By Abdulkareem Macualay

Late Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, was born to a Kaiama family,in present day Bayelsa State of Nigeria, on 10thSeptember, 1938.

He was a celebrated Niger Delta nationalist and Nigerian civil war hero.

Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro was a great visionary man, because he was one of the pioneers of minority rights activism in Nigeria.

In his autobiography, “The twelve Day Revolution”, Boro wrote about his early life:

“I am reliably informed that I was born at the zero hour of twelve midnight on 10th, September, 1938, in an oil town  of Oloibiri, along humid creeks  of the Niger Delta. His father was a headmaster of the only mission school in the area then.

As a teenager, who hardly knew his  sorroundings, Boro found himself  in a city called Port Harcourt, where again the father got transferred to as headmaster of another mission school in the early fourties.

Isaac Boro, who , later went back to his home community – Kaiama, when his father again was transferred to head a mission school there, meant different things to different people, his different parts included becoming an undergraduate student of Chemistry and Student Union President, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, a teacher, a Policeman and a Nigerian Army Military Officer.

While at Nsukka as an undergraduate, he had left school to lead an armed protest against the exploitation of oil & gas resources in the Niger Delta area, which he claimed only benefitted the Federal Government of Nigeria and a remote Eastern regional government.

He believed that people of the Niger Delta area deserved a fairer portion of proceeds of the country’s oil wealth, which led to hisformation of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, an armed militia organization, with it’s members drawn mainly from his fellow Ijaw group.

He Boro, led his members to declare the Niger Delta Republic on 23rd February 1966, before Emeka Ojukwu declared the Biafra republic in May 1966.

Boro fought Nigeria Federal Forces for twelve days, before the Niger Delta Volunteer Force war defeated and those held, including Boro were jailed by the then Aguiyi Ironsi Federal Government, for treson.

Isaac Boro upon release from jail during the Civil war joined the Nigerian Army and fought against the Biafran soldiers, before he was killed on 9th, May 1968 in the war front.