PREDICAMENT AND IMPLICATION: THE NIGERIAN

CIVIL WAR AND THE MORALITY OF WOMEN IN EDDIE

IROH’S FORTY-EIGHT GUNS FOR THE GENERAL,
TOADS OF WAR AND THE SIREN IN THE NIGHT

BY

OKEY COMPASSION JACOB

06/11016

SUBMITTED TO

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES

FACULTY OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR
CALABAR, NIGERIA

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD

OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (B.A. HONS) DEGREE IN ENGLISH AND
LITERARY STUDIES.

JANUARY 2011
 ii

CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that this research work entitled “Predicament

and Implication: The Nigerian Civil War and the Morality of Women in

Eddie Iroh’s Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Toads of War and The

Siren in the Night” was written by Okey, Compassion Jacob

(06/11016) of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Faculty

of Arts, University of Calabar, Calabar, under the Supervision of Dr.

Azubike Iloeje.

OKEY, COMPASSION JACOB ______________________

(Researcher) Signature

_______________________
Date

Dr. Azubike Iloeje ______________________

(Supervisor) Signature

_______________________
Date

Dr. Ndubisi Osuagwu _______________________

(Head of Department) Signature

_______________________
Date

______________________
(External Examiner) Signature

_______________________
Date
 iii

DEDICATION

This study is dedicated to my ever caring Parents, Mr. and Mrs.

Jacob Okey and my beloved siblings, Ransome and Praise.

 iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The success of my intellectual endeavour would have remained

a mirage without the valuable input of some intellectual livewires who

have been helpers of the vision.

My sincere gratitude goes first to my supervisor, Dr. Azubike

Iloeje, a father and teacher who guided, corrected, advised and

served as a vital link between my dreams for this research work and

its reality. Though he almost stretched the life out of me, his

contributions has made this work a huge success.

I deeply appreciate all my lectures who have impacted

knowledge in me from my first year in this department. My beloved

cousin Lyclah, dear friends and course mates like Ogechukwu, Mike,

Ezere, Mba, Bro Godwin, Alice, Mary, Umoh, Patricia, Anne, Nkashi,

Sandy, Akai, Beatrice and the host of others who gave me moral

support and aided me with some materials I used in this study, are

warmly appreciated.

The love, care and support of my parents, both financially and

spiritually are greatly appreciated, for without them, these pages

could scarcely have been written. I also thank my siblings, Ranny and

P boy who aided me in their little way by encouraging and praying for

me during the writing of this work.

 v

Above all, my greatest appreciation goes to my heavenly father

who loved me, gave me the breath of life, wisdom and grace to go

about this research, even when I am not worthy. His love, grace, care

and compassion saw me through it all.

 vi

ABSTRACT

This study examines the predicament and implication of the Nigerian

Civil War on the morality of women in Eddie Iroh’s Forty-Eight Guns
for the General (1979), Toads of War (1979) and The Siren in the
Night (1982), which are the creative representation of the beginning,
middle and end of the Nigerian Civil War. The predicament of women
in Forty-Eight Guns for the General and Toads of War is closely
related. It is the predicament of want. The result of this Predicament
is the decline of morality as women, even the married, trade their
bodies to soldier and the few rich who could provide their needs -
food, clothing and shelter; some others, stole to survive. Since Forty-
Eight Guns for the General deals with soldier in action, there are cases
of rape and sexual molestation. In Toads of War, there are jobless
ladies who gladly give themselves to men, others even cheat on their
closest friends by having sexual intercourse with their benefactors;
though, most of them had sworn never to let a man see them naked
till they get married. In The Siren in the Night, there are the
predicament of death of women who tried to keep their families
together as a body. Others are the predicaments of uncertainty, fear
and treat to lives of women whose husbands are trying to fix
themselves within some places of work at the end of the war. The
decline of morality is seen in these three works as part of the
inevitable instability of mind occasioned by the war.
 vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE - - - - i

CERTIFICATION - - - - ii

DEDICATION - - - - iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - - - iv

ABSTRACT - - - - vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - vii

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction - - - 1

1.1 Background of study - - - 5

1.2 Theoretical framework - - - 7

1.3 Significance of study - - - 9

1.4 Review of scholarship - - - 11

1.5 Background of author - - - 15

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Predicament and Implication: The Nigerian Civil War and

the Morality of women in Forty-Eight Guns for the General. 17

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 Predicament and Implication: The Nigerian Civil War

and the morality of women in Toads of War. - 26
 viii

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 The morality of women in Eddie Iroh’s The Siren the Night. 38

4.1 Summary - - - - 46

WORKS CITED
 1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Nigerian Civil War which is at times referred to as the

Biafran war is a terrible experience between the 6th of July 1967 and

January 5th 1970. There was a war as a result of some unpleasant

occurrences within the country and, the events of this war have

greatly influenced Nigerian Literature. Writers have written mostly

novels than plays or poetic works based on these horrifying

happening. These writers are either reacting from the federal side like

Ken Saro Wiwa, Festus Iyayi, etc, or from the Biafran side like Eddie

Iroh, Chinua Achebe etc.

Dyson, Sally (1998) gives a summary of the Civil War, its causes

and consequences on the country in the lines below:

The Civil War that broke out on July 6, 1967

was to last for two-and-a half years. In view of
the pogrom of Ibos in the North in 1966 rebel
soldier Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and
his followers regarded the conflict as a total
war for actual physical survival. But by the end
of 1969, the Biafran succumbed and the vital
remaining airstrip … came within range of
federal artillery. Military casualties reached an
estimated 100,000. But the majority of death
occurred among Ibo civilians: between
500,000 and two million Biafran civilians died
in the war mainly from starvation (173).

The pogrom or the massacre of the Easterners in the north can

be traced first to the coup of January 15, 1966. According to Senator

Joseph `Lai (1995), it all started in the coup of January 15, 1966.
 2

In the early hours of the morning, a dissident

section of the Nigerian Army kidnapped the
Prime Minister Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and the
Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okofi Eboh
and took them to an unknown destination….
(64)

The coup is spearheaded by the revolutioner, Major Chukwuma

Kaduna Nzeogu and others which included; Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna,

Major Chris Anufona and Major Don Okafor. They took it upon

themselves to kill all the political Lords and thin gods who once fought

for the liberation and independence of the country and its people from

the clutches of colonialism, but are now in turn murdering those they

liberated by their corrupt and heartless activities. All these Majors

were assigned to each region to kill the top politicians. But, some

people missed their targets and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr. M. I.

Okpara who were among those mapped out to be killed escaped.

Alhaji Tafawa Balewa (Prime Minister), Sir Ahmadu Bello (the Premier

of the Northern Region) and Chief Samuel Ladoke (the Premier of the

Western Region) are killed. As Senator Joseph `Lai puts it;

Others who lost their lives were army officers

from the North and West. No Civil leader or
Military officer from the East was killed. The
only exception was Lt. Col Unegbo who was
shot because he refused to hand over the keys
to the armoury (64 – 65).

For this reason, the coup was termed an Igbo affair because, no Igbo

top politician or military officer, except Lt. Col. Unegbo, was affected.

This coup according to Ojukwu,Chukuemeka (1969), lead to a

Northern revolt and counter coup in 29 th July 1966 by Lt. Col. Yakubu
 3

Gowon and Major Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. This coup lead to the

death of the first military Head of State, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi

and Lt. Col. Fajuyi, the Military Governor of Western Region, bringing

the 32 year old Colonel Yakubu Gowon as chief of Army and Head of

State of Nigeria. This Lt. Col. Ojukwu a senior military officer did not

support.

