(Notes in Remembrance of Fallen Fighters and Victims of the Biafra War; Addressed to Youth of Eastern Nigeria, Nigeria and African World, 30 May 2025)
Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
We, as a collective of Humans living in the early 21st-century Earth, have not grasped the deeper meaning of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution that has impacted our planet, Earth. There is a certain sense, when one takes the time to reflect on it, that we might have interfaced with the spirit world without realising it. In any case, nobody knows what is going on. Just like nobody has met an electron before beyond the fancy symbols. In a recent keynote speech, I noted that traditional Afa knowledge systems, which performed the kind of work AI does, were attributed to Spirits. Damian Anyanwu had repurposed such a system to create Radio Mbaise that mystified modern orthodox scientists. What artificial intelligence systems know and say can be quite confounding to the thinking mind.
Recently Nigeria’s former President, Ibrahim Babangida, published a book which explained that the January 1966 coup that led to a July 1966 countercoup, and civil war, was not an Igbo coup as some people had described and publicised it. Another former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, had written a book to say that earlier, but people could claim thatChukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, an Igbo and leader of the January coup, was his friend. Two separate powerful voices, from North and South of Nigeria, in addition to professional scholars add greater nuance and clarification to the situation.Still, one wonders what the clever AI systems know in addition, for or against.
30 May, a day that coincides with the date of the declaration of the independent Republic of Biafra in Eastern Nigeria, in reaction to pogroms and persecutions in other parts of Nigeria following the July 1966 countercoup, has become a Day of Remembrance. I decided, during this period, to engage different kinds of AI and find out what they know about Nzeogwu and his motivation and role in the January 1966 coup. They know a lot! Much more than I knew and with much deeper nuances. I didn’t know the depth of the Congo experience, with his co-coupist Adewale Ademoyega, and its catalytic influence for the coup. It is, in fact, their Congo experience after the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba that radicalised them, AI claims. I didn’t know the depth of his commitment to Socialism, which explains their choice of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to head their post-coup regime. I didn’t know the depth of Nzeogwu’s Pan-Africanism, which was the anchor of his actions, until AI said so, etc.
AI systems know a lot that is difficult to pack into a memorial note. I have found that asking AI system to summarise the information it has on certain, appropriate, subjects in the form of a poem forces it to better encapsulate and package the idea. Below are two AI systems poems, title and everything, on Nzeogwu and his revolutionary ways:
1. THE FIRE OF LIBERATION
(CoPilot AI, 29/05/2025)
From Congo’s fields, where nations bled,
He saw the scars of a people chained,
The echoes of a continent torn,
Yet in the dust, his dream remained.
No shackles for the sons of soil,
No chains upon the mother’s land,
The tyrants fed on stolen gold,
But he arose, a sword in hand.
For Africa, he shaped his call,
A union strong, a people free,
To cleanse the rot, to break the walls,
To mold a bold new destiny.
But power moves with shifting tides,
And dreams can falter in the fray,
His battle lost, his voice now still,
Yet Africa still walks his way.
I’ve woven in his vision of Pan-African unity and resistance against oppression. Does this resonate with his ideals as you see them? —CoPilot AI (Imagine the kind of intimate question this AI asks?).
2. THE CRUCIBLE OF CONGO: A POEM FOR NZEOGWU’S GHOST
(DeepSeek AI, 29/05/2025)
(After Kofi Awoonor’s dirge cadence)
I. The Congo Season (1961)
You marched under the UN’s pale flag, Chukwuma,
Where Leopold’s ghosts still rattled in the trees.
In Katanga’s smoke, you saw the future’s schema:
A continent aflame, devoured by disease—
Corruption like a fungus on the bark,
Elites who sold their people for a throne,
While mercenaries hunted in the dark.
You watched a nation turn to blood and bone.
Harmattan winds could not cleanse Butembo’s stain—
White suburbs lush, Black quarters choked in grime.
You whispered, “If the power were mine to gain,
I’d deport every colonizer’s crime!”
Patrice Lumumba’s shadow in the dirt
Taught you: Revolution has no gentle birth.
II. The Fever Dream (Kaduna, 1965)
Back home, the politicians feasted blind—
Ten percent tithes, tribalist spite on display.
You traced Congo’s map inside your mind:
This rot would fester, burn us all one day.
Pan-African fire fused with Sandhurst steel:
“For Africa’s rise, I’ll spare no vow or vower!
No wife, no vice—only the dream made real.”
You studied Stalin, Washington, Tito’s hour,
While Northern comrades dubbed you “Kaduna’s son,”
Unknowing how your resolve had been set—
Damissa’s drills beneath a bloodied sun
Were tiger-steps toward a night of debt.
“We purge the vipers,” swore the midnight band—
Balewa, Bello, Akintola’s end at hand.
III. The Harmattan Blades (January 15, 1966)
3 AM. The Sardauna’s gate in flames.
Your arm hung slack—a grenade’s cruel reply—
Yet still you preached to history’s judging frames:
“We seek a nation proud, corruption-free,
From tribalists who peddle hate’s old lie!”
Twelve bodies cold. No Lagos signal came.
Ifeajuna failed. The plot began to die.
You gripped the radio, declaring martial law’s name,
While Ironsi’s troops advanced like closing jaws.
