To Biafrans both at home and in
the diaspora, the remarkably massive, peaceful and very successful
boycott of the just concluded Anambra state gubernatorial election which
was held on the 18th day of November 2017, is exceptionally heart
warming as residents within the state clinically adhered to the
instructions of the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB), thereby charting a course to freedom.
The world through this unmistakable statement of action, has once again
been unequivocally informed of the resolve and the determination of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide, to fully and totally get
the sovereignty of the Biafran nation restored even at the full glare of
foreign observers who stormed various polling units to capture first
hand, all that really transpired during the election.
It is however pertinent here to decry the shameful acts of media mockery
displayed by the Nigerian media professionals who were conspicuously
not found anywhere near the election grounds. This show of shame
emanated from their fear of disappointment as envisaged, from the
electorates' 'Sit At Home' who actually boycotted the election enmass.
The corrupt and lying Nigerian media personnel living good to their
billings, yet fabricated falsehood with the intent of deceiving the
gullible
They published and disseminated lies by telling the world that the
election witnessed unprecedented turn out of voters. But the truth
remains that these people were not found in any of the voting locations
during the exercise to collate necessary and proven information as the
practice normally ought to have been. The Nigerian media has over time,
exhibited heights of unethical journalism in other to service the
interests of their paymasters at the expense of their professional
callings and public enlightenment.
All appreciation to God for the timely presence of the staff of Family
Writers Press crack team of correspondents who scaled through all
imposing and associated hassles to gather and disseminate detailed live
and post - election situation accounts of proceedings direct from
various polling units with verifiable pictorial and visual evidences of
all that took place within and around Anambra state. The response of
Biafrans to the election boycott orders given by the leadership of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by Mazi Nnamdi kanu is quite
commendable. Biafrans in Anambra state are today held in high esteem by
all lovers of freedom for standing strong in defense of what they
believe in and this action so exhibited, confirms the resilience we are
known for.
I, on behalf of the Family Writers Press International and the
Indigenous People of Biafra, very sincerely and unreservedly, appreciate
all the Biafrans in Anambra for doing us proud by not reneging on our
ideals which pivotally anchor on love, justice, freedom and unity. They
have through this, demonstrated to the chain of bewitched politicians
within the entire Biafraland in particular and Nigeria in general, that
our demand for the restoration of Biafra can never be compromised.
I believe strongly that with this recorded amazing success of election
boycott, Biafra freedom is just a matter of time and it is quite
imminent. The world cannot deny our resolve in the Biafran restoration
question. And the only prompt and justifiable backing required of the
world is to set in motion, principled modalities for the realization of
the anticipated.
Prior to the emergence of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his likeable
organisation, IPOB, the quest for the restoration of the sovereign
state of Biafra was a project that seemed to many as a wishful thinking
and a mission impossible.
The idea of Biafra restoration did not actually start with Nnamdi Kanu
because, before his emergence, people like Ralph Uwazuruike of MASSOB
claimed to have been pursuing this idea of Biafra freedom but the fact
remains that you can fool some people for sometime but you can not fool
everybody all the time. So, after a short while, it became very clear
that Ralph Uwazuruike was not actually fighting for the poor masses of
Biafra land whose kits and kins were killed by both bullet and hunger
during the Biafra war neither was he interested in the suffering of the
highly marginalised people of Biafra, he was rather designing this
strategy to get himself rich to the detriment of his people who are
already endangered and the most disturbing aspect of it all is that the
moment he realised that he could no longer deceive the people, he
quickly sold off the struggle to the government accepting now the role
of terminating the quest for Biafra restoration. At this point, every
Biafran was frustrated and all hope was lost in big terms until Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu came to limelight. God saw that his people needed a truthful
and sincere leader, hence, He sent his chosen one to lead his people to
the land of Biafra.
