By C. K. Ekeke
The Republic of Biafra, which was short-lived as a result of
civil war of 1967—1970 with Nigeria and after the war was re-integrated into
the federation, will be 50 years on May 30, 2017.
Fifty years later, many of us still imagine what Biafra
nation might have become by now had Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and their backers not
truncated it.
For some years now, various groups have been clamoring for
the restoration of the independent State of Biafra. But in the recent times,
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu
and his deputy, Mr. Uche Mefor has elevated the clamor beyond Nigeria to global
stage.
The right for self-determination was enacted by the United
Nations and passed by General Assembly Resolution on September 2007 with
overwhelming majority of nations including Nigeria recognizing and supporting
the rights of ethnic and indigenous populations to self-determination.
“Self-determination” is the principle and practice whereby a
nation, for example, an ethnic population control its own people, its own land,
its own resources, and its own governance, independent of any other subtending
political structure.
Therefore, IPOB, a movement representing majority of Biafran
people is seeking a just cause for millions of Biafrans who are being
suffocated in Nigeria and want to be free from such oppression. And so, as the quest and agitation for the
restoration of Biafra rages on, a “Sit-At-Home” a form of protest has been
ordered by IPOB to be observed on May 30th, 2017 mostly by all Biafrans in
Nigeria to mark the 5oth anniversary of the independence of Biafra State and
especially to honor the lives of Biafran soldiers, men, women and children that
perished during the three year war and continues to die till today.
The IPOB leadership is requesting that all businesses,
markets, shops, offices, schools, etc. be shut down in Igboland that day. The “Sit-At-Home” is designed to encourage
all Biafrans to pause that day to pray and meditate on the lives of their
fallen heroes and heroines who died fighting to defend themselves against
Nigeria’s war of aggression. They are to
pay tribute, recognize and honor those who gave their lives to defend them
against Nigeria's pogrom and genocidal war of annihilation within Nigeria.
In the quest to defend their mother and fatherland, the
small size army of only 3,000 men without proper war weapons but machete, bows
and arrows were able to manage the war for about three years. The scanty and ill-prepared Biafran soldiers
gallantly fought to defend their mother and fatherland against the brutal and
aggressive jihadist war against them and their land. Eventually due to horror
of death especially children dying of hunger, kwashiorkor, lack of medicine and
food, etc. were forced to surrender to the federal troupe.
The “Sit-At-Home” is appropriate and commendable. It is another method of protest to avoid
being massacred by the irrational Nigerian police forces should Biafrans engage
in any public activity such as rally or marching to honor their fallen heroines
and heroines. Last year, hundreds of Biafran youths were mercilessly massacred
during the same event at Nkpor and Asaba in Biafra land by the incompetent
Nigerian forces.
The Nigerian State honors the federal troop that fought to
keep Nigeria one but will not honor the Biafran soldiers who defended Biafrans
especially civilians, children and women who were being massacred like chickens
all over Nigeria. Yet, we say we are
one country. What a shame!
So, it is a just and moral thing that all true Biafrans
honor their fallen heroes. They were
brave men who willingly and voluntarily gave their lives so that Biafra may be
and live. They deserve our highest respect and honor.
Biafrans or non Biafrans who oppose such rectitude are
ungrateful and not worthy to live. They
are a disgrace to mankind and may the spirits of our fallen heroes and heroines
may be upon such people.
It’s morally right that we pause and pray for our fallen
heroes and heroines on the May 30th 2017.
We must memorialize and honor them for their bravery and courage. We must cherish and honor the memories of
those who served and paid the ultimate price that we live. They epitomize the
spirit of selflessness, valor, and service in their dedication and willingness
to give their lives in the hope that others may live in freedom.
Personally, I remain eternally grateful for their ultimate
sacrifice they made by willing and voluntarily giving their lives that I may
live. Their commitment to service and love of Biafra will never be forgotten.
The “Sit-At-Home” is quite commendable and I commend IPOB
for such vision and courage.
