ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
When my first book: The Biafran Scientists (The Development of an African Indigenous Technology) was written, the feedback I got from “some Nigerian Elites” was that I was eulogising the achievements of the Biafran Scientists who were also Nigerian Scientists before the Declaration of the Sovereign State of Biafra from what was formerly the Eastern Region of Nigeria.
Some of these Nigerian Elites were the Gowon’s Super-Permanent Secretaries and Senior Administrative Officers who did not want anything good from Biafra to be emulated by Nigeria. They even went to the extent of declaring that the war machines that were developed within Biafra were obsolete tools used in the First World War, and that the cholera vaccine manufactured by late Prof. Njoku –Obi of the Microbiological Laboratories were fake, but they forgot to tell the Nigerians that when the war actually started the Nigerian Air Force was “nothing to write home about”. Before the USSR came to Nigeria’s aid with their Illuysen Bombers, MIG Fighter Planes and the sophisticated air force arsenals, their air force planes were dropping “fire extinguisher canisters” as their make-believe bombs while the Biafran B26 bomber, though old, was dropping napalm and other incendiary bombs made in the Chemical Laboratories within BIAFRA. Some of these Incendiary Bombs meant for Carter bridge, hit Iddo market in Lagos by mistake and some hit the Kaduna Township.
The book “The Biafran Scientists (The Development of an African Indigenous Technology) was certainly not meant to eulogise a “defeated people”, but was meant to put in historical perspective the struggle of a beleaguered innocent people being fought by a superior Federal Government, not with weapons they manufactured themselves but with destructive weapons they bought from European Countries with the Crude Oil Money (PETRO-NAIRA) which belonged to both Nigeria and the new Biafra from the Crude Oil (BLACK GOLD) that was predominantly exploited from the then Eastern Nigeria that turned to rename itself BIAFRA due to the persecution Eastern Nigeria was having from the rest of Nigeria.
However, in spite of the negative posture of the Nigerian Senior Civil Servants at that time, the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police Force massively bought the book even more expensively than the author was selling the book to the general Nigerian public.
The Nigerian public however were appalled at the openness and simplicity in which the secrets of military weaponry were discussed in the book and feared that some “bad” university students could, with a little science knowledge (in particular Chemistry), try to make these weapons for terrorizing their lecturers in these days of secret cults in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
It was this fear that made the author to first restrict the publication to the National War Museum in Umuahia, the Nigeria Police Libraries, the National War College, Abuja and other Security Organizations until 30 years after the end of the Civil War when internationally such documents are de-classified for public consumption.
I hope that this new book which no longer reveals the technical detail of WEAPONS MANUFACTURE, but merely tells stories which the new generations of the “NEW NIGERIA” should know, will now satisfy the misgivings of some of the older Nigerians on the “Nigerian side” of the conflict.
I acknowledge the first editing work done for me by my good and trusted friend, Mr. M. C. Azuike, retired Director of Narcotics and Controlled Substances in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and my brother, Prof. Felix Arene of the University of Port Harcourt, and the many suggestions they made to me for expanding the Scope of the Book to include THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR (1970 – 2007).
My gratitude also goes to my nuclear family, Dr. (Mrs.) Violet Arene (my wife), Dr. Ike Arene, Dr. Nkiru Arene and Dr. Ify Arene (my children) for the encouragement they gave me while I was writing this book at the age of 70 years. In particular, I pay special tribute to my three children, who as Medical Doctors (in various fields of Medicine) spared no efforts in seeing that I was medically fit and of sound mind to carry on with the bitter retelling of a SAD STORY in my LIFE.
Dr. Alex Ekwueme, my MENTOR in the Political Arena of Nigeria and the IDE of Oko Town in the now New Anambra state of Nigeria, in spite of his age and his still busy activities in shaping the POLITICAL FORTUNES of Nigeria has found time to browse through the DRAFT of this BOOK and agreed to write the FOREWORD. For this gesture, I am eternally grateful.
To the American Publishers of this Book, I say a mighty thank you because it is through your efforts that the World will read this Book and help bring succour to the Beleaguered NIGERIA of the 21st Century.
Finally, I take full responsibility for the facts contained in this book which is not a FICTION but the TRUE facts as witnessed by the author. To you the reader, I say thank you for buying the book, for going through it and for possibly resolving to help the NEW NIGERIAN YOUTHS to see the way forward in their genuine attempt to join the youths of the rest of the WORLD in making the World a better place to live in for themselves and their children.
