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| Nnamdi Kanu and Biafra Restoration: Historic perspectives |
Theophilus Okere expresses it clearly thus: “The powerful nations of Europe that had carried on the slave trade now decided to make slaves of all African peoples not in faraway America, but in their homes, not by buying or selling them individually but owning them wholesale. They issued themselves a certificate of occupancy over the entire land of Africa and a title of ownership. They withdrew the peoples’ sovereignty, declared virtually all Africa a subject people and went ahead to reprogram their lives, economies, culture and religions. There was some slight embarrassment about sorting out who owned what, but it was sorted out amicably in Berlin.”
What is known today as the Nigerian State came through the instrumentality of a Scottish man, Frederick Lugard, in a swift of amalgamation of Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914. As a result, the peoples of Biafra, Oduduwa and Arewa with completely diverse opposing/conflicting cultures, civilization, languages and worldviews, etc. were forced together as one in the contraption called Nigeria. Upon these tripartite nations were imposed an alien language – English as a unifying communication tool.
The name Nigeria was derived from a coinage “Niger” and “Area” given by a Journalist and daughter of a British General Flora Shaw in 1897 whom Frederick Lugard later married in 1902. From these two words – “Niger” and “Area,” these different peoples (Peoples of Biafra, Oduduwa and Arewa) were now given a colonialist label name of slavery and of total possession, which is called “Nigeria”. This is shameful, questionable and smacks of a denial of fundamental human rights and human dignity – a process of dehumanization. It is so because these three different peoples and nations never unanimously bargained or consented at any point in time in history to enter into a union as one or marriage with a nomenclature “Nigeria.”
Notably, in putting records of history straight and right, go to Google search engine and type “Ancient Map of Biafra 1861,” that would be of immense help for students of history and for those denied of the opportunity to know their history in school. Before the above stated year the 1884-85 Berlin Conference had never taken place for the partitioning of Africa that eventually led to the creation of Nigeria through amalgamation of 1914. But Britain was ready to maintain and sustain the territorial integrity of this artificial creation as long as it yields her desired fruit. According to Frederick Forsyth “For those inside Britain who concerned themselves in any way with Nigeria, that country represented like others, not a land with a population of real people, but a market. Any tendencies inside Nigeria that might be viewed as harmful to the market were to be discouraged, and Biafra’s desire from the rest of the country fell squarely into that category”. Late Saduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, once described Nigeria as a piece of historical mistake while Obafemi Awolowo described it as a mere geographical expression. Truth must be told!
The Bible reveals Christ Jesus’ words of admonition for life thus; “…and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). Indeed, with this historical displacement and neo-slavery, gradually many Biafrans coupled with the trauma of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war 1967-70 (a genocidal war that claimed more than 3.5 million Biafran lives) began to lose sense of self-identity to self-condemnation, abnegation and destruction. Every Biafran no matter the amount of money he or she had in the bank after the war was given only a paltry sum of £20 (20 Pounds) with the seizure of their huge material wealth as abandoned property. Greeted with this tragedy and inhuman treatment on a people naturally industrious, creative and hardworking, Biafrans were completely traumatized, psychologically hounded and deprived of the opportunity to truly exist as humans.
Yakubu Gowon’s “3Rs” – Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation proclaimed after the war as a measure to re-integrate the people of Biafra into the Nigerian state and reconstruct/develop Biafra land ended up a mirage and an exercise of hypocrisy. Instead of reconstructing the war torn Eastern Region, attention was given to developing other parts of Nigeria, where no war was fought. Be that as it may, to avert the threat of hunger and utter decimation, many Biafrans left their homeland and scattered all over the world in search for survival. It is almost a common saying today in the Nigerian state that any community one visits in the world and could not see a Biafran especially the Igbo speaking Biafran should be considered unfit for human habitation. Although some are said to be successfully doing well in the country where they find themselves, some died on their way going, whereas many others are languishing in various prisons where they are serving jail terms in many countries of the world.
Today, the various seaports, namely, Calabar Sea Port, Port Harcourt Sea Port and Warri Sea Port in the South South are no longer operational to serve the people of both regions (“South East” and “South South”). The people of both regions are compelled by circumstance beyond their control to bring in their containers and goods from Lagos Sea port. Most international flights (if not all) from the airports in these regions make a stopover either in the Northern region or South Western region before they fly out of the country as well as on arrival, while Arewa and Yoruba people board flights and comfortably take off from their own region homeland and fly out of the country. Sam Mbakwe International Cargo airport in Imo State though long established and operational, is yet to offer the citizenry the full services it is supposed to be rendering regarding its name. In spite of the fact that people from both regions (South East and South South) are known as great merchants in the Nigerian State.
