Biafra Africa Business World
By Editorial Board of Daily Trust
I like the “Biafran” flag; it has alluring colours of red, black and green running horizontally.
Emblazoned inside the black colour in the middle of the flag is the “rising sun” that has eleven rays each of which represented the provinces of Biafran Republic’s proclaimed territory. The Biafran flag is more animating than the green white green of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Nigerian flag is rather dull and made even more so by having two portions of the same green colour.The war for the establishment of “Republic of Biafra” was led by the ambitious Col Odumegwu Ojukwu who couldn’t stomach taking orders from “Jack” and other junior Nigerian military officers. The Biafran war was also caused by “pogrom” directed at the Igbos in Northern Nigeria in retaliation for the overthrow and assassination of Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello as well as dozens of other military and civilian leaders.
The Biafran war which began in 1967 ended on 15th January, 1970 when General Philip Effiong, Ojukwu’s number two, went to Dodan Barracks along with a number of his “compatriots” to surrender before the Supreme Commander of Nigerian Armed Forces, General Yakubu Gowon and other war commanders. While it lasted, the war caused the death of thousands of lives on both sides.
In the last few weeks, some people, mainly Igbos, who call themselves “Biafrans’, have been demonstrating in the streets, principally in the South east demanding for independence for the “Republic of Biafra” from Nigeria. What immediately triggered the demonstration was the arrest and detention of one Nnamdi Kanu, the founder and Director of “Radio Biafra”. On Friday, 6th November, 2015, “a multitude of youths were said to have held Asaba, the capital of Delta State hostage.”
Emeka Ndu, a spokesman for the demonstrators calling for the release of Kanu, was quoted as saying “We have gone to all the Biafran (sic) lands, Igbo is not Biafra, it is the language of a people. Kogi, Edo, Ebonyi, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra, are Biafran states. What we want now is for the federal government to release our Director (Nnamdi Kanu) and give us freedom to control ourselves.” Since then, there have been several street demonstrations in Aba, Asaba, Enugu, Onitsha, Owerri, Port Harcourt, etc. calling for independence for Biafra.
Radio Biafra has been broadcasting hate speech and other slanderous items against individuals and groups in Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu, who calls himself leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB), says he has been chosen by God to lead the new struggle on behalf of his people for the independence of Biafra.
Ohaneze Ndigbo has said the Igbos didn’t vote for Buhari and have nothing to regret about their choice. A leading light of the group, Professor Ben Nwabueze, has repeatedly rebuked Buhari, maintaining that restructuring the country was more urgent than the new President’s fight against corruption. Did Buhari say restructuring the country is his priority?
In his first coming as Head of State following the 31st December, 1983 coup d’état, Buhari had a Yoruba deputy, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, who was named Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, and the Igbos were piqued by this combination. In 2015, Buhari was elected President of Nigeria and again his deputy is not Igbo but Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a Yoruba man. Buhari’s appointments into his kitchen cabinet in which no Igbo is named have confirmed the worst fears of the people that the President is an enemy. Since then, the people of the South East have become distraught about the Nigerian project.
Different groups in the South East have different attitude to this new struggle for Biafra. Some are very passionate about having their own country carved out of present day Nigeria and are ready to lay down their lives to achieve the dream. There is another group whose members have one foot in Nigeria and another in Biafra, when they meet Nigerians they make the right noise and if they are in the company of Biafrans, they identify with the struggle. However, there is yet another group for whom the call for the independence of Biafra causes deep embarrassment.
As Jideofor Adibe has posited, the bulk of the clamour for Biafra is for admittance into the corridors of power to enable the advocates get access to a bigger slice of the national cake. This may well be true of MASSOB and its leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, who was accused of enlisting his organisation’s support for the re-election of Goodluck Jonathan, having allegedly been mobilised with campaign funds. For this reason, MASSOB has broken into factions and those who think Uwazuruike has sold out have gone their own way.
The Igbos have not been successful at political leadership of Nigeria since the return of party politics. Both in 1979 and 1983, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe lost the presidential elections to Alhaji Shehu Shagari, and in 1999, despite starting as a favourite, Dr Alex Ekwueme lost the presidential ticket of the People’s Democratic Party )PDP to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo at the party’s convention in Jos. Dr Ekwueme, you would recall, was a founding member of the PDP.
What is the objective of those agitating for “Republic of Biafra”? How can “Biafra” be realised? How does President Muhammadu Buhari handle a renewed agitation for “Biafra”? Is he perturbed by this renewed campaign for “Biafra”?
A FACT of Nigeria’s democratic experience in the last 16 years is that every new political administration springs forth a new uprising from disenchanted interest groups. Such seems to be the case of the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the recent series of protests by youths of South eastern extraction seeking secession from Nigeria and demanding the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kalu, the detained director of the pirate Radio Biafra.
But contrary to the position of some informed commentaries denouncing the ongoing agitation for secession or self-determination as a rally of miscreants, the obviously expanding Biafran factions are gradually crystallising into a global clamour for the actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra. Whatever the motives of this agitation, it must not be taken lightly.
Whilst, at face value, the wave of protests dotting south eastern cities and Port Harcourt, Rivers State, may be construed as another activity of unscrupulous, business-minded men exploiting gullible youths, the motivations for such uprising rest on the skewed nature of the Nigerian society.