At the coming of Nnamdi Kanu, the people took out time to monitor his
sincerity, and at the point of conviction, Nnamdi Kanu became the
trusted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra. His class
intelligence and wisdom have given him an upper hand in the struggle for
the restoration of the sovereign state of Biafra. The Government is not
happy with him because he has opened up all closed secrets and lies of
the government, destroyed their evil of divide and rule and as such
succeeded in bringing together the South-south and South-east, the
brothers that were made enemies for no just reason other than the
selfish and evil motive of the British and their proxy Fulani who are
desperately protecting their own interests because their main source of
survival is Biafra land and as such it does not matter if the entire
Biafran people are destroyed, what matters is that the British
government retains its control of Biafra wealth, uses it to cater for
its own well being while the real owners of the wealth remain in adject
poverty. This is just the only reason the British government does not
want to hear about the free Biafra campaign.
The British and other western world believe that the Biafrans are
intelligent people and as such would not be that gullible to be
controlled like the Fulani, and this is the main reason the British
always prefers the Fulani to the Biafra people, they are very much
afraid that they will lose their share of the oil from Biafra land but
this singular reason has made them blind to the more enduring benefits
accruable to them should they allow Biafra to go.
The west should understand that the Fulani morons have nothing to
contribute to the global economy because they do not have either the
intellectual property or the natural resources to support the global
economy but Biafrans have all these. The British should know that it
would be more beneficial to work with Biafra to achieve her independence
for this is the best way to protect her interest in Biafra land, the
reason is that whether they like it or not Biafra will surely come, they
can only make the time short for Biafra to come faster.
The world should know that global peace is very much in doubt if Biafra
is not yet restored and as such one of the safest ways of ensuring peace
in the world is to give the Biafran people a chance to govern
themselves because Biafra is not a problem now but the truth the world
does not know is that if they refuse the Biafrans the choice of
referendum now, they are simply giving the approval for a complete
disaster to befall the entire human race because if the option of
peaceful separation fails the world cannot contain the option of violent
separation because Biafra must be restored after all. THE TIME IS NOW
FOR THE UNITED NATIONS TO GIVE US REFERENDUM FOR THE BIAFRANS TO DECIDE
WHETHER TO REMAIN IN NIGERIA OR GO AWAY FROM IT.
In a quiet, dusty and fairly
secluded corner of Enugu city, south-eastern Nigeria, a group of men
unfurled a homemade flag and then sang.
"Biafra will live forever. Nothing will stop us," was the gist of their anthem in the Igbo language.
They
were not exactly belting it out and instead of hoisting the flag up a
pole, it was tied to a metal gate. But there is good reason for
discretion - in the eyes of the authorities the gathering is illegal.
On
5 November, 100 men and women were arrested as they marched peacefully
through the city's streets after raising the Biafran flag.
They
were all imprisoned and accused of treason but then released when the
charges were dropped. It appears the government is determined to ensure
any agitation for secession is not allowed to gather momentum.
Forty-two
years after the end of the devastating civil war in which government
troops fought and defeated Biafran secessionists, the dream of
independence has not completely died.
"No amount of threats or
arrests will stop us from pursuing our freedom - self-determination for
Biafrans," said Edeson Samuel, national chairman of the Biafran Zionist
Movement (BZM).
"We were forced into this unholy marriage but we don't have the same
culture as the northerners. Our religion and culture are quite different
from the northerners," he told the BBC.
The group broke away from the better-known Movement For The Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob).
The
1967-70 civil war threatened to tear apart the young Nigerian nation.
Ethnic tensions were high in the mid 1960s. The military had seized
power and economic hardship was biting.
With the perception that
they were pushing to dominate all sectors of society - from business to
the civil service - and while they were prominent in the military, the
Igbo people were attacked.
Thousands were killed, especially
during the clashes between northerners, who are mostly Muslim, and
Igbos. To save their lives, Igbos fled en masse back "home" to the east.
"People
used to meet fuel tanker drivers who allowed them to hide inside the
tankers - some survived that way," remembers Igwe Anthony Ojukwu, the
traditional ruler of Ogui Nike in Enugu State.
