THE BIAFRAN QUESTION: IN WHOSE INTEREST?

It pays Nigerians to stay together, writes Adetola Odusote

After the political imbroglio that came in the wake of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 general elections, acclaimed to be the freest in the history of Nigeria, and won by philanthropist turned politician Chief Moshood Abiola, there has never been a test of the unity of the Nigerian nation until the recent Nnamdi Kanu’s Biafran call vis a vis Arewa’s Igbo three months exit order. Analysing the merits and demerits of the situation on face value, the protagonists and the antagonists of the Biafran and Northern banishment order have only demonstrated their naivety. Definitely, they are ignorant of the lessons of history and of cause they are oblivious of where Nigeria as a nation of many republics is coming from. Some of these recalcitrant youths were not born and have not even read about the history of neither the Nigerian civil war nor the post-independence political travesty that threw the nation into ethnic nationalism. For the want of space and time, I would want to address the Biafra question which Nnamdi Kanu, a certain Igbo youth previously with dual citizenship - British and Nigerian, but now has third citizenship.

Kanu was said to have been recruited by the MASSOB leader Ralph Uwazuruike who said he found him jobless, roaming the streets of London. He was recruited to join the MASSOB movement because he had nothing doing and he was very passionate about the Ndigbo cause.

After rehabilitating him, he became loose, uncontrollable and became a tool in the hands of politicians from the South-east who have lost out in the power play and flourishing free money rain under the immediate past leadership.

Unfortunately, Kanu finds easy loop in the current political imbalance and a rallying cry in the Biafra apologists. He became a cheer leader in the Biafra singsong. Like a joke, he started fanning the ember of hatred against the constituted authority and against the imaginary enemies of the Igbos. The word marginalisation once again became a front burner agenda. This time a tool for Biafra promoters to premise their agitation. The political history of Nigeria since independence is not complete without the word marginalisation. The Yorubas have cried marginalisation; the Ijaws have cried marginalistion, like the Kanuris, Hausa- Fulanis, the Junkuns, etc. Almost every major tribe in Nigeria has a claim to that controversial word. It has been over-flogged and every tribe has learnt to live with it, reinvent themselves and move on. Political leaders in a place like Yoruba land are keenly watched and held accountable.

I however been wondering why the Igbos would not hold their political leaders accountable for their woes. The Igbo leaders are actually the ones marginalising them. Unlike South West, the Igbo leaders seek political power for personal aggrandisement. Not until the present governors took over, states like Ebonyi and Abia have suffered woefully and the Biafra apologists have not deemed it fit to go after these fraudulent leaders who have stolen their common patrimony. I have travelled round the whole of the five states in the South-East; I have been to the South-South, gone round the North Central, North East and North West, and of course I have lived in every state in the South-West where I come from. The South-east stands out worse in terms of development. No region collects the kind of ecological funds that is apportioned to the South-east, but what do we have today is an area highly degraded by erosion.

So, why would the Igbo be looking at the spate of development in other regions and come to the conclusion that they are being marginalised? When past and present governors like (picking randomly) Donald Duke, Babatunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode, Ahmed Markarfi, Nasir el-Rufai, Ibikunle Amosun, Ayo Fayose, Olusegun Mimiko, Nyesom Wike, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, et al, are pushing a developmental and progressive frontiers in their respective states, South-eastern governors are going on jamboree, amassing state’s wealth and building and buying mansions in and outside the country and establishing private companies at the expense of the Igbo nation. This is with exception of the present Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, who has been adjudged to be doing well.

So why should the Igbo blame other regions for their retrogressive state? Comparatively when it comes to commerce, the Igbo benefit more in the Nigerian state than any other tribes. There are no states, cities, communities, villages in Nigeria where you wouldn’t find Ibos. And they are not just there; they establish commercial activities and are well received. Name any business in any community where you wouldn’t find my Eastern brothers thriving while the indigenes of such communities will be struggling and eventually fail in such trade.

So why would a Nnamdi Kanu come to mislead the Igbo and destabilise them from their favoured state to a pariah state?

The call for Biafra is to achieve what? Who will suffer if the Igbo nation exits the Nigerian nation? Is it Nnamdi Kanu, the sharp boy who carries UK Passport or their host communities across the nation?

A decisive but retributive remark from Arewa Youth, calling on all Igbo to exit the North has thrown the Biafra criers into confusion; they are now shouting blue murder. Though condemnable, there is credence in the ultimatum given by the northern youth in the face of the treasonable call for Biafran republic. Economically the South-east is not endowed. Ecologically, they are not blessed; natural resources wise, the South-east cannot boast much. So why would somebody in his right sense push a senseless cause?

Though, it could be argued that the Biafra call is a just cause because like every other region in Nigeria, the Ibos have justifiable reasons to be aggrieved. But Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe saw reasons in aligning with the principle of unity in diversity. That was why he supported the Eastern alignment with the North in the first and second republics against the emergence of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria respectively.

Let us learn lessons from history. It pays us all as Nigerians to stay together and fight for our common emancipation from the economic oppression of our political leaders. Odusote, a journalist, wrote from Lagos