BIAFRA NEWS : Calls for restructuring rational but secession unacceptable

 

Mohammed spoke on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the 2021 annual general meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in Bauchi.

While the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is seeking secession of the south-east, some Yoruba campaigners are agitating for the breakaway of the south-west.

Mohammed noted that while it is “rational and ideal” for citizens to call for restructuring and true federalism, calls for secession are intolerable.

He said the federal government has set necessary mechanisms in motion to tackle insecurity and that Nigeria can overcome its problems.

“While it is alright for citizens to call for restructuring and true federalism, what is not acceptable is the call in certain quarters for secession,” Mohammed said.

“Whatever challenges we have today as a nation, can and will be surmounted. In fact, the federal government had set in motion the necessary machinery to tackle the challenge of insecurity.

“We should therefore not allow today’s challenges, whether in the area of economy or security, to jeopardise our unity.”

The minister enjoined the NIPR to use its platform to work for the unity of Nigeria.

“That task has never been more urgent than now against the background of discordant voices in the country and calls for separation,” Mohammed said.

“I see NIPR as a capable partner in government’s effort to douse the tension in the land and beat the drum of unity rather than the drum of war.

“May I also repeat my call to NIPR to raise voice against those fanning the embers of disunity and discord in the country. Without a country that is peaceful and secured, there can be no development.

“This administration is doing everything possible to return peace and security across the country.”

He encouraged the NIPR to partner with the federal government in the fight against fake news, misinformation and hate speech.

BIAFRA NEWS: people in south-east brainwashed to think 2023 elections won’t hold

 

Umahi said those with such a mindset believe that if elections do not take place, the national assembly will declare a state of emergency in the region.

In recent times, the south-east has witnessed a spate of attacks on police stations and government facilities including offices belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

Speaking at the presidential ministerial press briefing on Thursday, Umahi said the country will remain together under the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended), noting that “until it is changed, nobody can do anything about it”.

“A lot of people have been brainwashed in the south-east about Biafra. The Biafra I desire is the Biafra of the mind, Biafra of development, the Biafra where each state of south-east will deploy the resources that we are getting from the centre, and from our IGR to develop our place,” he said

“That is the Biafra that I see. I see a Biafra of equity and justice all over the regions. That’s what I see.

“So, some of them have been indoctrinated that there will be no election in 2023 and that is very dangerous.

“Because, if you say there will be no election in your region, then the national assembly could make an emergency law to say there will be emergency rule there and there is nothing you can do about it.”

Umahi said the governors of the region have appealed to their youths to give them six months to dialogue with the federal government with a view to resolving their grievances.

He said if after six months their grievances are not addressed, they will join them in their agitation.

The governor said: “We are calling on our youths to submit their demands to us, we will come to the centre and submit.

“If in the next six months we have not substantially addressed it, we can join you in the agitation but right now we don’t support you to insult the president, leaders of south-east and other leaders. That is not agitation, that is foolishness. Agitation is agitation.

“So we have to tell ourselves the truth, if we want to address marginalisation and exclusion from the affairs of the nation, we have to apply wisdom.

“We shouldn’t go by the way of violence and allow people to hijack peaceful demands of our people. This is our position.”

BIAFRA NEWS: Oduduwa, Biafra Republics Coming Soon, Nnamdi Kanu Says

 Kanu stated that Britain's failure to offer Southern and Northern Nigeria the option of partition is a violation of a declaration which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra has stated that the agitations for the independence of the Oduduwa and Biafra republics will soon come to fruition. THE RESTORATION OF BIAFRA NATION

Speaking of the 1914 amalgamation, Kanu in a tweet on Wednesday, stated that Britain's failure to offer Southern and Northern Nigeria the option of partition is a violation of a declaration which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 14 December 1960. 

His tweet read, “­Britain’s failure to offer Southern and Northern Nigeria the option of partition like it did with India & Pakistan violated the ‘United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries’. It’s time to right this violation. Oduduwa and Biafra coming soon.”
   
Meanwhile, Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, had earlier warned that any attack by the Nigerian Army on the South-East would be repelled.

In a statement by his media aide, Olayomi Koiki, Igboho said attacks on the South-East is an attack on the Yoruba people, urging the government to put a stop to raids in the South-East region.

He further stated that if there are further attacks on the people of the South-East, Yoruba Nation Now agitators will mobilise and support them. It was, however, not stated the kind of support that would be given. THE RESTORATION OF BIAFRA NATION

The statement read, "We would like to inform the Federal Government Of Nigeria that any attack on the South-East is an attack on the Yorubas.

"Biafra people have been targeted by the Nigeria Army and if there are any further attacks on them, we would have no other option but to support our brothers and sisters in Biafraland."