There were other causes of the Nigerian Civil War which cannot

be exhausted in this section; majority of the causes are engulfed in

the leadership tenure of Gowon. He promised creating new states but

did not on the agreed date. He promised bringing to justice the

soldiers who raided Benin Prison, removed, freed Northerners and

brutally murdered detainees who were mainly easterners in

September 1966, who were all detained as a result of their alleged

involvement in the attempted coup of 15 January 1966. Contrary to

the decision of Aburi Accord, recruitment into the Army continued in

different parts of the country except the East. His (Gowon’s) failure to

abide by other decisions of Aburi Accord caused the Civil War. Lt. Col.

Odumegwu Ojukwu the then Governor of the Eastern Region

announced on Radio that all Igbos should leave all other regions and

return to the Eastern region since their lives were no more save. He

went further to have meetings and talks with some top Eastern rulers.

Not minding the advice of Major Nzeogwu who told him that the aim of

their coup was to stop tribalism and corruption, he went further to

 4

declare “the Republic of Biafra” on March 31 st 1967. This action leads

to the Nigerian Civil War which officially started on the 6th July, 1967.

The Civil War lead to the destruction of many lives in the battle

field and in refugee camps. Women on the other hand could not keep

to high value their body which is their most valuable item. They give it

out for food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their children.

Young ones are recruited into the army, so were the old, as the others

die on daily basis. The Civil War, a horrendous experience Nigerians

prays never occur again separated families, caused pain and tears to

many, both psychologically and physically.

This research work is divided into four chapters. Chapter one

deals with a general introduction to the work, background of study

and the author, the significance of study, theoretical framework and

review of scholarship. Chapter two handles predicaments and

implications: the Nigerian Civil War and the morality of women in

Forty-Eight Guns for the General; Chapter three deals with

Predicaments and implications: the Nigerian Civil War and the morality

of women in Toads of War; Chapter four deliberates on the

predicaments of women in the Nigerian Civil War in The Siren in the

Night; and finally gives a brief summary of everything that is

discussed in the research.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Literature is a creative art of writing that does not exist in a

vacuum. It is an appendage to society. The occurrences within a

 5

particular milieu motivate writers to write either fictional or non-fiction

literary works. The writers in Africa or Nigeria to be specific find in the

activities and occurrences in society materials to write on. Literature

therefore involves a group of people who share the experience of the

fictional activities demonstrated in a literary piece. About the

relationship between literature and the public, H. R. Jauss maintains

that every

…work has its specific, historically and

sociologically determined audience that every
writer is dependent upon. The milieu, views
and ideology of his readers … literacy success
requires a book which expresses what the
group expects, a book which presents the
group with its own portrait (85).

From the above, one sees that literature portrays the society, it’s

people and their experiences. This is applicable to African writers

generally and Nigeria writers particularly.

Early African and Nigerian novels are influenced by the

circumstances in history which molded the society from pre-colonial

states and their cultural entities, where writer’s concern according to

Oko Emilia 2005: …was to reinstate the validity of African culture and

prove that the African way of life and thought were worthy subject of

Art (12).

After this period of cultural affirmation came writers and writings

about the most embracing influences of colonization which had

created the political entity of that country. For instance, Nigerian

 6

colonialism becomes a significant factor in the socio-political life of the

nation. Writers then wrote about colonial encounter. These works

portrayed the destruction of the African believe and values as a result

of their encounter with the European culture. In Nigeria we have

writers like Achebe, Chinua, Ekwensi, Cyprian etc.

Then came the literature of independence or post-colonialism

where African countries have gained independence and were now in

control of themselves. These societies breed corruption, neo-

colonialism and the disillusionment of the poor masses. These aspects

of society influence not only writers of the novel but also writers of

poetry and drama, which reflects the corrupt practices amongst

political hoodlums in the country. Within this period, the Nigerians

experienced the Civil War.

The Nigerian Civil War resulted to a certain kind of national

literature. It produced writers who reported their terrible experiences

either from the federal or Biafra angle.

Iroh’s trilogy; Forty-Eight Guns for the General (1975), Toads

of War (1979) and The Siren in the Night (1982) is a reaction from the

Biafran angle and it portrays vividly the unpleasant experiences of the

Biafrans, during the war

1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Eddie Iroh’s Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Toads of War and

The Sirens in the Night express the historical ideology. This is because
 7

in this trilogy he tends to tell the history of the Nigerian Civil War, the

happenings during and after the war.

Historicism calls for writing things that affect people according to

their history. The events of the Nigerian Civil War according to

Nwahunanya, Chinyere, 1996; …were traumatic experiences that

threatened the very existence of the people as individuals and of a

people as a corporate entity …. (2).

It is one memorable experience in the country’s history that

cannot be forgotten. The Civil War is therefore indelible from the

minds of parents, children and relatives who experienced it or heard

about it. Writers therefore act as historians by writing these

experiences either as fictional or non fictional novels, play text and

poems, thereby making it unforgettable as other historical experiences

of the country.

These set of writers are divided into federal and Biafran voices

but, 90 percent of the literature on the Nigerian Civil War are written

by Biafrans, from the east. There is this disparity because according to

S. O. Mezu (1993) as quoted by Chinyere Nwahunaya (1996):

… since the war experience of Biafrans and the

other Nigerians were not the same in spite of
unification, divergent views of the reality of
the Nigerian experience will for a long time to
come modify the Nigerian’s vision of the world
and consequently the literature emanating
from Igbo land and the rest of Nigeria (12).

Eddie Iroh is a Biafran writer who tells us the experiences at the

beginning of the war in Biafra in Forty-Eight Guns for the General,

 8

where mercenaries are flown in to help the Biafrans. In Toads of War,

he takes us deeper into history by portraying the period before the

Civil War which is the coup and the pogrom of the Igbos in Kalu

Udim’s monologue:

…the massacres, during which my people

were machine-gunned out of the federation in
a brilliantly bloody spectacle that left the
tactical imprint of sandhurst training …. Then
along came Biafra. Yes, our Biafra. The
heaven for a persecuted people; the answer
to Nigeria and massacres, the bold response
to cyclic decades of pogrom …. (46).

In The Siren in the Night, he brings his trilogy and war history to

an end by portraying the tribalistic impulse on the society after the

Civil War, using the characters of colonel Kolawole the antagonist of

the novel who is against Colonel Ben Udaja the protagonist of the

novel, who is not tribalistic.

Eddie Iroh therefore uses the historical ideology in writing the

things that affected the people of Nigeria before, during and after the

Civil War. Though these novels are fictional, they are quality historical

materials that harbour the historical experiences of Nigerians before

and after the period of 1967 – 1969.

1.3 Significance of study

This research work intends to explore in debt the predicaments

of women and their moral imbalance during the Nigerian Civil War in

Eddie Iroh’s Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Toads of War and The

Sirens in the Night.

 9

Women are humans as men but, possess certain qualities that

are different from theirs. According to Umoren, Tonia (2002);

Scientific researchers in their study of the

gametes have identified two sexes: male and
female, strong and weak respectively. The
female sex is the weak and it is the woman ….
(2)

From the above one discovers that woman is the weaker sex

while the man are the opposite. A woman therefore might prove hard

at the beginning of something but by the virtue of being the weaker

sex, she could easily be broken by situations. Other characteristics of

women and men according to Nicholson, John (1993) are;

…men are thought to be physically tougher,

more aggressive, more rational, better able to
handle sex without love, and more like to be
successful at work by virtue of their greater
will to win. Women on the other hand are
held to be more emotional and unpredictable,
interested in people rather than ideas, and
too suggestible and dependent to wield
authority comfortable to anyone except
perhaps their own children (2).

There are various differences given in the above quote but, two

are very important to this researcher; these are the ideas that women

are more emotional than men and unpredictable. They do not handle

situations like men, they get emotional at the situations of their

children and family as a whole. This deep concern and love makes

them mostly unpredictable.

Women like men have needs like: shelter, clothing, feeding and

most especially some specific needs like their toiletries which their
 10

male counterparts do not really need. All these needs are essential

and pressing on a woman and can make her go the extra mile of

giving her body to a man that can provide these needs.

