The pro-Biafra demonstrations that have swept through certain South East and South South states in recent caught many by surprise. Driven largely by elements of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) group, the agitation has eclipsed anything that its precursors like the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra ever achieved by way of media attention. Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, in this piece reviews the true strength of the Biafra agitation as well as its main drivers.
President Muhammadu Buhari got elected on an election plank with a promise that if he got elected, he will immediately set about ending the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeastern part of the country. He defined the crisis in that part of the country as unnecessary while vowing that under him, never again will any part of the country be allowed to slip out of the control of the federal government.
After his election, he announced plans for ridding the northeast of insurgents and gave clear instructions to security commands as to what should be done immediately to ensure an end to the maiming and killings in states like Bornu, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba,amongst others.
The crisis weary people of the zone applauded him and bought into his anti-insurgency policies. Civilian volunteers formed themselves into cells and went about helping the military to clear the villages of dissidents. Liberation armies moving into the communities were received with love and smiles while insurgents, unlike before, had their movements and locations revealed to security operatives by the locals. With all these happening, hope of an end to the bloodletting in the northeast heightened.
But while the President and his military tacticians continue to find more ways of achieving the set goal of ending the insurgence by December, the glimmer of hope currently on the horizon appears threatened following disturbing news and reports of fast spreading and sometimes violent agitations in the southeast and south south zones of the country by people demanding for the actualization of what they call the Sovereign State of Biafra.
According to reports from Onitsha, Nsukka, Owerri, Aba, Enugu, Asaba and other towns in the zones, young men and women are daily flocking to join the protesters, who have embarked on peaceful protest rallies across cities in Igboland and the Niger Delta, the areas they described as part and parcel of the proposed Biafra Republic. To make matters more worrisome, the agitators are daily winning over sympathizers towards their cause.
The crisis heightened as members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) during the week, shut down markets in Aba, Abia State, in continuation of its three-day one million protest march calling for the release of their detained leader and Director, Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu. The protesters in several groups, with each numbering no fewer than 5,000, marched through Azikiwe, Cemetery, Asa, Faulks, Aba-Owerri and Osisioma Ngwa from where they forcefully closed all the markets in the city.
Shop owners who had already opened for business were seen hurriedly closing their shops. The two groups later converged at the ever busy Azikiwe/ Asa road junction causing a heavy gridlock as they marched through Faulks to the Ariaria International Market where they had Saturday warned traders not to open for business.
Similarly, Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, said it had mobilized over 2,000-members for a peaceful protest in Ebonyi State. In a statement, the factional leader of the group, Uchenna Madu, said in Abakaliki that the body was protesting indiscriminate arrests and detention of its members by the federal government.
“We are unstoppable in this nationwide protest. No amount of intimidation, harassment, arrest and detention will prevent us from showing our grievances over the action of the Federal Government and the police. They have been arresting us and we want to let them know that there is limit we can endure all their actions. We have been very peaceful but the federal government and security agents are pushing us to the wall”, he said.exercise to checkmate influx of hoodlums, arms and ammunition into the state.”
Concerns
The presidency, few days back, while admitting that the development in the southern part of the country is a serious problem after all, said the President has directed Governors of the states in the region to immediately halt the agitations in the interest of peace in the country. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, stated this recently while fielding questions from journalists.
According to Adesina, the President is worried that the agitations in the south will distract the his administration and affect its delivery on promises made to Nigerians. He however promised that all necessary things would be done to ensure that it does not escalate beyond mere agitations
Elder statesman, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, recently lent his voice to the matter when he urged President Buhari not to joke with the ongoing secession threat. According to him, it will be at the country’s peril to take it lightly.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should not take the issue of the agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra lightly. It will be at the country’s peril to take it lightly. Politically, when there is no justice, we cannot get peace. It’s now a matter of social justice. Social injustice, as the Igbo activists have alleged, is fuelling the agitation for secession,” Braithwaite said.
It was a worried Imo State Governor and Chairman of Progressives Governors’ Forum, Chief Rochas Okorocha, who announced that he is currently arranging a crucial meeting with other governors in the South-East, over the growing agitation by protagonists of Biafra.