For many years, successive administrations have maintained a portentous imbalance and inequitable structure that disfavours meritocracy. They have glossed over the continuous capitulation of the political class in a progressive fashion to a point of disaffection. And by so doing they have fostered a forced unanimity.
With this groundswell of protests, the unity of Nigeria, for want of a suitable metaphor, seems to be held at gunpoint. Perhaps, this agitation points to issues that have not been resolved. It is noteworthy that while these protests persist, a section of the Igbo elite have either only dismissed the agitation in the fashion of President Muhammadu Buhari and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, or continually recycled the narratives of Nigeria’s skewed political economic structuring. What they should do instead is that, they, with well-meaning Nigerians, should find a midway and a basis for which the nation’s diversity can be respected, and a sense of belonging maintained. Standards have to be respected and established constitutional rights must be protected without making others feel any loss of their identities.
Sorry but “Biafra” lives (2)
What the Northern Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello warned us about fifty years ago is true, after all; the Igbos are a domineering lot, they want to take over the entire environment in which they dwell. This was precisely the reason why Major Chukwuemeka Nzeogwu organised his coup d’état and killed prominent and influential Northern and South western leaders. He wanted to exterminate our people, take over Nigeria and establish the dominance of his own ethnic nationality.
Witness the staffing and operations of the office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation under Anyim Pius Anyim? The man cleansed the entire office of any influence by other groups and planted the Ndigbo from the first to the innermost of the doors in line with the philosophy of his kinship. The Igbos who invented the word marginalisation have resurrected the concept. This time, even the post of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which Ojukwu had derisively dismissed as a glorified tea maker, has eluded the Igbos as Buhari appointed someone from Northern Christian minority. No wonder their new leader, Nnamdi Kanu, said “we will burn down Nigeria to the ground.” Blimey! Who will let you, dan tsako?
The very last people under whom Ndigbo will want to be governed are the Hausa/Fulani. That’s why the “ndi” don’t want Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be criticised even though she ran the sleaziest import waiver regime, misadvised Jonathan and coordinated a bleeding economy. That was why the “ndi” gave over 90% of their votes to the PDP in the 2015 elections. That was why the “ndi” preferred Goodluck Jonathan’s administration notwithstanding its gangsterism. That was why the “ndi” believed Jonathan would construct the so called Second Niger Bridge even though he had lied to them about it for eight years. The manipulated Goodluck Jonathan was either Igbo or he was going to hand over power to Igbo President.
An Igbo man (in his 70s) I met at a bank a few weeks to the 2015 elections told me that if Buhari won the election they would declare Biafran Republic with Abuja as their capital; Abuja as capital of Biafra? Blimey! I also met another one, in his 40s, at a barbing salon who argued that Buhari had made a terrible mistake by pairing with a Yoruba person instead of an Igbo. That one also assured me that the Igbos would fight for their own country if Buhari won the election!
Yet the Hausa/Fulani have demonstrated an uncommon magnanimity in their relationships with the Biafrans. In 1979, barely 9 years after the civil war, Alhaji Shehu Shagari (did you hear the sound of the name?) picked Dr Alex Ekwueme as his running mate and together they won the Nigerian Presidency. Shehu Shagari then stretched it in 1981 by granting state pardon to the run-away leader of Biafra himself, Odumegwu Ojukwu. The Biafran leader had been holed up in exile in Cote d’Ivoire where he went “in search of peace.” How much more benevolent can the hated Hausa/ Fulani be?
The Igbos have been fingered for armed robbery, 419, kidnapping, murder and other crimes in the North; never for once were they profiled as an unwanted or unwelcome ethnic group. The Ndigbo have prospered in the north; they have bought land, built churches, hotels, homes as well as some other businesses sometimes at the expense of their hosts. Despite the bitterness of their 1967 rebellion, there were no cases of abandoned property in the North as many of them went back and regained their assets. For millions of Hausa/Fulani, the renewed fight for Biafra is a needless distraction. For them, the Igbos can go their own way, today not tomorrow. They are free to instruct their Governors, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives and other political leaders to negotiate their exit from Nigeria.
A vast number of the people here think that as usual, the Igbos politically miscalculated by voting en masse for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and they must live with the consequences. They are part of the 5% that the President mentioned and they cannot expect to be admitted into the inner recesses of the bedroom of someone they declared as enemy. As a result of his religion and ethnic group, the Igbos hate Muhammadu Buhari and they want him to fail. People here reason that it is time to call the bluff of the Igbos.
Nnamdi Kanu cannot go scot free and as he will soon find out, one is at liberty to establish a bandit radio but you just cannot broadcast everything that “cometh out of the mouth.” Kanu will be tried for slander and sedition. Kanu’s hate speech has been heard and something is being done about it. The brand new “Biafran” leader is probably free to burn down Igbo land but not Nigeria. Already, the one week ultimatum his followers gave federal government to release him has come and gone, and he is still in detention, so all eyes are now on them to ignite the fire they wish for themselves!
President Buhari is no stranger to the civil war because he fought it. If another one is forced on him, he will fight it as commander-in-chief. Are the Biafran demonstrators bluffing? Are the demonstrations sustainable? Can we have a viable Biafran Republic? What are the odds against the new “Republic of Biafra”?
Source: Daily Trust
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