A more murderous harvest
Sir: You were kind enough to publish my letter about Nigeria in your issue of 5 July and I have followed since then the views not only of the SPECTATOR but of your correspon- dents and your readers all of whom have strong and obviously genuine feelings about the awful tragedy that is taking place.
It is heartening that you have given so much valuable space to both sides of the- questiot and it is because of your previous record in We Affair that I hope you will allow me a few lines to answer the inaccuracies of Gerald Sparrow and the inanities of wart Milne (Letters, 13 September).
Milne is obviously so comfortably off in Eng- land and so secure that he feels froe to flay the land of his adoption for her, what I believe to be, rightful support of Nigeria. I should have thought that one so high-minded as Milne and so idealistic to boot could take one of two choices more satisfying than mere word-war- to return to help his impoverished Ireland or to support, physically, the rebel Ibos.
The conflict between Nigeria and the Ibos is not, as Milne states, 'a principle of natural self- determination and independence the Biafrans are fighting for.' The Ibo cause since the early 1950s and the days of the ebullient Dr Zik was plain to all of us who were then living in Nigeria. (I was in Owerri at the time.) The cause was to take over by duplicity the rest of Nigeria. If this failed, then to disrupt the essential ser- vices by withdrawing all Ibo technical labour to the Eastern Region. If this in turn failed, to rely on force—arms had been stockpiled for years.
With Decree - No. 34 in the middle of 1966 Ironsi near as a toucher took over the country with as barefaced a piece of confi- dence trickery as one could imagine. But it failed as did the nefarious plan to withdraw skilled technicians and expertise from the rest of Nigeria. It was after these schemes had failed that the rioting Hausas killed nearly 5,000 Ibos in the then Northern' Nigeria and the Ibos de- cided on phase three—to conquer Nigeria by force. At one time they seemed likely victors when their invasion forces were in Yorubaland, the Mid-West State and Northern Nigeria. It is awfully difficult to convince someone like Mr Sparrow that he has been 'conned' by the big lies, superlatively told by experts. Surely if only .one Ibo is living outside Biafra in Federal territory then the genocide claim is nonsense. And there are thousands of Ibos in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Benin, Ibadan and other Nigerian towns. It is simple enough to, check this. And finally, it is not a religious war. It never was and it is important that your readers should not believe this untruth. The three most influential men in Nigeria today, General Gowon, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Anthony Enahoro are all practising Christians. And the 'Black Scorpion,' Colonel Adekunle, is not a Muslim.
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