During the Nigerian Civil War, families were torn apart, most

fathers and grown up sons were recruited into the army and other

children, left to the care of their mothers. Mothers have to carter for

themselves and their children in a society where there is unrest and

joblessness. Young women had to barter their bodies to stay alive,

other women were raped by soldier who had guns to threaten their

lives if they resisted. These are acts of total moral degeneration which

on normal circumstances would not have happened.

The issues discussed in the paragraphs above are the

predicaments of women during the war and its implications their

morality. These will be analyzed vividly in the subsequent chapters of

this research work as portrayed by Eddie Iroh in his trilogy.

1.4 REVIEW OF SCHOLARSHIP

According to the Encyclopedia of African Literature;

Eddie Iroh is one of the many writers who came of

age during the Nigerian Civil War and like many
works connected with this traumatic event in post
colonial Africa, his novels are not concerned so
much with the wider politics of the war but with
the mediate effect on the people who lived
through it. … Iroh’s novels are memorable for
their concern with its immediate effect on the
people who lived through the conflict rather than
the wider politics of the war (1).
 11

Forty-Eight Guns for the General focuses on the emotional

tension of people living in a war torn enclave, the human carriage and

waste caused by war situation and the pompous leader who does not

know what it means to be completely patriotic and heeding to advice.

The consequence of this according to Nwahunaya, Chinyere (1996);

…is that in the cause of the execution of the

war which forms the subject of the novel,
foreign mercenaries are trusted more than
patriotic indigenous officers. Through the
mercenary involvement in Civil War, Eddie
Iroh in the novel shows us the imperialist and
neo-colonial machination which underline the
instability of African nations (209).

From the above it can be said that Nwahunaya describes Forty-

Eighty Guns for the General based on the life in Biafra and the

military. It expresses just the idea of the introduction of mercenaries

to fighting in support of the Biafrans, a form of neo-colonialism. She

also looks at the novel as portraying a leadership by people who are

deaf to true and patriotic advice of citizens and blinded to trust the

mercenaries. It can then be said that Nwahumanya, Chinyere in her

analysis of Forty-Eight Guns for the General did not relate the novel to

the portrayal of the women during the Civil War.

In Toads of War, Eddie Iroh exposed the evils that were

common in Nigeria before the Civil War which surfaced with greater

intensity in Biafra. This consequently caused the failure of the

revolution as stated by Nwahunanya, Chinyere (1996):

His comments of the social ethics which

informs the behaviour of many highly-placed
 12

persons in Toads of War, makes the book a

remarkable achievement, for as the book
suggests, the replay in war-time Biafra of the
objectionable behaviours which in the first
place made Biafrans want to pull out of
Nigeria, means that some of the causes of our
problems are congenital and so cannot just be
wiped out by merely drawing a new map and
hoisting a new flag (209).

She says in Toad of War that there are the harrowing memories

of the pogrom when “Kalu Udim” for instance talks about:

…the massacres during which my people were

machine-gunned out of the federation … then
came along Biafra. Yes, our Biafra … the bold
response to cyclic decades pogrom …. (118)

She does not stop here, she goes further to state that:

Beyond the pogrom is the need to start afresh on

a clean slate, to sweep into oblivion the vestiges
of the corruption that had been the hallmark of
political life in pre-war Nigeria. Iroh records that
in the following interior monologue from Toads of
War … fat men grew fatter sucking the blood of
learn men. Lean men dried up and snapped like
twigs … (118 – 119).

This corruption leads to the coup of 15 January 1966, the pogrom and

then the Civil War. She also has it that:

it is these various corrupt power profiteers that

Iroh refers to as the “toads of war “ … who are
prepared to exploit whoever they can …. Given
this situation where a few people have
everything and the majority has nothing, the
stage is set for the exploitation of whoever turns
up. Women turn out to be the main victims of
these power profiteers. A typical toad of war is
Chima Duke. He is aware of the helplessness of
Kechi Ugboma and girls of her type and
therefore wants to exploit it to the fullest ….
(128).
 13

From the above analysis, it can be deduced that Chinyere

Nwahunaya sees Toads of War as a novel that portrays the corruption

in the society, which leads to the coup of January 15, 1966, the

Pogrom and creation of the Republic of Biafra. She also sees the novel

as that which tries to trace back the memories of the cause of the

coup, the pogrom and the initial satisfaction of Biafrans, when finally

“their own Biafra” is created. She does not widely state women’s

immoral practices as a result of the war, she only sees women as

instrument exploited by the rich because of their helplessness.

In The Siren in the Night things have deteriorated to a stage

where the Biafran state cannot be salvaged from the doldrums and

disillusionment it has already entrenched itself among the people.

With the military disabilities to compound the problem, defeat is

already indicated. Men of conscience like Ben Udaja see that the only

solution to the problem is a defection to Nigeria as a way of

accentuating the collapse of Biafra since the revolution failed. Ben

Udaja before the formal end of the war initiates his own personal

rehabilitation when he makes up his mind to defect from the Biafran

cause. According to Nwahunanya, Chinyere (1989):

out of the conviction that it was no longer

meaningful to continue the war when the
leadership had not only derailed from initial
objectives of the revolution, but was also
becoming impervious to genuine advice (39).
 14

Ben Udaja’s action is that of a disillusioned patriot who seeks

the means of saving the number of masses from the continuous

deaths by working as the Director of Civilian coordination to assist

return Biafran masses. This employment of his according to

Nwahunanya Chinyere (1996) results to an:

Issue of tribalism and power in a tribally

pluralistic country like Nigeria …. Here he
focuses on the use into which tribal sentiment
are put by people who find themselves in
positions of influence, and who want to use
such position to achieve political ascendancy….
Because those holding power are often afraid
of losing it, members of other tribes with the
same political unit are often branded
saboteurs, agitators or over-ambitious political
enthusiasts …. This kind of experience in many
African countries including Nigeria compel one
to read the behaviour of Mike Kolawole and his
perception of the responsibility given to Ben
Udaja in The Sirens in the Night ….(209 –
213).

The extract above gives a summary of what Nwahunanya,

Chinyere gives as an analysis of The Siren in the Night. She sees it as

a novel written on the impulse of tribalism in the country as portrayed

in the work by it’s author, Eddie Iroh between the activities of the

protagonist Ben Udaja who is a Biafran returnee who surrendered

before the war officially ended and is given an employment as the

Director of Civilian Co-ordination but is envied by the antagonist

Colonel Mike Kolawole, Head of the Federal Security and Intelligence

Directorate. She also did not talk about the plight of women, now the

war was getting to an official end, the Biafrans are surrendering and
 15

tribalism is getting at its peak as the “big men” try to stop the effects

of a show casing returnees.

The above analysis of these novels given by Nwahunaya,

Chinyere do not vividly reflect the predicaments of women during the

war or their moral breakdown: This is what this researcher tries to do

in the three chapters below

1.5 BACKGROUND OF AUTHOR

Iroh, Eddie is the author of Forty-Eight Guns for the General

(1975), Toads of War (1979) and The Siren in the Night (1982);

Without a silver Spoon (1981) and Bannana Leaves (2007). During

the Nigerian Civil War, he was a desk editor for the Biafran War

Information Bureau. Afterwards he worked for Reuters, the news

agency, for Evans publishers and then for the Features and

Documentation Department of Nigerian Television, Enugu. Since 1979,

he has been the Head and Controller of the Documentary Department,

Nigerian Television Authority Lagos where he is writing and directing a

documentary series on the origin and development of the Nigerian

people called “Portrait of a Culture”.

Eddie Iroh is championed by his action-packed trilogy of the war

in Biafra; Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Toads of War and The

Siren in the Night.

