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In Between the Cold War Politics: The OAU Consultative Committee and Anglo-American Diplomacy in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970

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Visions of African Unity

Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities ((AHAM))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the role of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Consultative Committee in the Nigerian Civil War. However, it implements a specific focus on how Anglo-American diplomacy shaped the activities of the OAU Consultative Committee during the conflict. While Britain saw the Committee as a platform to resist any attempt to override her interest in the war, the United States, with its reluctance to introduce an arms race in Africa, saw it as a plinth to work against the Soviet Union military incursions in the conflict by initiating a proposal for joint Anglo-American initiatives towards a total arms embargo in the war. Not only was the war a setback for the OAU’s vision for the continent, it also exposed her weakness in creating a model of conflict resolution in the African context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Meredith Martin, The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence (London: Free Press 2005), 13.

  2. 2.

    Zdenek Červenka, The Unfinished Quest for Unity: Africa and the OAU (London: Julian Friedmann Publishers Ltd., 1977), ix–x.

  3. 3.

    Červenka, The Unfinished Quest for Unity, ix–x.

  4. 4.

    Martin, The State of Africa, 13.

  5. 5.

    Ray, Ofoegbu, “Regional Cooperation and the Search for African Unity,” in Readings in Social Sciences: Issues in National Development, eds. Amucheazi Elochukwu C. (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co. Ltd., 1980), 96.

  6. 6.

    John J. Stremlau, The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970 (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1977), 82.

  7. 7.

    British National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom (hereafter: BNA), Foreign and Commonwealth Office Papers, 38/265, Confidential: Minute on Nigeria’s Possible Arms Deal with Czechoslovakia Annex A from Lagos to Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 9 July 1967, File. No, TX 10/1/Part A/6C/1066/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Arms, Legal Importation, and General Policy, 1 January 1967–31 December 1968.

  8. 8.

    BNA, FCO, 38/234, Confidential: Minute on OAU Peace Meeting on the Nigerian Conflict from Kampala to Commonwealth Office Telegram No. 18, 3 September 1968, File No. TX 2/4/PC/6C/1066/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Political Affairs, External, OAU and Nigerian Civil War, September 1967-31 December 1968.

  9. 9.

    Kunle Amuwo, “Historical Roots of the Nigerian Civil War: An Explanation,” in Perspectives on the Nigerian Civil War, ed. Siyan Oyeweso (Lagos, Nigeria: OAU Humanities Series and Campus Press Limited, 1992), 1.

  10. 10.

    Britain-Biafra Association, Nigerian/Biafra Conflict: an International Commission of Jurists and Prima Facie Evidence of Genocide (London: Grays Inn, 1968), 86.

  11. 11.

    Suzanne Cronje, The World and Nigeria: the Diplomatic History of the Nigerian Civil War 1967–1970 (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972), 17. The most senior officer after Ironsi’s death was Brigadier Ogundipe, who failed to establish control in Lagos after the mutiny.

  12. 12.

    Cronje, The World and Nigeria, 18.

  13. 13.

    Government of the Republic of Biafra, Introducing the Republic of Biafra. (Port Harcourt: Span Ltd.,1967) 6.

  14. 14.

    M.S. Audu, S. Uzoma Osuala, and Baba I. Ibrahim, “Contextualizing the International Dimensions of the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970,” International Journal of Politics and Good Governance 4, no. 4.3 (2013): 5.

  15. 15.

    “Gowon and Ojukwu Shake Hands in Accra,” Spear, February, 1967, 12.

  16. 16.

    Cronje, The World and Nigeria, 18.

  17. 17.

    Cronje, The World and Nigeria, 18–19.

  18. 18.

    Audu, Osuala, and Ibrahim, “Contextualizing the International Dimensions,” 6.

  19. 19.

    Siyan Oyeweso, “The Ojukwu Factor in the Outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970),” in Perspectives on the Nigerian Civil War, ed. Siyan Oyeweso (Lagos, Nigeria: OAU Humanities Series and Campus Press Limited, 1992), 96.

  20. 20.

    M. Nziramasanga, “Secession, Federalism, and African Unity,” in, Nigerian Dilemma of Nationhood: An Analysis of the Biafran Conflict, ed. Joseph Okpaku (New York: The Third Press and Joseph Okpaku Publishing Company, Inc., 1972), 236–237.

  21. 21.

    BNA, FCO, 38/266, Confidential: British Policy Towards Nigeria from the Foreign Office to the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, 18 August 1967, File No. TX 10/1/Part B/6C/1066/ Nigeria: Arms, Legal Importation, and General Arms Policy, 1 January 1967–31 December 1969.