Governor Okorocha in a statement through his Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, said the leadership of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo, and other stakeholders in the geo-political zone, were also being invited to talk and agree on how to check the activities of pro-Biafra groups in the area.
“The meeting is expected to take place this weekend in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Already the Governor has begun to make all the necessary contacts to ensure that all those expected to be at the meeting, would be in attendance”, Onwuemeodo said.
It will be recalled that Okorocha had earlier, while taking exception to the pro-Biafra violent protests in some of the South-East states and few other neighbouring states, disassociated the governors and leaders in the South-East states from the MASSOB protest, describing the whole exercise as “embarrassing, disturbing, counter-productive and to a large extent, distracting”.
According to Governor Okorocha, the pro-Biafra protests could not be in the interest of the south-east people but were only sending wrong signals to the rest of Nigerians. “It has become increasingly necessary for the governors in the zone, Ohaneze leaders and other stakeholders in the area to meet, to call a spade, a spade”, Okorocha said.
The Governor also said that “at the end of the Owerri meeting, the governors and other leaders will take a common position and will also invite the leaders of the pro-Biafra groups for a meeting, to let them know the socio-economic and political implications of their activities, including their demand for sovereignty in a united Nigeria”.
Okorocha insisted that the governors and leaders in the zone could no longer sit and watch the whole situation degenerate, even as he also noted that the Igbos as a people cannot afford to have its own kind of Boko Haram. He wondered why the pro-Biafra apologists kept quiet all these years only to resume their protests and activities this time and few months after the new administration in the country came on board.
Even the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group has observed with great concern the uprising in the South East on the Biafra issue and called on the federal and the state governments in the South East to explore ways of addressing the grievances of the people.
Speaking during the daily sit-out of the group, one of its members, Chris Okenwa called on the federal government to handle the rising issue of Biafra before it will escalate to higher problems.
“The government should look at this issue. We cannot afford to have another insurgency in our hands. We need the government to handle the uprising and dialogue with the parties involve. We are fighting for the soul of Nigeria. We should also speak on this issue,” he said.
Also speaking on the issue, another member, Deji Kolawole explain that the agitation for Biafra and other separatist movements that have arisen in Nigeria was as a result of lack of development adding that the government should develop every part of the country irrespective of tribe.
” All this agitation is a symptom of lack of development. It is an agitation for development. These people are there to fight for themselves. The government should have a developmental plan for the whole Nigeria so that nobody will be left out. Until we have development everywhere, we will continue to have all this problem,” he said.
Driving forces of the agitation
The new agitation for the actualization of Biafra, though commenced by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has also received immense support from other pro-Biafra organizations like the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra ( MASSOB), Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM), Bilie Human Rights Initiative and Biafra Alliance (Australia). There is also the Radio Biafra, which has become the
These various groups had at one time or the other before now, championed various agitation for then actualization of the Biafran state. MASSOB for instance, before it broke into factions and became severely weakened by internal wrangling amongst its leadership, was in the for-front of what nearly became an armed struggle against the Nigerian state.
Ralp Uwazurike founded MASSOB in September 1999, with a promise to give the people of the Eastern zone a country of their own. Many willing Igbo youths quickly joined MASSOB. But today, Uwazurike has lost control of his followers as his group is now in splinters with the quest to make Biafra a reality abandoned.
Under the leadership of Ralph Uwazurike, the organization organized rallies and sit-ins across the length and breadth of the southeast. But following incessant clash with security agencies, its leader were arrested, detained and prosecuted. Many of its men are still going through trial in various parts of the country.
The group also built a house at Okigwe for wounded ex-Biafran soldiers who were relocated from their settlement at Orji River to Okigwe. Aside daring the Nigerian government on many occasions, MASSOB printed Biafra currency, postage stamps, driver’s license, flag, coat-of-arms, and so on. But the items were yet to be put to use anywhere before MASSOB disintegrated.
So bad was the crisis within MASSOB that in December 2014, members of a faction of the troubled group reportedly sacked Uwazuruike from his mansion, The Biafra House, at his hometown, Okwe near Okigwe in Imo State. The house had been used as the headquarter of the group for many years before then.