BIAFRA NEWS: Nigerian Government Using Boko Haram Members Recruited Into Army To Kill Biafrans in South-East —Nnamdi Kanu

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has declared war on the people of the South-East.

He described the Operation Restore Peace commanded by the acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba as another plot to massacre civilians in the South-East.

 

Kanu disclosed this in a statement issued by the IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful on Thursday.
   
“The attention of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been drawn to the recent security meeting held in Aso Rock by the service chiefs and the impostor parading himself as President Muhammadu Buhari. Far-reaching but undisclosed decisions were reached at the meeting on how to quell insecurity in the Eastern region.
 
“It's on record that nobody from South-East was present or invited at the meeting where such critical decisions were taken. Despite the mounting public outcry trailing the decision of the Fulani-controlled federal government to commence another military operation in the Eastern region as approved at the meeting with shoot-on-sight order against Igbo youths and Biafra agitators, the security agencies are bent on carrying out the order.
 
“Just two days ago, the Inspector General of Police, while launching a special Police Operation for South-East, called Operation Restore Peace, in Enugu confirmed the people’s fears when he asked police personnel not to wait for any other special order before they start killing protesters and anyone confronting them in the zone.
 
“He assured them of federal protection against human rights allegations or prosecutions, urging them to take the war to the people in their homes. He specifically directed them to ensure they eliminate anybody suspected to be a Biafran agitator or IPOB member, and not to bother bringing them to police stations anymore.
 
“Our intelligence unit has equally uncovered another secret meeting where the federal government of Nigeria authorised the Security Chiefs to crush IPOB members, Biafra agitators and youths in the Eastern region, assuring them of adequate protection against any prosecution by human rights organisations.
 
“Our intelligence further revealed that part of their decision at the meeting was to use those Boko Haram members they recruited into the Nigeria military and police to eliminate anybody they see on the street as being currently witnessed in Imo State. The military invaded students hostel in Owerri shooting sporadically and directly at people,” the statement partly read.
 
While the pro-Biafra group leader alerted the members of the group and civilians in the region to be careful, he also declared that any genocidal war should be blamed on Nigeria’s service chiefs.
 
“We are equally aware that the Fulani-controlled federal government of Nigeria had ordered another military operation codenamed 'Operation Restore Peace' in the South East and South-South. This is only but another 'Operation Massacre Biafrans' in disguise.
 
“There are so many security challenges in the North where the rampaging Boko Haram terrorists and bandits have seized the control of many communities and local government areas, yet there is no shoot-on-sight order declared by the double-faced Buhari-led federal government. South-East and South-South are not at war with anybody but Fulani terrorists supported by the Nigeria government brought the war in our land, killing innocent people while pointing accusing fingers at IPOB members and ESN operatives. 
 
“The action of the federal government is nothing but a declaration of war against Biafrans. The Buhari-led administration and his Service Chiefs have no moral justification to take a military action against South-East without a South Eastern in attendance at the meeting where such decision was purportedly taken. This, and of course the appointment of Service Chiefs were in clear violation of the principles of Federal Character enshrined in the zoo's constitution.
 
“Every indigenous community in Biafraland must be careful and prepared because they have brought the war to our door step. They have already started burning people's houses and killing them. But our God shall fight for us and we will defeat them. The same way they could not crush us during the three-year Biafra war, they won't be able to prevail even now.
 
“We are also wont to put the world on notice that Buhari and his Service Chiefs should be held accountable for any genocide or war in Eastern Nigeria. They brought the war to our doorsteps and we have no option but to defend our ancestral land. And that we must do irrespective of the cost!” Kanu added in the statement.

BIAFRA NEWS: Cameroonian President Paul Biya signed a decree authorizing the country

 

On Sept. 7, Cameroonian President Paul Biya signed a decree authorizing the country’s first election for members of the Regional Councils in each of the country’s 10 regions.

In describing the preparations for the vote, Essousse Erik, the director-general of Elecam, the government-controlled electoral commission, said: “The elections would be a historic moment and a turning point in our democracy.” In fact, the announcement that the government plans to hold elections for the Regional Councils comes over two decades after it first declared its intent to do so in 1996 as part of a broader decentralization plan that would allow for significant autonomy in how Cameroon’s diverse population would be governed. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late.

The announcement of the elections and the implementation measures comes as Cameroon is embroiled by a conflict in which separatist fighters in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions seek to create an independent state called Ambazonia. This conflict stems from the systematic marginalization of Anglophones, who comprise nearly 20 percent of the country’s population, but was sparked by the repression of demonstrations of teachers and lawyers in the fall of 2016 who demanded linguistic autonomy within their respective institutions.