  22. 22.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, Confidential: Minute on Nigeria and OAU from British High Commission in Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 13 August 1967, File No. TX 2/4/Part A/6C/1066/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Political Affairs, External-Multilateral, Nigerian Civil War and OAU, 25 July 1967–31 December 1968.

  23. 23.

    Stremlau, The International Politics, 82.

  24. 24.

    BNA, FCO, 38/265, Confidential: Text of Letter by the Nigeria’s Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces General Yakubu Gowon to the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson from the British High Commissioner in Lagos Sir David Hunt to Foreign Office, 1 July 1967, File No. TX 10/1/Part A/6C/1066/Nigeria: Arms: Legal Importation and General Policy, 1 January 1967–31 December 1969.

  25. 25.

    BNA, PREM, 13/2262/34E/4S/1850/1968/Nigeria. Record of Discussion Between the British Prime Minister and OAU Secretary-General M. Diallo Telli, 1 April 1969.

  26. 26.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, letter, from Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 14 September 1967.

  27. 27.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, Letter, from Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 14 September 1967.

  28. 28.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, Letter, from Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 14 September 1967.

  29. 29.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, From British Embassy in Addis Ababa to Lagos No. 221/67, 26 September 1967.

  30. 30.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, From British Embassy in Addis Ababa to Lagos No. 221/67, 26 September 1967.

  31. 31.

    BNA, FCO 38/232, Confidential: Original Text of Draft Resolution of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government Meeting at Its Fourth Ordinary Session in Kinshasa from 10 September 1967 to 14 September 1967 from Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 14 September 1967.

  32. 32.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, From Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 22 November 1967.

  33. 33.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, From Lagos to Commonwealth Office, 22 November 1967.

  34. 34.

    BNA, FCO, 38/233, Confidential: Minute on Reactions Towards the OAU Mission to Nigeria, from P.D. McEnttee to P.H. Moberly, 13 December 1967, File No. TX 2/4/6C/1066/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Political Affairs, External, Multilateral, Nigerian Civil War and the OAU, 1 January 1967–31 December 1969.

  35. 35.

    BNA, FCO, 38/232, Confidential: Minute on OAU Mission to Nigeria from Lagos to Commonwealth Office Telegram No. 2827, 24 November 1967.

  36. 36.

    BNA, FCO, 38/233, Confidential: Minute on Reply of Despatch No. 14 of OAU Mission to Nigeria from P.D. McEntee to P.H. Moberly and D.C. Tebbit, Reference No. 90, 12 January 1968.

  37. 37.

    Markpress News Feature Service, Gen No. 735: General Ojukwu Address Consultative Assembly (Geneva: Biafran Overseas Division, 1969), 1.

  38. 38.

    Markpress News Feature Service, Gen No. 735, 2.

  39. 39.

    Markpress News Feature Service, Gen. No. 545: Zambia Says Nigeria-Biafra is an African Problem, and Reproves Federations are not Infallible (Geneva: Biafran Overseas Division, 1969), 1–2.

  40. 40.

    Markpress News Feature Service, Gen. No. 545, 2.

  41. 41.

    Červenka, The Unfinished Quest for Unity, 101.

  42. 42.

    Michael A. Samuels, The Nigerian-Biafra Conflict: Report of a One-Day Conference (Washington D.C.: The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, 1969), 1–20.

  43. 43.

    Brian E. McNeil, “Frontier of Need: Humanitarianism, Imperialism and the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2004), 15.

  44. 44.

    BNA, PREM, 13/1662, File No. 27G/4S/1849/1967, Confidential: Minute on the Internal Situation in Nigeria from Washington to Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 15 August 1967.

  45. 45.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Washington to Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

  46. 46.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, Confidential: A Draft Paper of the US Joint Anglo-American Initiative on the Nigerian Civil War, from Foreign Office to Lagos, 29 August 1968. The meeting coincided with the report of the imminent breakdown of the OAU Consultative Committee meeting that commenced in Addis Ababa on 5 August 1968.

  47. 47.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Foreign Office to Lagos, 29 August 1968.

  48. 48.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Foreign Office to Lagos, 29 August 1968. It was revealed that the US Embassy in London told the Foreign Office that the idea of a joint Anglo-American approach to the OAU suggested by the State Department paper was developed by Gene Rostow and was put together without the full understanding of the diplomatic initiatives attempted by the British government and the Nigerian authorities regarding the civil war. The Embassy believed that Britain was right in taking the joint initiative seriously, because the US administration under Richard Nixon was obviously feeling the pressure of domestic opinion over Biafra.

  49. 49.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Foreign Office to Lagos, 29 August 1968. The US joint proposal was crafted strongly in favour of the Nigerian government. It was strongly based on the concept of One Nigeria.

