BIAFRA NEWS : Igbo quest for Biafra and implications of Nnamdi Kanu’s detention

 

 

Millions of Nigerians are conscious of the fact that the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates of Nigeria in 1914 was a grave mistake.

The mistake of 1914, which was the lumping together of disparate ethnic nationalities as one country, has been causing the problem of disunity in Nigeria owing to the inability of our successive military and political leaders to transform Nigeria into an organic whole.

Since the inception of Nigeria in 1914, and till now, Nigeria has been quaking, intermittently, with ethnic conflicts because Nigerians view people whose ethnic origins are different from theirs with utter suspicion and hatred.

So, not surprisingly, over the years, the clamour for secession by ethnic chauvinists and jingoists have continued to characterize and define Nigeria. In 1953, the Hausa/Fulani people declared their intention to secede from Nigeria in their nine-point programme. In 1963, Isaac Adaka Boro declared the Niger Delta republic, which was short-lived.And the Igbo people fought a secessionist war against the rest of Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. But what are the causes of the agitation for statehood by an ethnic group in a heterogeneous country?
It is common knowledge that members of an ethnic group, who are disenchanted with the prevailing economic and political conditions in their country, which are not favourable to them, are predisposed to seeking a separate country for themselves.

So, now, we can say with conviction that the raw deal, which is being given to the Igbo people in Nigeria has caused the resurgence of pro-Biafra sentiments and rhetoric among them. Nobody can gainsay the stark fact that the Igbo people are treated as second class citizens in Nigeria, although the Igbo people have contributed greatly to Nigeria›s attainment of its current level of economic and technological development.

Today, it is obvious to even doubting Thomases that President Buhari, who presides over a fascist government, is enthroning Fulani political hegemony in Nigeria while excluding the Igbo people from the power loop and preventing them from occupying exalted positions in Nigeria›s national security outfits. His egregious actions and inaction have put the Igbo ethnic group at a disadvantage in a country that Igbo forebears fought hard and gallantly for its decolonization. Ardent students of the Nigerian history know that Nnamdi Azikiwe, Osita Agwuna, Nwafor Orizu, and Mokwugo Okoye, who were freedom fighters, belonged to the Igbo ethnic group.

Now, owing to the lack of egalitarianism, which has characterized Nigeria, IPOB has emerged to call the Federal Government›s attention to the plight of the Igbo people in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the Orwellian dictum-all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others – is the unwritten rule by which we are led.

That is why, now, almost every Igbo person has acquiesced into the Nnamdi Kanu›s resurgent quest for
the creation of the sovereign state of Biafra. Millions of Igbo people have queued behind him, overtly while there are closet admirers and supporters of Nnamdi Kanu›s secession agenda. But political leaders of Igbo descent, who are profiting and benefiting from Nigeria›s leadership dysfunction are implacably opposed to the clamour for the creation of the state of Biafra. Although Kanu›s presumptuousness, impertinence, and flawed method of agitation for the creation of the state of Biafra are off-putting and irritating, they have not detracted from the fact that his clamour for the creation of the state of Biafra is justified against the background of the maltreatment of the Igbo people in Nigeria.

However, now, it is sad that Nnamdi Kanu is in the custody of the DSS.

And he is charged with sundry crimes bordering on treason, illegal possession of fireearms, and others. The Federal Government used extra-ordinary rendition to bring him back to Nigeria after he had fled from the country. The government›s use of unfair, unjust, and extra-legal means to bring him back to Nigeria underlines President Buhari›s desperation to clamp down on secessionists rather than execute measures to extirpate the causes of their agitation for separate countries for their ethnic groups.

But the continued detention as well as trial of Nnamdi Kanu , who has become an iconic freedom fighter among the dispossessed Igbo folks, poses great threat to the political stability and unity of Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu has a great number of followers in the Southeast. And he commanded and still commands their respect as attested by their compliance with his sit-at -home orders in the past.

Although he is in detention now, his fame as well as his popularity with the common folks , who perceive him as their political Messiah, has not waned. The die-hard Nnamdi Kanu›s disciples, who are legion.