Now, four years after these demonstrations and in the midst of a war of secession that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands, Biya’s government—which has consistently been ranked as one of the most corrupt and authoritarian in Africa—is seeking to enact decentralization measures. While enacting such reforms at the outset of the crisis may have addressed some of the demands of the demonstrators, doing so now is simply another effort of the Cameroonian government to present the image that it is responding to the crisis and grievances of the Anglophone population without engaging in any meaningful dialogue or negotiations with civil society or separatist leaders.

BIAFRA NEWS: the Ambazonian deputy military leader

 

Fulani fighters, including some who have crossed the border from Nigeria to Cameroon, have been implicated in some of the conflict’s deadliest incidents. In February 2020, armed Fulani men alongside Cameroonian military personnel attacked Ngarbuh village in the Northwest region and killed 21 civilians, including 13 children. This February, in an unprecedented surge of attacks, armed Fulani raided 18 villages in Nwa subdivision, killing at least 17 people and displacing 4,200 local residents.

In Nigeria, Biafrans battle with the Fulani for ethnic and political supremacy. Targeted ethnic violence against the Igbos by Fulani and other northern Nigerian ethnic groups was one of several factors that led to the civil war in the 1960s. Today, pro-Biafra activists use incendiary language, referring to the Fulani as “terrorists,” to incite violence. Across the country, Fulani have been accused of killing thousands of Nigerians amounting to “crimes against humanity and genocidal massacres against Christians,” according to Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch.

Similar communal violence—often following farmer-grazer and ethnic lines—has flared across Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso. In recent years, the death toll from ethnic and intercommunal violence has reached unprecedented levels, even exceeding that of violent extremism and terrorism in Mali, according to  ACLED. Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, and other violent extremist groups also exploit these ethnic tensions for their own gain.

The Ambazonia Defense Forces see the Biafra-Ambazonia alliance as a critical outlet to end rising Fulani-led attacks. “This is going to be a very good opportunity for us, because what we see on the field is there have been some alliances between the Cameroon government and Fulani,” Daniel, the Ambazonian deputy military leader, said. “So this is very big for our cause, in our fight against these Fulani, particularly those who are coming in from Nigeria.”

Despite a shared religion, the increasing involvement of Fulani in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict is unlikely to fuse with the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North region, and there is no evidence to suggest there has been a merging of the conflicts thus far, according to Akem Kelvin Nkwain, a human rights officer at CHRDA.

Even so, a further exacerbation of ethnic tensions involving the Fulani in Cameroon is likely to have a ripple effect across the region. “A development in which Fulanis become major actors, for better or for worse, in a country like Cameroon then gets exacerbated in Nigeria because of its own demographics and population categorizations,” said Fomunyoh, of the National Democratic Institute. This “then spreads to other parts of West Africa where you have populations that identify with the Fulani or with Peul [another name for ethnic Fulani], and then they may either feel victimized or pinpointed or isolated or targeted.”

The Biafran and Ambazonian movements are both fractured, and not all factions support the alliance and rising violence. Spokespeople from the self-proclaimed Interim Government of Ambazonia, the other major Anglophone separatist group, and the Customary Government of IPOB have denounced the alliance and proclaimed that the leaders involved are “impostors.”

Still, escalating violence in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon will only add to national and regional security challenges at a time when the region is already struggling with plummeting economies, democratic backsliding, and a resurgence of violent extremism and terrorism. Nigeria and Cameroon, both critical international partners in U.S. anti-terrorism campaigns and once beacons of economic stability in the region, may be on track to becoming failed states, which would have a devastating regional and global impact.

BIAFRA NEWS: There is another risk: that the alliance will ignite cross

 

border ethnic violence that may have regional consequences. Biafrans and Anglophone Cameroonians share a common enemy: Fulani herders, a nomadic ethnic group present across West and Central Africa. Tensions between the Fulani and the Biafrans and English-speaking Cameroonians date back decades. Biafrans and Ambazonians are predominantly Christians, while the Fulani are mostly Muslim.

Even before the Anglophone crisis, nomadic cattle-grazing Fulanis, known locally as Mbororos, clashed with locals, who are sedentary farmers, over land use in Cameroon’s Northwest region. In 2016, armed separatist groups carried out violent attacks against the Mbororo community over its lack of support for the Anglophone cause, and these attacks have only escalated in recent years. Since 2019, various separatist groups have stolen hundreds of cattle, abducted at least 20 Mbororos and extorted an estimated 10 million Central African Francs ($18,600) in ransom payments, killed an estimated 50 herdsmen, and displaced over 2,500 more Fulani civilians, according to the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA).

Meanwhile, Cameroonian security forces have funneled weapons to the Mbororo communities that have gone on to attack English-speaking farmers, a CHRDA report notes.