Buhari still fighting civil war against Igbo people – Nnamdi Kanu

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of fighting a war against the Igbo people as if the Nigerian Civil war has not ended.

Kanu alleged that Buhari and his administration were still waging war against the people of the Southeast with their “dehumanising treatment against the Igbo.”

The IPOB leader stated this in a radio broadcast from his base in the United Kingdom, UK, yesterday.

He, however, maintained that even in the face of the maltreatment of Igbo, “without apologies to anybody or group, we are the best of the best and finest of the finest you can find anywhere in the world. I say this without apologies to anyone or group.”

According to Kanu: “The level of conspiracy, hatred and destruction unleashed on the things cherished by Biafrans by the current administration are unspeakable, unacceptable and uncondonable by any peace-loving section of the country.

“The war against the Igbo has not ended. The current administration in Nigeria is still fighting the war against the Igbo as if the Civil War has not ended.

“If the war of genocide against Biafrans has ended, why are Igweocha, Warri and Calabar seaports not opened? Why is Onitsha River port not functional? If the war has ended, why is there no international airport in the whole of Biafraland?

“If the war has ended, why does the Federal Government still station roadblocks across Biafraland and why are they still militarising Biafraland? Why is the government supporting the herdsmen to rape our old mothers and daughters across Biafraland?”

BIAFRA : Biafra in the eyes of an environmentalist

This week, we witnessed a lot of important voices raised in remembrance of the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted for two and a half years, from July 1967 to January 1970. What stands this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day out from previous commemorations is not just because it is the 50th Anniversary of the end of the war, but also because Nigerians have suddenly decided to talk about the elephant in the room: Biafra. Indeed, Channels TV gave it a full primetime package tagged, “Biafra: 50 Years After: Healing, Reconciliation and Reintegration”.

Before now, we were satisfied with just celebrating the annual Armed Forces Remembrance Day, as if the day had nothing to do with the Nigerian Civil War. Coupled with the fact that our country threw history out of the window a long time ago, many a Nigerian does not actually know that there is a connection between the Biafran surrender and the January 15 memorial. The word “Biafra” was a taboo, and citizens were encouraged to celebrate soldiers that died, without mentioning where they died, why they died, and what they died for.

To be clear, the first casualty of war is the environment, and the most important element in the environment is the human species. Therefore, no environmentalist anywhere in the world supports war and conflict. We are peacemakers. Period. This is why the United Nations, in 2001, declared November 6 of every year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, aimed at educating people about the damaging effects of war and armed conflict on the environment. This caveat is necessary because somebody might misconstrue my intention for writing on this topic.

To me, war is like an open wound. The best way to help it heal permanently is through diligent nursing: Open it up for ventilation, toss out the old bandage, apply salve, and put on fresh dressing. Without this constant procedure, the wound will fester and become cancerous, and then cause even more severe disability that would lead to death or amputation, if the patient is lucky.

Before now, Nigeria was adept at concealing her war wounds. As a result, the gaping wound was festering, and is already gangrenous, now threatening to become cancerous, which would require the inevitable amputation of her extremities. And if the amputation were carried out, her cosmetic cover-ups would have been exposed.

But thank Goodness, this January, perhaps, her healing has started. Prominent personalities – from former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida to Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka – joined the medical team to begin immediate treatment of the gangrene. On Channels TV, prominent Biafran Army veterans – like Sam Obaji and Okechukwu Unegbu – proudly faced the nation in their capacity as former military commanders. These Nigerians gingerly opened the dirty bandage over our wound. Surprisingly, nobody flinched at the stench from the rotten infection. We all want to heal!

However, we must ensure that this first damage assessment is sustained with further checkups and dressing of the wound, if not, there would be a relapse. There are two manifest truths that we must face. First is that another civil war needed but a little spark to be set off. The second is that the harm of another war will be too damaging to imagine: We may end up begging to be colonised all over again, by fellow African nations; our ecosystem will be so unhinged that we shall no longer be able to differentiate between rainy season and dry season; and all the advantages we enjoy as the biggest and smartest African enclave shall evaporate. Yet, the scariest truth is that none of our present problems would be solved by such a conflict.

The environment will be the first, and silent, casualty of any armed conflict. From the contamination of land and the destruction of forests to the plunder of natural resources and the collapse of management systems, it will be “dog eat dog” and “all man for himself”. The consequences will be widespread and devastating. It will be worse than the past civil war, because our population is higher and our hinterlands are now sitting ducks.  Technological advancement, which now seems like an advantage shall turn out to be a booby-trap.

