THE MEMORIAL DAY OF ADAKA BORO__ OBED TOMONE

THE MEMORIAL DAY OF ADAKA BORO__ Obed Tomone

Learn More About Boro

Every year among the Ijaw nationalities, May 16 is set aside to celebrate his impact on Ijawland and remember how he fought for the Niger Delta region. Isaac Adaka Boro also has a park in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and a Polytechnic in Bayelsa state named after him.

Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro was born on September 10, 1938, to Ijaw parents in Oloibiri, Bayelsa. Ironically, this is where crude oil was first discovered in 1956. The mega dollars which then came with the discovery were not impacted on the area where the crude was coming from.

The young Boro did not find any difficulty in obtaining the first First School Leaving Certificate which examination he passed with distinction. He also passed the West African School Certificate Examinations at Hussey College, Warri, in 1957. Isaac Adaka Boro produced the best school certificate result for the college in that year.

After completing his secondary education in Warri, Delta State, he took up a teaching job before he joined the Police force. In 1961, he obtained a scholarship from the Eastern Regional Government to study Chemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Isaac Adaka Boro emerged as the President of the Students’ Union Government for the 1964/1965 session after two failed attempts. This was his first major role in a leadership position that made him very popular.

He was so radical and courageous that as a student, he dragged the Federal Government to court seeking the nullification of the 1964 general elections. He was also the pioneer for campus transportation which was hitherto nonexistent in the university. Boro paid attention to the unending political crises in Nigeria and spent more time reading the thoughts of known revolutionaries like Fidel Castro.

When he left UNN in 1965, he moved to Lagos and founded a political movement called, WXYZ with two like-minds, Samuel Owonaru and Nottingham Dick. The movement advocated greater control of the benefits of oil wealth for the Ijaw.

On February 23, 1966, a few weeks after the January 1966 military coup, at the age of 27, Isaac Boro declared the secession of the Niger Delta from the rest of the country. He called the new country the Niger Delta Republic but it would only last for 12 days. The revolution failed but it opened the door for others agitating for resource control and drew attention to what is happening in the Niger Delta region.

Boro and his comrades were tried for treason and sentenced to death. During his trial, he had remarked that there was nothing wrong with Nigeria but the lack of mercy in her activities. However, the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon who succeeded the murdered Ironsi in the July Northern counter-coup granted Boro amnesty on the eve of the Nigerian civil war in May 1967. He then enlisted and was commissioned as a major in the Nigerian Army.

Isaac Adaka Boro died during the Nigerian civil war near Okrika in 1968. He was 29. A lot of theories have come up concerning his death, with some pointing at Colonel Benjamin Adekunle claiming he saw Boro as a threat to his political ambition while others point at the Igbos, who felt the Boro betrayed them by joining the Nigerian state to fight against Biafra.

Proudly Ijaws Are Born Great. Major Adaka boro Owei.