The Civil War
Apart from operating daily I as the Head of Surgery at the University had to organize the emergency services.
This constituted the casualty, the call system, the wards, operating schedules. General surgeons were on call every 4th day.
Casualty was served by a chief consultant and a team of residents. You received casualties as they arrived from the war front; quickly assess and control blood loss, get them transfused if necessary, get emergency x-rays and forward them to the OR.
The surgeon on call literally spent all the time operating one after the other. One only stops when there are no more cases.
At the end of the day you return home to a paltry meal of garri and ogbono soup which we called empire oil – it looked like it.
The next day you began with rounds in the I.C.U and the wards and discharges to the clinics or rehabilitation centres.
This was the routine when Enugu fell to the federal forces we evacuated to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Umuahia.
To our greatest surprise the hospital administration failed to move any of our facilities like X – Rays and instruments.
We fortunately had all these equipments available at QEH. It was however an operating institution of its own and we had to ally ourself to it.
Before going down to QEH I travelled with Dr. Alfred Ikeme and I remember our sleeping over one night at his fathers home in Nimo.
Dr. Ikeme’s father was an old fashioned school master who methodically raised his 4 children. He sent Alfred to King’s College Lagos from which upon graduation
He went on to specialize in England acquiring the FRCP specializing in Cardiology. He took interest in me to make sure I did not escape like some people, e.g. Kodilinye, back to the U.S. People like Ejoe Edozien (who escaped to M.I.T producing kwashiorkor in rats) through difficult trips like open canoe sail across the ocean to Cameroon and flight to U.S. In cases like Edozien’s they abandoned their families. For example Joe Edozien abandoned his family made up of a Yoruba wife Dupe & children.
Dr. Ikeme’s father was a typical Ibo despot head of his family and that particular evening ran his fingers through the soup for eating the pounded yam and proclaimed
“I will not eat it. There is no meat”
Two Most Unusual Cases
One of the most unusual cases I treated was that of Prof. Ezekwe of PRODA.
The PRODA was a child of the Civil war. Brilliant researchers like Willie Achukwu and Gordian Ezekwe took over the Govt. College Umuahia and turned it an arsenal of war. One of the first successes was a land mine detonated by remote control by running a radio to a certain frequency. It was so devastating that is was called “Ogbu Nigwe” (killer en masse) The Nigeria army commanders would have given anything to find how it was made and worked. Willie Achukwu and his team was responsible for this.
Gordian and his group were experimenting with rockets and did shoot down a Nigerian jet whose carcass lay on the Nsukka-Enugu road.
In course of his experiments Gordian suffered a 80% burn.
The mortality in such cases was almost 100%. He was laid in bed at the shell hospital in Owerri bandaged from head to feet.
Ojukwu hearing about this sent for me and asked me to go and treat Gordian. Fortunately I had just returned from my first trip abroad where I spent some time at Epstein Medical College where I studied the new method of treating burns by 1% solution of silver nitrate.
I came back to Biafra with samples of silver nitrate crystal which dissolved in sterile water (never saline) and constantly dabbed on the burn area, keeping it constantly moist, killed all bacteria and did not permit new infection.
I had recently tried out this treatment when we were suddenly presented with 46 massive burns from the Nsukka front. It was reported that our arms depot in that front caught fire by explosion. In a frenzied show of zealousness the ignorant civilians leapt into the fire to put it out and got badly burned.
I raided all the secondary school laboratories for silver nitrate crystals.
Every morning each patient was placed in a warm bath tub and washed of all scabs. They are then put out and throughout the day a moist sponge of silver nitrate was placed on the burn area. One of my nurses became extremely good in this therapy and we succeeded in saving most of the Nsukka native enthusiasts.
When I went to get Gordian the Owerri hospital authorities who had already taken such trouble in caring for him were surprised.