These three novels reflect three periods of the War. Forty-Eight

Guns for the General reflects the beginning of the war as faced by the
 16

people and the military in Biafra. Toads of war reflect the period of

war and the effect on lives outside the military. While The siren in the

Night deals with life on Biafra after the war for the returning civilians

and military men. A brief summary and analysis would be done on

these novels in the subsequent chapters.

 17

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 PREDICAMENT AND IMPLICATION: THE NIGERIAN CIVIL

WAR AND THE MORALITY OF WOMEN IN FORTY-EIGHT
GUNS FOR THE GENERAL

According to Ezeigbo, Theodora (1991);

No historical or political event in the turbulent

history of Nigeria has given birth to such a
large corpus of literary works as the Civil War
– a fratricidal conflict that caused the death of
thousands of people …. There were
experimentations in fiction with various forms
which has hitherto not been explored …. (24)

Eddie Iroh explores this experience in his action-packed trilogy.

Forty-Eight Guns for the General is the first of the trilogy, it lunches

the reader into the atmosphere of the Nigerian Civil War from 1967 –

1968, as faced majorly by Biafrans. The story in this novel revolves

around the activities of “the Christian Brothers”, a group made up of

forty-eight mercenaries under the leadership of the color conscious,

selfish, German, Colonel Jacques Rudolf.

The Christian Brothers are invited to Biafra to serve as aids in

the war that is getting tensed as the days passed. Rudulf, as the

General’s representative fine tunes him to only accepting his ideas and

suggestions. His plan is to enrich himself and go back home to rest.

He does this by keeping away the white soldiers from the war front

and training them for a special attack, then forming a special division

which he calls “… our own unit”(60), made up of Major Schmuts,

Captain Hans Heizn, Amilo Relli, Major Dan Marc, Major Bill Ball and
 18

Major Denault Georges, who together have secret meetings and

agenda on how to control the Biafran army.

Georges does not belief in the idea that they

came here to earn a living and help the

General …, not to score a quick victory …. And
if you are fighting to make a living you fight to
stay alive … and a good General fights where
and when he likes (61).

He has human sympathy and conscience and wants to help the Biafran

soldiers at the war front. Rudulf sees him as a treat so sends him and

his followers to the Calabar front where the battle is fierce, then asks

Captain Michael to keep close watch on him. The report by Michael is

too applauding, so Rudulf decides to kill them for his safety. Michael is

not able to accomplish this mission because Jutes tells him the truth.

For not killing Georges, Michael and Jutes are kept in prison under

strict custody. Captain Belgar and Coullar are sent to kill George and

they accomplish the mission.

As the war continues, Calabar just like Aba, Port Harcourt and

the host of others falls. Onitsha has to be defended in order that it

does not fall. This is the last opportunity for Rudulf to execute his last

scheme and get away from the country so, he and his trained soldiers

goes for battle. Meanwhile after his release, Colonel Charles Chumah,

a legend to the Biafran Soldier has been ordered by the General to be

the deputy commander of the 5 commando under Colonel Jacques

Rudolf, to fight and defend the city. He is bitter and does not join

Rudolf who on the other hand sees him as a treat. Chaumah together
 19

with major Chime Dimkpa reassembles and train the Biafran soldiers

for their own battle. On the other hand, Major Derek Tremble feeds

the federal government with information about the plans made in

Biafra so, they attack, bomb and destroy their armoury. This makes

the Biafrans leave for the fight before the zero hour.

The battle is serious and about 25,000 or more soldiers

including Major Dan Marc, dies and Onitsha is lost. Rudulf knows it is

time to execute his last plan, he gives the surviving soldiers a

generous meal, tells them that the General says Onitsha is

meaningless if the airstrip is endangered and therefore gives order

that they should wipe out every advancing force with maximum

speed. They sheepishly followed and aided him in seizing the airstrip

and the super constellation aircraft which carries relief items and

battle equipments. He then demands a ransome of two million dollars

from the General. The General sends orders to Colonel Charles

Chaumah who responds immediately. With the help of Flight

Lieutenant Boma, Captain Gideon, Major Chime Dimkpa and other

soldiers, Captain Rudolf and his fellow collaborators are captured,

leaving Amilo Relli dead since he tries resisting arrest by the now

sensitized soldiers, who once stood by them. This victory brings

Colonel Chumah to the fore as he is now the Commander of the 5

commando Division and major Chime Dimkpa the second-in

command.
 20

The above is the summary of the novel Forty-Eight Guns for the

General. Apart from this story above, Iroh also portrays in his novel

the predicaments and implications of the Nigerian Civil War on the

morality of women. These would be discussed below with instances

from few other works.

In normal societal situation, women are very expensive. Majority

of them cannot be gotten so easily; their suitors must beg, spend on

them and wait patiently for their reply before even thinking of having

sexual intercourse with them. This statement is not applicable during

the period of war, the Nigerian Civil War to be specific. Women

become so cheapened and could be gotten without stress at anytime

to satisfy the sex starved men or just for the pleasure of it. This

predicament is captured in the statements of Kaptain Heinz to a man

who offers him a drink:

“No not a drink … I want a woman! Give me a

woman”.

In reply to this request, the fat man who offers him the drink

replies:

Ah, you can always have a woman when you

want … have a drink first – it is a good
appetizer for a woman … the room roared in
approval. (48).

The implication of the Nigerian Civil War from the above

predicament is that, the high value and respect for women is lost. His

demand is met and Kaptain Heinz gets the woman he wants but his;
 21

…only regret was that the woman he duly got

stole eighty-five dollars from his wallet while
he was asleep the next morning” (48).

This quotation reveals to us the fearless beast the war makes

out of the woman. Women are rarely thieves, but here, we meet a bad

and fearless woman who steals as much as eighty-five dollars as a

result of the war condition. The implication of the Civil War here is

that, the moral standard and make-up of the woman is reduced to

that of a thief in order that she survives.

During the period of war, women become urgent wives and

urgent divorcees to men who might never pay their dowry. They

hastily get entangled with mostly soldier who are capable of protecting

them and providing their needs, even as married women. This

predicament is captured by Ekwensi, Cyprian in his novel Survive the

Peace.

Stories circulated freely about wives who gave

themselves to men in uniform to whom all
power had now passed, some in return for
food, many in return for favour and protection,
others purely to show off (37).

What is unfortunate about this hasty entanglement is that the

women are easily and hastily separated from their benefactors

because, they are soldiers and soldiers are mobile especially during

the period of war. Their stay in a particular place is not always certain

as they are only sent there on assignment. While leaving, they leave

their women behind and these women will likely get involved in
 22

another relationship with other group of soldiers. This predicament of

women is capture in the conversation of some soldiers quoted below:

…when we smash the rebels and get to

Arochukwu, there will be beer in the shops and
women hiding in the bushes…” “I left one in
Calabar I hope to find her when I get a pass”
“… sorry for you, you won’t find her, your
commander must have commanded her by
now… (56)

From the above, one can say that the implication of the Nigerian

Civil War on women’s morality is the lost of sanity and trust. Wives

can no longer be trusted confidently by their husbands who might be

at the battle front, or girls, as their parents or relatives cannot boast

without doubt of their sanity.

Furthermore, during the war, women tend to fall in love with the

big men in town who had all the money and things they needed to

survive because, they showed them generosity. This act of generosity

is mostly expressed in order to exploit the poor incapable women of

their bodies, which they have preserved all through the years when

there was no war. In The last Duty by Okphwho, Isidoro for instance,

one sees a practical example of a woman (Aku) who falls in love with

(Toje) a generous and wealthy army commander whose aim was just

to exploit her. His generosity is captured in her statement that:

Where can I run, what can I so? If it weren’t

for the goodness of the federal army
commander here … where would I be today?
(11).
 23

In Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Iroh states this

predicament of women clearly in the statement below;

Their officers flew about in the best cars which

they drove like land-jets. They drank the best
liquor, smoked foreign cigarettes and wore
new clothes. They were loved dearly by the
girls for their generosity with foreign currency
(139).

