Thread by @Saatah

Correction: on the left is Nothingham Dick and not Samuel Owonaru. The black and white pictures can be confusing.

Since I cannot trust PHED to behave I'll just do the thread now.

https://twitter.com/Saatah/status/1259861993294610435

At 6:30pm on 23 February 1966, Isaac Boro (pictured right) made the sign of the cross on the forehead of 159 of his men, reciting the words "In the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost, we go." The secession of the Niger Delta Republic was underway

But before then..

Isaac Boro was born in Kaiam in 1938, attended Proctor Memorial Primary school and Hussey College where he graduated with the best result of the year.

After his secondary education, he joined his father who was headmaster of St Stephen's School Amassoma as the second headmaster.

In 1958, protests by Ijaw women in Amassoma against the colonial government led to the deployment of mobile police officers to the town.

It was here Boro saw the power and authority of the police first hand and decided to join the police force.

By 1959, Boro had completed his police training and was commissioned an Inspector of Police.

On return to Kaiama, Boro witnessed an event where a boat captained by a white man broke a canoe owned by a local and refused to settle with said local.

Boro stood his ground and after spending hours and seeing he could not be intimidated, the captain went on to settle the owner of the canoe before him and his crew were freed.

But Boro wouldn't last long in the police. After crossing paths with corrupt police officers...

On his first postings in Port Harcourt, Boro was marked, and while he was representing Nigeria on a scouting mission in Cameroon, his sack was being planned.

By 1961 he was dismissed over an issue that was cleverly turned against him. He waived his right to appeal and left.

He enrolled in the University of Nigeria Nsukka in September 1961 ro study Chemistry and though he wasn't interested in student politics, something happened that dragged him in.

The pioneer students in second years were outnumbered 3 to 1 by the new students...

...and tried to push a bill to prevent first years from being a part of the electioneering process. Boro and other students protested, and he succeeded in getting the required 25 signatures to run for President.

There were two contestants in second year, Mr Orisakwe and Kele Okereke. Orisakwe was Catholic, while Okereke just like Boro, was Protestant.

As the campaigns heated up, catholics came up with the slogan of the election being a war between catholics and protestants.

Boro was approached by a protestant group and decided to step down.

Kele Okereke the Protestant won, because unknown to the catholics the protestnats outnumbered them.

His tenure lasted only 3 months.

In his second year, new elections were organised with three candidates: Chidika Ogbuka, Ikpoki, and Boro.

Ikpoki and Boro were Ijaw while Chidika was Igbo.

As the campaigns heated up, this time war songs were sang and violent processions held.

Chidika's group began making announcements from hall to hall asking "if his people would have a stranger as their president" and that those who do should "stand eliminated in the Nigerian society from them."

For the first time he was witnessing ethnic politics.

In Boro's words "If two Ijaws would be regarded in their region as strangers, it was conclusive that we were the detached members of an ethnocentric society."

Chidika won with his "tribal majority" but his administration didn't last long.

There was violent demonstration two months into the administration that forced the Chancellor (Nnamdi Azikiwe) to okay the rustication of all the students involved. They were later called back except for the President of the student union and his Secretary.

A new constitution was drafted and new elections were organised. By this time Boro was in his third year.

Boro was now the most popular candidate and would've won, but something happened again.

The tribal Lords felt it was an insult on the Igbos to have a stranger lead the SU

A consensus candidate name Ejiogu was fielded. Ejiogu began his first campaign speech with "ladies and gentlemen, this is a crucial time in Nigeria when we should not allow a vocal minority to rule an obvious majority."

Boro took that as a message not just to him, but to the ijaws as a people. There was little he could do, and so Ejiogu won with his tribal majority.

In the long vacation of 1964, Boro and Samuel Owonaru began a tour of West African countries to solicit support for his agitations

Boro returned for his final year and after being persuaded, decided to run again for President.

Same ethnic sentiments were deployed against him, but this time there was a crack.

Two of his rivals Jude Emezie and Okole were Igbo, but Okole was from Afikpo, and so Jude tried to label him a non-igbo for the purpose of the election. That crack made Boro win by a slim majority of 11 votes.

In his own words "From the word go, my government was besieged by tribal onslaught, by both students and members of staff."

He went on to establish the first students' bus service run by students in Africa at UNN. The fleet had a 14 seater bus, and a Mercedes benz 22 seater...

He arranged an overseas exchange program with International Farm Camp in London, and also pushed for the introduction of a student bursary scheme.

Throughout his 12 months, there were no violent demonstrations.

But after the 1964 Federal Elections, Boro led the students of the University to protest the conduct of the elections. The wishes of the student demonstrators was that the validity of the elections should be tested in court.

According or him, when everything died down and political alignment by the politicians had been made, the Student President of the NCNC paid him a visit in his Peugeot 404 car.

