THE IJAW MAN WHO GAVE THE NAME “BIAFRA” — THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF FRANK OPIGO

THE IJAW MAN WHO GAVE THE NAME “BIAFRA” — THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF FRANK OPIGO

This is the man who suggested the name “Biafra” to the Eastern Consultative Assembly in 1967, when the Eastern Region prepared to secede from Nigeria. His name is Frank Opigo, an Ijaw man from present-day Bayelsa State. Many people today do not know that the word Biafra was not coined by the Igbo, nor was it created by Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. The name was actually proposed by Opigo, then deliberated upon by the Eastern Consultative Asse…