Rape is an ill in society which in normal conditions rarely occurs;

women on the other hand are very protective of themselves and

hardly give up their bodies to men, even as prostitutes. But, during a

war situation where abnormalities are normal, rape is rampant and

committed by the men with the gun, on a gun point.

In the novel, we see a 28 years old Swedish spinster Miss

Wenda Britta in this horrible situation. She loves children and is a

member of the Red Cross. She establishes a centre for war orphans

threatened by malnutrition then, gets food and drugs from the nearby

airstrip for them. When the airstrip is taken over by the greedy foreign

mercenaries, she goes to get food as usually but is captured and made

prisoner. She preserves and secures her body, refusing to have sex

with any man not even with the struggling kaptain Hans Heinz who

struggled with the unyielding girls. He gets angry and says:

“Damn you, you bitching bastard!” …“Now! Or

I’ll use that gun!” he glared the gun!
The mention of the gun lying among the pile of
clothes over the empty crate caused Wenda’s
Stout heart to tremble. She had put up a
masculine fight against the united force of
Hans Hanz as soon as he had tossed the gun
away along with clothes.
 24

But now the gun!

Oh God! The gun! She moaned silently, her
strength suddenly sapped by mortal fear of the
maniac’s threat.
“My God! My God, oh oh”. She moaned
ineffectually as Hanz Heinz, his eyes a glint
with the smile of evil lust about to be
assuaged tore her thighs apart and ripped of
the last shreds of Wenda Britta’s privacy
(200).

From the above, one sees that the strength of a woman to resist

immorality is subdued by the introduction of a gun. The gun here

serves as a weakening force to a woman’s strength during the war.

In Survive the Peace by Ekwensi, Cyprian, we see the power of

the gun over a woman as:

into Ukoha’s compound one evening ran an

Obodonta girl. She was in tears and her
clothes had been torn. At first she was
incoherent but constant questioning made her
stammer out her story, she could not describe
clearly who had done it but she said it was a
large man in Khaki. The man’s face had marks
and he carried a gun. (28).

The implication of the above predicament of women during the

war is that: women’s sanity is destroyed, though, not willingly as seen

in other predicaments, but unwillingly, by force or compulsion.

In conclusion, it can be said that, some of the predicaments

faced by women during the Nigerian Civil War as shown in Iroh’s

Forty-Eight Guns for the General mainly as a result of lack and want of

the basic necessities of life – food, shelter, clothes and protection.

They get all these in exchange of their bodies which is their most

valuable item. These actions of theirs lead to a low moral decadence

 25

in society as pointed above. The implications are as follows; women

can no longer be trusted for sanity, they lose their high value within

family and society, those who do not get enough turn into rogues

while those who still protect themselves and their dignity not minding

the horrible situation, are raped with the treat of a gun.

 26

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 PREDICAMENT AND IMPLICATION: THE NIGERIAN CIVIL

WAR THE MORALITY OF WOMEN IN TOADS OF WAR

Toads of War is the second of Iroh’s trilling trilogy about the

Nigerian Civil War. The Encyclopedia of African Literature has it that

“… Toads of War (1976) traces the fortunes of former soldiers as they

try to survive in the bleak last days of the secessionist Republic of

Biafra”. (1). It begins with a prologue which introduces the reader to

the collapse of Umuahia to the federal army. Owerri becomes the last

resort of the refugees. The story is narrated by an epileptic disabled

soldier, Kalu Udim. He tells us that the rich man who has enough food

stuff in his store house and has affluence never finds it difficult

relocating to Owerri since a renovated bungalow is waiting for him.

Unlike the poor, the rich man never prays for the war to end, rather,

he fine-tunes the young into fighting tirelessly.

Kalu is employed in the price control Directorate and given an

exemption letter from being enrolled as a soldier because he is

epileptic. While in office, an urgent letter arrives for his boss, one of

the “toads of war”; Kalu see the urgency of the message and executes

the information. He does this hoping to be appreciated by his boss

but, gets disappointed. As the result of this action he is pushed to the

war front not withstanding his health condition. He does well in the

army and is promoted from second-lieutenant and platoon commander

to lieutenant and company commander in less than two weeks. His

 27

mother is not comfortable with this, but can do nothing to stop him.

The battle is hot at the front and he needs to go. While at the front he

had an epileptic fit, waking up to find himself in the hospital without a

right arm. He later gets the news of his mother’s death after she hears

of his condition. He is therefore on a revenge mission on his boss.

The novel is divided into forty-two episodes with different

headings which will not completely be mentioned here. In the first

episode “make love not war” we see the narrator (Kalu) and his friend

Meju talking about the number of cars parked in front of the female

hostel. Meju has given up on Biafra from what he says, he thinks he

will be captured by the federal troops and be free. Kalu has also given

up hope but can never go to the front because of his bad arm. Meju

leaves Kalu and meets Captain Martin Chieze when the Colonel briskly

walks in, excuses Meju and informs Captain Martin that Hamman’s

Brigade have sworn with their lives that the General must be killed in

order that the death of their beloved Major Hamman is avenged. They

plan to do this by entering Owerri disguising themselves as Biafran

soldiers, at an unknown time.

In preparation for their attack, an assault squad of about a

hundred people including Colonel Martin, Sergeant Meju and the

Commander is formed. Captain Aliu Pam and other members of the

Hamman’s Brigade take off for their mission after about a week of

their treat. Five members wear the Biafran uniform together with

twenty-five other members in pretence as prisoner; not consenting to

 28

the warning of the Brigade Major. Trekking through the vast cassava

farms they passed the first checkpoint, get to the second one and

demand for a Land Rover to convey them to Owerri. Unfortunately,

they are trapped after a serious interrogation and they started

shutting. Thirty of them are killed and only thirteen Biafrans died

including Sergeant Meju.

In some other episodes kalu tells us about a girl Kechinyere. He

meets her in one of Major Mere’s parties when he goes in search of

Lance-Corporal Okere who he promoted at the time he was not

disabled. She comes into the party with Major Chilaka Ukagtta, a

friend and school mate of Kalu who now pretends not to know him

anywhere. Kechi is a beautiful air hostess who held high her moral

status until the war which leads her to trading her body for the

necessities of life. Apart from Chilaka, she strongly attaches herself to

Chima Duke a wealthy, ugly man who travels to Lisbon and gives her

assorted gifts. While Kechi is about going to see Kalu some days later,

Major Chilaka walks angrily into her room demanding to know the

affairs she has with Kalu, the “one-armed Bandit” as he called. Kalu

waits and does not see her so he goes to the relief centre to get relief

which he does not get like other hunger stricken people. As he stands

in total disappointment he sees Kechi, Major Chikala and some girls

who have illicit affairs with father Nwobi, get a lot of food.

The Duke’s stay in Lisbon is extended so Kechi goes in search of

Kalu. She takes him to watch a play, to a motel where they have a
 29

good meal then to a prayer house where the prophet tells him openly

that he is bearing grudges against somebody. But, he advised him to

leave vengeance for God. This gets him really upset. He comes to

Kechi’s house the next day in order that they went for a dance when

Chima Duke his former boss comes in. He goes out in fury then comes

back and shot him to avenge his mother’s death and his hand but, he

is jailed.

In Toads of War, Iroh does not only tell a story of the Nigerian-

Biafra war, he presents to us the predicaments of women during the

war and illustrates their survival tactics. Women as stated in chapter

one are prone to several needs which their male counterpart are not,

they also do not have the stout heart which men have to withstand

hardship, starvation, lack of shelter and protection. Furthermore,

women posses in them that which can be given out to the men of

sudden influence who have what they needed.

