BIAFRA: THE POTENCY BEHIND ELECTION BOYCOTT

■ Twitter: @Umuchiukwu_writ  

■ 02,August 2017

I read with dismayed heart, several statements from the so called and self acclaimed leaders of thoughts or the Elites in Biafra land and Nigeria challenging the decision of the Indigenous People Of Biafra(IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to boycott the up coming Anambra State election and subsequent Elections in Biafra land until the date of referendum is given to the Biafran people.
According to these self-acclaimed leaders of thoughts or Elites, "it is wrong to boycott or disfranchised the masses their right to vote."
The question is, who are the masses? The answer is not far fetched, it is the "Biafrans," and they have chosen to use the method of boycotting election(s) to send a direct message to the Nigerian government and most importantly to signal a red alert to the world on their quest to opt out from Nigeria. One will wonder why these dishonorable men called themselves leaders of thought or the elites if they failed to comprehend the reason(s) and the targeted goal(s)behind boycotting of elections in Biafran land Starting with the Anambra State election slated 18th of November 2017.
It is called "Civil Disobedience." The masses or people must always do what they think is right, especially when they believe that an aspect of government is not working and, will be more likely to gain support and be more effective in making change happen, it is one of the many ways people have rebelled against what they deem to be unfair laws. It has been used in many nonviolent resistance movements around the world. Civil Disobedience has existed since the ancient Greek. From Antigone's defiance of Creon over Ghandi's Salt March in India to the Occupy Movement. On March 12, 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi began a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience yet against British rule in India. Nelson Mandela along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko, advocated civil disobedience. The result can be seen in such notable events as the 1989 Purple Rain Protest, and the Cape Town Peace March which defied apartheid. Also, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, James Bevel, Rosa Parks, and other activists in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s used civil disobedience techniques. Among the most notable civil disobedience events in the U.S. occurred when Rosa Parks refused to move on the bus when a white man tried to take her seat, I can go on and on and history provides numerous examples of civil disobedience to look at throughout time and across various cultures so, one will begin to ask why is it different and seen as atrocity on the case of Biafran boycotting the Anambra State election and subsequent ones in Biafran land? Those who disagreed and dismissed the idea of boycotting the Anambra state election are yet to accept the reality on ground ,they are underestimating the resolve of the Biafran people and they are doing that at their own peril, the bottom line remains, there will be total boycott of Anambra state election and any other election in Biafran Land.

LUCKY CHIBUNDU. FOR UMUCHIUKWU WRITERS.