[M.M.Mbanaja Series] An appeal to the United Nations and the international community on the plight of Biafra

[M.M.Mbanaja Series] An  appeal to the United Nations and the international community  on the plight of Biafra 

I  am happy to join with you today in what will go down in  history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the  history of our dearest nation Biafra. About  47 years ago, a great and new nation Biafra, in whose  symbolic shadow we stand today, agreed to have a sovereign  state. 

This momentous agreement  came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of former  eastern region after the 1966 pogrom who had been seared in  the flames of withering injustice, massacre ,rejection,  oppression ,marginalization and untold hatred through  various attempt of annihilation of a Christian nation. It  came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their  captivity.  

But one 47 years later, the Biafrans still is not  free. 47 years later, the life of the Biafrans is still  sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation,  marginalization and cold war in the northern part of Nigeria  by Boko Haram and the Nigerian establishment through their  army and police and the chains of discrimination and  constitutional marginalization of the eastern region.  

47 years later,  the Biafran lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst  of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 47 years later, the  Biafran is still languished in the corners of Nigerian  society and finds herself in exile in his own land. And so  we've come here today to dramatize a shameful  condition.  In  a sense we have come to our world capital, (UN) New York today to press peacefully for the  self-determination of oppressed people of Biafra through  legal and peaceful means as enshrined in the united nations  charter of indigenous peoples right.  

When the architects of our  false republic wrote the magnificent words of the  Constitution and the false structure called Nigeria  ,mistakenly put together by no other person than a British  failure and co fusionist called Lord Fredrick Luggard in  1914 for the selfish rule of the British colonial masters to  suit their immediate needs, they were signing a promissory  note to which every people in the region be lumped together  as Nigeria with divergent culture,religion, language and  understanding was to be forced together as one country in a  false constitutional jargon  called amalgamation.  

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) unlawfully detained by the Nigerian Government

This note was a  promise that all men, yes, Ibibio-Akwa Ibom state-Cross  River State, Akoko-edo-Edo State, Degema-River State, Estako{Auchi  peers}-Edo State,Urhobo-Delta State, Igala - Kogi and Benue  States Igbirra - Kogi, Benue and Plateau area, Kalabari –  Rivers, Bachama – Adamawa. Igbo, Yoruba etc would be  guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life,  Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious  today that Nigeria has defaulted on this promissory note,  insofar as her citizens of Biafra are concerned.  

Instead of  honoring this sacred obligation, Nigeria has given the  Biafran people a bad check, a check which has come back  marked "insufficient funds."  But we refuse to believe that  the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that  there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of  opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash  this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches  of freedom and the security of justice for the Biafran  nation comprising today of the forced division of our united  people, namely: ABIA, ANAMBRA, AKWA IBOM, BAYELSA,  DELTA, EBONYI,  ENUGU, IMO, RIVERS, CROSS RIVERS AND ENUGU STATES that make up Biafraland.  

We have also come to this  hallowed spot to remind Nigeria and the world of the fierce  urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of  cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.  Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy and  equity as stated in the united nations charter on self  determination of indigenous peoples. 

Massive but peaceful protests  sweeping through Biafra have been a worrying development for the Nigerian government

Now is the time to rise  from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the  sunlit path of equality for all and justice., Now is the  time to lift our false unity from the quicksand of  tribalism, nepotism ,marginalization and injustice to the  solid rock of neighborhood in progress. Now is the time to  make  Justice  and equity a reality for all of God's children since it  is said that he who goes to equity must wash his hands clean  for justice to prevail.  

WE THE PEOPLE OF BIAFRA  THEREFORE CALL ON YOU TODAY TO INVOKE THE UNITED NATIONS  DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS  WHICH GURANTEE TO ALL, THE  RIGHT TO:  A.  LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF PERSON (ARTICLE 3)  B.NATIONALITY(ARTICLE 15 11  )  C .FREEDOM  AND PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY (ARTICLE 20)  D.FORM TRADE UNIONS FOR THE  PROTECTION OF HIS INTEREST(ARTICLE 23:4 AS WELL AS THE  AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND  PEOPLES’ RIGHT :  E.RIGHT TO SELF  DETERMINATION(20:1:11). 

We can never be satisfied as long as the Nigerian  project have continue to marginalize our  people in many and visible  fastest of life, as long as we continue to be the victim of  the unspeakable horrors  of various victimization ,  marginalization, and police brutality. We can never be  satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of  travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways  and the hotels in the cities. 

We cannot be satisfied as long  as the Biafra's basic mobility is from our smaller  villages to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long  as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed  of their dignity by and our brothers insignia is 'born  to rule" We cannot be satisfied as long as our youths  are changing their names from okoro to Adamu in order to  secure employment, we cannot be satisfied as long as our  people have abandoned their home and migrated to other parts  of the federation and beyond in search of livelihood because  the Nigeria project has not provided any federal project to  keep them from migration, we cannot be  satisfied as long as their is  quota system to disadvantage our children from fairly  gaining admission into tertiary institutions, we cannot be  satisfied as long as the inferiority complex of the civil  war has made our leaders vulnerable to being traitors, we  cannot be satisfied when our people believes he has nothing  for which to vote. 

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will  not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters,  and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹ comes to  reality in the form of the independent state of Biafra  I am not  unmindful that some of you have come here out of great  trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from  narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas  where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by  the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of  slavery like the Israelites in Egypt.  You have been the veterans of  creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that  unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Anambra, go  back to Akwa ibom, go back to Delta, go back to Rivers  state, go back to Ebonyi, go back to the slums and villages  of our beloved Eastern region , knowing that somehow this  situation can and will be changed very soon.  

Let us not wallow in the  valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.  And so even  though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I  still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the  Biafran dream.  I have a dream that one day this Biafra will rise  up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold  these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created  equally  I  have a dream that one day on the red savanna region and the  palm plantations in the eastern region, the sons of former  Nigerian leaders and the sons of former farmers in the  hinterland of eastern region , the South/South and southeast as created by our common enemies to put knife in the  cord that holds us together so that we can fall apart will  be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood  with one destiny as the oppressed people .  

I have a dream that one day  even the state of Rivers , Bayelsa and Delta,will be a state  sweltering with the  heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of  oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and  justice.  I  have a dream that my three children will one day live in a  nation where they will not be judged by their tribe but by  the content of their character.  I have a dream today!  I have a dream  that one day, down in Calabar and Uyo, our brothers will  know we are brothers as it used to be prior to 1966  I have a dream  today!  I have  a dream that one day every youth from the eastern region  shall be gainfully employed at the right time.  I have a dream  that our youths, men , women and children shall joyfully be  in our various farm settlements with mechanized farm  implements tilling the lands , harvesting for our fatherland  and singing our new Biafran national anthem.

-M.M. Mbanaja