- Former military president Ibrahim Babangida recounted a courageous moment from the Biafra War in his autobiography, A Journey in Service
- He described how he saved his wounded friend, Captain Garba Duba, during the intense Battle of Enugu in 1967
- Babangida reflected on the act of bravery, emphasising the importance of evacuating a wounded comrade to safety amidst fire
IBB Shares What He Did When He Saw a Wounded Soldier During Biafran WarSource: UGCBattle of EnuguReflecting on the act of courageIn our attempt to capture Enugu after the fall of Nsukka, Lt- Col. Theophilus Danjuma, who had only just relieved Sule Apollo of the command of the detachment of 1st Division at the Nsukka front, began the advance on Enugu on September 12, 1967. Colonel Danjumas advance was a broad front of seven battalions, 4th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, and the 82nd (with some 20,000 troops as reinforcement), to make it difficult for the Biafrans to pin us down.Just as we approached Agbani in todays Enugu State, we came under heavy attack from the Biafrans. The attack was so intense that we had to retreat. As I turned around, I could see from a distanceThe Nigerian Civil War and the NDA Teaching Years that my childhood friend, Captain Garba Duba, had taken a hit. He was down, bleeding and writhing in pain. You could see that he was in deep trouble. But the enemy fire was so intense that it would have been foolhardy to move close to him, let alone attempt to save him. And then, suddenly, as if consumed by a sudden release of adrenaline into my bloodstream, which may have also blinded my receptors to the dangers from the barrage of enemy fire around me, I impulsively crawled across the field and dragged Duba away towards us. We immediately pulled him out to the rear before he was airlifted to a hospital.This attempt to save Duba was one of my early close shaves with death during the war. Looking back now, I dont know why I did it! It was crazy!! It was clear that the danger was enormous, and its probable that if I hadnt done it, perhaps someone else would have stepped in to save Duba. But at that moment, what mattered the most was that we needed to evacuate him to safety. We needed to save his life. It was not about how leaving a wounded colleague behind could affect the troops morale. While that may have driven me, I was convinced that my action, complicated as it seemed at the time, was the decent thing to do. One of the rules I wholeheartedly imbibed as a soldier and an officer is this: as much as possible, never leave behind a wounded or even dead colleague in a war situation.IBB shares his fathers job