  50. 50.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, Secret: Record of Conversation Between Edward Tomkins and US Under-Secretary of States on Joint Anglo-American Approach, 4 September 1968, from Washington to Foreign Office, 5 September 1968.

  51. 51.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Lagos to Foreign Office, 5 September 1968.

  52. 52.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, From Lagos to Foreign Office, 5 September 1968.

  53. 53.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, Secret: British Prime Minister’s Response to the Proposed Joint Anglo-American Approach to the Emperor of Ethiopia from Foreign Office to Cabinet Office, 9 September 1968.

  54. 54.

    BNA, PREM, 13/2260, Confidential: Minute on the Conversation Between the US Ambassador in Addis Ababa and British Counsellor in Washington, 6 December 1968.

  55. 55.

    BNA, FCO, 38/237, Secret: Minute on the British Reaction Towards Joint Anglo-American Initiative in the Nigerian Civil War from Foreign Office to Washington, 30 August 1968.

  56. 56.

    McNeil, “Frontiers of Need,” 3.

  57. 57.

    BNA, FCO, 38/244, Confidential: Minute on France and Nigeria from British Embassy in Paris to Foreign Office, 12 May 1967, File No. TX 8/27/Part A/ 6C/1068/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Political Affairs, External, Bilateral, French Policy Towards Nigeria, 1 January 1967–31 December 1969.

  58. 58.

    BNA, FCO, 38/245, Confidential: Official Statement Issued on the Nigerian Civil War by the French Government, 31 July 1968.

  59. 59.

    BNA, FCO, 38/245, Confidential: Minute on Unattributable Guidance on French Statement on the Nigerian Civil War from D.C. Tebbit to E.G. Norris, 1 August 1968.

  60. 60.

    BNA, FCO, 38/245, Confidential: Record of Meeting between the Minister of State at the Commonwealth Office and Nigerian High Commissioner in London, 1 August 1968.

  61. 61.

    BNA, FCO, 38/246, Confidential: Minute on French Support for Biafra from Paris to Foreign Office, 14 August 1968.

  62. 62.

    BNA, FCO, 38/247, Confidential: Minute on French Arms Supplies to Nigeria from Commonwealth Office to Lagos, 17 September 1968.

  63. 63.

    BNA, FCO, 38/247, Confidential: Minute on French Arms Supply to Nigeria from Foreign Office to Lagos/ Telegram No. 1504, 17 September 1968, File No. TX 3/27/Part D/6C/1066/West and General African Dept./Nigeria: Political Affairs, External, Bilateral, French Attitude in the Nigerian Civil War, 1 January 1968–31 December 1969.

  64. 64.

    BNA, FCO, 38/248, From John Wilson to Speares and W. Wilson, 9 October 1968.

  65. 65.

    BNA, FCO, 38/248, From Paris to Foreign Office/Telegram No. 1003, 8 October 1968.

  66. 66.

    FBNA, FCO, 38/248, From Washington to Foreign Office/Telegram No. 3036, 10 October 1968.

  67. 67.

    CBNA, FCO, 65/178, Confidential: Note on the Developments in the Nigerian Civil War: Confronting the French from John Wilson to D.C. Tebbit, 30 October 1968, File No. JWN 1/6/5A/368/ Part A/West African Dept./Nigeria: Internal Briefs on the Civil War in Nigeria, 1 January 1968–31 December 1969.

  68. 68.

    BNA, FCO, 65/347, Confidential: Note of Conversation Between the United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs and British Officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office London from D.C. Tebbit to the British High Commissioner in Lagos Sir David Hunt, 5 November 1968, File No. JWN 10/1/8/5A/368/West African Dept./Nigeria: Defence, French Arms Supply, 1 January 1968–31 December 1969.

  69. 69.

    BNA, FCO, 65/347,Confidential: Note of Conversation Between the United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs and British Officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, from D.C. Tebbit to the British High Commissioner in Lagos Sir David Hunt, 5 November 1968.

  70. 70.

    BNA, FCO, 65/266, Confidential: Record of a Meeting Between the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Nigerian Commissioner for Information and Labour, Anthony Enahoro, Held at No. 10, Downing Street, London, 8 November 1968.

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  1. University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

    Oluchukwu Ignatus Onianwa

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  1. International Studies Group, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Matteo Grilli

  2. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Frank Gerits

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Onianwa, O.I. (2020). In Between the Cold War Politics: The OAU Consultative Committee and Anglo-American Diplomacy in the Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970. In: Grilli, M., Gerits, F. (eds) Visions of African Unity. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52911-6_9

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