I drove him to Queen Elizabeth and removed all the bandages and placed him on silver nitrate solution treatment. My special nurse took over. Areas like joints (for example, knees) subjected to contractions [? xxxx ] were placed on traction and regular physical therapy.
Gordian recovered completely without skin graftng and headed PRODA till he died of complications from prostate cancer a few years ago.
Every Christmas he brought me a bag of rice and turkey in gratitude.
Another Innovation
Whilst at Umuahia we were so inundated with gun shot wounds of the head that I sought out and recalled Anthony Amigbo a third year medical student from Ibadan and showed him how to simply care for this kind of injury: You simply XXXX the entrance and exit of these wounds and XXXX them regularly.
Incidentally the white president of South Africa would have three bullets lodged in his skull during unsuccessful assassination attempts and lived for years until some one plunged a knife into his throat.
Tony acquired an intensive experience during the war and at the end of the Civil War he went to complete his studies at Ibadan and I sent him out to University of Chicago from which he got his residency and settled in an active service XXXX Smith of Chicago in XXXX.
The Fall of Umuahia
The fall of Umuahia was preceded by several factors. First of all was the Biafra offensive in the Midwest in which Ojukuwu with Banjo conquered and took over the Midwest in no time. The seizure and captive of foreign oil expatriates in Warri and even a threat on Lagos which could have fallen if not for Banjo’s betrayal - and he paid for it with his life. After this campaign which I personally felt was unwise the British government chartered many planes and flooded Nigeria with arms. Even the Russians pointed out that the Biafran people were so enterprising that they have manufactured their own bombs and tried out successfully on their Nigerian opponents. The Biafrans in the interest of world peace must be stopped.
They provided Nigeria with MIG bombers and Nigeria hired Egyptian pilots to fly them.
In the meantime the Mosquito Planes of Count von Rosen of Sweden wreaked havocs in Lagos and elsewhere.
Two of Nigeria ----- wrecked havoc on Biafran moral.
1. The terror bombing these Egyptian Pilots took the MiGs to every major Biafran city and bombed it on its market day.
I recall the Umuahia one. They bombed the market and killed over 120 people. I recall the loss of a priest whose corpse could not be identified because he never wore his cassock. This was the case in most Biafran towns.
The Red Cross Plane Disaster
During the war Biafra was fed by the ICRC & the churches, especially Caritas. The Red Cross flew in planes every other night and the World Council of Churches flew in the other nights.
An airport strip was a converted landing strip in the Onitsha-Port Harcourt road at ULI near Ihiala. Planes only landed at night to a darkened airfield in which at regular and appointed time the light would shine for a few seconds because over head was a Nigerian bomber waiting to pounce on the air field. Besides the airport was a forest of trees in which side lanes would hide/land a plane into the darkness shielding it from the bombers. The plane would be emptied in quick time and the food evacuated by lorries to the major centre at -----.
As many as 46 planes landed at ULI in one night. Mr. George Akabagu directed this operation. In day time there were many planes that crashed in the landing including one very visible one of the ----- Fathers
What finally put a stop to Biafra was the massive land forays through the P.H to Umuahia and ULI and worst of all the brazen shooting down of a Red Cross relief plane by Nigeria. Those were the preludes to Biafran demise.
My Fist Trip Abroad
One of Emeka Ojukumu’s greatest assests was securing the services of first rate men suitable to do jobs of good or secretive sorts. Thus among his leaders he had the brilliant lawyer Mojekwu also from Nnewi. Besides this he had ----- who could highjack a plane. I accosted him once in Mr. Akpan – the Efik Secretary to the Eastern Nigeria Govt. and asked, “Why do you surround yourself with crooks?”
Ojukuwu: “Here you are Fabian you are older than I am (he was 33 and I almost 50) but do not understand that you do not fight the secessionist wars with honest people.”
I was flabbergasted
Whilst at Umauahia I received word from Mojekwu that some of my friends in the U.S. had collected some money and would hand it over to me – as one they knew and trusted. I was to fly out that night.