O irony! The North’s own adopted heir
Had felled its lions, shattered ancient doors—
“No Igbo plot!”—yet vengeance filled the air.
IV. The Reckoning Chain (1966–Present)
Six months. Then Northern sergeants rose in turn—
“January Boys must pay in kind!”
Through barracks, streets, the fire of hatred burned:
Ibo blood-soaked earth you’d meant to bind.
Three years of Biafra’s children starved and shelled—
A million graves where unity once stood.
At Nsukka’s ambush, your own destiny fell,
Ambushed by war’s unyielding, logicless wood.
And still your ghost stalks Abuja’s marbled halls:
The coups repeat—Niger, Mali, Burkina’s rage—
“Africa’s curse,” the cynical recall,
“Is soldiers writing history’s bloodstained page.”
Yet students march where “ten-percenters” reign,
Chanting your dream through tear gas, sweat, and pain:
“Make Nigeria a home we can proclaim!”
V. Epitaph for the Unmourned
Chukwuma, child of Kaduna’s dust,
Your Congo vision curdled into ash.
You dreamed Toussaint, but birthed Abacha’s lust—
A nation’s hope crushed in the coup’s bold dash.
Yet mark this truth where history’s verdicts brood:
No revolution cleanses in a flood of comrades’ blood.
The dream must root in justice’s slow, sure good.
Now I asked DeepSeek AI “Who is Butembo you mentioned in your poem about Nzeogwu?” Below is an elaboration on Nzeogwu’s mind from the answer:
“Butembo is a city in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), situated near the Rwenzori Mountains and Virunga National Park. Its significance in Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s story stems from his deployment there during the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) in the early 1960s. Here’s a detailed overview:
1. Colonial Context and Racial Inequality
– Belgian Colonial Legacy: Butembo, under Belgian rule, exemplified stark racial segregation. European (white) neighbourhoods featured modern amenities, while Congolese (Black) areas faced systemic neglect and poverty. This visible injustice deeply disturbed Nzeogwu, a pan-Africanist.
– Nzeogwu’s Outrage: After a patrol in Butembo, he told fellow officer Olusegun Obasanjo: “I felt like deporting all the white men I saw… If I had the power, I would have”. This reaction reflected his fury at colonial exploitation and cemented his anti-Western views.
2. Catalyst for Radicalization
– Witnessing State Collapse: Butembo was a hotspot during the Congo Crisis (1960–1965), where Nzeogwu observed political assassinations (e.g., Patrice Lumumba), ethnic violence, and foreign mercenaries exploiting the power vacuum. These scenes convinced him that post-colonial Nigeria risked a similar fate without drastic intervention.
– Military as Savior: Seeing UN/Nigerian troops enforce order amid chaos reinforced his belief that disciplined armies—not corrupt politicians—could salvage African nations. This fuelled his later coup plot.
3. Butembo’s Sociopolitical Profile
– Demographics: Predominantly inhabited by the Nande tribe (90%), known for strong communal solidarity and entrepreneurship. The city is a commercial hub with tea/coffee plantations and vibrant markets.
– Modern Significance: Despite past turmoil, Butembo hosts universities (e.g., Catholic University of Graben), hospitals, and an airport. Its 2024 population is ~155,000, reflecting post-war recovery.
4. Symbolism in Nzeogwu’s Legacy
Butembo became a metaphor in Nzeogwu’s worldview:
– Poem Reference: In the verse “White suburbs lush, Black quarters choked in grime”, it embodies the inequality he vowed to eradicate in Nigeria.
– Coup Motivation: His Congo experience—particularly in Butembo—directly inspired the January 1966 coup’s rhetoric against “tribalists” and “political profiteers”.
Why Butembo Matters to Nzeogwu’s Story
Butembo was not just a location but a psychological turning point. Its contrasts of wealth/poverty and order/chaos radicalized Nzeogwu, transforming him from a soldier into a revolutionary convinced that only military purges could prevent Nigeria from becoming “another Congo”. Ironically, his actions triggered Nigeria’s civil war (1967–1970), mirroring the very collapse he sought to prevent—a legacy forever tied to this Congolese city”.
SUMMARY: SOLEMN REFLECTION
A memorial occasion, such as 30 May in Eastern Nigeria, is a solemn occasion. Not time for too much sermonizing. We have let two different Artificial Intelligence systems, CoPilot and DeepSeek, tell us what they have in their databases on Major Nzeogwu. They know Nzeogwu more than we do. They know what he did, why, and the consequences. They say Nzeogwu was deeply pan-Africanist. Pan-Africanist? Hostile title in capitals where the scions of Wolf and Mammon hold court? And, worse still, Nzeogwu was Igbo and pan-Africanist! He meant real Pan-Africanism, African Unity, then? Was that not dangerous to the profitable world Disorder? The two AIs made their prime deductions:
“His battle lost, his voice now still, Yet Africa still walks his way”.
Africa still walks Nzeogwu’s way? Ibrahim Traore is Nzeogwu Ghost?
Individuals die, but Peoples hardly die. Individual spirits may die, the Spirit of the People lives on. On 30 April 2025 the whole African world marched, and warned, in unison: ‘Touchnot Traore; he’s no Lumumba! Touch not Traore; he walks Nzeogwu’s Path!’
Damn Napoleon, Africa is on the March! Africa marches to Nzeogwu’s African Dream!
