Some days ago, a friend from Akwa Ibom who stays in Aba called me and asked How Akwa Ibomites are reacting to the recent agitations by the Igbos for Biafra. I could only tell him if there’s anything an Akwa Ibomite or Cross Riverian is agitating for now, the least is to be part of Biafra.
The Efik-Ibibos, is a minority tribe in Nigeria, and those could be the reason our interest seems to be overshadowed by that of the Igbos.
As much as we are victims of
intimidation and political oppression in Nigeria, we least place we hope to find solution is in Biafra.
Living next door to the igbos is both intimidating and oppressive itself. Talk less of sharing power or being ruled by then. I grew up hearing folk songs like ‘Igbo play wayo’. And this is how an Ibibio man sees an average Igbo man – an opportunist and extreme ‘monitizer’
One of the major allegations Governor Akpabio faced was the allegations that he allowed his wife to pillage Akwa Ibom wealth to her state.
On the other hand, the igbos believe the Ibibio is an inferior tribe to them. It’s funny but true that an Igbo man rarely marries an Ibibio lady, even when they have lived together for years. This is just an extended proof of their hyper ethnocentrism.
I didn’t witness the civil war, I thank God I did not. But I can sing the story of how it happened in Akwa Ibom.
But I remember my grandmother (may her soul rest in peace) telling me how she and other women escaped being killed by Biafran soldiers.
We may not have literary icons like Achebe(RIP) to tell the war story and win sympathy. But deep down our hearts, we know who killed who.
In virtually all aspects of the Biafran struggles, from the Biafran military to the Biafran diplomatic mission, the federal government of Biafra, and in the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) of the Republic of Biafra, no record acknowledges that either Ibibio Union or the then Cross River State, had outrightly sent or permitted
anybody from the region to represent its interest in any capacity in the Biafran government.
The Ibibios in the Biafran military were partly converts from the Nigerian military and partly inexperienced civilians who were forced to serve the secessionists army. Others in the Biafran agencies found themselves there following their
connections with the Igbos before the crisis.
This made them see the support they didn’t get from the Ibibios as betrayal, forcing them to kill the ibibios at will..
Not only do the igbos not get the support of Akwa Ibom and Cross river, despite fighting the marginalization of the Niger Delta, Late Ogoni and Niger Delta leader Ken Saro Wiwa
was a strong supporter of a united Nigeria against
the Ojukwu led Biafran State in 1967. Meaning Nigeria is a better Nightmare than Biafra.
We need true federalism. Not Biafra!
Samuel Udoh Writes From Uyo