Among the female characters in the novel is Catherine

Kechinyere Ugboma, Kechi for short. In her we see a vivid portrayal of

women during the Nigerian Civil War. Kechi is a very pious girl:

… whose first attraction in life has been the

convent, would have died in her sleep if she
had dreamt of herself thinking like a mortal
sinner, as her devout mother would have put it
or talking like a lewd, lascivious lackery of
Lucifer as her alternative and even more
devout headmistress, the Reverend mother
Labore, would have described it (19).
 30

Kechi is a sanctimonious and hardworking girl who makes

everyone around her happy and proud. She has no single report

against her while in school. She is just chaste and diligent in her

study. Kechi even promises mother Labore that she will live a life of

chastity wherever she goes until she gets married to a “Catholic”.

Kechi becomes an air hostess till the war begins:

…in the two years since the war began, Kechi

Ugboma had gone down a sleep, long way. The
war and three hasty evacuations took their toll on
her rich wardrobe and reduced her personal
belongings to a lone, forlorn suitcase. Her war-
time job in the Housing Directorate paid less than
a quarter of her salary and allowances as a top air
hostess. Her once glamorous life seemed a
distant, hazy dream without colour, dominated by
the dreaded four-letter word W-A-N-T. (28).

In order to make ends meet, Kechi has no other choice than

flirting with the big shots. Kechi, a once chaste girl who refused going

to the University because she is stopped from attending the convent,

now metamorphoses because of W-A-N-T. Her choice of words even

degenerates, She boldly says that: “As long as men like what I have …

I don’t mind trading it for what I want” (18) because:

…it was the only way, the only love, now. A

girl got to live; to look like a girl,… give what
you have. Get what you want … She began to
spruce up for the Saturday night out. (19).

She goes out and gets what she wants; food, clothes, and the

host of others from Chima Duke and Major Chilaka Ukatta. In return,
 31

she gives out her body for sex, a thing she never imagined doing until

wedlock, before the war.

This is the same situation one finds in Gladys, a character in

“Girls at War” by Achebe,Chinua. At the beginning of the war, Gladys

is devoted, modest, patriotic and dutiful. One sees this in her dress

code at the checkpoint:

She was a beautiful girl in breasty blue Jersey,

Khaki jeans and canvas shoes with new style
hair – plait which gave a girl a defiant look and
which they called – for reason of their own –
“air force base” (104).

But as the war continues and things get worse as it does for

Kechi, she dresses self-consciously and expensively with the intention

of seducing men to meet her needs:

She wore a high-tinted wig and a very

expensive skirt and low-cut blouse. Her shoes
obviously from Gabon, must have cost a
fortune (108).

Apart from her character and dress code, her speech pattern

also degenerate, she now uses careless and vulgar words that even

shocks Reginald Nwankwo who is about taking her to bed. She says:

‘You want to shell?’ she asked. And without

waiting for an answer said ‘Go ahead but don’t
pour in troops!’ (118).

Though Kechi gets all she needs from her two-doors, (Chima

Duke who brings her make-up and clothes from abroad and Major

Chilaka Ukatta; who brought her furniture and foodstuff) like most
 32

women who traded their bodies, she never feels happy or pleased

doing it. We see she has a living conscience when she tells kalu:

…in low tones broken by sobs, about her

background about mother Labore. I learnt how
she lost everything after the war began. How
she had found herself the unwilling prey of the
men who now had everything that a woman
needed. And how she had come to find her
original attachment to the old feminine values
unrealistic (108).

Apart from Kechi, one sees in Ihuoma, kechi’s closest friend, the

predicament of women and the degradation of morality. Ihuoma is as

loosed as Kechi, even worse, as a result of want in this period of

extreme scarcity. Ihuoma and Kechi:

…always killed time chatting, plating each

other’s hair in turns whenever their men-
friends were not visiting in the evenings. This
evening they seemed to have run out of topics
for gossip, men, money, clothes, cosmetics ….
(16).

Another predicament of women is seen in the quotation above.

This is the predicament of joblessness. Since women cannot go to the

war front and employment opportunities are slim, most of them find

themselves jobless and to get themselves occupied, apart from

flirting, they gossip. Gossiping in itself is a treat to moral decadence in

the society.

Ihuoma keeps Kechi’s keys whenever she passes a night out

with one of her men-friends. Out of slight jealousy on one of these

occasions, she thinks that:

 33

…life is hard and threatens to become harder

everyday, … if she herself had as many men-
friends as she needed to keep afloat, Ihuoma
thought, she probably wouldn’t spend many
night in her cubicle either. Home is where the
next meal is …. (29).

In the midst of these thoughts comes in the “toads of war”

Chima Duke, a man of sudden influence and one of Kechi’s men-

friends, who comes in search of her. He leaves a message with

Ihuoma that he is travelling to Lisbon and he guesses she would need

some things. He then tells Ihuoma that he would get a hair thread for

her. In just a mention of this Ihuoma is carried away then:

… Chima suddenly turned to face her. ‘As a

matter of fact, Ihuoma, you will get more.
Anything you want, you’re a nice girl….’ He
had gathered her in a sudden swoop and was
kissing her hungrily, lustfully, before she could
answer. The unresisting girl was desperately
hanging on to him, hanging on to her hair
thread from Lisbon …. (30).

A total moral decay in women because of want and scarcity is

seen in the above quote. Ihuoma is so cheapened; she readily

succumbs and gives her body to a man who just promises her a hair

thread and other of her needs. She becomes his prey in order that he

does not change his mind. What a moral decay!

In Gloria, one sees a total moral bankruptcy. Gloria gets

gonorrhea and she knows she is going to die since there are no

available drugs at that time of the war. Kalu tells us that Kechi says

Gloria claims she got the dreaded disease from an army officer
 34

“and since this guy has over a dozen girl-

friends, Gloria reckons she won’t be the only
casualty. Safety in numerous sort of.” (105).

Another shocking aspect of Gloria’s life is that she says she;

…wouldn’t mind going to be with her Colonel

once again says Kechi quoting her friend “He is
so good in bed. He has a member as big as a
rocket with a warhead to match his enormous
wallet!” (108).

From the above picture painted of Gloria, one sees how the

crisis situation brings out the beast in the woman. She is dying, but

because needs to stay alive in the few days she has to live, she is still

willing to have sex with the man who gave her the gonorrhea because

he had the money. In Gloria’s behaviour and reaction towards her

present condition one sees that though many like Kechi have

consciences that are alive, and feel remorse for their dirty deeds,

others like her do not feel an atom of regret. Their situation has so

deteriorated that the fear of death is dead and the immoral quest for

money and food to feed while they are alive though dying is alive. The

implication therefore is that, most women do not feel any remorse as

they continue giving what they have to getting what they want till

they die or the war ends.

Apart from these examples discussed above, there are other

periods in the novel where the narrator makes references to girls and

their activities during the war. Out of starvation, he goes to the relief

centre at Emekuku to get some relief. On his way he sees a beautiful

 35

girl standing on the shade of a tree with two disabled soldiers. He is

shocked because:

She was attractive and looked well-fed. She

wore good clothes and even had lipstick on;
which spoke eloquent of her state and
connections at this tail-end Biafra. She had a
shopping bag hanging from the end of her
arm, and an expectant look on her face.
Probably waiting for some boy friend to drive
her to the market, I thought. This type didn’t
need to go to the relief centre for her supplies.
They would have them delivered to her
doorstep in an army Land Rover. Which is why
it was odd that she should be waiting on our
side of the road. I concluded that she could
only be taking advantage of the shade. (61)

What he thinks is the truth as a car stops by the road and gives her a

lift, leaving behind the three disabled soldiers who plead for a lift. He

carries her to only God knows where and, it is certain that he will have

a share of her body and will give her money to get the things she

needed.

