FORMER Biafran Army commander and one of the major planners of the January 1966 coup Ben Gbuile has warned Nigerians against another civil war sending out a reminder that Ndigbo resorted to cannibalism during the last one.
Then Captain Ben Gbuile, the ex-commander from Nimo in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State was one of those who overthrew the government of former prime minister Tafawa Balewa 50 years ago. One of the pioneer trainees at Nigeria Military Training College in Kaduna, he was also educated at Mons Officers Cadet School, the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst and the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham, all in the UK.
Operating in concert with Major Emanuel Ifeajuna, in Lagos 50 years ago, he is one of the few surviving officers who plotted that coup. Captain Gbuile was put in prison when the coup failed, went to war on the side of Biafra, survived a gun wound and ended up in prison again at the end of the war.
He wrote a book on the war titled The Five Majors which was provided a historical narrative of what happened. During the Nigerian civil war, Captain Gbuile was appointed the military administrator of the Aba providence, where he said he noticed people indulging in cannibalism to survive.
Captain Gbuile said: "I went to Aba because Ngwa people were eating human beings. I am going to advise our people against a lot of things they are doing and although they have not sought my advice but I am going to give it to them without asking for any gain.
"I went to Aba to stop cannibalism, the eating of human beings, which is just as bad as our people here today kidnapping our own people. We fought a war to protect lives and properties but our own people are now kidnapping our own people, does it make sense?"
He called on young Igbos to watch their actions and utterances because the traumas of war are real and gory. According to Captain Gbuile, people like him paid the price for the last civil war, as he was detained again when it ended in January 1970 after it was recommended by a board of enquiry.
According to Captain Gbuile, despite the Gowon government's policy of No Victor No Vanquished, people like him were still detained. He added that General Yakubu Gowon should count himself lucky because they were the ones that prevailed on Major General Philip Effiong, Biafra's second in command to end the war because Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran leader had fled to Ivory Coast.
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