The faction took over the mansion and threatened to deal with their erstwhile leader should he ever come near it. Findings reveled that Uwazuruike now resides in his house at New Owerri, Imo State capital and hardly visits Okwe. The Biafra House, according to recent visitors to the place, is now a ghost of its old bubbling self as it now harbor miscreants and jobless youths posing to be Biafran agitators.
In 2013, Bilie Human Rights Initiative and Biafra Alliance (Australia) presented a joint petition and summary of a court case they instituted against the Nigerian Government to the Australian government. In a meeting organised by Biafra Alliance (Australia), in conjunction with Radio Biafra, London, in Canberra, Australia recently, the groups said the petition was part of the sensitisation programme aimed at highlighting the sufferings of Southeastern Nigerians at home.
It was gathered that the pro-Biafran groups were represented by four-man delegation led by Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra, London, who travelled from United Kingdom to Australia; Mazi Okezie Oguh, the leader of Biafra Alliance (Australia) and two others. The Australian government, it was learnt, was represented by high-ranking officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, situated at the R.G. Casey Building, on John McEwen Crescent Barton, Canberra, who received the written submission.
However, apart from their diplomatic efforts abroad to get recognition for the Biafran nation from world leaders and nation states, neither of the two organizations ventured to come home in pursuit of their agitation. Consequently, they are not known to have any sizable followership here in Nigeira.
The Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) was founded in 2010 by a United Kingdom-based lawyer, Benjamin Onwuka, who said it was founded to give “seriousness” to the Biafran dream. Onwuka, who hails from Item in Bende local government area of Abia state, back then, claimed the movement has the backing od Igbo intellectuals in the Diaspora, particularly those residing in the United States and South Africa .
Before relocating to Nigeria to campaign for the cause, Onwuka shuttled across Nigeria, Europe and America canvassing support for his agitation. Having found its teeth, the group sent an application to the United Nations for an observer status for the Republic of Biafra. The application was submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Another application for an independent status was sent to the African Union with a request to convene a meeting of Heads of State and Government.
After a number of violent protests which included the invasion of the Government House, Enugu and holding the place to ransom for nearly four hours, as well as the violent attempted hijack of a television station, Onwuka and members of his group were declared wanted by the Nigerian Police Force.
On their last known outing, the BZM members, who were led to the television house by Onwuka, killed a police sergeant and wounded another Inspector who were among a four-man police patrol team that rushed to the scene to stop them. A member of the group was also shot dead by the police team.
Onwuka and many of his men had escaped before the policemen arrived, according to the eyewitness. But days after, police said that the BZM leader and 12 members of his group have been arrested by a team of security operatives who gave them a hot chase while trying to escape into Independence Layout of the Coal City.
He is still in detention facing trial. The last that was heard of him was in June this year, when he accused Federal High Court judge, Justice D. V. Agishi, sitting in Enugu of being biased just as he requested that the case against him be transfered to another court. And with him in jail, the BZM natural became docile.
But just when the government and the people of Nigeria felt the end had come for the Biafran agitation, Kanu emerged again with IPOB. With incessant attacks on the federal government through his Radio Biafra alongside other hate speeches, he won several Igbo youths over to his pro Biafran ideologies and in no time, became the new face of Biafran Zionism.
Radio Biafra “mission statement”
In one of his numerous broadcasts as monitored online, Kanu stated the mission statement of his controversial Radio Biafra thus:
“The ONLY PURPOSE for the existence of Radio Biafra London is to set a largely misinformed public free from the twin evil of tyrannical rule of a cabal of ill-educated and institutionally corrupt men and women and the sponsored sectarian killings directed against Christian Southerners living in Northern Nigeria by terrorists operating in the name of Islam. It will also serve to articulate a solution to the plight of impoverished and confused Igbo families abandoned by their leaders in Northern Nigeria to a fate worse than those endured by black slaves in plantations in the Americas.
Radio Biafra London will use and deploy every available resource to campaign for the rights of all oppressed indigenous peoples of Southern Nigeria to determine how they wish to structure their societies and live their lives. Radio Biafra London would broadcast debates on issues of national and international importance affecting the lives and rights of the indigenous peoples of Biafra and indeed indigenous people of all ethnic persuasions in Nigeria.
