Nnamdi Azikiwe Appeals to Fellow Igbos to Breakaway from "Biafran Tyranny" | October 1969

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of Nigeria appeals to the Igbo people, most of who make up the population of the secessionist state of Biafra, to turn away from the leaders of Biafra who have "hoodwinked" them into supporting an enterprise that has brought them widespread suffering. He also challenged the Biafran Head of State, Odumegwu Ojukwu, a former Lt. Colonel in the Nigerian Army, to have "second thoughts" lest he leave the legacy of having been a "political imposter and petty tyrant."
Azikiwe spoke in the Nigerian High Commission in London, outside of which demonstrators for and against him were congregated.
Transcript:
On Friday, September 5, 1969, I alighted at the Lagos Airport at 2PM and I spent the next 21 days visiting the capitals of the 12 states of Nigeria including four university towns and certain parts of the liberated areas of former eastern Nigeria. My visit has made it clear to me that all of us have now realised the mistakes we made in the past by fighting one another. There is a general feeling, which is widespread that all are now determined to turn a new leaf and help repair the damage we have inflicted on ourselves, not only that, there is now a deep-seated desire to have an effective central government which will hold the federation intact so that in the future no component of it will be in a position to challenge the fatherland to a mortal combat...The world has been shocked that an enterprising people, like the Igbo, have been tongue-tied and emasculated, that they have allowed tyrants to blindfold and hoodwink them so that in a war alleged to be fought for their survival, more than 1.5 million children of their country had died of starvation and disease. It sickens me to see the advertisement of skeletal Biafran babies on the pages of the newspapers and on the TV screens, begging for charity and relief. It hurts my pride as a human being...This is the challenge that his people offer to General Ojukwu: I wish he would have second thoughts and inscribe his name in contemporary world history a brave soldier and beloved leader, instead of disfiguring the pages of Nigerian history as another political impostor and petty tyrant.
Source: Reuters News.