There has been series of questions both from the
acclaimed Igbo leaders and the elites in the former region known as Biafra
territory today urging the public to disregard the SIT-AT-HOME order from the
leadership of IPOB worldwide. Is quite heart-breaking to such hogwash from the
elites who are supposed to support her own to mourn about 6.2 million Biafrans
who were unjustly massacred during the 1967-1970 bitter civil wars but was
telling the public no need to mourn the dead? Of course, they want to please
their paymasters in the northern Nigeria as puppet they are as usual.
Many have come out for a singular purpose, to restore the
dignity of our people. They understand the dangers we face as a people and have
come to discover that, as we try to shy away from confronting these dangers and
their fears, we become donkeys of labour and playthings to everything that
breathes. Many have realized that this is not the way to live and have given up
so much to stand and defend the rights of the indigenous people of Biafra to
freedom and the rights to their own,
However, I would like us to go deep into history a leaf
from Professor Innocent Odenigbo speech about Nigeria’s Genocidal War against
Biafra from 1967-1970.
Right now, I feel it is important to draw the attention
of all Biafrans and in fact the international community as well to what the
Biafrans are fighting for, i.e. the restoration of the Republic of Biafra.
This British mercenary did not consult the people before
forcing them into an unholy union of his dreams. The name Nigeria was really a
coinage from two words, Niger i.e. the "River Niger" and
"Area" meaning the area of land around the river Niger. It does not
require a rocket scientist or a wordsmith to forge this name. I understand that
the name was in fact suggested by Lugard's wife (Flora Shaw).
For Lugard to choose the name Nigeria for his
contraption, it's clear evident that he was only interested in the land and its
resources not in the well-being of people of diverse cultures inhabiting the
land.
So, ab-initio the name Nigeria was only a geographical
description without any cultural or historical content and has remained so up
till today. For even Lugard himself described the North and the South as oil
and water that can never mix. About 30years into Lugard's experiment in 1945 to
be exact. The first catastrophe struck. Biafrans were slaughtered in northern
Nigeria by the Hausa/Fulani as the clear expression of their resentment of the
amalgamation.
In 1953, the northerners struck again. One small Biafrans
were the victims. The Nigerian census of 1956 was rigged in favour of the
northerners by their British friends who inflated the population figures for
the North to the detriment of the South. The pre-independent federal elections
were similarly rigged by the departing British colonial administrators to
benefit the north against the south. It was not therefore surprising that a few
years after independence, Nigeria descended into anarchy and chaos. This time
again, Biafrans were the target. Chased away from all over Nigeria as
hundredths of thousands of them were murdered in the northern Nigeria.
In May-October 1966, Biafrans were hounded and massacred
all over northern Nigeria by the Hausa-Fulani shouting ''ARABA",
"ARABA'' meaning SECESSION. The bruised and battered Biafrans returned to
the safety of their homeland to nurse their wounds. Abandoned by the Federal
government of the country to which they were supposed to belong. A national
conference was held in Aburi, Ghana under the chairmanship of Gen. Ankara the
Ghanaian head of state. Far reaching agreements aimed at keeping Nigeria
together were concluded between Gen. Yakubu Gowon representing Nigeria and Gen.
Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu representing the people of Biafra.
But in a most arrogant display of power, Nigeria
unilaterally annulled those agreements. The Biafrans had no other choice than
to declare their independence on May 30th, 1967. Instead of allowing Biafrans to
nurse their wounds in the peace of their homeland, Nigeria propelled by share
hatred and arrogance of power declared a war of aggression against the
beleaguered Biafrans. Nigeria wanted the land of Biafra without the people of
Biafra and conducted a three-year genocidal war to achieve that purpose.
At the end of it all, about 3.5 million Biafra men, women
and children were killed in their homeland. I have never read anywhere that
people of different cultures and religions have been forced to unite by share
military means. The American civil war was a unique case. Prior to that war,
all the states had voluntarily consented to join the union after a gruesome war
of independence against the British. But when the southern states refused to
give up slavery and decided instead to secede from the union, the northern
states led by Abraham Lincoln took up arms against the south as a matter of
principle. The North believed that since all men were created equal, it was
unjust for people to own slaves at private property. The American civil war was
not in reality to unite the country, but a war in defence of human right to
life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
In its genocidal enterprise, Nigeria obtained the ready
military and diplomatic assistance of Britain, the formal Soviet Union, Spain,
the then Organization of African Unity led by the formal Ethiopian Head of
State, Emperor Haile Selassie, non-alliance nations led by President Tito of
formal Yugoslavia and the United Nations Organization led by U Thant. The lie
being bandit about by Britain and Nigeria was that if Biafra was allowed to
secede from Nigeria, the whole of Africa would be afflicted by the disease of
secession. Shamelessly, the so-called civilized world colluded with Nigeria in
the massacre of millions of Biafran men, women and children. The principle of
human rights was thrown to the winds.
Biafra was strangled by overwhelming military force,
diplomatic frauds and starvation. Even, Christian charity organizations and the
International Red Cross were dissuaded and frustrated by Britain and Nigeria
from delivering urgently needed food material and medicine which would have
saved lives.
