 |
| Putting the Biafran revolution into practice: See how Ojukwu planned to develop Biafra as far back as 1969 |
The Biafran Revolution will continue to discover and develop local talent and to use progressive foreign ideas and skills so long as they do not destroy the identity of our culture or detract from the sovereignty of our Fatherland. The Biafrans Revolution will also ensure through education that the positive aspects of Biafran traditional culture, especially those which are likely to be swamped out of existence by introduced foreign influences, are conserved.
The undiscriminating absorption of new ideas and attitudes will be discouraged. Biafrans can, in the final analysis, only validly express their nation’s personality and enhance their corporate identity Biafran culture, through Biafran art and literature, music, dancing and drama, and through peculiar gestures and social habits which distinguish them from all other people.
The undiscriminating absorption of new ideas and attitudes will be discouraged. Biafrans can, in the final analysis, only validly express their nation’s personality and enhance their corporate identity Biafran culture, through Biafran art and literature, music, dancing and drama, and through peculiar gestures and social habits which distinguish them from all other people.
Those then are the main principles of our Revolution. They are not abstract formulations but arise out of the traditional background and the present temper of our people. They grow out of our native soil and are the product of our peculiar climate. They belong to us. If anyone here doubts the validity of these principles let him go out into the streets and into the villages, let him ask the ordinary Biafran. Let him go to the Army, ask the rank and file and he will find, as I have found, that they have very clear ideas about the kind of society we should build here. They will not put them in the same words I have used tonight but the meaning will be the same. From today, let no Biafran pretend that he or she does not know the main-spring of our national action, let him or her not plead ignorant when found indulging in un-Biafran activities. The principles of our Revolution are hereby clearly set out for everyone to see. They are now the property of every Biafran and the instrument for interpreting our national life.
But principles are principles. They can only be transformed into reality through the institutions of society, otherwise they remain inert and useless. It is my firm conviction that in the Biafran Revolution principles and practice will go hand in hand. It is my duty and the duty of all of you to bring this about.
Looking at the institutions of our society, the very vehicles for carrying out our Revolutionary principles, what do you find? We find old, jaded and rusty machines creaking along most inefficiently and delaying the People’s progress and the progress of the Revolution. The problem of our institutions is partly that they were designed by other people, in other times and for other purposes. Their most fundamental weakness is that they came into being during the colonial period when the relationship between the colonial administrators and the people was that of master and servant. Our public servants, as heirs of the colonial masters, are apt to treat the People today with arrogance and condescension. In the New Biafran Social Order, we say that power belongs to the People, but this central principle tends to elude many of the public servants who continue to behave in a manner which shows that they consider themselves masters - the People their servants. The message of the Revolution has tended to fly over their heads. Let them beware, the Revolution, gathering momentum like a flood, washes clear all impediments on its way.
Take any of the institutions and the history is the same. First, it was fashioned for the British Colonial Service, then it saw service in that ill-fated country called Nigeria. It would be a miracle, fellow countrymen, if it should be found to be adequate for the need of revolutionary Biafra. What is surprising is not that these institutions fail us today but that there should be Biafrans, and some of them apparently very intelligent people, who sit back and expect good results from them. The fact is that one does not require extraordinary common-sense or insight to see the need for overhauling these machines and discarding those that are obsolescent.
For example, the Legislature, which should be the primary instrument for effecting the will of the People, was too often in the past used to frustrate the People. As I have said over and over again, power derives from the People. Ideally, all the People should be involved in the actual process of law-making. As a matter of fact, in our traditional society all adults who had attained the age of reason were directly involved in discussion, debate and decision-making on all things affecting the whole people. That was the original government by consensus. That was possible when the community was small and compact. With the emergence of the nation-state which is larger and heterogenous, this ideal procedure became impracticable. Therefore, the process of delegation of power was evolved to meet a practical need. But this does not invalidate the original principle that power belongs to the People. A man who is delegated by the People to represent their interests, therefore, is acting on behalf of the People and ceases to act for them the moment they withdraw their mandate. Like the ideal leader, the People’s representative should get out when the People tell him to get out. He must constantly reassure the People that he is acting in their best interest.
