HISTORY OF MAJOR ISAAC AD AKA BORO: THE FIRST MAN TO DECLARE NIGER DELTA REPUBLIC BEFORE BIAFRA
The History They Did not want you to know
You cannot talk about Igbo history without you correcting those lies they told you about Igbo nation before and after the War
Meet Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro. He was not Igbo, he was Ijaw from Oloibiri, present-day Bayelsa State. On February 23, 1966, just 5 weeks after Nigeria’s first military coup, Boro and his 159 volunteers declared the NIGER DELTA REPUBLIC. It was only for 12 days before Federal troops crushed them.
Why did he do it? Boro saw that Ijaw people were poor despite producing oil that feeds Nigeria. In his book “The Twelve Day Revolution”, he wrote that the Ijaws were neglected. He led his Niger Delta Volunteer Force and attacked police stations, kidnapped oil workers, and controlled Kaiama and parts of the Delta.
He was arrested and sentenced to death for treason by the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime. He was in prison waiting to be hanged. But in May 1967, on the eve of the Biafran Civil War, General Yakubu Gowon granted him amnesty. Gowon needed Ijaw fighters who knew the creeks to fight Biafra.
Boro then enlisted into the Nigerian Army and was commissioned as a Major. He was posted under Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, the Black Scorpion, to fight in the riverine areas of Biafra – present day Rivers, Bayelsa, and parts of Imo. His knowledge of the creeks helped Nigerian troops to navigate.
This is where the dark part of the war happened. It is recorded that during the war, some Nigerian troops used tactics of wearing civilian clothes or deceiving locals to enter villages in the riverine areas this is idea create by Boro, This created deep fear. Many riverine Igbo communities like Ikwerre, Etche, Ndoki, and Ogba started denying their Igbo identity after the war because they were caught in the middle. They were told “You are not Igbo” that is why the Biafra army are killing you but not knowing this are Nigerian troops disguise , they deny being Igbo to save themselves. That identity crisis started during the civil war, not today.
How did Adaka Boro die? In 1968, at the age of 29, he was killed under mysterious circumstances near Ogu, Okrika, in present-day Rivers State during active combat. The official version says he died in battle. But many Ijaw elders believe he was killed by his own side.
Two theories exist: One says Col. Adekunle saw Boro as a threat because Boro was very popular among Niger Delta soldiers and wanted true resource control, not just Nigeria winning the war. Second theory says Adekunle could not trust a man who once fought Nigeria, and later fought his former Biafran allies – because Boro himself was once pro-Biafra before joining Nigeria.
Lesson For Today: Betrayal in the Biafran struggle did not start today, especially from the riverine area. History shows that the Nigerian state has always used divide-and-rule between Igbos and Ijaws, between upland and riverine. But both are victims of the same system – oil taken from their land, poverty left behind.
If we do not learn history, we will repeat it. The Igbos and Ijaws fought together in 1966, fought against each other in 1967-70, but today we need to understand that we have the same enemy – injustice.
