Biafra: Agitation for self Determination is legal and Nigeria’s Unity is Negotiable
Written By Rose Chinedu / IPOB Writers
Biafra was
formed by Igbo nationalists who believed they could no longer coexist with
Nigeria, leading to the Nigerian Civil War. Nigerian government had reneged on
the Aburi accord agreement which could have averted the war. Dim Odumegwu
Ojukwu who was the arrow head of that agitation for the Biafra Nation fled to
Ivory Coast. Nigeria declared war on Biafra shortly after its declaration of
independence, a war that lasted for three years from July 1967 to January 1979,
eventually resulting in the defeat of Biafra and the reunification of the two
states.
History has it
on record that over 3 million people were killed in that war, some from gun
shots and some from starvation. Yet, since the war was declared ended in 1970,
the Eastern region have not witnessed any improvement or any deliberate effort
by the Nigerian government to keep to the terms of “No victor No vanquished
“status upon which peace was brokered.
The three Rs
agreement of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Restructuring have not been
followed nor adhered to. The Eastern zone have continually been marginalized by
the government at the center. The rebuilding of the war-torn zone has
consistently been ignored by successive governments and it has been left at the
mercy of individuals.
The zone has
remained an abandoned zone and is regarded as a conquered territory by the
governing class of Hausa/Fulani oligarchy who have clinched to power for most
of the time since after the war. The zone ever since has been bedeviled by a
lot of deprivation and its void of infrastructural and man power development.
As a result of
this neglect and gross violation of human rights witnessed by the indigenous
people of the eastern region, their best brains have been massively drained
while other capable youths who stayed on in their lands have been made
redundant such that after years of toiling and gaining high academic feats and
laurels, they get nothing from Nigeria to show for their intelligence,
ingenuity and brilliance.
There are no
opportunities for capacity building and harnessing of their potentials on their
own soil. They only find reprieve, recognition and excellence outside the
shores of Nigeria. The need for the restoration of Biafra therefore becomes
inevitable and imperative.
The people therefore
yearn for a better country where they can find expression and where their
aspirations can be actualized. They desire daily for a country they can call
their own having been displaced in the scheme of things in Nigeria.
It becomes
therefore clear that due to increasing rate of unemployment, marginalization
from the commonwealth of the country, bad government, corruption, high cost of
living and lately the menace of marauding Fulani herdsmen terrorists who are
now moving into the eastern part to graze their cattle destroying peoples
farmlands and crops, armed and killing indigenes with their Ak 47, maiming and
raping women, hence the desire to opt-out of Nigeria has also become paramount
in the hearts of several youths.
The
restoration of Biafra has become imperative in the face of continued oppression
of the indigenous people even on their ancestral lands. It is noteworthy that
there is a deliberate and continued effort to emasculate and strangulate the
economy of entrepreneurs of East geopolitical zone while granting their
counterparts from the North several incentives and economic boosts.
The menace of
Boko Haram in the North which the government is treating with kids gloves by
negotiating with them, granting them amnesty and integrating them into the army
and using them as their foot soldiers is not only worrisome but very
regrettable.
Whereas in the
peaceful eastern states, the government of the day places heavy military and
police teams who kill youths with reckless abandon and extort money from
motorists. This has become another catalyst that fuels the embers of disunity
and secession.
The government
at the center has recently exhibited gross misconduct by clamping down and
silencing journalists, banning press freedom, frustrating the autonomy of the
judiciary, flouting court orders, shooting protesters, proscribing freedom
fighters killing some, jails them without trial and designating them as
terrorists while pampering the real terrorists and all these culminated in the
agitation for the restoration of Biafra.
the Biafran
restoration will not only wake up the sleeping giant which is Africa, it will
resurrect and bring back to life the enormous resources of African sons and
daughters, it will bring back to life the pan African initiatives which Dr
Nnamdi Azikiwe and other great heroes that fought for when they worked hard
against colonialism.
Nigeria under
the present regime is now colonialism. Its rulership of Fulani, a nomadic
pseudo illiterate races whose main agenda is to conquer, dominate and take over
ancestral lands from their hosts countries will only record failures and
demerits. In Biafra, the entire continent of Africa shall be liberated from the
shackles of these wanderers from the Sahel whose mission is to destroy any
country whose religious orientation is averse to their Islamization and
jihadist tendency.
In Biafra,
Africa will recover its complete autonomy from the western world’s domination
and subjugation. In Biafra Africa will witness again and of course enjoy the
benefits of the rising sun which Biafra is symbolic of. In Biafra, Africa will
become a risen giant among the committee of nations. Africa shall be recognized
again as the cradle of civilization. In Biafra, Africa will reclaim its place
and lost glory among the world powers.
Mazi Nnamdi
Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra is a young man that has
been fighting for the liberation and freedom of the eastern states trapped in
Nigeria. He has called for a referendum to determine the fate of these states
in Nigeria but the government of Buhari has consistently maintained that the
unity of Nigeria is not negotiable, a statement that one of Buhari’s kinsmen
has recently faulted.
Nnamdi Kanu
had in 2015 been arrested and detained for two years and the president failed
to adhere to court orders to release him unconditionally. He was eventually
released in 2017 after stringent bail terms were met. He had called the
Nigerian government to organize a referendum that will eventually lead to the
secession of Biafran states from Nigeria, a move that is not palatable to the
northern oligarchy.
As a result of
his failure to drop his agitation, he was accused of treason and inciting
terrorism. Kanu was bailed after two years and while awaiting his next court
appearance at his home in Afaraukwu Umuahia in Abia state, his home was raided
by the military while a good number of persons in his father’s compound were
killed.
He escaped
assassination by the whiskers and he fled to reappear in Israel after a year.
Kanu was extraordinarily renditioned back to Nigeria in July 2021. He has since
been in the custody of Nigerian DSS (Department of States Services), to answer
to an amended 7 count charge bordering on terrorism and treason.
He is being
illegally detained because he has not committed any offense known to law. We
hereby alert the international community to wedge into this case of human right
abuses by the Buhari government because injustice to one is injustice to all.
Kanu is a
British citizen who has renounced his Nigerian citizenship and who has not
committed any treasonable and incriminating offense worthy of the demonization
and humiliation he is being subjected to.
Nnamdi Kanu is
a freedom fighter whose rights have been infringed upon, a victim of the
corrupt socio-political menace that Nigeria has become among fellow African
countries. Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations chatter on
self-determination.
Self-determination
is an inalienable right of individuals who feel marginalized in their home
country and who for one reason or the other want to belong to a separate
nation. If Britain could negotiate their exit from European Union, why would
any sane leader in Nigerian government still hold on to the archaic belief that
negotiating the existence of Biafra outside Nigeria is a terrorist act.
Why would
Nigerian’s unity be sacrosanct? We, call on the Nigerian government as a matter
of urgency to desist from overheating the East and causing heightened tension.
The government should as a matter of urgency release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
unconditionally and amend the Nigerian constitution to make provision for
referendum so that indigenous peoples can determine their stay or otherwise in
Nigeria
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