Radio Biafra London further wishes to give advance warning to all looters, embezzlers, kidnappers, sponsors of terrorism, child traffickers, corrupt judges, crooked university lecturers, murderous Nigerian security forces and all thieving individuals masquerading as public officials who steal public funds thereby preventing developmental projects from impacting positively on the lives of the ordinary people. These looters and workers of iniquity will be named and shamed.
There will be no hiding place for common thieves who use the cover of high political offices to steal in the name of Nigerian politics. For Radio Biafra London, there will be nothing like no-go-areas in what can be reported, discussed and analysed. The governing principle of the Public-Right-To-Know of the issues affecting their lives will be rigorously upheld.
Ever your loyal servant, Nnamdi Kanu.”
How IPOB was built
While many people would easily say Kanu built up followership for his new organization, IPOB, by merely using the Radio Biafra to reach out to Igbos in Nigeria, The Nation findings revealed that the Igbo activists did more than just that. Unknown to the authorities, the Radio Biafra boss and some leading operatives of his organization made several visits to the country in pursuit of membership.
According to a source within the organization, IPOB benefit immensely from the crisis within MASSOB and the detention of leaders of the BZM. He explained that most of Kanu’s foot-soldiers are former members of the two troubled organizations, who, in search of new leadership and direction, easily gravitated towards IPOB.
“It is wrong for people to say we were just an online organization. Aside using Radio Biafra to spread the messages, we also left the comfort of our home abroad to come down to Nigeria secretly on many occasions to talk to our people and recruit membership. As far back as 2013, we had cell leaders all over the southeast.
I can tell you that many members of MASSOB and Zioninst Movement joined IPOB out of the need to continue to be identified with the Biafra struggle. Many who were disenchanted with the crisis in the organizations or the detention of their leaders saw in Kanu and IPOB another lifeline and opportunity to continue the struggle.
If you want to understand this better, go to the Biafra House in Okigwe, which used to be the headquarters of MASSOB, or the BZM offices in Owerri and Aba, you will discover that the people there now are IPOB members. They joined us because at a time, Kanu, through Radio Biafra, was the only Igbo man still talking about actualizing Biafra.
Amaryllis, the former PR Coordinator for Radio Biafra, confirmed these nocturnal visists in her video confessional when she spoke of how she toured the south-southern states to talk to people about Biafra. According to her, it was her discovery that contrary to claims by Kanu, who probably visited earlier, that there were already many converts in the south-south willing to be part of the agitation, few person bought into the idea, that made her lose interest in Biafra.
Others, including some leading light of the Biafran struggle, were deeply involved in the 2015 general elections that the struggle suffered badly. But people who are committed to freedom regrouped under IPOB and continued the groundwork for what you are now seeing. Many of the people you see out there came back home from abroad to be part of this struggle,” he said.
The social media, findings revealed was another major source of IPOB’s membership. It was gathered that over the last three years, the organization opened several social media groups using phony manes to avoid suspicion, to recruit membership across the length and breadth of the country.
“Many social media pages and groups opened with names that had nothing to do with agitations, were used to reach out to our people. It was easy to remain undetected because all discussions were done in Igbo language. We got a lot of our youths interested in the struggle through constant contact on the social media,” our source added.
The nation also gathered that the loss of the presidency by former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also provided veritable ground for recruitment by IPOB. “Many of our people were pro-Jonathan, not for any other reason other than the fact that he is from Biafra. His loss disconnected them from the Nigerian nation.
Naturally, it was easy to revive the Biafran topic with them and get them interested. PDP leaders also fanned the embers of disconnect by raising fears that the Buhari administration will deal with Igbos for not voting for him. The body language of the ruling party too helped us to spread our message and before you know it, members came in droves.
There were also some non-agitation groups scattered all over Igboland, working for politicians. But because their Principals lost their positions within the defat of the PDP, it was easy to talk them into Biafran agitation. That is why I can assure you that if we call for protests or any action, the streets will be full. We have the people willing and ready to follow us,” our source added.
Reasons for renewed agitation
Founder of the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) and Deputy Secretary of the Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), Evangelist Elliot Uko, while shedding light into the renewed agitation for Biafra, explained why re-living Biafra Republic is attractive to Igbo youths and how best to approach the crisis.