Whether we believe it or not, there is a great being who
is in control of events on earth. Some refers to him as Karma; we call him God
(Chukwu Abiama). Nigeria thought that once Biafra was defeated in battle,
everything would be alright and she will live happily ever after. There is no
way you can spill the blood of about 6.2 million people and expect that there
would not be some retribution. We all know what is happening to Nigeria today.
What of the greatest ally of Nigeria during that war
against Biafrans; Britain? One quiet afternoon early 2014, two machete wielding
Nigerian extremists attacked a British soldier and killed him in broad day
light and bragged about it. That event was one of the worst greatest insults
inflicted on a world power such as Britain. Right now, Scotland is in the
process of seceding from Britain after about 400years of marriage voluntarily
entered into by England and Scotland. Yet, it was the same Britain that scared
the world stiff about the impending vulcanization of Africa should Biafra go
its way and let the chorus of the sanctity of the territorial integrity of
Nigeria as the Biafran war of independence raged on. I do not know what will
happen to the territorial integrity of Britain when Scotland eventually
secedes.
The truth is that a territory can never be more important
than the people who live in it. That is the basic principle of human rights.
But the British government under the leadership of Harold Wilson did not
believe that the Biafran people were entitled to the same human rights which
British people enjoyed. That is why Harold Wilson is one of the list respected
world leaders today.
As leader of the Organization of African Unity, Emperor
Haile Selassie of Ethiopia campaigned against the existence of Biafra because
he believed that if Biafra was allowed to exist, the province of Eritrea which
was then part of Ethiopia would secede. But in spite of Haile Selassie, Eritrea
is now an independent nation. What about President Tito of Yugoslavia, as
leader of the non-aligned nations, President Tito campaigned against Biafra
because he feared that his country would break if Biafra were allowed to exist.
Where is Yugoslavia today? In the dustbin of history. Out of the ashes of
Yugoslavia emerged four or five countries in spite of President Tito.
Now, the formal Soviet Union supplied Nigeria with all
the MiG fighter planes with which it terrorized, killed and maimed Biafran men,
women and children in their homes, in market places, in schools, in churches,
in hospitals and in refugee camps. Where is the great Soviet Union today? In
the dustbin of history. From the ashes of the formal Soviet Union emerged 15
independence countries including Russia.
What of Egypt? While it was not clear whether the
Egyptian government cooperated with Nigeria during its war against Biafra, it
was common knowledge that Egyptian pilots were responsible for the
indiscriminate bombing and stacking of civilian targets that accounted for the
loss of thousands of lives. They were probably the mercenaries who did not want
to risk their lives and therefore avoided raiding the war fronts. Since they
must discharge their bombs and kill some people, they frequently went for soft
targets such as; markets, schools and hospitals. After all, they knew they were
engaged in a war of extermination anyway and the civilized world was behind
them. See what's happening in Egypt today, not so well.
By contrast, the five countries that recognized Biafra
namely: Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Haiti have enjoyed peace and
stability till today. Their heads of state at the time of Biafran saga namely:
Dr. Warimu Julius Nyerere, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, Mr. Omar Bongo, Mr. Houphouet-boigny
and ''Papa Doc'' Francois Duvalier were some of the most respected statesmen in
the world. Tanzania has not disintegrated even-though it is a union between
mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar off the coast of east Africa. A
union voluntarily agreed by the two entities without a land border but with
strong cultural and historical ties.
Where was the United Nations Organization on the plight
of Biafra? Mixing in action! The world body never for once heard testimonies
from the Biafran people. It listened only to Nigerian because Britain as a
permanent member of the Security Council thwarted all effort by Biafra to
present her case to the world and by implication deceived the United States on
the issue of Biafra.
The case of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is one worthy
of emulation. So also, are the cases of formal Czechoslovakia, formal
Yugoslavia, Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as Sudan and Southern Sudan. Thomas
Jefferson writing the American declaration of independence said and I quote
''When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'' This
idea goes back to Athens of the 5th century BC when Socrates spoke of a law of
God respected by all Barbarian and Greek alike or in the Antigone of Sophocles
from the 5th century BC when Antigone appealed to a law of God that is the same
for all, all over the world and justify any actions that might break the law of
men. Cicero defines natural law in his works of moral values as ''the law of
God revealed in the reason of His universe'' It is one law valid in all places
and in all times. It will be the same in Athens and in Rome and in every future
nation to come for that law rest with God and there are consequences for
breaking the law of God.
I hope the United Nations will be alive to its
responsibilities this time around and that the international communities will
stop playing games with African lives. The loss of 6.2 million Biafran lives
can never be in vain. That will run counter to the principle of natural
justice; laws of nature and nature's God. The people of Biafra have waited all
these years for reason and common sense to prevail; for justice to be done so
that old and current wounds can start to heal and the spirits of about 6.2 million
Biafran men, women and children can start to rest in peace.
In summary, come 30th May 2019, Biafrans, friends of
Biafra, lovers of freedom and even enemies of Biafra must remember our fallen
heroes and heroines. Shutdown every institution in Biafraland and Nigerian
state. It is time for the restoration of the Republic of Biafra. God bless
people of goodwill around the world and God bless Biafra. All hail Biafra the
children of the light.
Written by:
Mazi Dimkpa Ikenna Ikenga Amadioha-Gbo
For: Rivers State Media
Edited by:
Oby Mboma
For: Rivers State Media
Published by:
Chibuike John Nebeokike
For: Rivers State Media
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