BIAFRA: FIGHTING A GOOD CAUSE WRONGLY
Recently, a group of hired agitators stormed Agbor, chanting war songs and displaying provocative placards against the Nigerian State. These ethnic protagonists garthered at the popular Uromi Junction before matching along the Express Way until they were hounded out of the town by community leaders. They were canvassing for the establishment of Biafra Republic, which in their opinion encompasses the five eastern states in addition to the Niger Delta. The new agitation is a rejuvenation of the failed project in the late 1960s which sent more than a million Ibos to their early graves and demoted them in the perking order in the post-civil war political matrix.
My history books remind me of the excruciating and inhumane pains the Ibos suffered during the civil war between 1967 and 1970. The narratives by Chukwuemeka Ike and Frederick Forsythe gave graphic details of the avoidable conflict. Ever since then, the Ibos who were the major victims have not been accorded a dignified position in our nation-state. It is only recently that police commissioners of Ibo extraction were given state command. It is also alleged that similar treatment was replicated in the core security outfits.
The eastern bloc has the least number of states in the country while their politicians and career civil servants are hardly appointed into juicy and strategic positions. Despite the commercial relevance of the Onitsha Market, there are no concrete plans to develop a sea port to service the hub. Jonathan Goodluck promised to build a second bridge across River Niger to ameliorate the traffic grid few years ago but the former president retired to Otuoke with the design.
The Ibos have become the punching bags of the other ethnic groups to the level that now forced some of them to reawaken the failed project 50 years after. The Ibos deserve our pity and support but they must first prove that they mean well for themselves. There is hardly any hamlet that an Ibo man or woman cannot be found in Nigeria. In fact, any hamlet that does not house an Ibo person is not safe to pass the night. And this is where my first disagreement comes. A current governor once postulated that Abuja is the sixth state of the Ibos as the ethnic group accounts for more than 50% of both human and capital investments of the capital city.
After the civil war and considering the barbaric treatment of Ibos, one would have expected that they become more circumspect in their relationship with the other federating units in the country. Rather than applying caution, post war migration and investments have shown that the people are poor history students. This attitude may be informed by their resolve to show that their last attempt to pull out was a mistake and have to show their love for Nigeria even at the risk of their personal safety. The estimated population of the five South East states is more than 30 million. I think they have the resources both human and natural to sustain its existence. Therefore , no reason to coerce other ethnic groups into the envisaged sovereign state. After all Suriname, in South America has demographic figure less than 500,000 while Singapore in South East Asia has a little over three million population. Another point of departure.
It is absurd for the agitators to come to Agbor proclaiming a republic that we have not agreed to be part. Agbor people are not Ibos no matter the affinity in both language and dressing. Assuming we are part of Ibo though fortunately we are not, the best approach for the agitators is to lobby us to key in. And one of the ways to lobby us is not to brandish machetes and charms in our city centre. I do not think it is wise for a tenant to daily inform his landlord he is not owing rent arrears of his intention to move house. All he needs do is to quietly drop the key for him and move out. If the project has genuine intention, the protagonists should recall their federal legislators to Enugu, from where a federal government can be convocated. Their businessmen and women in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Sokoto should be asked to return home for new passports with which to seek visa to Nigeria which may not expressly be granted. Agitating for Biafra Republic in places such as Agbor and Lagos are mere signs that the sponsors are in search of cheap popularity and media attention.
The Ibos need be informed that their latest doomed project has cost them hugely in the ministerial appointments. I recalled that President Buhari had said that the likes of Chief Ogbonnaya Onu would be appointed into strategic positions with which the infrastructure in the region could be rehabilitated in the heat of protest against his appointment of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The posting of Chief Onu as Minister of Science and Technology and Senator Chris Ngige to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, clearly confirms the fear of giving power to a people that want out.
Williams Eghebi, Agbor