“The younger generation of Ndigbo are bitter about the structure of Nigeria. They believe that the structure is skewed against them, in politics, in education, in the provision of social infrastructure, and the agitation for Biafra is real. Personally, I don’t agree with them. I’m not advocating for secession, but I know that they are not miscreants because I’ve been talking with them for years. In fact, when Ralph Uwazurike visited me in August of 1999 at Toyin Street in Ikeja and told me that he would establish MASSOB the following week.
Even though I didn’t attend the event, as I was discussing with him, I told him that he was merely taking advantage of something that has been there in the minds of Ndigbo. Biafra is sacred to Ndigbo. Biafra is about blood, the blood of three million Ndigbo, some killed in cold blood in pogroms in the North; some died out of hunger and starvation; millions of children died of kwashiorkor; people who died in the battle field armed with only two bullets against a much larger and better armed army. It elicits emotion, and it’s the major thing that you can use to manipulate Igbo people to cause trouble anywhere. It’s real. Those who want Biafra are real,” he said.
He also added that: “The Biafran issue is not about Ralph Uwazurike, Nnamdi Kanu or any individual. I formed my first organization, as a teenager, Igbo Youth Congress, at Delimina Restaurant, 12 Adelabu, in Uwani, Enugu in 1981, 34 years ago. And I know that the most emotional and easiest formula to spark interest and followership among Igbo Youths is the dream to re-live Biafra Republic. They find it so attractive because they believe that not only is Nigeria drawing them backwards but also that they will never get justice in Nigeria due to the envy and hatred of some ethnic groups towards Ndigbo. At one of our meetings, in the early 80s, we took a vote, and over 80 per cent of the youths voted that we should take up arms to fight for Biafra, 34 years ago.
Again, in Lagos, we were holding monthly meetings in my apartment at 36 Ajakaiye Street, Ikeja, 10 years later, in 1991, we took a vote, and over 90 per cent voted that we should take up arms and fight for Biafra. I’ve been organizing seminars and dealing with Igbo youth for decades, I know that the option of Biafra is so attractive, and it’s a reality. It’s not about Uwazurike and Kanu. In fact, those characters are merely taking advantage of a fact that is on ground, that Nigeria has been unfair to Ndigbo, to the extent that the new generation finds it unacceptable. So, the demand for Biafra is real. They are not miscreants. They are contributing their own money, fighting for what they believe in.”
Explaining why the agitation for Biafra has continued several decades after civil war, Chief Checkwas Okorie, founder of embattled All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, said the issue for the agitation for Biafra has to do with agitation for self-determination by people wish to be treated with fairness, equity and justice.
“Most of the young men on the street agitating for Biafra were born after the war and so looks like they do not know what led to the war. They cannot understand why their own people since they were born are invariably different from their peers in other parts of the country. The South-east has suffered the most neglect from the Federal Government of Nigeria in terms of road construction. Even under former President Jonathan’s administration, it was not any better.
The Buhari’s administration has just begun, so we cannot blame him that much. The matter was not picked up because Buhari became President; the Biafran agitation had been there practically since early 90s. But if Buhari manages to address the agitation, the issue will die down. After all the Niger-Delta militancy preceeded the late President Yar’Adua. But his political moves doused the tension in that region with the initiative of amnesty,” Okorie said.
PDP National Youth Leader, Abdullahi MaiBasira, in a statement in Abuja, said President Buhari and his party should be held to account for the escalation of the agitation, “which threatens the unity and national security interests of Nigeria as an indivisible entity.” The PDP also called on the ruling party to ensure and guarantee an inclusive administration that would promote harmony among all sections of the country.
The party further noted the seemingly lack of any clear-cut policy direction that concerns the development, mainstreaming and inclusion of young people in the country by the Federal Government, insisting it is a worrisome issue that brings to question the ruling All Progressive Congress’ campaign promise to generate and give 3 million jobs annually to Nigerian youths.
“The fact that none of the President’s ministerial appointees confirmed by Senate is below 40 years also puts to question APC’s belief for the next generation of leaders, mentorship and transfer of responsibility. So far, the resultant effect of this lack of clear-cut policy is the stagnation of the economy and laying-off of thousands of people from their jobs.