The reason was to plead with Boro on behalf of the NCNC to have Boro move to Lagos to file the suit...

...seeking the dissolution of the elections.

Boro himself belonged to no political party, but had sympathy for the North controlled Federal Government. His reasons in the next tweet.

"The North controlled Federal Government meant everything to my people. The North was our benefactor: there was the Niger Delta Development Board, a Statutory Board to which the East refused to contribute even a mite; there was the Niger Delta Special Area Scholarship...

...and the encouraging prospects of our having our own state to cater for our long standing needs."

He decided to take up the case nonetheless with the plan to withd8it midway. This decision gave him access to the higher ups of the NCNC

In an interview with the then Premier of the Eastern Region, Boro found out that there was no way the Eastern government would approve of the creation of a state for the Ijaws.

Boro finished school and was employed as a Technical Officer in the Faculty of Science in the University of Lagos.

There he formed an organisation called Integral WXYZ with Samuel Owonaru who had contested for a parliamentary seat for Brass South, and Nothingham Dick.

W stood for Niger Delta Labour Advisory Council
X stood for the Niger Delta Forum for Political Education
Y for the Niger Delta Oil Council, and Z for Reserved Operation Zero.

The offices of Integral WXYZ was at Malu Road, Apapa, Lagos when the January 1966 coup was underway.

On hearing the news of the coup, Boro immediately quit his job and began plans to move back home.

Boro saw the coup as an Igbo coup and "found it imperative to move home and defend the existence of our people against an impending tribal holocaust"

So with 150 pounds, Boro left Lagos on 18th January 1966 with his wife Georginia, Samuel Owonaru, and Nothingham Dick and a couple of others for the "liberation struggle".

The arrived Kaiama on 22nd and on their way made contacts at Bomadi, and Agebre were they recruited...

...22 persons which they picked up later.

The plan was to form a volunteer service to dissociate the Niger Delta from the newly formed military government of Aguyi Ironsi, and the only way to do that was to break out the region and form and independent nation.

A camp for the Niger Delta Volunteer Service was opened for training at Taylor Creek. Boro and Samuel dealt with recruitment, while Nottingham as Cheif of Staff and Adjutant handled the training.

By the end of week 3, the NDVS has 120 volunteers enlisted.

After running out of funds, the NDVS resorted to piracy by way laying dealers of illicit gin who plied the river nun. According to Boro, the illicit gin dealers made profit from their sales to Northerners in excess of 700%.

Since their was already a ban on the sale of illicit gin, he didn't see it as robbery.

After replenishing, on 22nd February, Boro got the blessing of his father before going on to swear in his officers, while Samuel and Nothingham swore the rest of the men.

After giving his speech and orders, on the 23rd of February 1966, officers and soldiers of the NDVS left Tontonbau camp, the revolution was now fully underway.

The group moved on to pick up supplies and marched on to Yenegoa.

The police station in Yenegoa was easily overrun with only 25 policeman on duty. The armoury was also emptied.

From there the group moved to take over Kiama.

There were 3 divisions: West led by Samuel, East led by Noth8, and Central led by Boro.

Troops began to arrive when the NDVS got to Mbiama and it was there that the main parts of the 12 day revolution was fought.

The NDVS was able to rout the Nigerian army and embarrass them, and the army frustrated, began to take it out on the unarmed civilians.

After politicians in the region began to rat out family members of the NDVS and the torture they underwent, Boro and his men decided to surrender.

So at Kaiama, on 6th March, while Boro was eating his last meal before surrendering Kaiamans, including Boro's cousin came to pick..

..him up for the army. He asked to be allowed to finish his food but they refused. He had called off the revolution by the time and most of his men had surrendered.

After being tortured for information, he alongside Samuel and Nothingham were charged with treason on 22nd March.

The trial lasted six days, and defense lawyers even suggested to Boro that he should act as a lunatic to ensure he gets a favourable verdict.

This is Boro acting out his lunacy.

The plan didn't work, and so on 21st June, he and his men were sentenced to death.

But before the sentence could be carried out, the counter coup started and Ironsi was toppled.

In October 1966 they were flown to Lagos for an appeal which they lost at the Supreme Court. But in May 1967, their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and on the 4th of August after further considerations, they were released from jail.

The three men opted to join the Nigerian army as the war was underway to ensure that the newly created Rivers State, what they had been fighting for, did not fall into Biafra.

Isaac Boro died on 16th May 1968 at Bolou River in Okrika.

Samuel Owonaru was crippled from injuries sustained during the civil War and was alive as at 2013.

Nothingham Dick died in active service in Opobo when a bomb fell into their both.

I didn't expect this thread to be this long, and I actually apologise for that. But this is it, this is basically the story of the 12 days revolution of 1966.

We've come a long way as a people, the distance left to cover isn't long, and we will get there.