I have a firm belief that one of the reasons Nigeria has not
moved forward as a nation is due to systemic injustices against Biafrans and
dishonor against other indigenous peoples that make up the contraption created
by the British Empire for their selfish and self-seeking political and economic
control of Africa.
Having said all that, I’ll like to briefly comment on some
of the statements, speeches and news items of the recent Biafra@50 Conference
held at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja last Thursday.
I’ve been reading the news analysis regarding the one-day
conference titled: “Memory and Nation Building – Biafra 50 Years After,” held
at the Yar’Adua Centre Abuja, in which some of the speakers included former
president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former
Permanent Secretary Information, Education & Industry, Alhaji Ahmed Joda,
President General Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, Professor John
Stremlau of the University of Witwatersrand, Honorable Chudi Offodile and
Honorable Nkoyo Toyo while Professor Part Utomi chaired the panel discussions
and served as the Conference Moderator.
Let me begin with some of the statements made by one Hakeem
Baba Ahmed, who is the Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Malam Ahmed said that all “Nigerians are Biafrans, and that Biafra was a cause
just like other causes.”
What a silly, senseless and idiotic statement. First, Biafra is not a cause but a country, a
nation that had its own flag, currency, economy, military, various languages
with official language as English and Judeo-Christian values. Biafra nation
comprised about 30,000 square miles of land, with terrestrial borders shared
with Nigeria to the north and west, and with Cameroon to the east. Its coast
was on the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
Second, it seems to me that this Malam does not have any
sense of history. He does not know that
there was a nation called the Republic of Biafra that existed from 30 May 1967
to January 1970. Before Nigeria was
amalgamated in January 1914, there existed various ethnic groups: Igbos,
Yorubas, Edos, Efiks, Urhobos, Hausas, Fulanis, Bornus, Idomas, Nupes, etc.,
that were conquered by the British and forced to be one nation. The distinct groups namely: the Igbo, Efik,
Ibibio, Anang, Ogoni, Urohbo, Oron, Eket, Ijaw, and Itsekiri among others had
common ancestry and ethnic cohesion and constituted the former Eastern Region.
They were a distinct people from the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba ethnic
groups. They had existed hundreds of
years before the White people came to scramble and to colonialize Africa that
created the worst human conflicts, violence & wars, death & disease,
migrants & refugees, bribery & corruption, and pandemic poverty and
hunger we have today in Africa.
To add insult to his ignorant statement, Ahmed said all
Nigerians are Biafrans. It is the most
idiotic statement I have heard in my entire life. Let me just leave it alone because it is a
waste of time and space to unpack the foolishness of such silly and senseless
statement.
Then, there was another speaker, ex-military head of State
and former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, speaking at the Biafra
conference,
He said that dialogue is a sure way to resolving the issue
of agitation for an independent Igbo nation. Obasanjo said some of those
agitating for Biafra today lacked the understanding of what it entails.
According to Obasanjo, “We never had a national leader. Our leaders at the
beginning were mindful of their regions. That is our problem till today. “I
have maintained that the young officers who struck in 1966 were naive but there
were some element of nationalism in some of them. Be that as it may, it set us
back. “The language used in the war did not help matters, the people on the
Biafra side called us vandals and we called them rebels. “We thought we would
end the war in three months, but it took us 30 months, and the federal side
nearly lost it.”Civil war is more difficult than fighting in a foreign land
because we are fighting to unite. ”Even a soldier of mine who tried to rape a
woman… I had to chase him with a gun. He did not succeed in raping the woman,
and I did not have to gun him down. ”Some of the people agitating for Biafra
today were not even born then. They don’t know what it entails. “But I think, we
should even appeal to those saying they want to go, we should not tell them to
go, we should make them understand that there is enough cake to share. We
should massage Nigeria just like in a love relationship.”
