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, as he later became known, 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 defunct Eastern Region.

Leading a lean number of armed revolutionaries in the Niger Delta Volunteer Service (the Service), 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. He had quit the police force and enrolled in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), where, from his political experience in the university community, he concluded that the Nigerian minorities were strictly second-class citizens. After his degree, he set his mind to furthering the Ijaw cause and later established the Service.

He was versed in the writings of 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…