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JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND MILITARY STUDIES [JHMS] Copyright © The Author(s), 2019 Volume 5(1): ISSN (Print): 2536-6726 ISSN (Online): 2734-388X Page: 1-29 The Development of Military History in the Nigerian Defence Academy and the Study of the Nigerian Civil War* *Ozinna Tochukwu Ntukogu & Otuu Vincent Uhere** Abstract From 1968, publications on the Nigerian Civil War have continued to reel out, adding to the plethora of the already existing ones. Some of these works were written by the participants of the war, some by observers/ journalists, and some by literary artists. No doubt, most of these works are rich in their own contents. However, in assessing these existing literature on the war, this paper finds out that most of the operational aspects of the war have been miss- ing. The paper advances that while most of the existing literature dwell on the causes and effects of the war on the society, the few authors who gave operational accounts were jaun- diced by subjective biases in their writings. The paper then argues that this situation is as a result of dormancy of the study of military history in Nigeria since independence. Hence, this sterility caused that for about 45 years after the war ended, the Nigerian Civil War kept beg- ging for the intervention of professional military historians in its study. However, the answer- ing of this clarion call by the Nigerian Defence Academy has begun to narrow this obvious gap in Nigeria’s military history by documenting and objectively historicizing the military cam- paigns as well as critically analysing the operations of the war, unveiling new truths about the war and opening up new frontiers in the study of the Nigerian Civil War. Drawing infor- mation from primary and secondary sources of data, the paper adopts a thematic approach and a qualitative method of historical research. Key Words: Development, Military History, Study, Nigerian Defence Academy, Nigerian Civil War Introduction *Aspects of this paper have been discussed in an earlier study Corresponding Authors: *Department of History and War Studies, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. **Center for the Study of Leadership and Complex Military Operations, Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna. Journal of History and Military Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, Dec. 2019 Prior to the introduction of Military History in the Nigerian Defence Academy Postgradu- ate School, various studies have been carried out on the Nigerian Civil War. However, most of the studies seem to be interrogating the causes of the war and some of them have been on the effects of the war on the society. Just a few of these studies dwell on the course of the war and these few works seem to have been written from the subjective perspectives of the war participants themselves. This development therefore, has left a big question mark on the extent to which such works can be relied upon. This is why Jeremy Black main- tains that most of the literature on African conflict are not written by historians at all and as such, they are ahistorical in methodology and style.1 This view is shared by Ukpabi who laments on the unworthiness of participants’ war memoirs. He argues that a lot of per- sonal prejudices lead to biases that end up undermining the worthiness of their personal accounts of the war.2 At a glance, it appears obvious that the above fate has been bedevilling the operational accounts given by the Nigerian Civil War veterans themselves. As far as the discipline of military history is concerned, those accounts lack the objective touch of the military histo- rian. Hence, the credibility of such works remains questionable. However, that does not establish the fact that such works cannot be referred to by the military historian in the professional historical reconstruction of the war. Hence, such works still serve as part of the raw materials with which the military historian produces his craft. That is why Black suggests that such works are not entirely unimportant even though they are more of com- mercial in character and not academic in nature.3 The above situation explains why the cause and outcome of the war have been well dis- cussed by scholars. However, the course of the war has suffered serious scholarly neglect. The first aspect, which is the cause and outcome, is well known because its theme allows for invasion from other disciplines like the social sciences. The reason is that the cause of the war would allow the engagement of other disciplines in the discussion of such theme. This is why Umoh argues that the nature of military history allows social science disciplines such as political science and defence studies to intrude into pure arts disciplines such as military history in particular.4 Hence, such situation helped to popularize this theme and made it well known. However, the course of the war which appears to be more difficult because of the technicalities of battle analysis seems to have been totally abandoned. This is because, once the reconstruction of battles is involved, the professional military histo- rian with the requisite knowledge and craft will be needed since “military historians more than any other, have to create order out of chaos.”5 Also, being that military history treats warfare in all its ramifications, the obligation of comprehending all the technical and other array of elements associated with war then lies as an onus on the trained military historian. Hence, the operational aspect of the war was abandoned and left as an exclusive domain 2 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY) The Development of Military History… of the Nigerian Civil War O. T. Ntukogu & O. V. Uhere of the military historian who alone, possesses the craft with which such themes can be interrogated. Since Military History emerged as one of the postgraduate programmes of the then De- partment of History and International Studies (HIS) now History and War Studies (HWS) in the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), most of the trained military historians of the De- partment began to venture into the reconstruction of Nigeria’s military history. With such a scenario, the Nigerian Civil War presented itself as a platform for scholarly historical en- gagement. Since then, lots of scholarly studies have been done in the institution unveiling the unknown aspects of the war and finding new facts. It is against this background that this paper examines the Nigerian Civil War studies which have been carried out by scholars in the Department of History and war Studies of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna since the introduction of military history in the NDA Postgraduate school curriculum. The Study of the Nigerian Civil War before the Introduction of Military History in the Ni- gerian Defence Academy Literature on the Nigerian Civil War started appearing from 1968. One interesting fact about the pre-1970 Nigerian Civil War publications is that most of them were written by foreign authors who were more interested in the humanitarian implications of the war. However, some local authors also wrote about the war before the war ended. The works of the local authors include Egbuna’s The Murder of Nigeria (1968), Chinua Achebe’s Future Lies in a Progressive Biafra (1968), Ojukwu’s Biafra: Selected Speeches with Journal of Events and Biafra: Random Thoughts6 both published in 1969, A. Nwankwo’s and Ifejika’s The Mak- ing of a Nation (1969), Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Origin of the Nigerian Civil War (1969), and a few more. The works of the foreign authors include W. Schwarz’s Nigeria (1968), Graham- Douglas’ and B. Nabo’s Ojukwu’s Rebellion and World Opinion (1968), G. Birch and St. George’s Biafra: The Case for Independence (1968), H. G Hansbury’s Biafra: A Challenge to the Conscience of Britain (1968), M. Dent’s The Military and Political Process in Nigeria, 1966- 1968 (1968), F. Forsyth’s The Biafra Story (1969), Captain Armand’s Biafra Viancra (1969), Carl Von Rosen’s Le Ghetto Biafrais tel que je l’ai connu (1969), Auberon’s and Cronje’s Bia- fra: Britain’s Shame (1969), J. Wolf’s and C. Brovelli’s Le Guerre des Lapaces: La Verite sur la Guerre du Biafra (1969), R. Alain’s Biafra: Naissance d’une Nation? (1969),7 etcetera. After the end of the war in 1970, the first 20 years that followed witnessed series of publi- cations on the war by both local and foreign authors. Nevertheless, emphasis will not be placed on these works produced in the first 20 years because, most of the Nigerian Civil War books published from 1968 to 1989 have received adequate scholarly review in Osun- tokun’s chapter published in Ukpabi’s co-edited book of 19898. That said, it is pertinent to mention that apart from foreign publications of the war, local authors who wrote on the 3 Journal of History and Military Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, Dec. 2019 war were mainly war participants who fought in the war. The reason being that military history writing was perceived as an exclusive preserve of serving or ex-military men in Ni- geria during that period. As a result, such view is believed to have succeeded in discourag- ing young historians from venturing into the writing of military history. This, consequently, left the documentation of the history of the Nigerian armed forces in the hands of the Nigerian military institution only.9 But the high level of illiteracy among the veterans that fought the war continued to militate against the documentation of the war and then con- tributed to the scarcity of reliable source materials.10 A similar factor that has contributed to the paucity of source materials on the operational aspect of the war could be the sensitive nature of the theme.

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