The young Nigerians who are, today, on the social media taunting and provoking each other, easily forget that an all-out war will totally wipe out their internet connections. The day they will receive a rude shock and wake up from their ignorance is when they are herded together for compulsory conscription, given guns, and put under a commander, who will confiscate everything they own as a matter of routine.

When they will see no fast food joint to pop in and have a binge. When they will not find a fancy pharmaceutical store to pick up their prescription drugs, and would be lucky to find even a malaria medicine. When they would have to learn how to survive without cooked food for weeks on end. When they would be taught to destroy their own environment so as to discourage their enemy from “enjoying” their resources as they retreat further into the bushes for safety. When the only politics they would become used to is guided by survival instincts, based on the lies and distortions spewed out from propaganda machines.

The Rwandan genocide happened about 24 years after Biafra. It led to the killing of roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The war created massive migration of nearly two million Hutus fleeing Rwanda over the course of just a few weeks to refugee camps in Tanzania and now modern-day the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This large displacement of people in refugee camps put pressure on the surrounding ecosystem. Forests were cleared in order to provide wood for building shelters and creating cooking fires. These people suffered from harsh conditions and constituted an important threat impact to natural resources. Today the Rwandan government is determined to keep these dark memories alive in the minds of present-day Rwandans and survivors of the genocide.

Nonetheless, it is instructive to note that there are still Hutu rebels operating in some border communities of Rwanda, even as the government is determined to chart a new course for the country – which is now the pride of Africa in terms of economic development and environmental stewardship.

So, we do not need to be veterans to know that Biafra was destructive, neither do we need to become diplomats in order to solve the problems that caused the war, even as we still face them now. The peaceful and united Europe of today was the scarred continent of yesteryears, a region plagued by wars and violent conflicts. France and Britain were historical foes, but today they are allies. They have decided to solve their problems using only diplomatic channels.

Likewise, the United States of America fought a civil war (1861-1865), which polarized the country into two clear ideological regions. The vestiges of that crisis still exist today, but that did not make the country sweep the memories of the conflict under the carpet as we are wont to. They ventilated the issues in their educational, religious, political and cultural institutions. They etched the war stories in museums, films and theatre houses. Hence, when some Americans began to call for secession, like they did recently, the protests became just the cathartic voices of social dissenters seeking for attention, but lacked the energy to summon the spirits of the citizens – because their war-wounds are already healed.

BIAFRA : We, the Biafrans

It was early in 1969 and the Civil War was reaching a bloody crescendo. I had just been admitted to Ife Anglican Grammar School, Ile-Ife. The war, being fought in far-away battle fields, was a daily presence for us barrack children. One day my brother called his cousin staying with him. He did not want him to join the army.

“One person from our family is enough for this job,” he said seriously. “Please don’t!”

He was talking to the deaf. One day, our cousin disappeared from home. Many weeks later, he came to show-off in his new uniform. Few weeks later, his company was taken to join the famous Third Marine Commando Division, now being commanded by its new General Officer Commanding, GOC, Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo. We never saw him again.

All the six GOCs on the Nigerian side returned home. Only two of them are still alive, General IBM Haruna and General Obasanjo, the only GOC who was wounded on the battlefield. General Mohammed Shuwa, who commanded the First Division was killed a few years ago in Maiduguri by Boko Haram terrorists. His successor, General Illiya Bisalla, was executed in Lagos on March 11, 1976, for his alleged involvement in the coup of February 13, 1976, during which General Murtala Muhammed was killed. Muhammed, who was the first GOC of the Second Division, was succeeded in 1968 by General Ibrahim Bata Malgwi Haruna. The old soldier is alive and well. Obasanjo’s predecessor as the GOC Third Marine Commandoes Division was the fiery Colonel Benjamin Maja Adekunle. He too is dead.

Every warrior knows the futility of war. The late Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo was the first Nigerian Chief of Army Staff. At the time of the first coup on January 15, 1966, he was abroad on a military course. His successor, Colonel Kor Mohammed, was one of those officers killed by the mutineers. With the coup and the assassination of top politicians, including Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa and two regional premiers, the military suddenly found itself in charge of Nigeria. Their commander, the bully 42-year old General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi found himself in charge of a ship that was leaking and being tossed around on the high sea. By the time Adebayo returned from his overseas course, Ironsi was killed along with Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the Military Governor of the West. Ironsi’s Chief of Army, Yakubu Jack Gowon, a lanky lieutenant-colonel, was railroaded into the office of the new Head of State. Adebayo was dispatched to Ibadan to take-over as the successor to Colonel Fajuyi. Officially, Ironsi and Fajuyi were declared missing, but the military High Command knew they were dead.