I sent for my clothing and passport which were always packed and ready to move. I travelled to ULI & we waited in the dark in one of the airport hangars.
Shortly after midnight the plane landed and we boarded the plane in darkness. It took off safely and the next we know we landed in San Tome.
From San Tome we flew to Lisbon and were processed through as Salazar’s children. At Lisbon there was a Biafra delegation house ran by Harold Onubogu who used work at Nkalagu cement factory.
I was to fly to New York but had no visa. I sent a call to my former Prof Adams of the University of Chicago who was then in the American College of Surgery. He wanted to know if I could get into any place in the Americas and I recalled that bearing a British passport I could get into Canada. He asked me to do that and give him a call when I arrived. I did arrive at Montreal and gave him a call. He asked me to wait he would call me back when he called he contacted the State department which gave instruction to its delegates at Montreal – Thus when I went there I got a visa.
Biafra Relief Organization
Over in New York near the United Nations was an organization called Biafra Relief Foundation. The president was one Donatus Anyanwu and its secretary the brilliant Emeka Achebe – the present Obi of Onitsha previously a high officer of Shell. Upon my arrival at New York I was snatched by the Biafra public relations staff and flown to some hidden place in upstate New York and brain washed.
“If you want money from U.S. you MUST NOT TALK RELIGION OR POLITICS.
This was hammered into me so much so that when I appeared at radio interviews
with Jim Conway when asked about the war I answered
“Jim you know I spent 14 years in the U.S. trying to be a surgeon. I do not know anything about politics and cannot discuss it.”
“Fabian!” Jim Conway said “when this war is over you must be acknowledged as not only a great surgeon but an excellent diplomat.”
After several appearances in seminars and discussions from East to all the way to Los Angeles setting up organization in Chicago and Los Angeles I transferred 200,000 dollars to Lisbon by wire and secret code.
Biafra Relief Foundation stole the hearts of America and mail came by trucks into its office in New York.
Within the year we transferred as much as one million dollars to Biafra for relief.
The Biafra Relief Association
The Biafra Relief Association was the Biafra equivalent of the U.S. Biafra Relief Foundation. I was the secretary and Bishop Okoye its president. We met quite often and during our meetings Bishop Okoye kept us well supplied with relief materials.
I never tapped into the fund not even taking my £5 a day allowance during my overseas visits. I strongly believed that it was blood money and if misused would claim blood back in its wake.
I made several trips during the ward and after the war was invited to Norway by the NORAID organization to consider the Geneva Convention on wars. It covered international but not civil wars.
There I met Francis Deng the Sudanese ambassador to the Scandinavian countries. After the conference in one of the resort cities in the North we drove back to his Stockholm embassy.
The home he stayed in was a state of the art one with the loveliest rose gardens one could only compare to Versailles.
When my brother in law Bertil came to pick me up he was scandalized by the opulence. Bertil was a socialist who painted scenes about war in Chile with anxious faces fleeing bombardment. His paintings are also in the National gallery of Chile among many others in Sweden and abroad. After visiting with my family I returned to Biafra to continue the struggle.
Visiting Surgeon from Abroad
There were several visiting surgeons from abroad as we shall observe later. Among them was a wonderful Swiss orthopedic surgeon, Guido Piedeman. He had many visits to disaster areas including the earthquake in Peru. He came to us when we moved to Emekuku.
The Move to Emekuku
It was during my second trip abroad that Umuahia fell and we had to return to recently recaptured Owerri – Emekuku:
At Uli I learnt we were all to move to Emekuku. I took my transport straight from Uli to Emekuku.
On the way I stopped at Awo- Omanma with one of our units and picked some staff much to the disconcerting eye of Prof XXXX who placed a pharmacologist in charge of that unit.
As soon as I landed at the hospital I was greeted by hostility. Bishop Whelan did not want us there and fought us tooth and nail: “You think you will win?”
