BIAFRA : Advocates for Biafra and Journalists Against Corruption Face Gov’t Crackdown

flashpoint for ethnic tensions that simmer just below the surface.  The war may be over in a place called Biafra – a region of states in the southern part of Nigeria – but it remains a

In September, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), announced a meeting with world leaders at the United Nations to present the grievances of the Igbo community including unfair treatment by successive governments.

These grievances, according Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed IPOB, include an unequal distribution of resources, poor investment and a heavily militarized presence in their region.

This week, the Buhari administration took out its own grievances against the separatist group with the arrest by Nigerian counterintelligence operatives of popular author/journalist Chido Onumah. Onumah, who was returning from Spain after graduate studies, was identified by his t-shirt which bore the inscription “We Are All Biafrans” – also the name of his book.

The State Security Service, however, denies there was an arrest. “To set the records right, Onumah was never arrested by the Service. He was rather engaged in an interaction during which an act of his, capable of undermining public order and national security, was explained to him.”

Speaking up for Chido was the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the Executive Director of the Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Awual Musa (Rafsanjani) in interviews with PUNCH newspaper.

Also arrested this week was Agba Jalingo, publisher of CrossRiverWatch, an online newspaper with a focus on Cross River State. Mr Jalingo, in prison in Calabar, has been charged with treason over a report about an alleged diversion of 500 million naira by Cross River Gov. Ben Ayade.

Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters and presidential aspirant, also remains behind bars.  A Federal High Court on Tuesday ordered his release after about 50 days detention but State Security Services claimed that it had not received the court order and has since refused to release Mr. Sowore.

In other Nigerian news, Nigerians in the diaspora on the platform of the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria have petitioned the President of the World Bank, David Malpass, to put an end to further negotiations with the President Muhammadu Buhari regime to borrow another $2.5 billion.

The group stated that Nigerians could no longer tolerate the action of government officials who, they claimed, steal public funds and resort to raising taxes among the same citizens they stole from.

Finally, 19 pregnant girls and four children suspected to have been abducted by persons engaged in child trafficking were released by Lagos police, and in the northern city of Kaduna, police rescued more than 300 male students, most of them children and some of them in chains, from an Islamic school where many had been tortured and sexually abused, a police spokesman said Friday.

The victims, including adults and minors, were kept in “the most debasing and inhuman conditions in the name of teaching them the Koran and reforming them,” Kaduna state police spokesman Yakubu Sabo told AFP.

Among those rescued were “around 100 students including children as young as nine in chains stuffed in a small room all in the name of reforming them and making them responsible persons”, Sabo said.

Yes, All Nigerians Have Become Biafrans By SKC Ogbonnia

The recent harassment or detention of human rights activist,

 Dr. Chido Onumah, by state agents is not only a sign that Nigeria is drifting towards full-blown dictatorship, 

the incident also goes to expose the hypocrisy of Nigerian leaders. Onumah’s crime, according to the state agents, 

is that he was wearing a t-shirt with the inscription: "WE ARE ALL BIAFRANS", being the tittle of his best-selling book.  

Therefore, Onumah’s ordeal is nothing but a growing sense of intolerance or, 

rather, what Wole Soyinka referred to as an “unprecedented level of paranoia” 

being witnessed in the current regime, while he was condemning the unwarranted detention of another activist, 

the Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption crusader, Omoyele Sowore.

In the book, Onumah analyzed the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria, to posit that “the different manifestation of Biafra may well be a metaphor and, to that extent, we are all Biafrans as long as we seek to confront the clear and present danger.” The book, of course, had been launched since 2016, with the former Vice-President, Abubakar Atiku, and a number of government officials gleefully in attendance.
 
Therefore, Onumah’s ordeal is nothing but a growing sense of intolerance or, rather, what Wole Soyinka referred to as an “unprecedented level of paranoia” being witnessed in the current regime, while he was condemning the unwarranted detention of another activist, the Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption crusader, Omoyele Sowore.
 
Biafra re-emerged as a hot topic since a group from the eastern section of Nigeria, under the aegis of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), heightened its demand for freedom from Nigeria, not long after Muhammadu Buhari assumed democratic power. Central to their grouse is a history of bad leadership in the Africa’s most naturally endowed nation. Instead of dialogue, as in the case of other recent insurgents in the country, the Buhari regime not only clamped down on the Biafran activists with brute force, it also branded them “terrorists.”
 
