Biafra: Another Call For Nigeria’s Break-up
Not Even an Igbo President Can Stop Biafra - MASSOB Count Port Harcourt Out of Your Territory- Horsfall What They Want to Achieve with New Agitation - Yakasai
Until the images of empty streets and markets hit pages of newspapers the following day, not many Nigerians had a complete picture of the level of compliance that greeted a sit-at-home order issued to Biafra sympathizers by pro-Biafra groups last Tuesday.
The directive was given by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), two groups in the vanguard of the new agitation for the secession of the South-East region and other communities from Nigeria Biafra.
The day was set aside to remember ‘heroes’ of the ill-fated Biafra struggle 50 years ago, that plunged Nigeria into a three-year Civil War in which about two million people died.
Various media reports of the sit-at-home painted a picture of a complete shutdown in most South-East states, like Abia, Anambra, Enugu as well as partial compliance in neighbouring states in the South-South, including Rivers and Delta.
The ever busy Niger Bridge in Onitsha, which connects the South-East to other parts of the country, was a shadow of its former self, with no vehicular movement, while markets located inland wore a look of a city under a curfew. At the popular Ogbaru Market in Onitsha, the shops were completely deserted, giving room to a guntoting policeman on patrol to straddle the dusty path that separates rows of locked up shops.
More ghostly images of communities under a lockdown also came out of Owerri in Imo State and Aba, the commercial nerve of the SouthEast, in Abia State.
Similar directives in the past have not been heeded which supports the emerging thinking about the agitation gaining massive popularity in the South-East. This much was expressed in a statement issued by the troubled leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, through the group’s publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful: “Following the total compliance with this sit-at-home order I issued when I was still in Kuje Prison Abuja, it has proven to me, IPOB members and other Biafra agitators, and lovers of Biafra and freedom beyond every conceivable doubt that Biafra restoration is a priority to all and sundry.”
He further went on to congratulate “the people of Abia State, Anambra State, Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Cross River State, Delta State, Ebonyi State, Enugu State, Imo State, Rivers State including the good people of Igbanke in Edo State, Igala clan in Kogi State and Idoma/ Igede/Agatu in Benue State for sending a clear and unmistakable message to the whole world that this Biafra self-determination effort driven by IPOB is uncompromising.”
In the same vein, MASSOB leadership, through its director of information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, saluted Biafra sympathizers for the show of support. “The world has seen that Biafra is greater than any individual. This is evident that our referendum will be 100 percent victorious. This is just the beginning of what is about to happen… all Biafrans in northern and western Nigeria will join the next move,” he said.
Over the last two years, the call for the separation of the South-East from Nigeria has received an increasing support from mostly Igbo youth, who accuse Nigerian leaders of marginalizing the region.
Just days before the sit-at-home protest, acting President Yemi Osinbajo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, among others, threw their weight behind the call to the Biafra agitators to reconsider their stance and remain in Nigeria.
The leaders had used the occasion of a lecture titled, ‘Memory and Nation Building, Biafra: 50 Years After’ at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation in Abuja to drive home their message against breakup.
Obasanjo based his appeal on the ground that Nigeria has what it takes to cater for all her citizens, emphasizing a diplomatic approach to addressing contentious issues.
“All the people who are agitating for Biafra today were not even born during the war,” he said.
“They do not even know what it entailed. Nigeria must be loved and we must treat Nigeria as we treat love affairs. It must be massaged. Nigeria must be massaged by all of us, no exception. It is like husband and wife. If when you have issues, your wife would always say she is fed up and wants to go and everyday that is what you get, one day, you would become fed up and say, ‘okay, you can go’, but if there is any misunderstanding and you come together to solve it, then you would almost live forever.
“And I will say that we should even appeal, if anybody says he wants to go; not that we will say, okay, you can go if you want to go. Do not go. There is enough cake for each of us. And if what you are asking for is more of the cake, then try to ask in a way that is pleasant, not in a way that could make others feel that you are not entitled to what you are asking for.”
Osinbajo also disagreed that separation was the only cure to real or perceived injustice and urged promoters of secession to learn from history and pull back from fleeing “into the lazy comfort of homogeneity.”
“We are better together than apart. No country is perfect,” he said.
The President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, for his part, stressed the need for a united Nigeria. “The final challenge of our generation is to show that we learned the right lesson from that sad conflict of 50 years ago. We must bequeath our children with a nation that works for all and one that looks ahead. We want a Federal Republic of Nigeria, which is collectively
owned by all Nigerians as opposed to a Federal Republic that will be perceived as the private property of one group or groups of ethnic groups depending on who is in office. The categorical destination is a Nigerian Nigeria under the collective hegemony of the people of Nigeria.” ‘Nigeria is not functioning’ On the day the pro-Biafra activists marked 50 years of the failed move to secede, Nnamdi Kanu listed the agitators’ grudges against the Nigerian government which he said were the reasons they wanted to part ways with Nigeria. The IPOB leader spoke to Al Jazeera despite a court order barring him from speaking to journalists.
