| Saturday, June 10, 2017 | 6:20 AM CET
Threat Of Eviction Of Biafrans From The North Calls For a Referendum
By O. E. Williams
In his book titled "Nigeria's Five Majors", Ben Gbulie recounted bitterly how a Premier from the North and his agbada-clad Ministers embarrassed them( Ben and co) with inquisitive question to know which tribes they were from in the Nigerian state. This happened when they (Ben and co) returned from military training abroad in the 1960s before the 1967 Biafran war. He was narrating the ordeal to Chukwuma Nzeogwu, the chief coup plotter. See their conversation below:
Ben: ...alas! No sooner had the Premier and his agbada-clad Ministers arrived than our morale was shattered beyond redemption.
Chukwuma: (curiously) Why?
Ben: You see, Chukwuma, the very first question the Premier posed one of us ---a JUO who had thoughtfully undertaken to introduce the Nigerian cadets on the parade ---was: 'Where do you come from?' We couldn't possibly believe our ears, Chukwuma.
Chukwuma: I wouldn't have been surprised.
Ben: The word 'surprise' certainly cannot adequately describe the shock and the disgust we all felt ---and I mean, including the cadets from the North.
Chukwuma: But what was the JUO's answer?
Ben: Of course, he answered simply that he came from Nigeria. But the Premier didn't think much of that answer. He followed up his question with: "But where exactly in Nigeria?" This was even more astonishing and embarrassing for us.
Ben had previously lamented in the book how the Army was busy teaching 'esprit de corps', but the bloody demagogues of politicians were constantly reminding them that they were not brothers at all but people from completely different tribes.
It was clear that patriotism for a state he thought was his made him, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, mastermind the coup of 15th January, 1966.
At that time the country was heading towards a trajectory that would have culminated to national disaster had the coup not surfaced.
Notwithstanding the number of persons that died, it was a coup that was meant for stamping out tribalism; a coup "to frustrate those politicians who were busy making Nigeria a mere geographical appellation", and "to restore people's confidence by putting an end to corruption, chaos and tribalism".
But what is obtainable now? Have those things Nzeogwu fought against not escalated? Tribalism, is it not at its peak now? What about corruption? The persons and institutions fighting corruption, are they not grossly corrupt now?
Which aspect of the country has not deteriorated? Is it the military: Army, Police, Navy; government institutions, schools, secondary and tertiary alike, EFCC, DSS, CPC, the Legislature, the Judiciary, the Executive, Customs, Immigration and so on.
Truly speaking, things have worsened 100times to such extent that Nigeria needs another Nzeogwu and co to redeem the country and this time around the coup should be code-named "To Your Tribes And Extractions, Oh Ye People In The Nigerian State". Because if Nigeria does not undergo this disintegration, the next 103years, Nigeria will still be rehearsing worse drama than what is obtainable now, that is the assumption that there will still be living souls in the country at that time.
The clear truth remains that there is no way the Nigerian project will work. Take it or not, Nigeria will be experiencing worse leaderships, just as the Buhari administration has proven.
Thinking that the next president, even if he/she comes from the Igbo extraction, will better things in the country is only a daydream and insane hallucination because you will find out that he/she will worsen them.
If an Igbo man becomes the president of Nigeria, another group worse than Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen put together will emerge from the north.
As the Hausa-Fulani youths have issued out an ultimatum to Biafrans living in the north, although they seem to have retracted their statement, to avoid further threats, the only ideology that will help us is the Nnamdi Kanu school of thought: Let everyone go back to their origin, to their tribe, their extraction or nation. And that will be achieved through a referendum where Biafrans, Oduduwas and Arewas will decide to either go their separate ways, returning to their original territories and nomenclatures or remain in Nigeria. When they do so, they would form formidable entities to compete with one another and the world at large (that's, at the event of separation).
Let it be known that "no matter how long you force oil and water, they can never mix; no matter how long Lugard's experiment is given, it shall never give birth to positive expectations of its populace neither produce the enabling platform where everyone will feel safe, free to exercise their endowments and contribute their quota to posterity without fear of subjugation.
Even Lugard himself knew that the Nigerian project would not work when he said that "the South and the North are like oil and water that can NEVER mix" but because Britain's vested interest he had to force the people to coexist.
And now, even during the early hours of independence, the parties that make up the Nigerian state are proving to be incompatible. The Northerners are giving the Easterners ultimatum to vacate the north and forfeit their properties. Whereas the Easterners are agitating to opt out of the forced union.
Talking about separation, the first ethnicity that declared their readiness to opt out of the Nigerian Union was Hausa-Fulani.
They did so right from the night of June 29th, 1966 in what the Northern Army Officers called a retaliatory coup, which was the time when more than 250 senior army officers from the Igbo extraction were killed in less than 2months and more than 100,000 Easterners massacred in cold blood. A time when Northern bloodthirsty civilians killed any Easterner at their reach. And the Easterners had to run back to the east.
