“No tears. Just win. And don’t wear black when I die” – The story of Capt. Tamuno
(In Memory of Captain Tamuno Ebiye — From the Creeks to the Battlefield)
Captain Tamuno Ebiye was born in the mangrove-lined town of Okrika, Rivers State. A quiet river girl. The daughter of a fisherman and a local teacher. She had dreams — big ones—but war had bigger plans for her.
She was supposed to be a marine biologist. She loved sea turtles and red oil crabs. But life doesn’t always ask you what you want.
The Niger Delta crisis took her cousin in 2009. He wasn’t a militant. He was walking home. Stray bullet. Wrong place, wrong skin. Tamuno was 13. That day, she saw her uncle cry like a child. That day, she stopped smiling.
At 24, she joined the Nigerian Army through the Short Service Combatant Commission (SSC).
Her mother nearly fainted.
“Tamuno, why? You want to die?”
But Tamuno replied,
“If we keep running, who will stand?”
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She Fought With Her Mind…
Tamuno was no ordinary officer.
She wasn’t just brave — she was smart.
Her strategy saved over 80 soldiers during an ambush in Gwoza, Borno, in 2021.
But nobody outside the army ever heard her name. Why? Because she was a woman. Because she was from the South. Because Nigeria forgets its quiet heroes.
The Last Operation, January 14, 2024.
She led a joint operation in Shiroro, Niger State. The intel was wrong, they walked into a trap.
Bandits opened fire from the cliffs.
One bullet shattered her thigh. She fell, but refused evacuation. With blood dripping from her leg, she gave orders through the radio. Calm voice. No panic.
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She saved the entire unit. But she didn’t save herself.
A second bullet hit her chest.
As she was lifted into the helicopter, she whispered to her 2IC:
“No tears. Just win.”
When her body returned to Port Harcourt, they brought her in a sealed coffin.
No one opened it.
Her younger brother stood there with trembling hands, holding her old ID card.
Their mother collapsed beside the gate.
On her bed was a small black notebook.
On the last page, she wrote:
“I never joined the army to be remembered. I joined because silence is a betrayal. If I die, wear white for me. Not black. I died standing.”
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