"As we were licking
our wounds… it dawned on us that we could not just stay at home as they
would come and fight us and that would mean... extinction," he said,
adding that this prompted the move to declare Biafra independent.
Today on the streets of Enugu you can hear songs about the war.
Booming out from a stall selling CDs and DVDs I heard a song praising
the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu - the man who raised the Biafran flag in
1967 and was the leader of the breakaway nation that existed for 31
troubled months.
"It was very terrifying. In the market place you
hear a bang and you find limbs flying, people lying dead and others
running helter-skelter," said war veteran Chief Nduka Eya, recalling the
aerial bombardment by the Nigerian forces.
At his home he showed
me the small card he was given after the Biafrans surrendered. It
reads: "Clearance certificate for members of armed forces of defunct
Biafra."
"Naturally when you lose a war it can be very depressing
but what can you do? We took it. But history shows Biafra is defunct out
of surrender," said Chief Nduka Eya who is now the secretary general of
Ohaneze Ndigbo, an umbrella group representing Igbos around the world.
In
the bottom right-hand corner of the card is Olusegun Obasanjo's
signature. The man who later became the president of Nigeria played a
major role in the civil war, fighting on the federal government side.
Today on the streets of Enugu you can hear songs about the war.
Booming out from a stall selling CDs and DVDs I heard a song praising
the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu - the man who raised the Biafran flag in
1967 and was the leader of the breakaway nation that existed for 31
troubled months.
"It was very terrifying. In the market place you
hear a bang and you find limbs flying, people lying dead and others
running helter-skelter," said war veteran Chief Nduka Eya, recalling the
aerial bombardment by the Nigerian forces.
At his home he showed
me the small card he was given after the Biafrans surrendered. It
reads: "Clearance certificate for members of armed forces of defunct
Biafra."
"Naturally when you lose a war it can be very depressing
but what can you do? We took it. But history shows Biafra is defunct out
of surrender," said Chief Nduka Eya who is now the secretary general of
Ohaneze Ndigbo, an umbrella group representing Igbos around the world.
In
the bottom right-hand corner of the card is Olusegun Obasanjo's
signature. The man who later became the president of Nigeria played a
major role in the civil war, fighting on the federal government side.
Although no-one knows the true number, more than one million people
died in the war - some from the fighting but many more from the
resulting famine in the east.
In an effort to repair the bruised
nation, the Nigerian head of state General Yakubu Gowan spoke of "No
Victor, No Vanquished" and also promoted a policy of Reconciliation,
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.
'Willing to fight'
But
to this day, many Igbos complain that they were punished economically
after the war and still speak of being marginalised. The fact that no
Nigerian president has come from the east is a source of much rancour.
The
prospect of an independent Igboland now seems impossible, especially as
secessionists would want the area's lucrative oil fields.
While
those publicly clamouring for independence are a very small minority,
it is not hard to find young people who feel they would be better off as
a separate nation. This ought to be of great concern to the government
of Nigeria.
"If this present government does not have the solution
for us upcoming youth here, I'd rather the nation breaks," said one
young man playing football in Enugu near a statue referred to as "The
Unknown Soldier" holding a gun aloft.
"We are willing to fight for
our rights. Without sacrifice there will be nothing like freedom. We
have to pay the price if we want independence and we are ready to do
that again," he added.
"Islams (sic) don't want the east to rule
the country and our opportunities and rights are denied so we are better
off as an independent Biafra sovereign nation. Nothing is impossible,"
another man in his 20s added.
The renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe recently
released his memoirs of the war entitled "There Was a Country." The
book includes an insight into what life was like for his family fleeing
the city of Lagos and heading east.
His account has angered some - especially non-Igbos - and has caused a
stir in the Nigerian media as well as on the internet where there are
plenty of reminders that ethnic divisions still run deep.
Towards
the end of his book Achebe asks: "Why has the war not been discussed, or
taught to the young, over 40 years after its end?
"Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?"