Nigeria was in crisis. Even Gowon, the new military ruler could not live in the State House on the Marina. He had to move to Doddan Barracks, a fortress where he can be protected by loyal troops. The most senior army officer who survived the July 29, 1966 coup, Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, and Ironsi’s direct deputy, was harried to London where he resumed as the High Commissioner. The country was left in the clutches of ambitious young colonels were in their early 30s. The new Head of State was 32. It was this corps of young colonels who eventually led Nigeria into its greatest challenge and bloodiest tragedy.

Gowon had been brought to power in the bloodiest coup in Nigerian history during which scores of fellow military officers, most of them Igbo, were killed. Earlier during the riot of May 1966, thousands of Easterners, mostly Igbos, were killed in many Northern cities, especially Kaduna, Kano, and Jos. The coming of Gowon to power did not stop the systematic killings that went on in almost all parts of the North. Even trains were waylaid and their passengers brought down and killed. Such was the horror that attended Gowon’s early days in power.

Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, son of millionaire Lagos-transporter, Sir Louis, decided to grow a beard in defiance of military regulation in order to mourn the dead. He had been appointed military governor of the East by Ironsi in January 1966. By the end of that year, his main assignment was to receive the thousands of refugees who were pouring into the East daily, most of them with tales of horror.

Gowon believed that the East had a right to be aggrieved and he wanted to be conciliatory. A decision was taken that soldiers should return to three regions of origin, a decision that galvanized all surviving officers of Eastern Nigerian origin. Top Federal Civil Servant met Gowon and told him that it was a wrong decision. In retrospect, General Adebayo also thought so. But the barracks were no longer safe for Igbo officers in any part of Nigeria; not even in Ibadan or Lagos were many of them were killed. Therefore, at the 1967 Aburi Summit in Ghana, everyone was thinking of how to avert a Civil War. Ojukwu, at that time, had already set his gaze on the Independent Republic of Biafra.

The most senior military officer then, Admiral Akinwale Wey, wanted Gowon to listen more to the senior civil servants. The permanent secretaries had presented a paper to Gowon, advising that all the four military governors should be replaced and new regions be created. In the end, at the Benin meeting of the Supreme Military, it was agreed to split Nigeria into 12 states. Ojukwu boycotted the Summit but he was still retained as the Governor of the new East Central State. Another Governor appointed by Ironsi, Colonel David Ejoor, was to retain his position as the Governor of the Mid-West. Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina, the Governor of the North, was to leave immediately and move to Defence Headquarters in Lagos. Adebayo retained his position as the Governor of the West.

Ojukwu rejected the outcome of the Benin meeting of the Supreme Military Council. Few days later, he declared the Republic of Biafra. General Adebayo believed that the country was not in a position to fight a Civil War in 1967. There were just about 15,000 soldiers and about 30,000 Federal policemen and women. But the war came and more than one million lives lost and our country changed forever.

Many years later, I had met Ojukwu several times in Lagos and he insisted that he had no regret about the war.

“The Biafran War was a just struggle for justice,” he said again and again. “Anyone who loves justice and is ready to fight for it is a Biafran.”

Ojukwu, who died in 2011, did not publish his memoir of the war contrary to his repeated promise. It is believedd that Bianca, his widow and some of his bosom friends, may be privy to that manuscript if it exists at all. Gowon too is yet to publish his own version. Among the six GOCs on the Federal Side, only Obasanjo has written his memoir of the war. There have been other books on the war from participants, but we still need to hear from Gowon and the memoir of Ojukwu needs to be published if it exist.

In 1994, I and my friend, Dele Omotunde, had met with the Great Zik, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe at his Onuiyi Haven in Nzukka. His Zik’s Library, which contained one of the rarest collections of books and manuscripts in Africa had been destroyed during the war. Victorious Federal troops have used those big books in the library to make a fire to prepare their dinner or make suya. Fifty years after the war, are we still not burning our most precious libraries now?

