At the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War, in 1967, Parker was in Enugu as deputy to the British High Commissioner David Hunt. On good terms with C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, he evaluated the situation quite differently from Hunt, who placed the blame for the outbreak of hostilities on Ojukwu's ambition. In August of that year, Akanu Ibiam renounced his British knighthood in a letter to Parker.