Today
Nigeria faces massive security challenges - top of the list being the
Islamist insurgency in the north that many Nigerians believe is being
fuelled by politicians.
Many would argue that some of the root
causes of the civil war were also triggers of the rebellion in the north
as well as the militancy in the Niger Delta.
"Three words -
injustice, inequality and unfair play," says Chief Nduka Eya who, like
Achebe, believes it is essential for young Nigerians to learn about the
war.
"If you think education is expensive try ignorance," he says.
"Ignorance
is a very damaging disease. Our boys and girls need to know what
actually happened. 'Why did my father go to war?' Someone in the north
will ask: 'Why did we go to fight them?'"
Sitting on his throne and holding his ox tail staff of office, Igwe Anthony Ojukwu calls for the war to be studied in schools.
"The
experience of Biafra should be shared so that people outside Biafra
will know when they are cheated and when they should start to fight for
their own destiny," says the traditional ruler.
"The risk of not
studying Biafra is that we will continue to subdue the subdueables no
matter how justified they are in their demands. We will continue to
live a life where the stronger animal kills the other," he says,
although he stresses that he is against further efforts to secede.
"I think it is important that Nigeria stays together. Those who are singing for disintegration are doing so for selfish ends."
Forty-two
years after the war, a beer has just been launched in eastern Nigeria.
The choice of name, "Hero", and the logo on the bottle of a rising sun
similar to the one on the Biafran flag were no accident.
These
days "Bring me a Hero" is a popular call in the bars of Enugu where
people have not entirely given up on the dream of raising a glass to
"independence".
It has been ranked among the happiest places in the world despite
widespread unrest, political crisis and recession. Now one Nigerian
state has a minister in charge of contentment.
The commissioner for happiness and couples’ fulfilment is the
brainchild of Rochas Okorocha, governor of the southeastern state of
Imo.
Okorocha, who was previously widely criticised for using public funds
to erect statues of prominent African leaders, on Monday appointed his
sister to the post.
Ogechi Ololo now takes up the first such portfolio in Nigeria. She
previously served as Okorocha’s deputy chief of staff and special
adviser on domestic matters, in charge of Christmas decorations.
The governor’s spokesman, Sam Onwuemeodo, could not provide exact
details of Ololo’s responsibilities when contacted by AFP Tuesday, but
said: “There is nothing unusual about the appointment”.
“The governor is a man of ideas, always introducing new things to governance.”
The commissioner’s job “is an innovation that should be copied by
other governors,” he added. He “wants to always make the people happy.
That’s why he has created a ministry for that purpose.”
The remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is known for measuring its
success by Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product.
Criteria taken into account include psychological well-being, health,
education, vitality in the community and the living standards enjoyed
by the population.
Okorocha, a leading member in President Muhammadu Buhari’s All
Progressives Congress party, is one of Nigeria’s best-known but also
controversial state governors.
He has been accused of appointing family members and cronies to
government offices without regard to the state’s lean finances,
including naming his son-in-law as chief of staff.
In recent months he has honoured Liberia’s outgoing President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma with statues in the state.
Zuma’s statue was reported to have cost 520 million naira ($1.4 million, 1.2 million euros).
Okorocha was criticised for the expense as public sector workers in Imo were owed several months’ salary.
He has also been criticised for spending millions of naira to put up a
Christmas tree reputed to be one of the biggest in the world.
The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, yesterday, sworn-in 28 new commissioners and 27 Transition Committee Chairmen for the 27 local government councils in the state.
One of the new commissioners sworn in is the Governor’s biological sister, Mrs. Ogechi Ololo (nee Okorocha).
She was appointed the state ’s Commissioner for Happiness and Couples’ Fulfillment.
In 2015, Ololo was the All Progressives Congress, APC’s candidate into the House of Representatives for the Owerri Federal Constituency.
She had also served in the state as the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Adviser on Domestic Matters.
Okorocha, while swearing in the new commissioners and the Transition
Committee Chairmen on Monday at the Imo International Convention Centre,
Owerri, charged them to leave their marks in their respective
ministries and local government.
