By Anyi Kings
Private Observer, Human Rights Advocate & Biafra Self-Determination Activist
Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I stand before you as a private observer, a human-rights advocate and an African activist for self-determination.
I come without a government behind me.
I come with something equally important:
the voice of a people.
The United Nations was founded on a simple but powerful idea:
“We the peoples.”
But today I ask this Assembly:
When will the peoples of Africa truly become the authors of their own political destiny?
The 81st General Assembly has opened under the theme “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”
If the United Nations is serious about restoring trust, Africa must be allowed to speak about the history that continues to shape its present.
AFRICA'S MAP WAS NOT DRAWN BY AFRICANS
For generations, Africa has lived with political boundaries largely inherited from European colonial rule.
Colonial powers divided territories according to their own administrative, economic and strategic interests.
Communities were separated.
Different peoples were consolidated into single colonial territories.
Historical identities were subordinated to colonial administration.
And when colonialism ended, many of those colonial territories became independent states.
We were told that colonialism had ended.
But the question remains:
Did colonialism end when the flags changed, or did some of its political architecture survive?
This is not an argument for endless border wars.
It is an argument for historical honesty.
CORRECT THE MAP — THEN ASK WHO CONTROLS THE POLITICAL MAP
On 4 September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/80/L.104, “Correct the Map.”
The initiative was led by Togo and the African Union, and the resolution passed overwhelmingly by 164 votes in favour, one against and six abstentions.
I welcome this African-led initiative.
Togo's Foreign Minister told this Assembly that a fair map does not change world geography; it changes how we see the world.
That statement carries a lesson far beyond cartography.
Maps influence how humanity sees Africa.
But political maps also determine how Africans see themselves.
Therefore, after correcting the geographical distortion of Africa, we must have the courage to confront the political questions created by Africa's colonial history.
A map can be geographically accurate and still conceal a historical injustice.
NIGERIA IS ONE OF AFRICA'S UNFINISHED QUESTIONS
Consider Nigeria.
The Nigerian state is a product of colonial-era political arrangements involving peoples with different histories, identities and political traditions.
Yet generations later, Africans are sometimes told that questioning such inherited arrangements is itself unacceptable.
I respectfully disagree.
A state is a political institution.
A people is a human community.
And political institutions must ultimately serve human beings.
The existence of a state should never become an excuse for denying the political aspirations of the people living within it.
THE BIAFRA QUESTION
This brings me to Biafra.
I speak openly as a Biafra self-determination activist.
The Biafra question is not simply about a flag.
It is not simply about territory.
It is about identity, history, human rights and the right of a people to participate in determining its political future.
I am not asking this Assembly to impose an outcome.
I am asking the United Nations to support a process.
A peaceful process.
A democratic process.
A credible process.
A process in which the people concerned can freely express their wishes without intimidation, violence or predetermined conclusions.
REPLACE THE GUN WITH THE BALLOT
If a people demands self-determination, the international community should not automatically answer with soldiers.
It should first ask:
What do the people actually want?
And the most democratic way to answer that question is through a properly designed referendum.
Let the ballot replace the bullet.
Let dialogue replace repression.
Let international observation replace suspicion.
Let the people speak.
If the people choose one political future, that choice should be respected within the applicable constitutional and international framework.
If they choose another, that choice should equally be addressed through peaceful political and legal processes.
The point is not to predetermine the answer.
The point is to allow the people to give the answer.
AFRICA MUST NOT HAVE TWO STANDARDS
Distinguished delegates,
Africa must reject a double standard in the application of self-determination.
We cannot celebrate the right of peoples to determine their future in one part of the world while treating the same aspiration as inherently illegitimate in another.
We cannot tell Africans that colonial boundaries are untouchable while simultaneously celebrating the principle that peoples have rights.
We must reconcile these principles through dialogue, democracy and international law.
Territorial integrity matters.
But so does human dignity.
State sovereignty matters.
But so does the voice of the people.
Peace matters.
But sustainable peace cannot always be achieved by permanently suppressing political grievances.
MY APPEAL TO THIS ASSEMBLY
Therefore, I call upon the United Nations and the African Union to develop stronger mechanisms for peacefully addressing unresolved self-determination questions across Africa.
I call for:
First: independent monitoring of serious human-rights concerns arising from self-determination conflicts.
Second: genuine dialogue between governments and representatives of affected populations.
Third: protection for peaceful political expression.
Fourth: internationally supported mechanisms for resolving prolonged constitutional and political disputes.
And where the necessary conditions exist:
a free, fair, transparent and internationally supervised referendum.
This should not be regarded as a threat to Africa.
It should be regarded as an instrument for preventing future conflict.
AFRICA DESERVES THE RIGHT TO WRITE ITS OWN FUTURE
Mr. President,
The African Union was created partly from the determination to build an Africa capable of speaking with its own voice.
The United Nations was created to prevent humanity from repeating the catastrophic mistakes of the past.
Today, Africa has an opportunity to take another step forward.
We have begun to correct the map.
Let us now begin to correct the deeper political problem:
the exclusion of peoples from decisions about their own political destiny.
Let us build an Africa where borders are not sacred because colonial administrators drew them.
Let borders exist because people have found peaceful and democratic ways to live within them.
And where serious questions arise about political status, let us answer them with dialogue rather than bullets.
THE BIAFRA APPEAL
Therefore, from this international platform, I respectfully call upon the United Nations and the African Union:
Support a peaceful process for Biafra self-determination.
Support dialogue.
Support human-rights protection.
Support independent observation.
And ultimately, where the required political and legal conditions are established:
support a free, fair and internationally supervised referendum through which the people concerned can determine their political future.
Do not decide the outcome for them.
Let them decide.
Because self-determination is not a declaration of war.
It is a question that can be answered peacefully by the people themselves.
And if the United Nations truly means:
“WE THE PEOPLES,”
then Africa's peoples must have the right to be heard.
Thank you.
Anyi Kings
Private Observer, Human Rights Advocate & Biafra Self-Determination Activist
81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly
New York — September 2026