Interestingly, however, as Onumah had long professed, all Nigerians have become Biafrans, by consequence. This view is consistent with an ardent admonition by the venerable Balarabe Musa, which holds that the perennial tendency to ignore the social challenges in the Biafran area is tantamount to ignoring the Nigerian future. Today, most of the problems enumerated by IPOB for its agitation, including acute poverty, massive corruption, injustice, kidnapping, lawlessness and lack of free speech are now being felt by the generality of Nigerians.
 
A perspective by the Afrobeat Prince, Seun Anikulapo Kuti, is profoundly instructive. In a recent interview, Kuti inferred that, like the Biafran agitators, every Nigerian actually wants freedom from the country, due to the worsening state of affairs. To nail the point, he asserted that the entire citizenry would not hesitate to “escape” from Nigeria, if the international community dares to leave its border wide open. And Kuti was on point! Today, there is mass exodus of Nigerians to both richer and poorer countries, and they never hesitate to dump their Nigerian passports to acquire the citizenship of their host countries. Some are even willing to embrace the harsh conditions in immigration jails in the foreign land as more hopeful than the situation in our native land.
 
No person has demonstrated more fancy for freedom from Nigeria and its failing amenities than the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari. For example, though Nigeria has its own assortment of holiday resorts, Buhari is always in hurry to vacation abroad. Though the country has a national hospital building, which can be equipped to an international standard within six months—to also serve other Nigerians, President Buhari readily opts for foreign clinics. Instead of Nigerian higher institutions, he prefers foreign schools for his children. Instead of promoting made-in-Nigeria automobiles, which can help spur employment opportunities for the teaming youths, the country’s president uses only foreign cars. Needless to mention that, to him, rule of law in the country no longer means a thing.

 
But Muhammadu Buhari is not alone.  
 
Other Nigerian leaders are equally guilty. In short, the sole reason they still associate themselves with the country is the unhindered opportunity to loot the resources needed to sustain their affluent lifestyles abroad. The worst is that these Nigerian leaders stash the looted funds in foreign banks, at the cruel expense of the masses. Only people who despise the citizenship of their country exhibit such patterns.
 
Even if the Nigerian leaders somehow happen to love the country, besides its money, the phobia with Biafra is insincere. Progressive nations witness calls for secession from time to time, especially where some groups feel oppressed. What matters is how the leaders address such demands. Moreover, the history of secession in Nigeria did not begin with Buhari or Biafra nor will end with Biafra or Buhari. Groups, particularly, Oduduwa, Arewa, and Niger Delta had at one time or another threatened secession from the country. Yet, such terms have not been deleted from the human history. The truth is that Biafra has come to represent a people. Its agitation has come to serve as a threat to the gross misrule in Nigeria.
 
At the same time, while the calls for equitable and just government deserve every commendation, outright secession is not the panacea to the problems; after all, the leaders of Biafran descent themselves, including governors and legislators, have not been able to show the desired example within their states. Yet, the current approach where anything associated with the term Biafra is disparaged with impunity only goes to grow the agitation. As Senator Ben Bruce once appealed at the floor of National Assembly, the dictatorial attempt to efface Biafra or its history is far from the solution.
 
The solution is an equitable, visionary and dynamic leader, who has the zeal, the competencies and capacity to unleash the abundant potential of Nigeria to greatness. The solution is a true democracy where government can thrive through inclusiveness, free speech, and dialogue.
 
SKC Ogbonnia writes from Ugbo, Enugu State, Nigeria.

BIAFRA : Jonathan leaves Nigeria after meeting with Buhari

Jonathan’s spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, said in a statement on Thursday, that his principal is billed to leave the country today for Maputo, capital of Mozambique.

Former Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan, has been nominated by the African Union (AU) to lead the continental body’s Election Observation Mission, to Mozambique’s scheduled October 15 general elections.

While there, he will be overseeing the deployment of the mission’s 40-member team of observers, to different parts of the country.

In a letter of invitation signed by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, the AU described Jonathan as a man who is deeply committed to peace and democracy on the continent.

It said: “Given Your Excellency’s vast experience and commitment in promoting democracy and peace on the continent, I would like to invite you to lead the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) to the Republic of Mozambique.”

