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"The Push Has Started." The Kano massacre was a critical blow to the at tempts of the Nigerian government to hold the country together. In the Ibo East, Military Governor Odumegwu Ojukwu ordered all members of outside tribes to leave the region immediately, announcing curtly that "I have lost confidence in my ability to continue restraining the violently injured feelings of the people of this region." Ojukwu also repeated his past threats to lead the East out of the Nigerian Federation entirely. "I have said before that the East would not secede unless she is forced out," he told the Ibos in a radio broadcast. "Fellow countrymen, the push has started."
In Lagos, the newspaper Daily Sketch made an eloquent and pathetic plea for sanity. "Will no one save Nigeria?" it asked. "Is there no one whose love for Nigeria transcends love of tribe or personal safety, who is willing to come forward and seek others like himself to nurse this sick nation? If there be a man, let him come forward. Today, for God's sake!"