He had left the fight for Emekuku to native Bishops in Ibo land. I travelled to several stations to meet Bishop Okoye and now Cardinal Arinze. I assured them that I would lift all the facilities at Umuahia e.g. X – Ray machines and after the war would leave them there.
The closest I could come to terms with Bishop Whelan was to share it with the Holy Rosary staff. We got to the stage of fighting for the operating room. Apart from the UNTH staff was the visiting orthopedic surgeon Guido Piedeman.
Sister ----- would lock up the theatre and I did not hesitate to break the locks. Dr. Piedeman was an excellent orthopedic surgeon who made quite a reputation and wealth from moving his clinic in ---- Switzerland to the foot of the Alps every winter to care for skiing injuries. He was quite busy operating on the large number of wounded soldiers and civilians. His particular screw technique cured many chronic cases without having to XXXX the fracture and inserting metals. I thoroughly enjoyed his visit and he left his mark on Biafra. I was very sorry to have let him go when winter set and he had to go back home.
ABC
Among the other visitors to Emekuku was a delegation of an agency called ABC ---- Aid to Biafra Children organized and financed by Norman Cousins the editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. He sent out a medical team under one Doctor Page. The travelling, visiting surgeon was a dashing surgeon ----- Dr. Omar Fareed. He came to oversee the job of D. Page whom he found to be quite lazy and hardly lifted a finger. They quarreled incessantly. It was not long before the whole program collapsed.
Trip to ABC
During my extended visit seeking funds from the U.S. I visited Norman Cousins in his office near the UN and Biafra Relief Foundation. He was very nice to me – taking me to his Connecticut home and trying to play tennis with me.
He also was undergoing hard times because he lost his Saturday Review to a duo of young investors who threw him out and decided to reorganize the Saturday Review into several individual magazines. In less than 3 months the paper died out Norman bought it back for a song.
When I visited the West Coast I stayed at Omar Fareed’s excellent home in Hollywood. He was most gracious and prepared me for a trip to Santa Barbara a main storage center for the Carr Foundation which collected and sent out to missionary hospitals abroad.
Whilst diving in his white Lincoln he played nice classical music. On arrival we had lunch and after that he showed me around the facilitation. I picked up three or four used equipment we could use.
Just before we left he took me into the Manager’s office and tried the well known salesmanship.
“You said Biafra Relief had over one million dollars this year.
Answer yes.
“I want you to sign a check for 250,000 dollars of it to Carr Foundation and you can get whatever equipment we have.”
I was shocked that an American would not hesitate to dip his finger into blood money.
“Dr. Fareed! I said you do not seem to know that Biafra Relief Foundation is quite distinct the from Biafra Association each has its own staff. The Foundation is based here in New York under Donatus Anyanwu and Emeka Achebe. The Biafra Association is based in Biafra under Bishop Okoye and myself. We get specific funds from the Foundation to finance resettlement of refugees who we build cheap camp homes at a cost of 4. 50 each and initial tools to have self help farming such as Garri Making and other FOOD FOR WORK PROJECTS. We have seven camps including one with over 5,000 in inhabitants.
I hope also you will let me keep the few things I picked up here.
The University Planning and Management Committee
[POSTWAR Nigeria]
There were nine members appointed to run the university by the administrator Ukpahi Asika. For reasons best known to him it did not include the V.C. Eni Njoku. I felt very sorry for Njoku and did express my condolences. He replied that all he wished was to be permitted to teach his botany till he reached a retirement age.
Enugu Campus
Being the only DMC member on Enugu campus I was appointed the Head of Enugu campus. I took residence in the house previously lived in by Dr. Leme. It had a beautiful garden but served as a pit latrine for the previous Nigerian Army occupants who were afraid of Biafran snipers if they dared go to the nearby bush.