Obasanjo’s conciliatory speech and rant is not just cowardly
but hypocritical. This is a man who is
in his late 70’s, a war criminal, ex-military dictator and former head of
State, one of the plunderers and benefactors of the rich oil deposits in Niger
Delta Biafra, is now telling the owners
of Nigeria’s only source of revenue that there is enough “cake to share.”
This is the most childish and hypocritical statement I have
ever heard made by any Nigerian leader. These are the sorts of men who
governing the country for all these years and no wonder nothing works in
Nigeria. As long as these sorts of men
remain in position of power and authority, Nigeria has no future. As long as these kinds of dishonest rulers
and men without character continue to parade over the affairs of the people,
Nigeria can never prosper. How can any
nation move beyond the state of lawlessness and corruption with these kinds of
evil and wicked men in power?
Obasanjo, is a war criminal who committed genocide against
the people of Biafra and even more during his presidency from 1999 to 2007,
during which he authorized the massacre of thousands of Biafrans in Nigeria.
Last year, Obasanjo called Biafra agitators: miscreants and
internet fraudsters. He consented with
another war criminal and genocidist – Yakubu Gowon that Biafra is dead. Now, this shameless Obasanjo wants President
Buahri who is leading a totalitarian and authoritarian government to dialogue,
negotiate and beg Biafran agitators. The
same Buhari who sent his military killer squad made of Army, Police, DSS, Boko
haram, Fulani herdsmen and others to massacre young Biafran agitators. After
massacring thousands of armless young lives for rightly seeking
self-determination due to the hopelessness they have been subjugated in
Nigeria, the federal government now wants to dialogue and beg them to forsake
Biafra and remain in Nigeria. What a
hypocrisy!
Buhari and his advisers think they can use force to quench
the spirit of Biafra which is based on truth, facts, and reason. Now, that they are losing the truth war, they
want a soft landing by sending Obasanjo and Osinbajo to calm things down in
Biafra. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Another speaker is
the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who is also using conciliatory tone. Osinbajo has always argued that Nigeria is
better together and always emphasizing on the nation’s size, population and
diversity as her strength.
However, what this learned lawyer forgets to understand that
the kind of diversity and size of Nigeria is not really any strength at all but
a curse and a domination of hundreds of indigenous peoples that make up Nigeria
by Hausa/Fulani. Today, Nigeria is a
lawless, corrupt and failing state. So
why hasn’t the diversity and size worked for Nigeria?
Another baffling fact is this: Osinbajo is also a pastor who has studied the
scriptures and probably taken classes on history of religions and comparative
religions. Islam and Christianity are
antithetical to each other and can never cohabit especially the size and kind
of militant and radical Islam being practiced in Nigeria.
Additionally, the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo/Ijaw ethnic
tribes are very different people: socially, culturally, linguistically, and
otherwise. The hatred and distrust
between the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria will make it impossible for
them to live together in peace with each other.
That’s just the simple truth. Let
us stop deceiving ourselves.
By the way, Biafra is also a diverse nation with various
ethnic groups, languages, social and cultural norms but based on their
Judeo-Christian value systems and identity.
So, we do not need the kind of diversity that exist in Nigeria today,
which is antithetical and hostile to the Judeo-Christian values and identity of
the Biafran people.
On the issue of size, there are many nations in the world
with less population than Biafra and yet are developed and industrialized.
Israel for instance is less than 10 million and yet is a highly industrialized
nation and rate among the top technological advanced country on the planet. Israel does not have any natural resources.
Britain is about 65 million people. It
does not have any verifiable natural resources and until today, remains a super
power.
The amalgamation of variant groups of more than 400 people
and ethnic groups to form Nigeria in 1914 remains one of the great atrocities
of the British Empire and they know it.
It’s time Britain and international community peacefully
dismantle Nigeria to avert another waste of human lives. The Biafran people want to live in freedom,
liberty, justice, peace and prosperity for all. They are sick and tired of
oppression, marginalization, ethnic hatred, religious violence and killings.
