Contrary to the misinformation from President Muhamadu Buhari in two of his press statements that Nigeria went to war with Biafra when oil had not been discovered in Biafraland asserting that the motivations to go to war with the Biafran state did not originate from covetousness of Biafra's Natural Resources but were to preserve the Destructive Invention of their slave masters.
Let me state the record clear that oil was discovered in Biafraland before the independence of Nigeria.
In 1956, oil was discovered at Oloibiri village in Niger Delta and successful drilling operations were carried out, and two years after, the first successful shipment of Oil in Nigeria was carried out.
Low and behold this was the Beginning one Nigeria.
God blessed the people of Biafra with many Natural Resources, included in these are Oil and Gas mostly in the riverine part of Biafraland later renamed "Niger Delta" by Yakubu Gowon.
During the military rules of Nigeria's governance characterized by failed and successful coup and different levels of dictatorships.
The Nigerian government enacted laws that appropriated, oil and gas natural resources in Niger Delta to be controlled by multinational oil companies without adequate provisions against pollution of these regions nor development of the Niger Delta from where the oil and gas are explored.
From these laws and policies of dispossessing people of their lands and natural resources, the people in the riverine areas who are mostly fishermen have been kept out of business due to pollution of water bodies as a result of the explorations and oil spillages. On the other hand, if the people venture into farming and cultivation, they are incapacitated because their lands have been made infertile by these drains and explorations from oil drilling.
Going to the cost of living in the areas, it is so unethical that one would wonder if they are living in the same Nigeria as others. A bag of sachet water sold at N50 in Lagos is sold at N350 in some of those areas. Petrol sold at N145 is sold at N350 to N400 per litre because they have to travel onshore to get these goods and traveling by boat is very expensive. They travel on water because the government has refused to construct bridges for them.
They live in zinc houses because building a block house there is very expensive, during hot weathers they suffer from excessive heat, there are no electricity, no roads, no hospitals and no schools only a few ones that are poorly equipped , and The students need to travel far distances before getting to the few schools available. Teachers are reluctant to teach because of little or no salary.
The major oil blocks and wells in their lands are owned by mostly the Northern Hausa/Fulani without any being owned by their indigenes hence denying them of their God-given resources and making them live in abject poverty.
THE STRUGGLE BEGINS
Having considered these sufferings of the masses of Niger Delta and a total neglect by Nigerian, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) arose genuinely to fight for their people with their leader as Henry Okah. They came up with stated goals of taking Total Control of their God-given resources and the Cleansing of the polluted regions, such moves were made initially by Ken Saro- Wiwa from Ogoniland without arms but was gruesomely executed in 1995.
MEND took up arms against the government to achieve their aim having seen that unarmed agitation in Nigeria is tantamount to embarking on a suicide mission.
They warned oil companies and their workers to flee their lands because their wrath would descend on them and the federal government would not save them. Their aim was to render Nigerian government incapable of exporting oil by destroying oil facilities.
To accomplish their mission, MEND started swarm-based operations where 'guerrillas' used speed boats in the swamps to swiftly attack their targets. They engaged SHELL's Western-trained private military guards and Nigerian-trained military units in combats and overpowered them capturing many foreign workers and taking them hostage and using their hostages as leverage for their demands.
They were able to shut down operations and prevent repairs of bombed facilities, They kidnapped foreign workers, including nine officials of Italian petrol company, they killed the Nigerian soldiers with other security agents. They also killed ex-militants who associated themselves with the Nigerian government and military to sabotage their agitations. They really fought gallantly.
THE LOSS OF FOCUS
In one of the press statements of MEND, they stated in part, "BE assured therefore that the hostages in return, will remain our guests....the hostages are in good health and have adapted fairly well to the conditions under which the people of the Niger Delta have been kept." That was a move in the right direction as at that time.
But they started losing focus when they started bank robbery. The people that bestowed their trust on their (MEND's) emancipation movement declined their hope on this lost focus.
They started kidnapping innocent people and committing diverse manners of atrocities outside their modus operandi showing that they have lost focus of their mission.
The government of Yar'Adua having seen that MEND had gone into hunger-strike induced activities offered them amnesty and they accepted hence abandoning their earlier mission of emancipating the Niger Delta.