When he finally gets to the relief centre, we see another

portrayal of women during the war. The Reverend Father Nwobi who is

in charge of the centre never worries about the hungry masses. He

too, a minister of the gospel preys on young ladies because he has

what they want. The hunger stricken masses pleads for food which is

available, but they are not given. Kalu even talks directly to him

thinking he will be pitied but, this does not work as the Father orders

his brothers to send everyone saying there is no enough and they had

closed for the day food. But as he (Kalu) looked inside the room “two
 36

young girls were waiting to be attended to by Father Nwobi. They

smiled as they saw him” (66). Kalu leaves in total disappointment but

before he leaves he;

…had a brief moment to look again at the

crammed relief store, at Father Nwobi now
beaming at the girls. At the altar of the chapel
next to the food store (66).

He is lucky to meet an old friend on his way home who takes

him to her house. When he narrates his ordeal to her, her reply is;

‘if you hope to get something out of him next

time”, Esther went on, ‘I suggest you plait
your hair, borrow some girl’s dress and get
hold of a real big sack. His brothers will see
you in through the back door, Pronto’ (68).

Women to a large extend during the war are at better position

than men, not to starve. But these positions are always immoral, dirty

and unpleasant as seen in all the instances portrayed by Iroh in his

novel Toads of War. Notwithstanding how bad this act is, Kalu tells us

that:

‘if you don’t want to starve in Biafra, stay

close to the girls (67).

This is actually true because, the girls have their private parts to trade

for food to the rich few. But as a man, what do you have to trade?

In summary, it could be said that the situation women found

themselves in during the war conditioned their actions. The major

predicament of women presented to us in Toads of War is that of lack

and want in the midst of scarcity. To survive therefore, women have

 37

to behave in ways that oppose their previous ways of life. These decay

their morality and in most cases harden their heart from morality. But,

the fact during the war is that, no matter how most girls have

preserved themselves, they have to stay alive; in order to stay alive,

they have to satisfy their needs where there is extreme scarcity; the

only way to get this satisfaction is to according to Kechi “give what

you have to get what you want”(19). What then do they have to give

to these lustful, preying, greedy ‘toads of war’ who are in charge of all

they needed except their bodies?

 38

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 THE MORALITY OF WOMEN IN EDDIE IROH’S THE SIREN

IN THE NIGHT.

The siren in the Night is the last in Eddie Iroh’s action packed

trilogy. In Forty-Eight Guns for the General and Toads of War he gives

us an insight to what the Civil War is like from the Biafran angle. But

in The Siren in the Night he brings us to the end of the war, when

Biafra surrendered to Nigeria. He tells a story of the predicaments Ben

Udaja, a onetime Colonel of the people’s army who even formed a

powerful and much-dreaded guerilla strike force called the Biafran

Organization of Freedom Fighters (BOFF) in collaboration with General

Alex Madieobo, Commander of the Biafran Army. But, he surrenders

himself to the federal government seven months before the war

ended.

After the fall of the Capital city, Udaja see no hope in Biafra and

therefore joins the other civilian by surrendering himself to the federal

government. This act of surrendering as the senior rebel functionary

merited him an appointment in the office of Civilian Co-ordination.

This also provides the federals with a month-long extravaganza of

propaganda. Colonel Ben Udaja’s appointment and fame, as many

Biafrans surrenders, displeases Colonel Mike Kolawole, who is the

head of the Federal Security and Intelligence Directorate. To him, the

amnesty proclaimed by the General should not mean amnesia.

 39

Colonel Kolawole gets to know much about Ben Udaja from Olu

Amadi (Captain under Udaja’s army in Biafra). He is one of the

youngest among the five men arrested by him with the help of Major

Paul Badru in Konko Bar: a place he learnt from a report that has

become a favourite haunt of former Biafrans, returning to Lagos.

After getting all needed information about Udaja, the former

Colonel of the people’s army now the coordinator of returning civilians

he decides to track him down by all means. With the assistance of Ulo

Amadi, Major Paul Badru, Kinsman Akin oba Ola Dele, Dr. Timi

Bimbose the most renowned psychiatrist in the eastern region of

Nigeria and the host of others, and by adhering strictly to the

instructions of Dr. Timi Bimbose, he is able to subdue the morale of

Ben Udaja.

Kolawole calls the private lines of Udaja, leaving him with a treat

that the BOFF is after his life. Udaja believes this revolt since, he who

spur them up to fight, abandons them at the time they needed him

most. In this confused and fearful state, he shifted his wedding

ceremony from Christmas season to Easter period. The worse happens

when he returns with his wife from their honey moon to discover that

the whole doors are open but nothing was stolen except that the

switch and telephone were not working and a diabolical coffin found in

his inner room.

Furthermore, a grenade is kept on the bed his wife laid when he

went out to tell the General what was going on. But, all these are not
 40

true, there are just the schemes of Dr. Timi. The worst happens when

he receives a tape recorder that carries Kiki, his daughter’s voice

sounding against him. It almost drives him insane, it makes him

strangle a man almost to death and even leads him to killing Ulo

Amadi, with the mindset that Amadi is just a pretender who knows his

life is at stake. He is tried and convicted but later vindicated as Kiki

narrates her experiences. All the convicts are then arrested and

punished accordingly.

Every writer presents his own view about the end of the Nigerian

Civil War. The above story is Eddie Iroh’s view about the end of the

war and this for instance, differs from Ekwensi, Cyprian’s view in his

Survive the Peace. In The Siren in the Night, Iroh did not really

elaborate on the predicament and morality of women he rather

expatiate on the tribalism exhibited on the returning Biafrans, to

Nigeria. Notwithstanding, a discourse will be done below on the

predicaments of women at the end of the Civil War in the novel The

Siren in the Night.

Women to a large extend have a strong affection and

attachment to their husbands and children, this strong bond cause

them to take actions which might bring them deep pain and death in

some occasions. This bond also gives them some amount of boldness

which they ordinarily would not have had. One sees this in the

character of Maria in the novel.

 41

After the capital city is conquered and overtaken by the federal

army, people run for their lives but a “harggard-looking woman” (17)

Maria, did not run. She stays back in her house after her husband

escapes with their two sons, she does not leave but remains boldly,

hoping her husband and sons will return. Maria is left with her sixteen-

month-old baby girl in absolute scarcity of both water and food. But,

in love, she breast feed her baby for three whole days without feeding

and this “left the woman like squeezed and dried bitter-leaf” (17). The

baby cries seriously and this, in collaboration with the situation of her

husband and children, causes serious pain for this woman and so:

…the woman wept in her helplessness.

Gleaming beads of fears trickled down her
cheeks, burning her like the little one’s own
hot tears which were also making tracks down
her bare shoulders …. (19).

Apart from pain and sorrow one sees another predicament of women

like death, still in the character of Maria.

As Maria waits in her dissolute house for the return of her

husband and sons, she is captured by the federal army as a rebel

collaborator. She tries to explain that she is not a rebel collaborator

but to no avail. They later bring her back with the hope to capture the

rebel soldiers she has been collaborating with. Her loving husband

comes back in search of her and their daughter but is shot by the

command of Colonel Kolawole. Finally, Maria and her little daughter

are both shot to death.

 42

In the above, one sees the predicaments of pain and death of

women as a result of their deep affection and attachment to their

families. Apart from the above, we see another predicament of women

in the character of Mrs. Laide Kolawole. This is the predicament of

dejection of women by husbands who think they owe many

responsibilities to the state than to their families.

The head of the Federal Security and Intelligence Directorate,

Colonel Kolawole is too busy a husband to attend to his family affair.

