British PM Harold Wilson Visiting Port Harcourt during the Nigerian Civil War | March 1969

March 31st 1969.

Footage of Harold Wilson visiting Port Harcourt, the capital city of the Rivers State of Nigeria.

He is seen arriving and being welcomed by the military governor of Rivers State Lt. Comdr Alfred Diete-Spiff. Also present were the General Officer commanding Third Marine Commando, Colonel Benjamin Adekunle and the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir David Hunt.

The Prime Minister was on a tour of the country visiting areas affected by the civil war. Part of a backdrop to the tour was his offer to meet the Biafra leader, former Nigerian army colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, at any number of locations during which Wilson hoped to get a first hand account of his case and to be able to put questions to him. Ojukwu declined, claiming that because Biafra was blockaded by Nigeria, it would be more feasible for him to visit Biafra.

Wilson had specifically asked to meet Adekunle, the famed "Black Scorpion", whose division had liberated a sizeable portion of the former Eastern Region including Port Harcourt itself.

True to form, the forthright Adekunle took the opportunity to ask Wilson why he had not used force to overthrow the white minority government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia which had made a unilateral declaration of independence.

Source of footage: Reuters News.