In the past, the People’s representatives, while paying lip-service to the primacy of the People and the supremacy of their interest, made sure that in actual practice their own personal will prevailed over the will of the People and their own personal interest over the interest of the nation. Thus we had politicians who spent their time amassing wealth, who did everything conceivable to remain in office, who would kill, loot, throw acid and do anything to remain in power. The will of the People meant nothing to them.
In the New Biafra, the Legislature must be constituted to reflect the spirit and the Principles of the Revolution.
Legislators must understand that responsibility goes with power. Those who wield power must appreciate the responsibility attached to that power. The legislator is a servant of the People given special powers to enable him discharge special responsibilities. Power is not given to him to turn him into a big man, to enable him sit inside huge American cars and build himself palaces. The conscientious legislator who strives to carry out his responsibility will find no time to pursue his own lucrative interests. He will find no time for membership of boards of corporations and directorships of public and private companies, or for doing deals with foreign business interests.
In revolutionary Biafra, certain basic reforms in politics and political institutions are necessary in order to safeguard the liberty of the People and protect their interest. For example, it will be imperative to separate the functions of the Legislature from those of the Executive. A member of the Legislature cannot at the same time be a member of the Executive. In the past, it was possible for a legislator to be a minister of state which is an executive post, in which case he neglected either his duty to his constituency or his duty to the state. Very often he neglected both.
In revolutionary Biafra there will be an executive leader elected by the people with full powers to choose his lieutenants. If he chooses a legislator or a public servant, such a person must resign his original appointment.
Another important principle is that people should be free to vote and be voted for wherever they live in Biafra. An Ikot Ekpene man living at Etiti should be free to vote and be voted for at Etiti. He does not have to go to Ikot Ekpene to vote or be voted for as happened in the past.
The principle of delegation of power from the People is so important that every revolutionary government of Biafra must encourage Democratically organised groups of youths, students, women, workers, farmers, professional bodies, managerial and business organisations, traders and others to participate actively in political debate and discussion. The Revolution belongs to them.
Then, let us look at our Civil Service. It is too rigid and inflexible, too slow and ponderous for the needs of today. Too often when quick action and initiative are called for, what the public gets is cold, formal and aloof treatment. What is required in the future is a modernised and energised Civil Service, a Service which will fit into our Revolution and become the instrument of change. Its members must embody the spirit of the New Order by identifying with the values of change and progress and promoting these values in the conduct of public affairs.
Since our Revolution has its foundation in the Rule of Law, the Judiciary becomes a most important arm of the State. It is the instrument for the protection and defence of our people’s liberties, for interpreting the will of our Revolution and for promoting the values of the New Order. It will be necessary, in the first place, to review our body of laws and bring it into line with the values and concepts of the New Order. It will be essential to stream-line this machinery so as to facilitate its processes and make legal redress available to all citizens. Every Biafran should find it possible and easy to have recourse to law courts when his rights or liberties are interfered with or threatened. In this he should be able to count on the support of his fellow citizens.
In the past, justice and its processes were often very remote from the life of the ordinary citizen. The ways of justice were beyond his understanding. And yet justice was meant to exist for his benefit. In revolutionary Biafra, the citizen should understand what law and justice are about. Our Revolution, therefore, aims at involving the citizen in the process of justice so that he will participate actively in the protection of his life and liberties and in the defence of the integrity, stability, and moral health of the nation.
Like the Judiciary, the Police Force is a very important institution, very important because it is given the special responsibility of maintaining law and order and guarding the security of the People and the nation. Like other institutions of our society, the Police Force needs to be reformed so that it can better fulfil its function in the Revolution. Its members must absorb the ideals of the New Biafran Social Order. The Police have often been criticised by the public. They have been accused of corruption, bribery and inefficiency. We say that some of these evils and weaknesses can be traced to the fact that the Police Force, like many other institutions of our society, had a colonial beginning and was vitiated in Nigeria. Today we are involved in a task of building a New Society with new values and new outlooks. Our Police Force must be part of this New Order. It must promote the ideals of the New Order - ideals of change and progress. The conduct of its members must, in the spirit of the Revolution, be scrupulously honest. The Biafran Police must be a People’s Police, that is to say, a champion of the People’s rights. The Policeman is not there simply to arrest criminals. He is also there to help people avoid going wrong. He must never exploit the People’s ignorance of their civic rights. On the contrary, it is his duty, where such ignorance exists, to teach the citizen his rights. Above all, he must be a dedicated patriot fanatically devoted to prosecuting the safety and security of the State. Fortunately, we know there are members of our Police Force who are imbued with these ideals. It is on them that the Force will be rebuilt.