It was during that retaliatory coup that the northern army officers declared 'araba', signifying their readiness to secede from the rest of the Nigerian state.
Following that carnage were deliberations and accords between the North and the East, in a bid to redeem that ugly situation. But the North refused to abide by the resolutions which eventually led to the Easterners, led by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declaring their secession from the Nigerian state, which subsequently led to the massacre of over 3.5m Biafrans in a genocidal war led and backed by Gen. Yakubu Gowon and British government respectively.
In all these, Nigeria has not apologised to Biafrans, nor felt remorseful, neither for the pre-civil war carnage, nor the 1967-1970 genocide, instead the Nigerian government under Muhamadu Buhari has reinstated its readiness to massacre more Biafrans to keep Nigeria as a single entity and it has lived up to its promise as IPOB members have been incessantly massacred by the State's security operatives.
Seeing the massacre of IPOB members, one will ask whether the pro-Biafran activists killed were conducting themselves unlawfully or violently to warrant such carnage and brutality meted against them. But the obvious truth is that they have followed internationally recognized and permitted approaches to self-determination. They have never resorted to violence even in the faces of provocations.
Seeing such barbaric and brutal approach employed to suppress IPOB, one would wonder whether Nigeria is the only country in the world where its nations are seeking self-determination.
Britain, which colonized Nigeria, has Scotland seeking to opt out and become a separate state. But Britain has not treated the Scots in the manner Nigeria has treated Biafrans.
Britain has not taught Nigeria to follow her (Britain's) approach in handling Biafrans and Nigeria, being dull in emulation, has foolishly refused to learn without being taught.
Following this way the Nigerian government and its military are treating IPOB members who want to opt out of Nigeria, in the most peaceful way ever, sincere people will attest to the fact that, truly, Nigeria needs to disintegrate.
Again, looking at how the maximum ruler, Buhari wants to nail Nnamdi Kanu by all means: including concocting unsubstantiable charges; disobeying courts orders; pressurizing and allegedly blackmailing judges into following his injunctions and neglecting rule of law and fair judgement; giving unconstitutionally stringent bail conditions to Nnamdi Kanu; if you are sane and honest, you would not argue that Nigeria's unity needs to be revisited and renegotiated.
Finally, Nnamdi Kanu's ideology, which is disintegration of the forced union in a referendum, is the solution to Nigeria's compounded problems. And afterward, the individual nations emerging from Nigeria will develop at their own pace, leaving the States peaceful and prosperous.
Edited by Mazi Collins
Published by IPOB Writers
Twitter: @ipob_writers
Threat Of Eviction Of Biafrans From The North Calls For a Referendum
 |
| APC Northern Governors |
By O. E. Williams
In his book titled "Nigeria's Five Majors", Ben Gbulie recounted bitterly how a Premier from the North and his agbada-clad Ministers embarrassed them( Ben and co) with inquisitive question to know which tribes they were from in the Nigerian state. This happened when they (Ben and co) returned from military training abroad in the 1960s before the 1967 Biafran war. He was narrating the ordeal to Chukwuma Nzeogwu, the chief coup plotter. See their conversation below:
Ben: ...alas! No sooner had the Premier and his agbada-clad Ministers arrived than our morale was shattered beyond redemption.
Chukwuma: (curiously) Why?
Ben: You see, Chukwuma, the very first question the Premier posed one of us ---a JUO who had thoughtfully undertaken to introduce the Nigerian cadets on the parade ---was: 'Where do you come from?' We couldn't possibly believe our ears, Chukwuma.
Chukwuma: I wouldn't have been surprised.
Ben: The word 'surprise' certainly cannot adequately describe the shock and the disgust we all felt ---and I mean, including the cadets from the North.
Chukwuma: But what was the JUO's answer?
Ben: Of course, he answered simply that he came from Nigeria. But the Premier didn't think much of that answer. He followed up his question with: "But where exactly in Nigeria?" This was even more astonishing and embarrassing for us.
Ben had previously lamented in the book how the Army was busy teaching 'esprit de corps', but the bloody demagogues of politicians were constantly reminding them that they were not brothers at all but people from completely different tribes.
It was clear that patriotism for a state he thought was his made him, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, mastermind the coup of 15th January, 1966.
At that time the country was heading towards a trajectory that would have culminated to national disaster had the coup not surfaced.
Notwithstanding the number of persons that died, it was a coup that was meant for stamping out tribalism; a coup "to frustrate those politicians who were busy making Nigeria a mere geographical appellation", and "to restore people's confidence by putting an end to corruption, chaos and tribalism".
But what is obtainable now? Have those things Nzeogwu fought against not escalated? Tribalism, is it not at its peak now? What about corruption? The persons and institutions fighting corruption, are they not grossly corrupt now?
Which aspect of the country has not deteriorated? Is it the military: Army, Police, Navy; government institutions, schools, secondary and tertiary alike, EFCC, DSS, CPC, the Legislature, the Judiciary, the Executive, Customs, Immigration and so on.