BIAFRA : How Buhari govt is frustrating freedom of speech – Apostle Suleman

 

BIAFRA NEWS MEN reports that Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed in Abuja while 

inaugurating the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) 

Reform Implementation Committee said Buhari approved the upward review of fines from N500,000 to N5 million for breaches relating to hate speeches, inciting comments and indecency.

Presiding Pastor, Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of an increase in fine relating to hate speeches.

According to the statement: “Following deliberations at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of March 27th 2019, 

on the unprofessional and unethical conduct of some broadcast stations, especially before and during the last general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari directed me to institute an inquiry into the conduct of the stations and report back to the Council

“Consequently, I inaugurated a five-member committee on Wednesday, April 10th 2019 with the following terms of reference:

“Find out to what extent the NBC was able to effectively carry out its regulatory role before and during the 2019 general elections.

“Recommend measures that could strengthen NBC’s regulatory role and make it more effective.

” Upward review of fines from N500,000 to N5,000,000 for breaches relating to hate speeches, inciting comments and indecency.”

But reacting, Apostle Suleman said the recent review by Buhari is a ‘deliberate attempt to silence Nigerians’

On his Twitter page, the outspoken cleric wrote: “Just read about N5m fine for hate speech, there is a thin line between freedom of speech and hate speech.

“This is a deliberate attempt to silence people, we could backdate its implementation to 2014.”

Federal lawmaker gives reasons Igbo man should succeed Buhari

He said that the presidency should be conceded to the South East in 2023 in the spirit of justice, enquiry and fair play.

Bede Eke, a member representing Mbaise/Ngor-Okpalla Federal Constituency of Imo State, has said that the time is right for Igbo to occupy the leadership position of the country.

Eke who addressed newsmen in Abuja over the weekend pointed out that the move will put an end to the clamouring for the Republic of Biafra under whatever guise by the people of the region.

He said, “On the continued agitations for South-East presidency in 2023, yes, we want it.

“I am of the opinion that we should be given a chance. Talk about the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Aguyi Ironsi; we have not been given a chance since the independence.

“We talk about three geopolitical zones in the country; Hausa, Yoruba have had their chances but what about the Igbo? Even if only the marginalisation we are crying, why don’t you give it to us?

“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.

“We are all equal before God, no region or zone is superior to one another, we should be given a sense of belonging in the scheme of things, we have qualified materials to occupy that position.”

Fani-Kayode speaks on North supporting Igbo Presidency

Fani-Kayode on Tuesday said the north will never support the idea of Igbo Presidency come 2023.
Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has joined the conversation on the Igbo producing the President come 2023.

He added that the Igbo do not need Presidency at the moment but emancipation

Fani-Kayode on his Twitter page wrote: “If you believe that the north will support an Igbo Presidency in 2023 then you still don’t understand the injustice that Nigeria represents.

“The north will NEVER support an Igbo presidency and that is the tragedy of Nigeria.

“The entire south needs EMANCIPATION and not Presidency.”

Meanwhile, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has said Igbo Presidency will not end the ongoing Biafra agitation

Kanu maintained that those clamouring for Igbo Presidency in 2023 were wasting their time.

The IPOB leader further stated that the: “Igbo presidency is a dream, it’s like second Niger bridge and Ogoni cleanup,” hence will not stop Biafra agitation.

Why Igbo can’t produce President in Nigeria – Senator Wabara

Wabara said the South-East was not ready for the presidency come 2023 when compared to the preparedness of other regions who were interested and financially ready to prosecute the project

Former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara has dismissed any chances of an Igbo Presidency come 2023.

According to the former Senate President, the Igbo nation had been systematically confined to certain political limits in Nigeria and for this reason its chances to aspire and reach for the Presidency in the next four years have been limited.

He maintained that the lack of preparedness of the South east had denied the region any basis to negotiate a presidential spot for itself in 2023.

“There’s no chance for Igbo presidency in 2023 unless a miracle happens but there will be Igbo presidential candidates from some unpopular parties to satisfy all righteousness,” he told Tribune

“Furthermore there shall be no basis for Ndigbo to negotiate with other regions when those regions are equally interested and even more financially ready. We are on our own. Nobody wants us near Aso villa.

“As a matter of fact, we have been given our permanent place and limits in our country called Nigeria. However Ndigbo believes that a wise patient dog eats the fattest bone because this too shall pass, the former President of the Senate stated.”