Eugene Arene
When my first book: The Biafran Scientists (The Development of an African Indigenous Technology) was written, the feedback I got from “some Nigerian Elites” was that I was eulogising the achievements of the Biafran Scientists who were also Nigerian Scientists before the Declaration of the Sovereign State of Biafra from what was formerly the Eastern Region of Nigeria.
Some of these Nigerian Elites were the Gowon’s Super-Permanent Secretaries and Senior Administrative Officers who did not want anything good from Biafra to be emulated by Nigeria. They even went to the extent of declaring that the war machines that were developed within Biafra were obsolete tools used in the First World War, and that the cholera vaccine manufactured by late Prof. Njoku –Obi of the Microbiological Laboratories were fake, but they forgot to tell the Nigerians that when the war actually started the Nigerian Air Force was “nothing to write home about”. Before the USSR came to Nigeria’s aid with their Illuysen Bombers, MIG Fighter Planes and the sophisticated air force arsenals, their air force planes were dropping “fire extinguisher canisters” as their make-believe bombs while the Biafran B26 bomber, though old, was dropping napalm and other incendiary bombs made in the Chemical Laboratories within BIAFRA. Some of these Incendiary Bombs meant for Carter bridge, hit Iddo market in Lagos by mistake and some hit the Kaduna Township.
The book “The Biafran Scientists (The Development of an African Indigenous Technology) was certainly not meant to eulogise a “defeated people”, but was meant to put in historical perspective the struggle of a beleaguered innocent people being fought by a superior Federal Government, not with weapons they manufactured themselves but with destructive weapons they bought from European Countries with the Crude Oil Money (PETRO-NAIRA) which belonged to both Nigeria and the new Biafra from the Crude Oil (BLACK GOLD) that was predominantly exploited from the then Eastern Nigeria that turned to rename itself BIAFRA due to the persecution Eastern Nigeria was having from the rest of Nigeria.
However, in spite of the negative posture of the Nigerian Senior Civil Servants at that time, the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police Force massively bought the book even more expensively than the author was selling the book to the general Nigerian public.
The Nigerian public however were appalled at the openness and simplicity in which the secrets of military weaponry were discussed in the book and feared that some “bad” university students could, with a little science knowledge (in particular Chemistry), try to make these weapons for terrorizing their lecturers in these days of secret cults in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
It was this fear that made the author to first restrict the publication to the National War Museum in Umuahia, the Nigeria Police Libraries, the National War College, Abuja and other Security Organizations until 30 years after the end of the Civil War when internationally such documents are de-classified for public consumption.
I hope that this new book which no longer reveals the technical detail of WEAPONS MANUFACTURE, but merely tells stories which the new generations of the “NEW NIGERIA” should know, will now satisfy the misgivings of some of the older Nigerians on the “Nigerian side” of the conflict.
I acknowledge the first editing work done for me by my good and trusted friend, Mr. M. C. Azuike, retired Director of Narcotics and Controlled Substances in the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and my brother, Prof. Felix Arene of the University of Port Harcourt, and the many suggestions they made to me for expanding the Scope of the Book to include THE AFTERMATH OF THE CIVIL WAR (1970 – 2007).
My gratitude also goes to my nuclear family, Dr. (Mrs.) Violet Arene (my wife), Dr. Ike Arene, Dr. Nkiru Arene and Dr. Ify Arene (my children) for the encouragement they gave me while I was writing this book at the age of 70 years. In particular, I pay special tribute to my three children, who as Medical Doctors (in various fields of Medicine) spared no efforts in seeing that I was medically fit and of sound mind to carry on with the bitter retelling of a SAD STORY in my LIFE.
Dr. Alex Ekwueme, my MENTOR in the Political Arena of Nigeria and the IDE of Oko Town in the now New Anambra state of Nigeria, in spite of his age and his still busy activities in shaping the POLITICAL FORTUNES of Nigeria has found time to browse through the DRAFT of this BOOK and agreed to write the FOREWORD. For this gesture, I am eternally grateful.
To the American Publishers of this Book, I say a mighty thank you because it is through your efforts that the World will read this Book and help bring succour to the Beleaguered NIGERIA of the 21st Century.
Finally, I take full responsibility for the facts contained in this book which is not a FICTION but the TRUE facts as witnessed by the author. To you the reader, I say thank you for buying the book, for going through it and for possibly resolving to help the NEW NIGERIAN YOUTHS to see the way forward in their genuine attempt to join the youths of the rest of the WORLD in making the World a better place to live in for themselves and their children.
Eugene Arene
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