The Biafran Armed Forces hold a key position in the Biafran Revolution. They have been rightly in the front-line defence of the Biafran nation and the People in the past two years. They have performed this task creditably, for which the Nation is indebted to them. But like the others, our military institutions carry the stamp of their Colonial and Nigerian origin. For our Revolution, the Biafran Armed Forces must be transformed into a true People’s Army.
They must rid themselves of the starchiness and rigid class distinctions which are the hall-mark of an establishment army; they should always ensure that their members never maltreat fellow citizens; that they never loot or “liberate” the People’s property; that they treat Biafran womanhood with respect and decorum; and that they pay fair price for whatever they buy and return whatever they borrow from the People.
The Biafran Armed Forces must unite with the People to build the New Society and must share with the People the Biafran ideology which sustains the Revolution.
THE PUBLIC SERVICES
What emerges from our examination of the public services is that the public servant is yet to learn that he is a servant of the People, not their master; that he must love the People and seek their welfare. There is no room in the New Biafra for the public servant who is arrogant, insolent and overbearing. The Public Service is created to provide an efficient service for the People. It is the responsibility of the public servant to provide this efficient service. There is no room in evolutionary Biafra for the inefficient or indolent public servant, for that man who sits at his desk filling out football coupons; for that woman who makes endless telephone calls, or for that worker who comes late and watches the clock for an hour before closing time. There is no room for the public servant who is corrupt or who uses public facilities to promote his private ends. I think of that man who uses official transport to evacuate his personal belongings and abandons the property of the State to the enemy. I think of that public servant in the Ministry of Lands who allocates State land to himself, his wife and his friends. I think of that Army officer who drives past in any empty car, leaving a wounded soldier to bleed to death. I see these things and I say to myself: these men have yet to grasp the lesson of our Revolution or else sooner or later the Revolution will grasp them.
I ask myself: what can be done to bring the lesson home to them? Nothing at all, unless they are ready to do something for themselves. The revolution cannot wait for the indolent, inefficient and corrupt public servant. He has to catch up with the Revolution, or the Revolution will catch up with him. The public servant who cannot, or will not, do the work for which he is hired, will be fired. It is no good saying: I have been in this job for twenty years. The Revolution cannot go into your long record. We repeat that if you cannot do the job of the Revolution, someone else will be found to do it.
However, we recognize that some devoted public servants may be inefficient simply because they have not received the right and adequate training for what they are required to do. In this respect, our Revolution will do one of two things. Either move them to a job they can do, or provide the right training-on-the-job if this is likely to produce worthwhile results.
Our experience during this struggle has brought home to us the need for versatility. Many of our citizens have found themselves having to do emergency duties different from their normal peace-time jobs. In the years after the present armed conflict, we may find that in the defence of the Revolution the general state of mobilization and alertness will remain. One of the ways of preparing ourselves for this emergency will be to ensure that every citizens will be trained in two jobs - his normal peace-time occupation and a different skill which will be called into play during a national emergency. Thus, for example, a clerk may be given training to enable him to operate as an ambulance-driver during an emergency, or a university lecturer as a post-master or a Signal Sergeant in one of the Armed Forces.
We realize here that the problem is more than that of providing narrow technical training. It has to do with re-orientation of attitudes. It has to do with the cultivation of the right kind of civic virtue and loyalty to Biafra. We all stand in need of this.
