BORO Day and the Niger Delta Plight .

At the age of 27, approximately five weeks after the first military coup in Nigeria, on February 23, 1966, Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro declared the secession of the Niger Delta region as a last resort in response to the environmental assaults, oppression, and marginalization the region had suffered within the Nigerian state, particularly the Igbo-dominated defunct Eastern Region.

Leading a lean number of armed revolutionaries, mainly Ijaws, he took on the Nigerian State for 12 days in guerrilla warfare and thereby laid the foundation to what is now popularly known as the “Niger Delta Struggle.” It was a desperate measure in a desperate time.

Before embarking on his revolutionary path, Isaac Boro had a diverse background, having served as student union president at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and earned a degree, he also worked as a teacher and policeman and was well-versed in the writings of influential revolutionary thinkers, whose ideas likely informed his political beliefs.

One may not agree with his methods (maybe the question only arises because they have not succeeded in this terrain), but Boro was driven by sound ideologies. His 12-day “revolution” is not a testament to an inherent love for violence but is proof, and a reminder, that when an oppressive establishment refuses to heed peaceful and insistent pleas/action, the people may be forced to employ the worst forms of violence. Even more so when one watches the life slowly sucked off the people and things they care about.