Biafra : Who are Biafrans?

By Timothy Uzochukwu

September 10, 2016

On the east of the Niger stretching to the Atlantic bay is peopled by a  group of diverse ethnic nationalities geographically called Biafra and its indigenous people Biafrans. These ethnic nationalities having resolved to come together as one nation under God equally resolved to take their destiny into their hands with a view to building a nation free from fear, bitterness and hatred.

The sole aim is to develop our innate capacities and rear our children in an atmosphere of peace and security.  We want equal right and justice as we stretch our hands in fellowship to all nations.

Biafrans are a self-determined people, a nation of diverse ethnic nationalities that have contributed immeasurably to the development of the Nigerian economy  after the historic amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates in 1914.

Biafrans began to leave their homeland in droves to settle in several places among the Fulani-Hausa in the north and the Yoruba in the south-west.

In these areas, they opened up new avenues of commerce and industry and at the same time built new homes and erected places of worship and institutions of learning.

All these contributed to social economic development of all parts of the country. Due to the dogged nature and resilient spirit the Biafrans have, they progressed rapidly.

In addition, the progress and dynamism of Biafrans contrasted with tardiness and conservatism of their neighbours who were generally unable to achieve the same standards of prosperity.

The envy and resultant animosity towards the Biafrans by their host communities in the north were manifested periodically calling   the Kano and Jos massacres to mind in the  north between 1953 and 1945 respectively.

The Biafrans are traditionally democratic which got its origin from their ancestral homelands, an ideal which they have eventually imbibed  that speaks volumes for the avowed unity of her peoples to this day.

Edited by Iyoha John Darlington

Published by Uchechi Collins

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