“Rather than the use of force as an option, which usually fails as a solution in this type of self-inflicted socio political problem, President Buhari should, as a matter of national interest and practical necessity, make haste to call representatives and leaders of the Sout East for discussions before the situation deteriorates,” the party said.
Rejections and denials
Former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, whose pictures were used during protests in the state by IPOB members, was among the first set of Southern Nigerian personalities and groups to dissociate himself from the movement agitating for the creation of Biafra republic, saying Nigeria remains indestructible. In a statement by his media aide, Mr Eluemunor, Chief Ibori denied any affiliation or association with the protesters and warned against the use of his pictures during protests.
He also stated that the peace that the country enjoyed for 45 years after the civil war should not be broken by residues being dug up by some people to further divide the nation and betray efforts at national reconciliation and development. This he said must not be allowed.
A pro-Igbo group, the Igbo Information Network says neither MASSOB nor IPOB has the mandate to speak for the Igbo, arguing that the agitations may not be unconnected with hidden selfish interests. As the group’s leader, Chuks Ibegbu, puts it, “we can no longer continue to pretend that all is well when some groups capitalize on our sad experience of the past to try to railroad us into fighting another avoidable civil war.
Uwazuruike is today enjoying his stupendous wealth in his palace in Owerri and he occasionally makes noise about his Utopian Biafra on the pages of newspapers. The promoter of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was a MASSOB member. He fell out with Uwazuruike some years ago and he ran away from Nigeria and formed the Indigenous People of Biafra whose communication arm is Radio Biafra.
It is because the power of communication and information is great that Nnamdi Kanu has been able to win the hearts of some Igbo to the envy of Uwazuruike. “The truth about all these pro-Biafra groups is that they have never made any efforts to feel the real pulse of their people. Before we went to a war in the past, the opinion of Igbo and Eastern Leaders of Thought were gauged by Gen. Ojukwu.”
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, also warned that his administration will not tolerate pro-Biafra agitations within the state. Wike, who spoke through a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, said he was peeved by the activities of the group.
The governor stressed the indivisibility of Nigeria and added that the actions of the protesters were capable of stimulating chaos in the state. He also warned against insidious actions by anybody or group in the state.
“The governor, who was peeved by the protest by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra in Port Harcourt, warned that such a demonstration will not be brooked by his administration. Emphasising the indivisibility of Nigeria, the governor said the actions of IPOB members are capable of stimulating chaos in the state,” the statement read.
Wike warned that as the Chief Security Officer of the state who swore to an oath to protect lives and property, he would not tolerate actions that would lead to the breakdown of law and order in the state. He, however, dissociated himself and the state from the protest, adding that legal machinery has been set in motion against any group that tries to breach the peace in the state.
Also, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, dissociated his government from the reported violent protests in Rivers, Anambra, and Delta states by IPOB members. In a press release by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, Okorocha regretted the ugly development, saying that such violent protests in the name of Biafra would not add any value to the development of the South-East.
Okorocha said, “The governors and leaders of the South-East condemn the protests, especially when they were carried out in the name of Biafra. If a section of the people in the South-East or even the whole people in the geopolitical zone protest over the bad shape of the federal roads in the area or protest over the total negligence of the geopolitical zone, every governor and leader in the area would support that but not to protest over an issue that is neither here nor there.”
“The South-East is an integral part of Nigeria and the governors and leaders from the area believe in the unity of the country and would always work towards sustaining the unity. And as far as the governors and the leaders of the South-East are concerned, those behind the campaign for Biafra have their ulterior motive, which has nothing to do with corporate interest of the Ndigbo in Nigeria.”
Way forward
Proffering solution to the reasons advanced by supporters of the agitation, Braithwaite, who says he cannot say whether the southeast is marginalized or not, urged the federal government to quickly put in place a system that will protect the interests of all persons and groups in the country.
“I am not saying that the people of the South-East are being marginalised or discriminated against. The people of the South-East are saying so. They are the ones crying out. I cannot answer that question one way. But let us put in place a system where everybody would have a sense of belonging. People would not revolt in an environment where their interests are protected. The overdependence on oil is also an issue. There are many other resources that can be exploited in this country that can bring more revenue than oil,” Braitwaite said.
The Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, urged the Federal Government to exercise restraint in handling the various groups clamouring for the actualization of Biafra. The President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, in a statement, said dialogue was the only way out of the various agitations.
He called on the Federal government to address various cries of marginalization in the South-East zone. The statement read in part: “We are circumstantially compelled to take a definitive stand and position on issues that have the ability to threaten our corporate existence as one indivisible nation.
“Following agitations of neglect in the political appointments made thus far by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration from our compatriots in the south east, the needless call for the secession from Nigeria by MASSOB, the treasonable felony been perpetrated by one Nnamdi Kanu, under the aegis of Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), and his Radio Biafra, his arrest and the simultaneous coordinated protest rallies that followed as the its aftermath, is of great concern to us and calls for caution and deeper reflection for us as people and nation.
“To the extent that we are not satisfied in the happenings in the polity particularly as it affects our region,it remains imperative that we submit our yearnings with a voice of reason. It stands as an immutable and sacrosanct fact that the unified and continuous existence of Nigeria as an indivisible entity cannot be compromised on any score.
“The hyperactive agitators and proponents of secession perhaps have not sat down to count the cost of a divided nation which will borne by the igbos nation particularly our Youth whose future and strenuously built investments stand at risk.
“The business concerns of igbo businessmen and women extend across all geopolitical zones of the country the north and south,these meticulously built investments running into trillions of naira cannot be mortgaged on the plinth of unbridled sentimental proclivities,As we believe that Mr.President is a listening Leader and we can achieve more through peaceful dialogue.”
As a quick win strategy to end the uprising in the South East, President Buhari has been tasked to set up a national mediation committee made up of credible statesmen and women to be led by Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah to actively work out the most transparent mechanisms to achieve lasting peace and reach the most acceptable and democratic panacea to the agitations.
In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf of the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) said President Muhammadu Buhari must avoid the mistakes of previous administrations such as the then President Olusegun Obasanjo who used brutal force to seek to crush dissenting voices from some communities thereby compounding the destructions that has led to heavy financial penalties that has been imposed on the Nigerian State by the court of law.
HURIWA said the current President Muhammadu Buhari must be wary of adopting any military and violent measures against the civilian pro-Biafra protesters in order not to be personally dragged before the global crimes court- ICC in The Hague Netherlands for prosecution over crimes against humanity.
It said everything must be done to stop bloodshed and forceful quelling of the unprecedented pro-Biafra agitations by purely unarmed protesters. The Rights group has also demanded the immediate and unconditional release from the underground cells of the Department of State Service of the Director of the Europe Based Radio Biafra and leader of the Free People of Biafra (IPOB) Mr Nnamdi Kanu who is being detained as a political prisoner even after a court of law freed him on bail.
Uko, explaining what must be done to stop the agitation, called on the federal government to addfress the issues of true federalism in the interest of peace in the country. He said: “That Nigerian leaders chose to shy away from the truth by going round in circle while dodging the real issue, does not in any way mean that solution could be found by cutting corners.
There is no other way to move Nigeria forward in peace and unity without addressing the national question. Our political structure, the 1999 militarily inspired constitution are some of the reasons why millions of our country men do not believe in Nigeria. That is the most urgent task facing any government. When we revert to true federalism, all our problems will be reduced including corruption, unemployment, secession, etc.”
Human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said that the Buhari-led federal government should avoid the use of brute force in finding a solution to the renewed agitations for Biafra Republic by certain groups in the country. Ozekhome, while giving examples of countries that forcibly broke up in the past, said the federal government must urgently look into why the Igbos are calling for secession even after the end of the Biafra Civil War.
According to him “The United Nations Charter and the African charter of Human and Peoples Right both recognise the rights of people of the world for self determination as to how the world will co-exist and live together.
But will these approaches satisfy the pro-Biafran agitators? Or are they likely to insist on nothing short of the actualization of their dreamland – Biafra? These are questions that only events of the future can answer. Until then, the country may continue to grapple with the effects of this new threat from the land of the rising Sun.
