On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained her independence from the British colonial rule. On July 6, 1967, the country was engulfed in a civil war fought between the Federal Military Government of Nigeria, led by Major-General Yakubu Gowon, and the defunct Republic of Biafra, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. As the former colonial power, and Nigeria's closet partner in the Commonwealth and, indeed, in the Western world, the outbreak...