“Nothing seems to be working in Nigeria. There is pain and hardship everywhere. What we’re fighting [for] is not self-determination for the sake of it. It’s because Nigeria is not functioning and can never function,” he told the international news network.
“I’m not allowed to contest for the presidency of Nigeria because I’m Igbo. I’m not allowed to aspire to become the inspector general of police because I’m Igbo. I’m not allowed to become chief of army staff because I’m Igbo. What sort of stupid country is that?” Kanu asked in the chat with Al Jazeera. “Why would any idiot want me to be in that sort of country?”
These accusations were amplified by the spokesperson of MASSOB, Edeson, who told Daily Trust on Sunday that the Igbo were being treated like third class citizens in Nigeria. He said Biafra would bring an end to the enslavement of his people by the Nigerian state. “We don’t want to be slaves anymore that is why we don’t want to be part of Nigeria anymore,” he said.
But Nwodo argues that post-war policies of the Nigerian government did not help to fully reintegrate the South-East into the scheme of things in the country.
“At the end of the war, in spite of a policy of “No victor, No vanquished” by the government of General Yakubu Gowon, an unconscionable policy of impoverishment of Biafrans was unleashed by the Federal Government. Every bank deposit of Biafrans that had encountered a transaction whether by deposit or withdrawal was reduced to £20. Massive savings were completely wiped out. Capacity for investment and recovery from the war was shattered. Whilst this poverty pervaded, the Indigenization Decree was promulgated, enabling other Nigerians, except Biafrans to acquire commanding heights in the indigenized companies, which held at that time the critical and commanding heights of Nigeria’s private economy,” he said.
While not support breakup, the Igbo leader canvassed for a ‘flexible’ federal system that would allow individual states to pursue their development objectives. “In order to achieve this, we must have a flexible federation; strong enough to guarantee our collective defence and protect individual rights, agile enough to react to emerging tensions and threats, yet expansive enough to allow each state room to develop at its own pace. We must create a national order whereby each state bears the primary responsibility for its development,” he said.
Like Kanu and other pro-Biafra campaigners, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, believes that Igbo were marginalized in the appointments of security chiefs by the current administration, which he said was “unacceptable and must be corrected.”
The deputy senate president made his position public while speaking at the World Igbo Congress (WIC) summit in Enugu last Saturday. He called on the Igbo not to take up arms in their struggle for equity and justice.
He reechoed Nwodo by emphasizing that Igbo’s demand was for the country to be restricted “to enable them enjoy equity and actualize their potentials.”
“Instructively, the ill-fated Aburi Accord was about restructuring, even if it is not exactly as we want it today. But it was breached and discarded, plunging the nation into an avoidable fratricidal war. Yet, 50 years after, the need and call for restructuring and return to a true federal state have only persisted.
“Although the call initially fell on deaf ears, it is heartwarming that the right quarters are beginning to listen and the call is gathering traction daily, even from hitherto improbable quarters, “he said.
He commended Ndigbo for eschewing violent in their struggle for a better deal within the Nigerian commonwealth.
“No matter the intimidation, harassment, and marginalisation of our people, we must never be provoked into an armed struggle. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good.
“But we must consistently continue to say a loud, ‘No! until we get to the promised land of an equitable and just society. Let no man be tired and let no woman give up. The night may be long, but the day will surely break”, he said. The proposed territory of new Biafra The pro-Biafra groups’ goal is a Biafran territory that would include both Igbo and non-Igbo speaking communities, covering the entire South-East, parts of the South-South and parts of the North-Central.
Areas to fall into the proposed state include: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, and Rivers states as well as Igbanke in Edo State, Igala in Kogi State, and Idoma in Benue State.
A statement justifying the new Biafra’s territory issued in May 2016, by IPOB spokespersons, Emma Nmezu and Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya, said: “During the war of genocide levied on Biafra by Nigeria and Britain, there were brave Biafran soldiers, field commanders, scientists, civil servants, technocrats, musicians/artists, and astute journalists/broadcasters who were not from Igbo-speaking areas of Biafraland.
“Biafra is a nation where different languages are spoken but irrespective of the varying languages, the people have a common value system, four market days, and unique traditional clothing (two-piece wrapper) for every Biafran woman. It is instructive to note that Igbo is just one of the languages in Biafraland. Even the Igbo language has different dialects as someone travels from one community to the other or from one state to another state.
“Biafra is not about the Igbo alone but Biafra is a blessed nation of people with common value system. The public must ignore and stay away from anyone or group that equates Biafra with Igbo. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is not for only Igbo-speaking people and will never be for only Igbo-speaking people.”
But a former Special Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, is of the opinion that the inclusion of any territory outside the five Igbo-speaking state in a Biafra state would spell trouble.