He rarely goes home and cancels even having lunch at home by

asking Corporal Femi to:

…‘call madam and tell her I’m not going to be

home for lunch’, madam was the Colonel’s
wife not his mistress. (42)

Kolawole does not even care when he told that:

Madam wishes you would come home for

lunch at least once a week (43),

his only reaction to such a plea from his own wife is:

‘Don’t worry about madam. She’s just being a

woman’ (43)

Apart from the duties of the nation or spending time with other

women Colonel Kolawole has his own duty that makes him absent and

careless about his family. His duty is tribally motivated. This duty is to

subdue and bring down Colonel Ben Udaja, a returnee Biafran and any

other rebel who tries to be outspoken and famous.

To trap Ben Udaja, he takes his daughter (Kiki) hostage. This

keeps him away from home, his wife and kid, and “his absence from
 43

home had lengthened to the point where she no longer wasted dinner

for him” (116). Mrs. Kolawole has even slept when her husband calls.

Imagine how reckless he sounds on phone. He is told his son is ill and

his reply is;

‘oh dear, pity, well, you know what to do; call

the doctor” (166),

She then replies that:

“of course I have. If we ever waited for you to

do anything here, then dogs would lick our
eyelid. Listen dear, when shall we see you
again … at Christmas? (166),

and he answers:

‘May be. I have a lot of things to do’ (166),

his wife asks:

‘Don’t you always?’, (1666),

Then, he terminates the call by saying:

‘I’ll call you in the morning. Good night’ he

hung up, leaving her once more puzzled by his
growing indifference to his household,
wondering whether national security was
shaped like a naked woman sleeping under the
bed sheet by his side. (166 – 167).

From the above discussion, we see how devastated and dejected

the woman (Mrs. Kolawole) is, as a result of her husband’s

recklessness and carelessness towards her and the family as a whole.

 44

In these wicked and tribe conscious attitudes of Kolawole

towards Ben Udaja, we figure out another predicament of women

immediately after the war as recorded by Iroh in the novel The Siren

in the Night. This is manifested in the character Miata Malari, the wife

of Ben Udaja, and the predicaments is that of uncertainty and fear.

We begin to see the predicament of uncertainty when Miata and

her husband (Udaja) arrives the airport at Enugu after their wedding

in Kaduna. Udaja observed that there are no car or guards (he started

having guards when he started having treat that BOFF was after his

life) waiting to pick them home and he began to panic:

The young woman looked at her man’s face.

His worry was poorly masked. Inside him a
relay of thoughts chased one another in a
closely paced race. What’s the matter Ben?
The girl scanning his worried look.(159).

After spending a long time waiting at the airport, an

accompanist of Colonel Kolawole who has an idea of the goings on

offers them a ride home. But, when they arrived, the behaviour and

reaction of Udaja to the things he observes at home keeps Maita

uncertain, and further gets her terrified. At first sight of the door being

ajar when he has all the keys to himself, Udaja panics the more and;

Maita eyes were fixed questionly on the

silhouette of her husband, searching for his
face (162).

Maita’s fear grow when Udaja runs, leaving her in the dark,

inside the house, to the garage, finding everything strange. Maita has

no idea of what Udaja have been passing through so, she did not
 45

understand his strange reaction to things. An extreme portrayal of

fear of Maita is when she unknowingly walks to her husband who is

carried away by the sight of a diabolical coffin kept in their inner

room. This terrifies and makes her scream into unconsciousness. Iroh

puts it this way:

…her husband’s massive bulk blocked her

view, shielding her from the diabolical sight.
Innocently, she walked up beside Ben, her
hand reaching out to grab his. Her night
shattering scream, punctuated by sharp gasps,
filled the silent room Udaja turned in time to
see her tottering to the floor. He reached out
with both hands and took hold of her …. (165).

In The Siren in the Night as discussed above, there is no

portrayal of the moral breakdown in women, only their predicaments.

From the above, we observe the predicaments of pain and death in

the character, Maita. When the capital city falls as other Biafran

states, people run for their lives and surrenders to Nigeria; families

scatters, but some over concerned women like Maria stays back

hoping they will be reunited with their families. Apart from pain and

sorrow they get from starvation, many lost their lives, as she does.

Some people who worked in the federal side (mainly Hausa’s

and Yoruba’s) grew highly tribal conscious and could not condone the

idea of these revolting Biafrans getting good jobs and fame so, they

revolted. By combining their duties to the nation, personal pleasure,

their mistresses and their fight against returning Biafrans they have

no or limited time for their wives and family as a whole: thereby

 46

causing the predicament of dejection for their wives. This is seen in

Mrs. Laide Kolawole.

The activities of such people put the wives and love ones of the

surrendering Biafrans into total uncertainty, extreme fear as seen in

the character Maita Malari, the wife of Colonel Ben Udaja.

Conclusively, it could be said from the above that Eddie Iroh has

portrayed the predicaments of women at the end of the Nigerian civil

war in the last book of his trilogy, The Siren in the Night.

4.1 SUMMARY

This study has examined the predicaments and implications of

the Nigeria Civil War on the morality of women in Eddie Iroh’s Forty-

Eight Guns for the General, Toads of War and The siren in the Night.

The Nigerian Civil War as earlier stated is a very terrible occurrence in

the country which disrupted the normal activities, behaviours of

people and reaction to morality. Its result is death, starvation,

separation of family members, and corruption etc. The people mostly

affected are women, mainly because they stay at home, hear, bear

and face all the pain.

Literary writers however, explore this ordeal in various ways in

novels, plays and poems. From the novels that are used as a case

study in this research, viz: Forty-Eight Guns for the General, Toads of

War and The Siren in the Night, we have seen the predicaments and

implications of the war on the morality of women.

 47

In Forty-Eight Guns for the General the predicaments faced by

women is that of lack and want of the basic necessities of life which

led to the exchange of their bodies just to stay alive, others who keep

themselves are at times raped. The implication of this is that women

can no longer be trusted for sanity while most others turns into

thieves.

In Toads of War, the predicament of women is also that of lack

which also results in the trading of their bodies to the men who has

what they lack. Others who never traded their bodies were raped

In The Siren in the Night one sees pain, death, uncertainty and

fear as predicaments of women who believes in their family reunion

and rely strongly on their male counterpart.

The major predicament of women as seen above is that of lack

which result was prostitution. Women have no choice than to trade

their bodies in order to stay alive.

It could be said that in his trilogy, Iroh, Eddie has been able to

capture the fears, feelings, problems and reactions of women to things

during the Nigerian Civil War. His writing affirms Kechi’s statement in

Toads of War that, it is war and everything is abnormal and girls who

have no money to bribe their way through have to, “Give what you

have, get what you want”(19).

 48

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Heinemann. 1972

Dyson, Sally (Ed). Nigeria: The Birth of Africa’s Greatest Country.(Vol.

two). Spectrum Books Limited: Ibadan, 1998.

Ekwensi, Cyprian. Survive the Peace. London: Heinemann 1979

Ezeigbo, Akachi Theodora. “War, History, Aesthetic and the Thriller

Tradition in Eddie Iroh’s Novels” in African Languages and cultures.
Vol. 4, No. 1. The Literatures of War. Taylor and Francis Ltd, 1991.

Iroh, Eddie. from Encyclopedia of African Literature. Book rags.com.htm.

Iroh Eddie. Forty-Eight Guns for the General. London: Heinemann 1979.

_______ The Siren in the Night. London: Heinemann, 1982

_______ Toads of War. London: Heinemann. 1979

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Nicholson, John. Men and Women: How different are they? New York:
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Nwahuanya, Chinyere. A Harvest from Tragedy: Critical Perspective on

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________ "The Pulse of the Nation: Tribalism and Power” in The Siren in
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Ojukwu, Chukwuemeka, Odumegwu. Biafra: Selected Speakers with

Journals of Events. New York: Perennial Library, 1969.

Oko, Emelia. The West African Novel and Social Evaluation. Calabar:
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Okpewho, Isidore. The Last Duty. UK: Longman Group Limited, 1990