Overview
Isaac Adaka Boro was an Ijaw student leader from what is now Bayelsa State who declared a Niger Delta republic in 1966, the first armed assertion of Delta resource claims.
Biography
Boro worked as a police officer before studying chemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he was elected student union president. He argued that oil revenue from Ijaw territory was being taken while the creeks themselves received nothing, and that the minority peoples of the Delta had no political voice in a federation of three large regions.
In February 1966 he formed the Niger Delta Volunteer Force and proclaimed the Niger Delta People's Republic from Kaiama. The declaration lasted twelve days before federal forces detained him and his associates; he was tried and sentenced for treason. Released in 1967 as the civil war began, he fought on the federal side in the Delta, holding a commission in the Nigerian Army, and was killed in 1968 near Ogu in circumstances that have been reported in more than one version.
Notable achievements
- Formed the Niger Delta Volunteer Force in 1966
- Declared the Niger Delta People's Republic at Kaiama, the first armed Delta resource claim
- Elected student union president at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka
- Fought on the federal side in the Delta during the civil war
Legacy
Boro is claimed as a forerunner by later Niger Delta movements, and the arguments he made about revenue and minority representation reappear in Delta politics to this day. Assessments of his methods and of his wartime role differ.