ABSTRACT
Ojukwu was not prepared to consider such a proposal: break-up of the Eastern region would isolate the Ibo heartland from the main oilfields on the coast; and the splitting of Nigeria into a number of small states would inevitably lead to increased concentration of power in Lagos. Biafran sources have claimed that these riots, like the ones in May, were deliberately instigated by Northern leaders in an attempt to frustrate a constitutional settlement of which they disapproved. Biafra started the war with four medical officers who had been in the Nigerian Army, but it had the advantages that there were a large number of civilian Ibo doctors ready to serve and that the front lines were close to the main centres of population. After the sudden Biafran thrust into the Mid-West in August 1967 he was put in command of the hastily formed Second Division.
