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Mopping up last week, the Nigerians moved quickly to restore order and save survivors. Radio Biafra, which had played Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and native drum calls in its final hours, gave way to a soothing female announcer for Radio Nigeria. "Wherever you are," she said repeatedly, "General Gowon wants you to be calm and remain where you are so that relief can reach you." To prove that it is sincerely trying to avoid reprisals, the government replaced the victorious troops with an occupation force of policemen. Ibos who belonged to the police force before the war were invited to come out of the bush and return to duty. Gowon even named an Ibo, Ukpabi-Asika, to administer the occupied territory until normal civilian government is restored. Asika, a graduate of U.C.L.A. and professor of political science at Ibadan University, voiced optimism that the occupation would succeed and that Biafran soldiers would not turn to warfare. "I'm pretty confident," he told TIME Correspondents Roland Flamini and John Blashill, "that the Ibos will learn to live again with the rest of Nigeria. After all, more than half the Ibos are already living in government territory." Eventually, Gowon may name an Ibo Governor of the East Central State. A possible non-Ibo choice is Effiong.
The rebel region—and the rest of Nigeria—face a formidable job of reconstruction. Throughout the country, imports are down and food prices up by as much as 100%. The East is a shambles of blown-up bridges, shattered buildings and dynamited roads. Only two months remain in which to get the battered Ibos under shelter before the rainy season commences in March. The government will not only have to find shelter for the ex-Biafrans in a hurry, but jobs as well. It is likely to be some time before they venture from their own depleted territory to the shops and schools they once ran elsewhere. "An Ibo would be out of his mind to show up in Hausa towns like Kano, Kaduna or Sokoto," one diplomat in Lagos said last week. "They don't want him there." Gowon also must find jobs for 130,000 or more demobilized Nigerian soldiers, some of whom are already wandering the streets of Lagos, stopping automobiles and bullying drivers for money or wine.
Gowon's top-priority problems are to feed the Biafrans and to prove that he will not countenance another bloody tribal slaughter. Ojukwu, in a statement written from his mysterious exile and distributed by Markpress, expressed doubt that his old rival had any intention of aiding the Ibo people. "Nigeria's insistence to control the distribution of relief," he said, "is both to ensure that Biafrans get no such relief and also to shut out outsiders who might witness and expose the enormous crimes she plans to commit against our people." Ojukwu notwithstanding, Gowon seems sincere enough; it remains to be seen whether he can move the relief supplies in time and keep isolated army units from running wild.