BIAFRA : Igbo presidency will not end the agitation for Biafra

The Igbo Presidency conversation will never end until someone from the southeast becomes the president. Even if the Igbo are not allowed to produce the next president in 2023, the conversation will continue. Perhaps, the conversation will only end when the peoples that makeup Nigeria go their separate ways and I don’t think that is going to happen in the next 50 years regardless of the predictions that have gone ahead.

If we have the slot of being the president of Nigeria, that will go a long way. If you can give us the presidency of Nigeria, it will address this problem of people clamouring for Biafra       

Nevertheless, as the excerpt in the first paragraph has revealed, Bede Eke, a member of the House of Representatives for Mbaise/Ngor-Okpalla constituency of Imo state has insinuated that the emergence of an Igbo president will end the agitation for Biafra when he spoke to newsmen in Abuja over the weekend.

While it is true that the Igbo deserve to produce the next executive president of Nigeria being the only major ethnic group since independence that has not produced someone in that capacity, it is not true that if a person of Igbo extraction becomes the president in 2023 or beyond, the agitation for Biafra will cease. No doubt, Bede Eke is entitled to his opinion but to reduce the agitation for Biafra to mere presidency clamour is unacceptable and it is an insult to those who have died for the course.

May I quickly remind Bede Eke that the agitation for Biafra did not begin with Ralph Uwazurike neither did it begin with Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). To set the record straight, it began shortly after the anti-Igbo pogrom of 1966. Which means, the underlying issue (s) that triggered the call for Biafra was not presidency related but the survival of the Igbo in Nigeria. Put differently, Ojukwu and the other secessionists attempted to carve out Biafra from Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 in order to create an independent country where the Igbo would be free from those who persecute them and would not allow them to achieve their preordained destiny of greatness. Had Ojukwu and his comrades succeeded, the Igbo would have gone far by now, perhaps be in the league of the First World –the east would not have been plagued by underdevelopment considering the fact that it is home to some of the most gifted, creative and intelligent people in the world.

To say it in a simple way, the pro-Biafra group (IPOB) wants a sovereign nation where the Igbo can better express themselves. Those clamouring for Biafra want to be free from the current contraption. They don’t believe in Nigeria as they have called it demeaning names like zoo, evil forest to mention but a few on different occasions, neither do they want the presidency. What they want is self-determination. In other words, even if the Igbo produce the next president, vice president and senate president in 2023, it will still not quench their thirst for Biafra. The following excerpt from Nnamdi Kanu’s speech, presented on the floor of the European Union (EU) Parliament on September 10, 2019, supports this position.

“International law is clear in relation to self-determination. Where there is a credible claim for self-determination the only way to resolve the issue is by holding a referendum which complies with international standards. IPOB is calling for a referendum. It is for that reason the Nigerian authorities have sought to brand IPOB as a terrorist organisation.”

Based on the position of IPOB as clearly stated in the speech of Nnamdi Kanu, Bede Eke will be making a terrible mistake to think that Igbo presidency will end the quest for Biafra.