It is quite clear that to attain the goals of the Biafran Revolution will require extensive political and civic education of our People. To this effect, we will, in near future, set up a National Orientation College (N.O.C) which will undertake the needful function of formally inculcating the Biafran ideology and the Principles of the Revolution. We will also pursue this vital task of education through seminars, mass rallies, formal and informal address by the leaders and standard-bearers of the Revolution. All Biafrans who are going to play a role in the promotion of the Revolution, especially those who are going to operate the institutions of the New Society, must first of all expose themselves to the ideology of the Revolution.
The full realisation of the Biafran ideology and the promise of the Biafran Revolution will have the important effect of drawing the People of Biafra into close unity with the Biafran State. The Biafran State and the Biafran People thus become one. The People jealously defend and protect the integrity of the State. The State guarantees the People certain basic rights and welfare. In this third year of our independence, we re-state those basic rights and welfare obligations which the revolutionary State of Biafra guarantees to the People.
In the field of employment and labour, the Biafran Revolution guarantees every able Biafran the right to work. All those who are lazy or refuse to work forfeit their right to this guarantee. “He who does not work should not eat” is an important principle in Biafra.
Our Revolution provides equal opportunities for employment and labour for all Biafrans irrespective of sex. For equal output a woman must receive the same remuneration as a man.
Our revolutionary Biafran State will guarantee a rational system of remuneration of labour. Merit and output shall be the criteria for reward in labour. “To each according to his ability, to each ability according to its product” shall be our motto in Biafra.
Our Revolution guarantees security for workers who have been incapacitated by physical injury, old age or disease. It will be the duty of the Biafran State to raise the standard of living of the Biafran People, to provide them with improved living conditions and to afford them modern amenities that enhance their human dignity and self-esteem. We recognize at all times the great contributions made by the farmers, the craftsmen and other toilers of the Revolution to our national progress. It will be a cardinal point of our economic policy to keep their welfare constantly in view. The Biafran Revolution will promulgate a Workers’ Charter which will codify and establish workers’ rights.
The maintenance of the health and physical well-being of the Biafran citizen must be the concern and the responsibility of the State. The revolutionary Biafran State will at all times strive to provide medical service for all its citizens in accordance with the resources available to it; it will wage a continuous struggle against epidemic and endemic diseases; and will promote among the People knowledge of hygienic living. It will develop social and preventive medicine, set up sanatoriums for incurable and infectious diseases and mental cases, and a net-work of maternity homes for ante- and post-natal care of Biafran mothers. Furthermore, Biafra will set great store by the purity of the air which its People breathe. We have a right to live in a clean, pollution-free atmosphere.
Our Revolution recognises the vital importance of the mental and emotional needs of the Biafran People. To this end, the Biafran State will pay great attention to Religion, Education, Culture and the Arts. We shall aim at elevating our cultural institutions and promoting educational reforms which will foster a sense of national and racial pride among our People and discourage ideas which inspire a feeling of inferiority and dependence on foreigners and foreign interests. We must produce the kind of manpower that will nurture the Biafran Revolution. It will be the prime duty of the revolutionary Biafran State to eradicate illiteracy from our society, to guarantee free education to all Biafran children to a stage limited only by existing resources. Our nation will encourage the training of scientists, technicians and skilled workers needed for quick industrialisation and the modernisation of our agriculture. We will ensure the development of higher education and technological training for our People, encourage our intellectuals, writers, artists and scientists to research, create and invent in the service of the State and the People. We must prepare our People to contribute significantly to knowledge and world culture.
Finally, the present armed struggle, in which many of our countrymen and women have distinguished themselves and made numerous sacrifices in defence of the Fatherland and the Revolution, has imposed on the state of Biafra extra responsibility for the welfare of its People. Biafra will give special care and assistance to soldiers and civilians disabled in the course of the pogrom and the war; it will develop special schemes for resettlement and rehabilitation. The nation will assume responsibility for the dependants of the heroes of the Revolution who have lost their lives in defence of the Fatherland.
