[M.M. Mbanaja Series] Ojukwu's prophecies that must be fulfilled. An extract of Ojukwu's speech from exile -1970

[M.M. Mbanaja Series] Ojukwu's prophecies that must be fulfilled. An extract of Ojukwu's speech from exile -1970

"As a people we have endured as only giants endure. We have fought as heroes fight. We have dared as only gods dare. We are disillusioned by the world's insensitivity to the plight of our people.Yet because our cause is just we believe we have not lost the war, only that the battlefield has changed.

We are convinced that Biafra will survive.Biafra was born out of the blood of innocents slaughtered in Nigeria during the pogroms of 1966.

Biafra will ever live, not as a dream but as the crystallization of the cherished hopes of a people who see in the establishment of this territory a last hope for peace and security.Biafra cannot be destroyed by mere force of arms.May I take this opportunity to thank all those persons and organizations that have sacrificed that we might live - that we assure them that their sacrifice will not be in vain.

Biafra lives. The struggle continues. Long live the Republic of Biafra.

"There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were never Biafrans. They were Biafra-Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity. The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered. If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeria´s problems".Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

Excerpts from A Paper Presented At The “National Conference On The 1999 Constitution” Jointly Organised By The Network For Justice And The Vision Trust Foundation, At The Arewa House, Kaduna From 11th –12th September, 1999.

''They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North and South-West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries, every gentleman´s agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves. But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.''

Sanusi Lamido SAanusi

Conference at Arewa house Kaduna Nigeria,Sept 11-12th 1999

-M.M. Mbanaja