kind of) Ibo in the streets of Lagos. Perhaps they all carry placards proclaiming am a happy Ibo,' and file slowly past while they are counted.
If Dame Margery Perham is pro-Biafra, an anti-Biatran defies imagination. But with a friend like Dame Margery who needs enemies?
Onyenduzi W. Wadibia 77 Embleton Road, London SEI3
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