In talking about the rights of the Biafrans and the welfare obligations the State owes to them, I have had cause to refer to our limited resources. These limitations are particularly severe at the moment as a result of the war. But even without the war we would be short of adequate resources for putting into effect all the principles and policies for transforming our society. This is partly because of the wrong economic policies of the past, policies that we must immediately tackle if the Revolution is to fulfil its promise to the People; for the Revolution is also the servant of the People.
SELF-RELIANCE
One of the key problems of the economy of under-developed countries is the fact that they are controlled and exploited by foreign monopoly interests. Under-developed countries cannot advance unless they break the strangle-hold of the foreign monopolies. The only hope of success lies in the state pursuing an active policy of self-reliance in putting its own economic house in order. But it cannot do this unless it takes control of the main springs of the economy - the means of production, distribution and exchange. This will ensure central mobilization of the national economy through proper planning and control. This is what Biafra must do; this is what African countries must do; this is what the under-developed world must do, if they are to save themselves.
As primary producers, we are economically at the mercy of the industrialized countries. We are obliged to sell our products cheap to them and to buy their manufactures dear from them. Like other under-developed countries, our economy is fragile, and because we do not earn enough for what we produce we remain poor and cannot improve the standard of living of our people. And because we are poor we cannot develop our economy. How then can we break this vicious circle? If we try to unite with other primary producers to obtain better terms of trade, we find that because of our poverty we cannot hold out long enough against the aggressive policies of these rich industrialized countries.
Here, as in all other spheres of our Revolution, the answer must come from within, from ourselves. We must pursue an enlightened dynamic policy which will concentrate on employing our primary products in various domestic manufactures. The present war has already opened our eyes to what we can do by relying on our own resources in material and men. It is unthinkable that after the war we shall return to the old system of selling our primary products to someone in Europe at his own price so that he can turn them into manufactured goods and sell back to us, again at his own price. Our primary products shall henceforth be used mainly to feed Biafra’s growing industries.
Another economic goal of the Biafran Revolution is self-sufficiency in food production. Our experience during the present war has emphasized to us the importance of this. The work of the Biafra Land Army has also shown us the tremendous possibilities that exist for a major agrarian revolution. The Biafran Revolution will intervene actively to end the exploitation of the countryside by the town - a baneful process which is often easily lost sight of. The Biafran Revolution will encourage farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen to form co-operatives and communes, and will make them take pride in their work by according them the recognition and prestige they deserve. The programme for industrial progress in revolutionary Biafra will achieve balanced development between industry and agriculture, between regions or provinces within Biafra, between town and country and finally between Biafra and other African countries who desire to do business with us.
Again and again, in stating the Principles of our Revolution, we have spoken of the People. We have spoken of the primacy of the People, of the belief that power belongs to the People; that the Revolution is the servant of the People. We make no apologies for speaking so constantly about the People, because we believe in the People; we have faith in the People. They are the bastion of the Nation, the makers of its culture and history.
THE QUALITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL
But in talking about the People we must never lose sight of the individuals who make up the People. The single individual is the final, irreducible unit of the People. In Biafra that single individual counts. The Biafran Revolution cannot lose sight of this fact.
The desirable changes which the Revolution aims to bring to the lives of the People will first manifest themselves in the lives of individual Biafrans. The success of the Biafran Revolution will depend on the quality of individuals within the State. Therefore, the calibre of the individual is of the utmost importance to the Revolution. To build the New Society we will require new men who are in tune with the spirit of the New Order. What then should be the qualities of this Biafran of the New Order?
# He is patriotic, loyal to his State, his Government and its leadership; he must no do anything which undermines the security of his State or gives advantage to the enemies of his country. He must no indulge in such evil practices as tribalism and nepotism which weaken the loyalty of their victims to the state. He should be prepared, if need be, to give up his life in defence of the Nation.
# He must be his brother’s keeper; he must help all Biafrans in difficulty, whether or not they are related to him by blood; he must avoid, at all costs, doing anything which is capable of bringing distress and hardship to other Biafrans. A man who hoards money or goods is not his brother’s keeper because e brings distress and hardship to his fellow citizens.
# He must be honourable; he must be a person who keeps his promise and the promise of his office, a person who can always be trusted.