These skewed practices manifest that the people from the South East and South South are second class citizens or rather treated as slaves.independence in 1960 with virtually all Federal projects executed in the North and South West has significantly kept Biafrans in perpetual subjugation to the benefit of the Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba. Today, in the South East (where the majority of Igbo speaking Biafrans inhabit), scarcely does one find any Federal presence as almost all the existing industries are now moribund. Nigeria’s political structure is unitary but Federal system in disguise. It is a political structure that greatly and inimically hinders productive economy, ingenuity, sense of creativity, industry and spirit of competition in growth and human societal development. Its citizens are brutally rendered incapacitated in many fronts by a regrettable incessant power failure, as well as, through a one product mono-cultural economy, that is, crude oil which she exports and in turn imports its various derivatives. The Nigerian state, unfortunately, continues to import toothpick, one of the smallest ever producible commodities in the world today, despite her immense highly gifted human resources.
Self-Determination and Biafra Restoration
The above disclosure ultimately demonstrates that the Biafran freed slaves and the Kings of Calabar never abandoned the name of their nation, which is Biafra; rather chose to sustain it through the name of a new religion they embraced. It also reflects that the Presbyterian missionaries as far back as 1846 were in support of maintaining and sustaining the name of the nation – Biafra where they came to propagate and plant the new faith with the Biafran freed slaves. Most importantly, this goes to corroborate the more the fact that the Indigenous People of Biafra have been and existed on their own before they were forcefully amalgamated in 1914 with the Peoples of Oduduwa and Arewa. As slaves in Nigeria, many Biafrans seem not to understand the frightening enormity of the mess they are in. The psyche and reasoning of many people of Biafra, regarding who they are and their land have in many fronts, largely battered. This unfortunate situation could be seen from negative events of time compounded and championed the more by political media campaign subterfuge. It is a deliberate but calculated attempt as well as an exercise of decimation of the people of Biafra.
There is an agenda of balkanization, divide and win/rule game-plan or ploy unleashed on the people of Biafra of which many didn’t know and still don’t seem to know or care. If it is not in the creation of states to dislocate people with “cutting and pasting or joining that has created disharmony,” it is in the giving of new names such as South East, South South, Niger Delta, Oil Producing States. It could also be seen by the use of certain expressions of insidious indoctrination such as “Igbo speaking people are bad,” “they will cheat you,” “Igbo people don’t love each other,” “Igbo people love money,” etc. By this, wittingly and unwittingly, the people of Biafra with the same cultural value system, whose mothers tie two pieces of wrapper, same dressing and dancing pattern, same understanding of market days (Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo), eating habit, same Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA), same sense of creativity and hardwork are beleaguered, hewed and set apart from each other. They now engage in an unholy exercise of destruction of one another, “rejection and alteration of traditional names”, dangerous political wrangling and parting of ways to always oppose each other. They now get themselves involved in continuous quarrel; in-fighting, live in perpetual friction among themselves while others milk them dry It will not be out of place to say that Biafrans are critically heading to ruin. We are almost gone in our cultural practices, identity, worldview, way of reasoning and language.
Nnamdi Kanu and Radio Biafra/BiafraTV
With the Nigeria/Biafra war, the project for the restoration of Biafra carried out by Odumegwu Ojukwu was unduly suppressed. But with the setting up of Radio Biafra in 2009, and, subsequently Biafra Television by Nnamdi Kanu the project for the restoration of Biafra completely took a new dimension. The establishment of these media outfit hinges on article 16 par 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples which states; “Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination.” As the Director of Radio Biafra/Biafra TV and Leader of IPOB, he (Kanu) provided a veritable platform upon which the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are now getting reunited and consciously knowing whom they are as Biafrans so as to repossess their land. Nnamdi Kanu, notwithstanding whatever may be considered his flaws as a human person regarding his stand, on certain religious issues in his challenging radio Biafra messages, remains a symbol of hope for many. He is seen as light of freedom and liberation for Biafrans from the dungeon of hopeless situation in which they find themselves.
One may not like Nnamdi Kanu or his approach, his style or his manner of speech or the way he sees things. One major fact remains that from all indications, he is remarkably sincere with the course of the restoration of Biafra, which is the crux of the matter. His maxim is “Biafra or death.” With this undaunted spirit, he urges all IPOB members “Remain resolute even in the face of your enemies,” because “Truth is life.” An Igbo adage says, “Ma Nwokoro emeghi ka onye ara Umunna ya agaghi alunye ya nwaanyi” meaning “If the first male child in the family does not behave like a mad man, his kinsmen would not advocate and assist him get married.” That is what I deduce as part of Kanu’s method to bring Biafrans out of the incalculable tragedy and destructive mess in which they are in. However, we cannot throw away the Baby with the dirty water. In the response of Nnamdi’s father, His Royal Highness (Eze) Israel Okwu Kanu regarding his son’s Biafra restoration project, he says; “My son will rather die than back out of Biafran struggle.” Because of his (Kanu) thundering speech and teaching that resonate, piercing the clouds, the clamoured jamming and neutralizing of radio Biafra by the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Buhari administration coupled with his (Kanu) arrest and protracted incarceration and negligence by the Department of State Security Services (DSS), of the court’s several orders for his release, the issue of Biafra and its restoration has been brought to the world’s centre stage. Femi Fani-Kayode in Nnamdi Kanu and the Cry for Biafra says: “the biggest favour that President Buhari’s security agencies could have done for the Biafran cause was to lock up Mr. Kanu and thereby transform him from being a little-known secessionist into the living symbol of the Biafran struggle, a respected freedom fighter, a champion of the Igbo people and an internationally acclaimed political prisoner.”
