Entorno Escolar

University community left their personal effects, books, documents, research papers, souvenirs, precious gifts and other items not knowing it would take them 30 months to return to their former residence.

The loss of Nsukka resulted in the loss of all these valuables including University equipment, books, buildings and records. The federal soldiers could not spare the University Library as they cast the fattest books in the library into the fire and watch them burst into flame, having been made to believe that it was ―too much bukuru‖ that precipitated the war¹⁹. No wonder, Emma Okocha²⁰ referred to them as ―gwodogwodo illiterates‖. This episode of University of Nigeria history was also vividly captured by Chimamanda Adichie that, books were heaped together and burnt and not only that people were killed but painstaking researches of academics were destroyed by the illiterate Nigerian army. She narrated how Ugwu at the end of the war went to Freedom Square to see the mound of blackened books that the vandals had emptied out of the library and set on fire. She further wrote that even after the war, the Nigerian soldiers were still arresting intellectuals in the University campus²¹. Dr. Bede. N. Okigbo, Dean of faculty of Agriculture was said to have obtained help from the Biafran army to evacuate some of the special breed of cattle which had taken years and pains to breed. He took special care of the cattle throughout the war years moving them from one location to the other as the war progressed. At the end of the war, a Federal army officer saw the well-nourished cows as part of his war booty²². The cows were eventually lost to the officer. The years of painstaking research to grow these special cows were gone.

The extent of destruction suffered by the University during the war was aptly articulated by the Planning and Management Committee in a comprehensive report and submitted to the Administrator of East Central State on February 2, 1970. Many of the buildings were so

devastated that they required major repairs or replacements. Some of these buildings were:

Continuing Education Centre (C.E.C), an architectural piece donated to the University by the United States Agency for International Development(USAID). Other major buildings that suffered the same fate were Princess Alexandra Auditorium, Russwurum Building (housing faculty of social sciences), the X-Ray building at the University Medical Centre, Agbebi building of faculty of Engineering, Home Economics building, Farm Houses of faculty of Agriculture and the main block of the Enugu Campus²³. Those buildings that were not destroyed were in such state of disrepair and misuse that they became an eyesore and required huge sums of money before they could be habitable. The report stated further that, ‗the overall condition of the campus was such that health authorities had to inspect the total environment and make recommendations before general return of staff and students could commence‘²⁴. Buildings like St. Peter‘s Catholic Church, the University Library, Margaret Ekpo Refectory, some staff quarters and some students‘ hostels that were not destroyed were occupied by Nigeria army officers. Thus, churches were desecrated by the Nigerian soldiers who turned them into living quarters, kitchen and toilets.

The most extensive and glaring damage, destruction and looting was done in the area of furniture and equipment. As stated earlier that the vandals will first strafe a particular area before looting valuables including zinc, doors, windows and wedding portraits. At the end of the war, staff quarters and public quarters were looted dry, louvre blades and door glasses were completely stolen. Thousands of chairs and tables in all buildings in both campuses were carted away. Even the one-thousand or so beautiful, fixed, retractable plywood seats which were part of the glory of Princess Alexandra Auditorium were all wrenched out. Not a single one was left out of the ten thousand or so spring beds and mattresses that had been distributed to the students‘ halls of

residence and staff quarters, electrical installations were either removed or smashed. Electric wires, floor tiles and toilet floats were removed. In every residential room and office, books were either removed or torn into shreds and piled up into huge heaps all over the floor. Steel cabinets that could not be carted away were smashed; their contents spilt over or burnt. Hundreds of refrigerators, cookers, office machines of all categories, microscopes, movable laboratory equipment of all kinds were stolen. Where science or other equipment was fixed, it was smashed beyond repair. An example was the Carver Building (science Block) where every laboratory was one extensive field of broken glass²⁵. As stated earlier, Nsukka fell early into the hands of the federal troops; therefore, the looting took place over a long period of time throughout the 30 months civil war. This explains the magnitude of destruction and looting in this area.

In the Faculty of Engineering, the structures were virtually devastated. All the departments of this faculty lost sensitive parts of most heavy installations. They were either smashed or rendered inoperative. All the electrical wirings were torn off. The Metallurgy laboratory was badly damaged and the photo elastic bench was smashed. Heavy electric motors, generators and motorcycle test unit were removed: variable compression engine unit was damaged: the tool-store was completely looted: the air compressor unit was removed and the bearing lubrication unit damaged to name just a few²⁶. It could be said that the rest of Nigeria came into this war not only to permanently silence the Igbo but also render them incapacitated physically, psychologically, economically and emotionally. It is just a miracle how the people quickly overcame the horrors of this war fought with so much venom and hate. Despite the magnitude of destruction and devastation, by 21 March 1970, students returned back to the institution.

The dominant question remains the rationale behind such wanton destruction of the University of Nigeria. The Gestapo mien with which the federal troops rendered the university desolate begs

for answers if it was actually an official assignment. An informant recalled that Pre-Civil War Princess Alexandra Auditorium was a piece of great architectural design not seen anywhere in Nigeria. He rhetorically questioned the essence of the destruction when the troops led by Captain Wushishi occupied the University despite the fact that they met no resistance as the University had been deserted while the Biafran soldiers had retreated to Opi²⁷. Indeed, the looting of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and other schools within the zone was done with the intention to punish the Biafrans by impoverishing them just as foreign forces did a conquered territory. They vandalized public schools and government offices and burnt invaluable document. Individual homes were not spared their penchant for brutality and brigandage.