General Yakubu Danjuma, one of the principal players in the coup that brought Gowon to power, once warned that “no country can survive two civil wars.” We have to learn from the sacrifice of those who perish in the last Civil War so that there would not be another one. No part of this country must feel deprived enough that it would have no other option than a resort to arms.

One way to start is to examine the current Nigerian Constitution which proclaims on its opening page: “We the People!”

We all know this is not true. The last Peoples Constitution in Nigeria was the Independent Constitution of 1960. Nigeria certainly needs a proper people’s Constitution that would be adopted in the end by a General Referendum. No country can survive until eternity living on a lie.

BIAFRA WAR: Biafra Nations Youth League( BNYL) Accuses The West Of Misleading Gowon.

The Biafra Nations Youth League, BNYL, have stated that the Biafran war would have been averted if the Federal Government had complied with the Aburi Accord. The BNYL blamed the inability of the former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon to implement the Aburi agreement and his refusal to stop the killing of Easterners as remote cause of the war.

Addressing newsmen today in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, the Chief Press Secretary of BNYL, Richard Odung accused Western elites of misleading Gowon, "the westerners contributed immensely to the war. It would have been averted but they misled Gowon to reject what he accepted before the then Ghanaian Head of State, Lt. General Joe Ankrah, and other world observers.

I think that war would'nt have occured if the Aburi agreement was implemented" He said that "some people of the Niger Delta who were used as instrument to frustrate the Government of the east are today clamouring for what was agreed in Aburi".

Odung was reacting to the 50 years anniversary of the Biafran war which claimed the lives of over 3 million Easterners. He debunked claims that it was the first coup resulted to the war, "I don't believe it because the first coup, yes an Igboman from Delta State was the leader of the coup but there are some other persons in the North and West that were part of that coup as history recorded.

Even though the Easterners controlled the Nigerian Army then, they were not happy with the way the Prime Minister went about his appointments and policy making without consulting the ceremonial President, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe". He recalled the Kano riot in 1956 during the constitutional conference. The BNYL Spokesman said that the killing of Easterners did not start immediately after the first coup.

He advised Buhari government not to repeat the mistakes of Gowon by thinking that the use of force will end the demands for a sovereign state of Biafra.

BIAFRA : Biafra: Nnamdi Kanu Roasts British Government In Latest Rant

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who is championing the agitation for the Republic of Biafra, has once again berated the British government.

Naija News reports that the IPOB leader who doubles as the director of Radio Biafra lampooned the British government in the latest rant on the micro-blogging site, Twitter on Monday night, January 13.

This online news platform understands that the IPOB leader accused the British government of masterminding the killing and starvation of millions of Biafrans to death during the Biafran war.

Naija News reports that the Biafran war otherwise known as the Nigerian civil war was a civil war in Nigeria fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra from 6 July 1967 to 15 January 1970.

In a bid to mark “Biafra War 50th Anniversary,” Kanu took to tweet to accuse the British government of masterminding the war 50 years ago.

The IPOB leader who is on exile maintained that the British government forced Biafrans to abandon the war, adding that the actions of the British government did not, however, end the Nigerian civil war at the time.

Kanu also revealed in his tweet that he would be holding a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 15 in order to mark the “Biafra War 50th Anniversary.”

Kanu tweeted: “50 years ago Britain masterminded the killing & starvation of millions of Biafrans to death; we were forced to abandon the war. But did the war end?

“Join us as we mark the Biafra War 50th Anniversary. Date: Wed. 15/01/2020. Time: 7: 00 PM Biafraland Time. On Radio Biafra,” the IPOB leader wrote on Twitter on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Kanu’s accusation is coming at the time Prophet Joshua Iginla, the General Overseer of Champions Royal Assembly, an interdenominational church in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, released 2020 prophecies, stating that the agitation for the Republic of Biafra, will gain international recognition this year.

“I’m not a prophet of doom but I must tell you the truth we have not seen the end of the Biafra agitation. This year it will take another turn and continue to grow like that,” he predicted.

Nnamdi Kanu is leading a group (IPOB) seeking secession from Nigeria. The group has since been proscribed by the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

BIAFRA : Remembering Nigeria's Biafra war that many prefer to forget

The deaths of more than a million people in Nigeria as a result of the brutal civil war which ended exactly 50 years ago are a scar in the nation's history.

For most Nigerians, the war over the breakaway state of Biafra is generally regarded as an unfortunate episode best forgotten, but for the Igbo people who fought for secession, it remains a life-defining event.