Truly speaking, things have worsened 100times to such extent that Nigeria needs another Nzeogwu and co to redeem the country and this time around the coup should be code-named "To Your Tribes And Extractions, Oh Ye People In The Nigerian State". Because if Nigeria does not undergo this disintegration, the next 103years, Nigeria will still be rehearsing worse drama than what is obtainable now, that is the assumption that there will still be living souls in the country at that time.
The clear truth remains that there is no way the Nigerian project will work. Take it or not, Nigeria will be experiencing worse leaderships, just as the Buhari administration has proven.
Thinking that the next president, even if he/she comes from the Igbo extraction, will better things in the country is only a daydream and insane hallucination because you will find out that he/she will worsen them.
If an Igbo man becomes the president of Nigeria, another group worse than Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen put together will emerge from the north.
As the Hausa-Fulani youths have issued out an ultimatum to Biafrans living in the north, although they seem to have retracted their statement, to avoid further threats, the only ideology that will help us is the Nnamdi Kanu school of thought: Let everyone go back to their origin, to their tribe, their extraction or nation. And that will be achieved through a referendum where Biafrans, Oduduwas and Arewas will decide to either go their separate ways, returning to their original territories and nomenclatures or remain in Nigeria. When they do so, they would form formidable entities to compete with one another and the world at large (that's, at the event of separation).
Let it be known that "no matter how long you force oil and water, they can never mix; no matter how long Lugard's experiment is given, it shall never give birth to positive expectations of its populace neither produce the enabling platform where everyone will feel safe, free to exercise their endowments and contribute their quota to posterity without fear of subjugation.
Even Lugard himself knew that the Nigerian project would not work when he said that "the South and the North are like oil and water that can NEVER mix" but because Britain's vested interest he had to force the people to coexist.
And now, even during the early hours of independence, the parties that make up the Nigerian state are proving to be incompatible. The Northerners are giving the Easterners ultimatum to vacate the north and forfeit their properties. Whereas the Easterners are agitating to opt out of the forced union.
Talking about separation, the first ethnicity that declared their readiness to opt out of the Nigerian Union was Hausa-Fulani.
They did so right from the night of June 29th, 1966 in what the Northern Army Officers called a retaliatory coup, which was the time when more than 250 senior army officers from the Igbo extraction were killed in less than 2months and more than 100,000 Easterners massacred in cold blood. A time when Northern bloodthirsty civilians killed any Easterner at their reach. And the Easterners had to run back to the east.
It was during that retaliatory coup that the northern army officers declared 'araba', signifying their readiness to secede from the rest of the Nigerian state.
Following that carnage were deliberations and accords between the North and the East, in a bid to redeem that ugly situation. But the North refused to abide by the resolutions which eventually led to the Easterners, led by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, declaring their secession from the Nigerian state, which subsequently led to the massacre of over 3.5m Biafrans in a genocidal war led and backed by Gen. Yakubu Gowon and British government respectively.
In all these, Nigeria has not apologised to Biafrans, nor felt remorseful, neither for the pre-civil war carnage, nor the 1967-1970 genocide, instead the Nigerian government under Muhamadu Buhari has reinstated its readiness to massacre more Biafrans to keep Nigeria as a single entity and it has lived up to its promise as IPOB members have been incessantly massacred by the State's security operatives.
Seeing the massacre of IPOB members, one will ask whether the pro-Biafran activists killed were conducting themselves unlawfully or violently to warrant such carnage and brutality meted against them. But the obvious truth is that they have followed internationally recognized and permitted approaches to self-determination. They have never resorted to violence even in the faces of provocations.
Seeing such barbaric and brutal approach employed to suppress IPOB, one would wonder whether Nigeria is the only country in the world where its nations are seeking self-determination.
Britain, which colonized Nigeria, has Scotland seeking to opt out and become a separate state. But Britain has not treated the Scots in the manner Nigeria has treated Biafrans.
Britain has not taught Nigeria to follow her (Britain's) approach in handling Biafrans and Nigeria, being dull in emulation, has foolishly refused to learn without being taught.
Following this way the Nigerian government and its military are treating IPOB members who want to opt out of Nigeria, in the most peaceful way ever, sincere people will attest to the fact that, truly, Nigeria needs to disintegrate.
Again, looking at how the maximum ruler, Buhari wants to nail Nnamdi Kanu by all means: including concocting unsubstantiable charges; disobeying courts orders; pressurizing and allegedly blackmailing judges into following his injunctions and neglecting rule of law and fair judgement; giving unconstitutionally stringent bail conditions to Nnamdi Kanu; if you are sane and honest, you would not argue that Nigeria's unity needs to be revisited and renegotiated.
Finally, Nnamdi Kanu's ideology, which is disintegration of the forced union in a referendum, is the solution to Nigeria's compounded problems. And afterward, the individual nations emerging from Nigeria will develop at their own pace, leaving the States peaceful and prosperous.
Edited by Mazi Collins
Published by IPOB Writers
Twitter: @ipob_writers
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