Isaac Adaka Boro

Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro (10 September 1938 – 9 May 1968), fondly called "Boro", was a Nigerian nationalist and soldier of Ijaw descent. He is considered a pioneer of minority rights activism in Nigeria.

Throughout his life, Boro held several roles, including those of a university student leader, teacher, policeman, and Nigerian military officer. An undergraduate student of chemistry and student union president at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, left school to lead a protest against the exploitation of oil and gas resources in the Niger Delta areas, which benefited mainly the federal government of Nigeria and the Eastern region with capital in Enugu but nothing was given to the Niger Delta people. He believed that the people of the area deserved a larger share of the proceeds of the oil wealth. He formed the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, an armed militia with members consisting mainly of his fellow Ijaw ethnic group. They declared the Niger Delta Republic on February 23, 1966, and fought with federal forces for twelve days before being defeated. He and his comrades were jailed for treason. However, the federal regime of General Yakubu Gowon granted him amnesty on the eve of the Nigerian civil war in May 1967. He then enlisted and was commissioned as a major in the Nigerian army. He fought on the side of the Federal Government but was killed under mysterious circumstances in active service in 1968 at Ogu (near Okrika) in Rivers State.

Niger Delta activists like Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and many others often referred to him as a major inspiration.