In 1967, following two coups and turmoil which led to about a million Igbos returning to the south-east of Nigeria, the Republic of Biafra seceded with 33-year-old military officer Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu at the helm.

The Nigerian government declared war and after 30 months of fighting, Biafra surrendered. On 15 January 1970, the conflict officially ended.

The government's policy of "no victor, no vanquished" may have led to a lack of official reflection, but many Nigerians of Igbo origin grew up on stories from people who lived through the war.

Three of those who were involved in the secessionist campaign have been sharing their memories.

We thought we were magicians'

Christopher Ejike Ago, soldier

He had just finished grammar school and started training as a veterinary assistant at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), in south-eastern Nigeria, when the civil war began.

Almost every student he knew became part of the war effort.

He joined the Biafran army and was assigned to the signal unit, whose responsibilities included "active intelligence and eavesdropping on the Nigerian military".

The Nigerians who were pursuing us were trained soldiers... We were drafted into the war, given two days' training."

Christopher Ejike Ago
Soldier in the Biafran war

"We thought we were magicians," said 76-year-old Mr Ago.

"The Nigerians who were pursuing us were trained soldiers. We were not. We were drafted into the war, given two days' training.

"Plus the fact that we were hungry. Some of us, our skin was getting rotten. Nobody can fight a war like that."

In January 1966, some senior Nigerian army officers, mostly of the Igbo ethnic group, assassinated key politicians during a coup in the West African state.

Those killed included Ahmadu Bello, a revered leader in the north.

This led to months of massacres against the Igbo living in the north. Tens of thousands were killed while about a million fled to what was then known as the Eastern Region.

These events sparked the Igbo's decision to secede, spearheaded by Ojukwu, who was then the military governor of the Eastern Region.

In the months preceding the war, Ojukwu often visited UNN, the only university in south-eastern Nigeria at the time, to meet with students and prepare them for secession.

Mr Ago looked forward to these visits, and joined the crowd who gathered at the university's Freedom Square.

"Once his helicopter touched down, everybody went there and, practically, school shut down.

"He had this incredible sense of humour. He spiked everybody up and we formed songs and were singing and enjoying ourselves."

In the first year of the war, the Nigerian government captured the coastal city of Port Harcourt and imposed a blockade, which cut food supplies to Biafra.

Mr Ago remembers the overpowering hunger that often forced Biafran soldiers to catch and eat mice. He also remembers the last year of the war when his unit was continuously on the move, fleeing the advancing Nigerian army.

"Somewhere in the middle of the war," he said, "the Biafrans made some dramatic successes that gave us hope that we might hold the Nigerians until at least some help from outside came."

By late 1969, all hope was lost.

BIAFRA : Biafra group reveals those who actually caused civil war, warns Buhari

The Biafra Nations Youth League, BNYL, has stated that the Biafran war would have been averted if the Federal Government of Nigeria had complied with the Aburi Accord.

The BNYL blamed the inability of the former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, to implement the Aburi agreement and his refusal to stop the killing of Easterners as the remote cause of the war.

The group stated this in a statement to DAILY POST on Tuesday signed by its Chief Press Secretary, Richard Odung.

They accused western elites of misleading Gowon, adding, “the westerners contributed immensely to the war, it would have been averted but they misled Gowon to reject what he accepted before Kwame Nkrumah and other world observers.

“The war wouldn’t have occurred if the Aburi was implemented.”

The group added that “some people of the Niger Delta who were used as an instrument to frustrate the Government of the East are today clamoring for what was agreed in Aburi.”

BNYL said it was reacting to the 50 years anniversary of the Biafran war which claimed the lives of 1.2 million Nigerians.

It debunked claims that the first coup resulted to the war, adding, “[We] don’t believe it was because of the first coup, yes an Igboman from Delta State was the leader of the coup but there are some other persons in the North and West who were part of that coup as history recorded.

“Even at that, the Easterners controlled the Nigerian Army as of then, and they were not happy with the way the Prime Minister was going about his appointments and policymaking without consulting the ceremonial President, Nnamdi Azikiwe.”

The group recalled the Kano riot in 1956 during the constitutional conference, the killing of easterners did not start immediately after the first coup.

BNYL advised the Buhari government not to repeat the mistakes of Gowon by thinking that the use of force will end the demands for a sovereign state of Biafra.