The Hausa/Fulani have sent Obasanjo/Osinbajo to calm down
Biafran agitators but I’m afraid to say that it is late. Biafra spirit is high and has spread like
wildfire, while Nigeria is rapidly disintegrating.
Since the end of civil war, these plunderers of crude oil
resources located in Niger Delta of Biafra land have continued to use all kinds
of propaganda and tactics to divide, subjugate, marginalize, rob, butcher, and
oppress Biafra people. The systemic injustices against Eastern region of
Nigeria is simply evil and wicked. Yet, the end of war slogan: “No victor, No
vanquished and nationalreintegration, reconciliation and reconstruction slogans
echoed by General Gowon was just words and deceit.
Their oppression, marginalization have virtually touched
every part of Biafra and facet of life and that’s why Biafran people are taking
such risks running to other countries in their millions for a better living
conditions, to live in freedom in other nations which has eluded them in their
own land, and sadly leaving behind the vulnerable and politicians who have
caved in submissiveness and obedience to the Hausa-Fulani tyranny and
oppression as long as they are getting some crumbs from their new colonial
master.
Obasanjo also said that the civil war was never intended to
wipe all Biafran people yet, the war was genocidal. It was unspeakable brutality. Nigeria military banditry butchered and
vanquished Biafrans using their British, former Society Union and Egyptian
supplied military jets and bombs as well as blocked relief flights bringing
food and medicine into Biafra. Shortages
of food and medicine throughout Biafra was due largely to the Nigerian
government's blockade of the region.
Chief Anthony Enahoro, a Yoruba leader stated that
"there are various ways of fighting a war. You might starve your enemy
into submission, or you might kill him on the battlefield."
The late national Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo also
said, "All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war and
I don't see why we should feed our enemies in order for them to fight
harder."
On 30 June 1969, the Nigerian government banned all relief
flights into Biafra territory including Red Cross aid to Biafra. In October
that year, the Biafran hero and leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
appealed to the United Nations to mediate a cease-fire with Nigeria to end the
horror of death of millions of children and civilians.
And then after the war, the despotic colonial systemic
oppression and domination of eastern region have continued which has inflicted
terrible psyche-mental toil on the conquered people. The cruel and tyrannical reign of the
Hausa-Fulani military dictators compounded the misery and suffering of the
Biafran people. Today, the land of
Biafra suffers from profound and pandemic poverty of economic, political,
religious, moral crises. Nigeria’s
legacy of terror and treachery against Biafrans has continued to deny them of
their God-given talents, creativity, and innovation.
Nigeria has been built on greed, violence, oppression,
domination and gross disrespect of the rights of indigenous populations that
make up the federation. These shameless politicians and rulers forget to
understand that true peace and prosperity can never be built on the faulty foundations
of greed and oppression.
Today, Nigeria is an empire of lies, deceit with its
relentless, almost pathological propaganda of undermining the truth,
manipulation of facts deceiving gullible citizens. Nigeria’s politics of naked
shameless greed has barred credible and people with character and integrity
from dabbling into such cultic politics of nudity.
In conclusion, the conference on Biafra@50 in Abuja last
week again shows the dishonesty and cowardice of many Nigerian rulers and
politicians. Their lack of integrity is beyond belief. On the other hand, the
leaders we have in Biafra especially Igbo leadership today are pathetic,
profligate, traitors, saboteurs, and cowards.
They are mostly politicians who are selfish and self-seeking more than
the welfare of Ndigbo in general. That
is the dilemma of Ndigbo in today’s Nigeria.
I doubt if Ndigbo will ever be free people in Nigeria due to the kinds
of selfish, corrupt and coward politicians and leaders running their
affairs. Ndigbo and Biafrans in general
are in dire need of wise, sincere and courageous leadership to liberate the
people and their land from captivity, marginalization, oppression, and slavery
and coming islamization of entire Nigeria by Hausa-Fulani with full support of
the evil British government and support of corrupt global powers.
May the souls of our gallant heroes and heroines continue to
rest in eternal peace!
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