He said, “You are the privileged group that has the opportunity to make names for yourselves. I want to remind all of you that this appointment is not business as usual.
“We shall not tolerate any sharp practice or corruption of any type.
Neither shall we accept indolence or laziness. You have been called to
duty to help us to achieve our vision in the Rescue Mission Project.
“At this moment, I charge you all to be good ambassadors of the Rescue Mission wherever you find yourselves.
“To the Transition Committee Chairmen, you must ensure that ongoing projects must be completed especially the schools, chapels etc.”
The Campaign for Democracy, CD, Monday, accused the Federal
Government of contributing to the death of the Nigeria’s Second Republic
Vice President, late Dr Alex Ekwueme in London Hospital.
It asked the FG to take responsibility for his death.
CD through its National Publicity Secretary and chairman, South East
Zone, Dede Uzor A. Uzor alleged that the Federal Government of Nigeria
flew Late Dr Ekwueme to London when his health condition got stabilized
in Nigeria and subsequently abandoned him to his fate and he allegedly
became frustrated and died there.
According to CD, “the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria,
SGF, made a press statement that Federal Government would not take the
responsibility of the medical bills of late Dr Ekwueme, forgetting that
he was a former Vice President of Nigeria.
“By the virtue of Section 180 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigerian,
as amended, his medical bills must be taken care of by the Nigerian
Government.
“So, when the former Vice President heard that his bills were not
going to footed by the government, he felt disappointed by a country he
labored for and collapsed and died; that was what led to his death. He
died as a result of Federal Government’s abandonment.
“So, the Federal Government of Nigeria should be blamed for his
death. He was a man who had been taking care of himself since he left
office, very content and not disturbing successive governments in the
country for any benefit. They should have allowed him to take care of
himself like he had been doing over the years both in and outside
Nigeria. Why must Federal Government get involved this time, only to
abandon him where they had taken him and allowed him to die there?”
According to CD, “we are not talking about immortalizing Dr Ekwueme,
that is another different thing, how can you allow somebody to die for
an ill health that can easily be cured and you want to immortalize him,
if you say you cannot take care of somebody’s medical bill when he was a
life, why coming back to say you will immortalize him, that is an
insult to the entire Igbo race.
“The Federal government must take full responsibility and blame for
the death of Dr Alex Ekwueme, and if they fail to accept full
responsibility and blame of the death of the former vice President of
Nigeria, at the expiration of 21 day from Monday, CD will mobilize
Nigerians and the like minds to protest against the present Nigerian
Federal Government.
“Personally as the National Publicity Secretary, and Chairman of CD
in the South East Zone, at the expiration of the 21 days, I will go into
hunger strike from 6am to 6pm daily, and will take a particular
strategic position to embark on the hunger strike, while I will also
address a press conference to give those people who are in Aso Rock a
message that is high time they start realizing that those who served
Nigeria meritoriously deserves our respect, protection and care. “If you tell a man who is coma that you are not going to take care of
him, when he rightly deserve that right, what do you call
marginalization, this is one of the things the Igbos are agitating
against, it will not continue if this country must be one.”
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, deferred further
proceeding on the treasonable felony charge against the ‘missing’ leader
of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu,
till Febraury 20, 2018.
Trial Justice Binta Nyako adjourned the matter at the instance of the
Federal Government which notified the court of the absence of its
prosecutor, Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, who is currently attending a seminar
outside the country.
Consequently, the prosecution, in a letter to the court, applied for
the case to be adjourned till next year for continuation of trial and to
enable those that stood surety for the IPOB leader whose whereabouts
has remained unknown, to produce him before the court.
Already, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who was one of the three persons
that stood surety for Kanu has applied to be discharged by the court,
insisting that he lacks the capacity to produce the defendant for
continuation of his trial.
The court had on October 17, ordered Abaribe, a Jewish High Priest,
Emmanu El-Salom Oka BenMadu, and an accountant, Tochukwu Uchendu, to
produce the IPOB leader or face jail term/forfeiture of their bail bond.