Their earlier mission was to emancipate the whole of Niger Delta but as soon as amnesty was offered, the so-called freedom fighters rushed in to share the money among the fighters (militants). They agreed to monthly stipends that excluded the poor masses.
The monthly stipend of N150,000 became a source of corruption where the leaders of the group shared a higher percentage of it and little or nothing to their comrades.
They started engaging in oil bunkering, sea piracy and kidnapping where they allegedly made millions of Naira on a weekly basis, leaving their people suffering like never before. Their Emancipation changed to Enslavement
As This continued they had totally abandoned the emancipation movement and even failed to think about how to develop their land and improve the life of the people with such proceeds even when the government had looked the other way. Truly they all became selfish hungry brats.
MEND vs IPOB (Henry Okah vs Nnamdi Kanu ) HOW IT STARTED
Recently, after being promised huge paychecks by Buhari and the release of Henry Okah ONLY and ONLY if they can get Nnamdi Kanu to renounce Biafra. this made them spew nonsensical falsehoods against Nnamdi Kanu a true prophet who is whiter than white and whiter than snow.
This moves against Nnamdi Kanu has really proven that indeed MEND are slaves to their masters "The Nigerian government" who initially was their enemy, The so-called organization became a hunger-strike induced movement used in defrauding the Nigerian state.
When Henry Okah the leader of MEND was arrested in Angola and deported to Nigeria in February 2008, and charged with 62 counts of treason, terrorism, illegal possessions of firearms and trafficking, his lawyer announced in July 2009 that he (Henry Okah ) has accepted an amnesty offered by the Nigerian government to any rebel group willing to lay down its arms.
A Senior MEND General, Boyloaf, said if Okah was set free, the organization would indeed lay down its arms and Jomo Gbomo being the spokesman supported his decision.
But Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, came to Nigeria and was arrested, charged to court on frivolous charges.
Nnamdi Kanu is only agitating the freedom of his people from subjugation and a British-forced union in 1914 which has expired in 2014 according to the document written by Lugard which stated that the union was allowed to exist for a hundred years after which all parties are free to part ways.
Nnamdi Kanu chose the path of peace and following internationally laid down procedures. He has been campaigning on radio Biafra broadcasts from London, in order to educate, organize and free his people from mental slavery, on his arrival to Nigeria he got arrested on October 14, 2015.
After Nnamdi Kanu's arrest and charged to court, his unconditional release was ordered by a competent court of jurisdiction but President Muhamadu Buhari being a dictator flouted the order refusing to free Nnamdi Kanu using the Department of state security service (DSS) to detain him and using different types of torture tactics to break him
Buhari went ahead to hire MEND with the promise of freedom of their leader, Henry Okah, and huge paychecks, their job was to claim meeting with Nnamdi secretly and claiming to have discussed with him, therefore, spreading falsehoods via a prepared media outlet that Nnamdi Kanu has agreed to renounce Biafra agitation just as Henry Okah agreed to renounce his emancipation of Niger Delta agitation.
But MEND and Buhari failed to understand that Nnamdi Kanu has vowed to either raise the Biafran flag high or be lowered into the ground. They failed to read his slogan, "Biafra or Death".
They failed to listen when Nnamdi Kanu said that he would rather remain in detention for the next 1000years to get Biafra than gaining his freedom and his people still remain in subjugation.
They failed to see that Nnamdi is not interested in money, gold or silver, oil wells and even a presidency as earlier promised by the Nigerian government which he has totally refused asking for only one thing "Let my people go"
They have also failed to understand that the "Biafra Restoration Project" is spiritual and no man can stop it, it is a project ordained by God and Nnamdi Kanu is just a servant of God sent to make it a reality, he was indeed born for this and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Buhari has done everything possible to break Nnamdi Kanu and get him to renounce the Biafra agitation but he has failed woefully and this collaboration with MEND shows his desperate moves to quench the Biafra agitation.
Unlike Henry Okah, Nnamdi Kanu is a selfless leader who prefers to die than sell out Biafra or sabotage it for money or power
He has received awards from his people as "The Great Liberator" and he's no doubt a living legend and hero loved by all Biafrans.
Henry Okah and MEND are hungry saboteurs but Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB are True Freedom Fighters. it is either Biafra or Nothing.
By Ogu Edozie William
Edited By Uchechi Collins
For IPOB writers
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