# He must be truthful: he must not cheat his neighbour, his fellow citizens and his country. He must not give or receive bribes or corruptly advance himself or his interests.
# He must be responsible: he must no push across to others the task which properly belongs to him, or let others receive the blame or punishment for his own failings. A responsible man keeps secrets. A Biafran who is in a position to know what our troops are planning and talks about it is irresponsible. The information he gives out will spread and reach the ear of the enemy. A responsible man minds his own business; he does not show off.
# He must be brave and courageous: he must never allow himself to be attacked by others without fighting back to defend himself and his rights. He must be ready to tackle tasks which other people might regard as impossible.
# He must be law-abiding: he obeys the laws of the land and does nothing to undermine the due processes of law.
# He must be freedom-loving: he must stand up resolutely against all forms of injustice, oppression and suppression. He must never be afraid to demand his rights. For example, a true Biafran at a post office or bank counter will insist on being served in his turn.
# He must be progressive: he should not slavishly and blindly adhere to old ways of doing things; he must be prepared to make changes in his way of life in the light of our new revolutionary experience.
# He is industrious, resourceful and inventive; he must not fold his arms and wait for the Government to do everything for him; he must also help himself.
My fellow countrymen and women, proud and courageous Biafrans, two years ago, faced with the threat of total extermination, we met in circumstances not unlike today’s. At that August gathering, the entire leaders of our people being present, we as a people decided that we had to take our destiny into our own hand, to plan and decide our future and to stand by these decisions no matter the vicissitude of this war which by then was already imminent. At that time, our major pre-occupation was how to remain alive, how to restrain an implacable enemy from destroying us in our own homes. In that moment of crisis we decided to resume our sovereignty.
In my statement to the leaders of our community before that decision was made, I spoke about the difficulties. I explained that the road which we were about to tread was to be carved through a jungle of thorns and that our ability to emerge through this jungle was, to say the least, uncertain. Since that fateful decision, the very worst has happened. Our people have continually been subjected to genocide. The entire conspiracy of neo-colonialism has joined hands to stifle our nascent independence. Yet, undaunted by the odds, proud in the fact of our manhood, encouraged by the companionship of the Almighty, we have fought to this day with honour, with pride, with glory so that today, as I stand before you, I see a proud people acknowledged by the world. I see a heroic people, men with heart-beats as regular and blood as red as the best on earth.
On that fateful day two years ago, you mandated me to do everything within my power to avert the dangers that loomed ahead, the threat of extermination. Little did we, you and I, know how long the battle was to be, how complex its attendant problems. From then on, what have been achieved are there for the entire world to see and have only been possible because of the solidarity and support of our people. For this I thank you all. I must have made certain mistakes in the course of this journey but I am sure that whatever mistakes I have made are mistakes of the head and never of the heart. I have tackled the sudden problems as they unfold before my eyes and I have tackled them to the best of my ability with the greater interest of our people in mind.
Today, I am glad that our problems are less than they were a year ago; that arms alone can no longer destroy us; that our victory, the fulfilment of our dreams, is very much in sight. We have forced a stalemate on the enemy and this is likely to continue, with any advances likely to be on our side. If we fail, which God forbid, it can only be because of certain inner weakness in our being. It is in order to avoid these pitfalls that I have today proclaimed before you the Principles of the Biafran Revolution.
We in Biafra are convinced that the Black man can never come into his own until he is able to build modern states based on indigenous African ideologies, to enjoy true independence, to be able to make his mark in the arts and sciences and to engage in meaningful dialogue with the white man on a basis of equality. When he achieves this, he will have brought a new dimension into international affairs.
Biafra will not betray the Black man. No matter the odds, we will fight with all our might until Black men everywhere can point with pride to this Republic, standing dignified and defiant, an example of African nationalism triumphant over its many and age-old enemies.
We believe that God, humanity and history are on our side, and that the Biafran Revolution is indestructible and eternal.
OH GOD, NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE FOREVER.
Culled from Ahiara Declaration delivered by General Odumegwu Ojukwu at Ahiara Village, Biafra, on 1st June 1969.
No comments:
Post a Comment