It will be recalled that Justice Nyako had in a ruling on April 25,
released Kanu on bail after he had spent a year and seven months in
detention, though the court okayed four other pro-Biafra agitators who
are facing trial with him- Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu,
David Nwawuisi and Bright Chimezie- to remain in prison custody.
To secure Kanu’s release, Abaribe, El-Shalom and Uchendu, on April
28, signed an undertaking to ensure attendance of the 1st defendant who
was granted bail on health ground, in court for his trial.
Meawhile, in his fresh application, Abaribe who is representing Abia
South Senatorial District, applied for damages against the Nigerian
Army.
He is praying the court to compel the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen.
Tukur Buratai to pay N10 million to him for the psychological trauma he
has gone through following extra-judicial self-help actions of the Army
he said led to Kanu’s dissapearance.
Abaribe equally applied for an order compelling Buratai to offset all
expenses he incurred in the cause of the trial of the IPOB leader.
The lawmaker prayed the court to revoke the undertaking he took on behalf of Kanu and discharge him as a surety in the matter.
He told the court that the Nigerian Army had in the course of
military operations in Abia state from September 11, visited Kanu’s
residence, adding that it was reported in the media that there was
shooting and fracas during the visit.
He said Kanu “has not been seen again nor reached on phone by the
Applicant, neither is he reported in any news media as seen by any
persom, nor made any statement on any issue”.
Abaribe told the court that he “lacks capacity to produce a person
stated by the 1st Respondent to be a member of a terrorist organisation,
or any persin whom the 1st Respondent is reported to be interested in
his whereabouts including the aftermat of the military operations in
Abia state which commenced about 11th September, 2017”.
Specifically, Abaribe is praying the court for, “An order of this
honourable court discharging the applicant as surety of the 1st/2nd
respondent, and discharging the recognizance entered into by the
applicant, and to discharge the applicant from the entire incidence of
the bail of Nnamdi Kanu- the 1st defendant/2nd respondent in charge No.
FHC/Abj/CR/383/2015: Federal Republic of Nigeria v Nnamdi Kanu,
Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu, David Nwawisi.
However, following a counter-affidavit that was filed by FG, Justice
Nyako maintained that Abaribe must firstly produce Kanu before he could
be allowed to withdraw as a surety in the case.
In his motion, Abaribe prayed for, “An order of the court compelling
the Chief of Army Staff, on failure to produce 1st defendant/2nd
respondent, to pay to the court the sum in the bail bond earlier
executed by the applicant on behalf of 1st defendant/2nd respondent.
“An order of the court compelling the Chief of Army Staff to produce
1st defendant/2nd respondent before the court and or to explain to the
satisfaction of the court the circumstance surrounding his whereabouts.
As well as, “An order of court compelling the Chief of Army Staff to
show cause why the Attorney General of the Federation should not be
compelled to initiate contempt proceedings against him for his
extra-judicial self-help conducts that have obviously frustrated the
proceedings and course of administration of justice and which actions
have brought the court to some ridicule and its power appears nugatory
as well as placing the applicant in a fixed up position.”
Abaribe predicated his application on the grounds that “Out of
patriotic consideration of assisting the judicial process to defuse the
overheating already generated in the polity and with full belief that
1st defendant was carrying on his activities within the limits and
confines of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
applicant offered to stand surety for him and entered into recognizance
and executed the bail bond on his behalf”.
He insisted that only the Nigerian Army could produce Kanu since it was soldiers that had last contact with him.
According to him, “The situation was such that applicant could no
longer under the circumstances perform his obligation under the surety.
“As at the time of Chief of Army Staff ordered the deployment of his
men and material to forcefully and violently invade and surrounded the
town and residence of the 1st defendant/2nd respondent aforesaid, he had
every knowledge of the pendency of this charge and that his conduct had
the most probable effect of preventing the 1st defendant from attending
court, to continue with his trial”, he averred.
