A Discourse on the History and Impacts of the Ogbunigwe Bomb on the Nigeria Civil War, 1967-1970.

Abstract:

The history of the Nigeria/Biafra war is berserk with many tantrums that spill from the imagination of the people who tell the story. The objectivity or subjectivity of the author’s account spill from the side he has decided to domicile his thought and augments, but to any discerning mind, the war was one fought by the lgbos in present day Nigeria to survive as a people. Part of what makes modern warfare is the kind of ammunition used in the execution of the war. The Biafran soldiers were not privileged to acquire some of these modern ammunitions as they were denied by the western powers that supported the Nigeria government basically because of their economic interests. The Biafrans, in a bid to protect themselves and survive, formed a Research and Production unit (RAP). It was this unit, populated by young Biafran scientists that came up with the idea of the Ogbunigwe bomb. By the end of the war, this bomb had become a nightmare to Nigeria and their allies. This paper will explain the origin of the Ogbunigwe bomb, how it got its name, its impact in the war and how Nigeria failed to cash-in on this innovation after the war. This work intends to fill this gap in literature and add to the discourse in the historiography of Biafra wartime domestic weapon development. The findings show that the Ogbunigwe bomb was borne out of necessity for the Biafrans to defend themselves in the face of imminent extermination by the Nigeria government through the existing political class and the army. The methodology for this paper is purely qualitative and the sources are derived from primary and secondary materials.