On the front page of Saturday Sun bearing, “Nnamdi Kanu, Mystery Man Behind Biafra, Onuoha Ukeh notes: “until…when Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra, was arrested in Lagos, only a few people knew about the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)…Today, that hitherto obscured group has come to national limelight, with the “release Nnamdi Kanu” protests across the South East and South South.” People now courageously, openly and freely talk, discuss Biafra. Even the various Media outfit directly or indirectly, tacitly vowed not to carry, air, mention or talk about Nnamdi Kanu, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Biafra or Radio Biafra/TV have been forced by circumstances of the uncontrollable blowing wind of Biafra restoration packaged by the same Kanu to do so. As a freedom fighter whose name now resonates all around the world, Emmanuel Obe states this about him; “Kanu one day walked into the waiting arms of Nigeria’s security agents at the Lagos airport as he made a trip from the United Kingdom to Nigeria. It is still a matter of speculation if Kanu’s ‘surrender’ was a planned phase of the struggle or not.”
Who would have in his/her wildest imagination contemplated that children, young men and women, adults from the age of 13 to 50, would in the current dispensation of jet age, trek and protest for Biafra restoration from Agbor to Asaba in Delta State and from there to Onitsha and eventually finding their way to Enugu for whole three days. This was carried out despite the threat from the Nigerian army in their Rule of Engagement (ROE) to clamp down or crush Biafra unarmed peaceful protesters. The same with Biafrans coming from Bayelsa to Igweocha (Port Harcourt City), and some others made it from Igweocha to Owerri. Those from Aba trekked to Owerri and from Aba to Igweocha and back to Aba or even from Aba to Umuahia.
Part 4
This is a journey of those who have decided to die for what they believe in. Surprising but commendable! Regrettably, a considerable number of IPOB peaceful protesters have been shot dead and many others seriously injured. Mention could be made of the 21year old young girl, Nkeiruka Ikeanyionwu shot dead at Onitsha and some IPOB unarmed peaceful protesters shot dead at Aba while praying on the 9th of February 2016 at a Secondary School ground. She was a student of Federal College of Education Umunze Anambra State. Reacting to the tragedies the IPOB unarmed peaceful protesters are experiencing from the hands of the Nigerian Security agencies, the army, the navy, the police and government in one of his broadcasts, the Deputy Director/Leader Mazi Uche Mefor of IPOB exhorts and encourages Biafrans to “remain resolute and keep on keeping on” and not to relent no matter the challenges. He further says, “We, the IPOB family know what we want, we are peaceful people, we are enlightened. All we want is the unconditional release of the Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra and the Director of Radio Biafra/Biafra TV and the restoration of Biafra. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is our Leader. Those who have lost their lives are our Heroes and Heroines, we must honour them; we must remember them and their families. For those injured, we must give them the adequate treatment they deserve.”
No wonder the Leadership of the International Society for Civil liberties & the Rule of Law would stress, “Linking Citizen Nnamdi Kanu and his Radio Biafra London (RBL) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) with capital crime offense (death for terrorism and its 20 years jail term for terrorism financing is a height of executive lawlessness, recklessness and abuse of office…It is also worth emphasizing that Citizen Nnamdi Kanu and his RBL and IPOB have never used or advocated violence; neither have they taken up arms against the State of Nigeria or any part thereof. All their activities are nonviolent and peaceful and have so remained till date. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, Biafra: Kanu a bigger crowd-puller than Buhari states: “nothing was wrong with the agitation for Biafra…the Federal Government should partner with the Director Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, the government should do business with him because of his charisma…no Nigerian politician could mobilize a huge number of supporters like Kanu without paying them, saying the government did not need to hound this kind of person but to partner with him.” However, partnering with Kanu would be so rewarding after the restoration of Biafra as an Independent Sovereign Country. The spirit of Biafra is remarkable. The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan in “Release Kanu and Change from Being a Dictator”, while calling on President Buhari to release Kanu decries, “You don’t act illegally, and as an oppressor of the people and expect the people not to resist such illegality via peaceful non violent resistant protests. It is wrong to deny outrightly the freedom of choice for a people to decide whether or not they wish to remain within a territory…apologize to Nigerians for the avoidable deaths of unarmed civilians who were brutally killed by overzealous security agents. ..You should as ordered by the court; ask your DSS to obey court orders, release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and tender an unreserved apology to him for the embarrassments you have caused him, his pregnant wife, family, and millions of his followers by detaining him and infringing on his rights without good reason.”