Trip to Lagos
I was appointed with Bede Okigbo and the Biafran Bassey to go to Lagos to secure our grant from the NVC. Bassey was not very happy to have us in tow. He was sure that all he needed was a simple line minutes in our file to secure the funds.
We set out separately – Bede and I and Bassey by himself. We went to Chief Rotimi Williams my former patient and when he was most pleasantly surprised. He asked what he could do for us. I said two things: First we had come to seek the funds for starting the university – and on a personal note to find how to get my family back.
First go to the house and let my wife fix you a good meal after that come to my office and we discuss the funds.
We went and ate a sumptuous meals. When we returned he told us that our half a million start up grant was being delayed by one permanent secretary George Ige and that we should go to the Chief Secretary to the Nigerian Govt, one Mr. Aida.
We went to Mr. Adia and he sent us to Mr. Ige after discussing with him on the phone. He was sure with Mr. Ige who claimed that he did not release the funds for two reasons 1. There was no statement of how the funds should be spent for instance we could use if for developing more bombs. Secondly it was difficult to track down the file.
We went to his office and in no time tracked down the file which stated clearly that the funds were for salary advances and purchase of reconstruction material.
I wanted to carry the file personally to him but the officer said it was forbidden to outsiders to handle the file. I had him leave it open at the appropriate page and I laid it in front of his desk.
He capitulated and asked us to send over Bursar with the detailed statement of the assorted uses of the money and he would release the funds.
When we returned to our hotel we saw the rather baffled Bursar. “Did you succeed in your single line minute?
“Not exactly.” We then related our experiences to him and we all drove back to the East.
In our next visit we secured the funds and proceeded to assign the funds. We have a part to the lady in charge of the boarding facilities.
She disappeared and we never set our eyes on her for the duration of the stay. I was sent to purchase asbestos sheets because the federal occupation army tore off roofs of the public buildings. We also needed aluminum sheets.
We went and secured a most favorable price in each of the items. Our new problem was transport. We went to the Rehabilitation Office and there was a colleague of mine from Ibadan. He assigned a brand new truck to us and added that after conveying our materials we could keep it because the new trucks were for our rehabilitation. We were very pleased and returned triumphant to Nsukka.
The next meeting of the PMC paid salary advances to all staff and proceeded to begin the worst of reconstruction.
The truck made repeated trips till it brought all the materials to Nsukka contracts were awarded mainly to Michellete and Nwakwo and lectures began in make shift classrooms.
Personal rehabilitation
It took some time to clean up the campus residence and at that time I lived at Uwani in Mr. Udoye’s flats. Again Fred lived with me and despite the fact that as a civil servant who got very early salary advances shared of my rehabilitation rations without contributing a penny to me. When I moved to the campus I got rid of him.
My Family Reunion
I had asked Chief Williams for assistance to get my family back. He asked me to go to the travel agency, find out how much it would cost and he would give me the check.
I did and he gave me the check for the full amount.
In the meantime I had met a Swedish Red Cross man in my efforts to send a letter to my wife. He took up our case and eventually the Swedish Red Cross financed the return fare for the family.
I wanted their immediate return but Rita and all the grown up ones were in school so they waited till the end of the school year to return.
In a university of Nigeria Kombi bus I travelled to Lagos and collected them. We drove through the tank trap invested Lagos-Asaba road to Enugu campus and so began the new episode of readjustment. It was quite traumatic but as soon as the family became occupied in schools it settled.
The children were at first very upset and Anthony spoke up one day: “Do we children have any rights in this house? Why has daddy decided to take us back to this rat infested dust bole?” Yes you have rights alright but I should think we need a constitution in which you mother and I rights should be guaranteed because we are a minority.
First Anton had sat for the entrance to Govt College Afikpo which was recommended to me by Prof Dike quite sometime past. Fortunately they had not moved to the permanent site miles away in Afikpo but where next door at the ----- building bordering the Enugu campus. Osi went to the
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