In this intriguing new book, Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus examines the role of British intelligence in the Nigerian Civil War. British intelligence operations were highly successful due to a decentralized approach. Britain maintained regular supplies of arms to Nigeria despite considerable opposition at home. Thus, up-to-date information was necessary to determine the military behavior of both sides and the practicalities of arms supply for Nigeria. The influx of external forces into the civil war and increased military supplies from the Soviet Union and France also influenced British intelligence assessments. The book's central argument or, rather, its historical lesson, is that intelligence operations must have a goal and must allow for wider analysis, maximum objectivity, and a diversity of opinion.

In this intrepid study, noted Nigerian historian Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus investigates the air war component of the Nigerian-Biafran War, a crucial postcolonial conflict in Africa. It focuses on the Biafra's air operations against oil installations and facilities owned by multinational oil companies in Nigeria. In addition to exploring global airpower historiography, this study explores the tactical aspects of how the renewed air war changed the military equation of the conflict when both sides were at loggerheads in peace settlement and relief arrangements. This episode was important in postcolonial military history of Africa, when modern air weapons were developed at the local level for offensive military capability. While the air operations of the Biafrans were sporadic yet destructive, they caused considerable damage to public utilities in Nigeria. Internally, the air attacks paved the way for internal disturbances in the oil producing areas by damaging oil companies' activities and the reducing foreign investment. Externally, it caused a loss of confidence in Nigeria. The Biafran air offensive proved to be the key strategy in Nigeria's response to the crisis, which focused on neutralizing Biafran airpower.

In this intriguing new book, Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus investigates Britain's decision to engage the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the relief operations during the Nigerian Civil War. The main area badly ravaged by the conflict being the Republic of Biafra was declared "a frontier of need." Humanitarian concerns and mounting public pressures, both in Britain and other Western countries, prompted the relief condition in Biafra to be declared an emergency. International voluntary relief workers found themselves for the first time at the center stage of a relief crisis that involved numerous governments and public opinion across the globe. Despite the existing research on humanitarianism of the Nigerian Civil War, until now no scholar has explored the British move to deploy the RAF for relief flights to Biafra. The need to overcome the difficulties of the Nigerian Civil War, and the heavy pressure of British parliamentarians, the press, and the public served as major factors leading to engaging the RAF to supply relief materials. The RAF episode indicated that external actors in any conflict can produce good initiatives geared toward resolving conflicts.

In Once Upon a Time in Biafra, the prolific Nigerian historian Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus has produced an unprecedented study of prominent individuals from across the globe who visited the Republic of Biafra and Federal side of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. This innovative new study contributes much to restoring the memory of the civil war, which has faded in recent decades. There is no better way to take a glimpse of how life was in Biafra as well as the Federal side of the war other than a careful study of reports of those who visited these troubled areas. Apart from those who were on ground and participated actively in the civil war, the reports of those who visited war territories offer another major source for historians to understand wartime life experiences on both sides. Individual reports analyzed in this book include reports presented to both the British and United States governments, some official visitors sent by their nations and others invited guests of either the Biafran government or the Federal military government of Nigeria. They included parliamentarians, journalists, medical personnel, government officials, and religious leaders, among others. Reportage about life on both sides of the Nigerian Civil War, particularly in Biafra, is striking commentary on wartime experiences that have become part of the historiography and memory of the Nigerian Civil War. As Ignatus explains, these experiences of foreigners have helped to define the legacies of that conflict with regard to individual contributions and the roles of both civilians and military personnel. Observation of everyday life serves as a way of understanding how people lived and adapted to conflict situations, and offers an equally worthy guide for efforts towards healing the war's enduring wounds.

As the prolific Nigerian historian Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus observes in this pathbreaking study, British women played a vital role in the civil war that broke out in Nigeria in 1967. They saw the war as a challenge to womanhood in a male-dominated society dominated by men. British women distinguished themselves and became part of the formidable force that brought the issue of the war nearer not only to the British populace, but to the global community as a whole. While many volunteered to be at the forefront of championing the war in government and media via formidable pressure groups, others were involved in humanitarian activities. The motives behind these actions included extraordinarily grisly reports of women's suffering in the conflict and the frustration with the lack of progress in solving the main issues that precipitated the war and the involvement of great powers in the conflict. Through media reports and coverage, especially via the relatively new medium of television, British women became strongly aware of the war situation in Nigeria. They pressured the British government to strengthen its political front and, effectively, to settle the war. The engagement of British women regarding the civil war in Nigeria served as an example of how internal conflict could become a global responsibility. Out of genuine concern for civilians caught in the war zones, British women rendered enormous assistance to war victims and intensified efforts to bring the two sides of the conflict to the negotiation table.

This compendium of speeches chronicles statements delivered by notable participants in the Nigerian-Biafran War (1967-1970) in local and global forums. This second volume chronicles African and global perspectives. Despite all that has been writing on the Nigerian-Biafran War, these speeches better document an understanding and interpretation of the war. The speeches of world leaders who participated in the war have never before been adequately documented. Whether the speeches were made for or against the Republic of Biafra, their assembly here is vitally important for what they tell us about the Nigerian civil war and its repercussions across the globe. Speechifying was the easiest medium through which high-level global leaders reached out to both sides of the Nigerian Civil War and encouraged them to end it in a peaceful manner.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained her independence from the British colonial rule. On July 6, 1967, the country was engulfed in a civil war fought between the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, led by Major-General Yakubu Gowon, and the defunct Republic of Biafra, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. As the former colonial power, and Nigeria's closest partner in the Commonwealth and, indeed, in the Western world, the outbreak of the war in 1967 presented Britain with a painful dilemma. Throughout the war, Britain desired to help promote peaceful negotiation of the conflict in a way that allowed her still to maintain strong influence with the Nigerian government. The British government tried to keep close contact with both sides in an effort to bring them together. This book interrogates how the British officialdom attempted to promote atmosphere of peace during the Nigerian civil war and how such attempts failed to yield concrete result. The British-backed peace initiatives experienced a backlash owing to the massive pressures mounted against her military support to the Nigerian government. While seeking the earliest possible peaceful solution to the war, the British government believed that it must in its own interest maintain close relationship with the Nigerian government so long as it has a reasonable prospect of bringing the war to a successful conclusion or risk jeopardizing its interests in Nigeria in jeopardy. While much work on the Nigerian Civil War has treated the major causes of the war and even added some global perspectives to it, this book is the first of its kind that studies British diplomatic involvement in the war. Its main targets are students of diplomatic history, diplomats, professional researchers and the general public.