It is of utmost importance to remember at this juncture some of those who took hard decisions or paid ultimate price in faraway Western world that the world may help stop the killing of Biafrans such as a 20 year old Bruce Mayrock. He was a student of the Columbian State University, a native of Old Westbury, New York, USA. He set himself on fire in 1969 in front of the Headquarters of the United Nations’ lawn in protest for genocide in Biafra. Mayrock, sadly, later died in the hospital from his wounds. It was reported that he wanted to draw the attention of the media, delegates in session, United States government officials to what he believed was genocide in Biafra. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of apple phone technology became an agnostic and stopped going to Church in 1968 in protest for the images of starved Biafran Children he saw in a Live Magazine as a result of Nigeria-Biafra war. Indeed, what a great sacrifice that Biafrans would live! If people from other countries of the world could have such concern to the extent of staking their lives even unto death for the lives of Biafrans, what more Biafrans themselves, it is expected that they should put more effort disposing themselves that they may be saved. An Igbo adage has it, “Onye a na-enyere aka, ga-enyekwaranuonweya aka (Onye a na-azonduga-enyekwaranuonweya aka) literally meaning “A person assisted to live should dispose him/herself to ensure the fruitful result of such an act of support.” Granting interview to Col Joe O. E. Achuzie, former officer of the Biafran Army on Why Igbo elite are scared to back Biafra struggle and why the renewed agitation by the pro- Biafra groups came up after Buhari was sworn in- he says “The agitation was going on, while Jonathan was on seat,…the agitation that there are certain people in the South-East and South-South people who were born during the three and half year war, who did not know Nigeria, it is Biafra that they know. And it is difficult to wipe it off their psyche, these are the leaders of the demonstrations.” Like the biblical Eleazar, who preferred to uphold the truth and probity to betraying the trust his people had for him, Col. Achuzie has proven himself to be a man of great integrity who would not dissimilate and bring dishonor to his old age (cf. 2 Maccabees 6:18-31).
Not far from same spirit, a former Governor of Zamfara, now Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima said; “Biafra agitators were on a legitimate struggle for self-determination…there should be no compulsion in democracy and the Indigenous People of Biafra must not be compelled to belong to Nigeria. He said rather than use force to subdue the agitators, the Federal Government could hold a referendum in the region to ascertain if it is the wish of the majority of the people to pull out of Nigeria and form a new country.”
Yinka Odumakin expresses this well in You can’t Kill Biafra when he says: “The sustained protests in the South East for weeks now drumming support for a Sovereign State of Biafra have confirmed what social scientists have correctly argued over the years: you can’t kill ideas… I have also read some jokers who styled themselves State Presidents of Ohanaeze Ndigbo clownishly declaring that Biafra died 40 years ago. If it is four decades dead, why are they addressing it and why is it that the authentic Igbo voices we know are not the ones making such statement?…Methinks that it is Nigeria that is dead, and that the quest for self-determination is very much alive and no ROE can defeat a popular idea and that if Nigeria remains stubborn as ever and continues to read “riot acts” it may just be digging its own grave.”
Listening to radio Biafra, the Cordinator of all Cordinators (COC) and spokesperson of IPOB, Engr. Dr. Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya based in Houston Texas, USA has always referred to the Nigerian state as expired. He says the amalgamation was made to last for 100 years that is from 1914- December 2014. In a similar broadcast, Barr Emma Nmezu, also a spokesperson of IPOB based in London and MaziUchenna Asiegbu, Head of Directorate of State, IPOB made a repeat of the same expression “Nigeria has expired”. These positions are in tandem with Yimka Odumakin “Methinks that it is Nigeria that is dead.” I think it is timely for government to come out clean and make available for the public the document for the amalgamation so that the citizenry will know the truth. I consider this exercise so paramount bearing in mind the position of the present administration in the fight against corruption. Let the true position of this matter be made known because the contrary implies denying the citizens what they suppose to know about whom they are which amounts to corruption. For J.B Libanio says’“a paternalistic pastoral approach which labours to reconcile social classes on the basis of some kind of sympathetic mutual acceptance, but which fails to change the mechanisms that generated their alienation, will never be more than a palliative. This is like treating a fever derived from an infection while leaving the infection intact.”
-- Rev. Fr. Aloysius Madukaku Iwuanoruo (The Leader News )
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