Nigeria is 101 years old or is it 55? The
story of Nigeria as we were told in school
is that some white men called Britons
came and overpowered our great
grandparents to establish what they
called Northern and southern protectorates. After sometime, specifically in 1914, the two
protectorates were merged to form what
is now called Nigeria. The country was
given its name by the wife of one of her
colonial masters who ruled her up to 1960 when it was declared independent. Independence meant the colonial masters will leave but all the structures they established including their language, their laws, Nigeria itself, etc. will remain unchanged. That is exactly what happened. Immediately they left there
was a series of political crises that led to
a self-declared secession by one of its
constituent regions to form another
country called Biafra. This led to a
bloody thirty months civil war. The war began the year I was born and ended
when I was still a baby. Thus, what I
know about the Nigerian civil war and the
crises that led to it is what I was told
either by those who wrote on it or people
who were there when it happened.

But right from my childhood, not any of
the Nigerians who told me the story of
Biafra found it easy. The questions I
always asked were intimidating for any
Nigerian nationalist. For example, what
sin had Ojukwu and his people committed to warrant the reaction they got from Nigerians? If a wife who loved her husband at the time of marriage turns back one day and says she no longer loves the man and declares him an
enemy, is it not in his own interest to part with her? Only a foolish man will be sleeping on the same bed with his enemy and calling her his wife. Now, what of if the marriage was imposed on them in the first place? The people who came to this part of the world and colonized us did not have our interest at heart. Their mission
was to plunder our resources and reduce
us to their perpetual slaves that we have
become. That is why they did not
consider our diversity before the 1914
amalgamation.

Another question I always asked was whether Ojukwu was interested in taking
any part of the North or West along with
him to form his new country or he was
simply interested in going his way along
with his own people. The answers I got were not convincing enough for me to
hate Biafra. This is even more so after I
read some of his speeches which did not
indicate any desire on the part of the
Biafrans to take any part of the Nigerian
territory.

Now, did Ojukwu have the support of his
people? The frank discussions I had with
many Igbos later in my life showed that
majority of the Igbos were with Ojukwu in
the Biafran struggle. But if they were not
sure, why did our leaders not organize a referendum? This is another question I
have always asked. Or since Nigerians
love religion, is there any portion of the
Quran or Bible which says Nigeria as
created by the British must continue to
remain “a single indivisible entity” as the politicians always put it? Many questions
without answers, and when you get the
answers they are always funny.

Thus right from the beginning of my life I
have always seen south easterners as a
cheated people, a people forced to be the
citizens of a country against their wish
and all that I needed to openly declare
my support for the Biafran struggle, even as a core northerner, was a transparently
honest and sustained struggle by them
for their course. Unfortunately this has
not been the case. Recent happenings
have left no one in doubt about the evil
motives of those struggling for the establishment of the nation of Biafra. The
reasons are not farfetched.

The Biafran agitators have not been
consistent. The intensity of their struggle
depends on the Government in power. If
the person in charge is one of their own, there is no Biafra; when they lose out,
the struggle for independence begins.
This is not the trait of a sincere people
struggling for freedom. In fact, the direct
opposite is supposed to be the case. For
example, since the end of the Nigerian civil war the Igbos had never had it politically rosy like they did during the last PDP administration. The president was half-Igbo; at least his middle name is Igbo. The SGF was an Igbo man; the
powerful Finance minister was Igbo. The Army chief was also from that tribe. In short, Nigeria was ruled by the Igbos. If the Igbos were honestly interested in innocuously going their way, there was no better time to agitate and in fact maneuver a referendum. However, what we saw was the polarization of Nigerians
along ethnic and religious line by the
Government and an approving silence
from those currently calling for
secession.

My sympathy for the Biafrans was
completely obliterated in Onitsha last
week. There was what was supposed to
be a demonstration to further the struggle
for freedom. Even if the demonstration
was to be violent, the primary target would have been Nigerian symbols.

However, what we saw was destruction
of Islamic places of worship and property
belonging to private entrepreneurs. The
question here is, assuming Nigerians let
go of Biafrans and allowed them to have
a separate nation, what would be the fate of Muslims in the new country?

Even in Israel which is a country built on race,
there are provisions for minority.
However, the message we got from
Biafran agitators was that there will be no
provision for mosques in the new country. Biafrans who would be interested in worshipping the Islamic way must go on exile to do so. Another thing to ask is whether there will be provision for foreign investors in the new country. Absolutely NO. That is the message from Biafrans. Or perhaps if there is
going to be a foreign investment it must
not come from any of the neighboring
countries like Nigeria. The Dangote that
is invited by almost all African countries
will not be welcome in the new country. My final question here is what should I
do? Should anyone expect me to
continue to have the same feeling for the
Biafrans that I had before? Certainly no.
The Biafrans have lost my lifetime
sympathy and potential support. If there is any war, I will be on the Nigerian side.

By Dr. Abdussamad Umar Jibia
Department of Mechatronics Engineering
Bayero University Kano

F*ck you, go and support ur islamic brothers.

Your sympathy was never there. A goat cannot sympathize with yams. You are a northerner, you believe the country was created for you to rule over forever. We will be here to ensure that you will only sucessfully rule over your cows forever in Arewa republic,that is.

The Biafran agitation was there long ago, from the 1990s till date. The utterance of your divisive dull president have ensured that Biafrans who were formerly on the fence jump into the Biafran ship to protect themselves. Divisive Buhari came to destroy nigeria and we will help him reap the fruits of his divisive tendencies. All politics is local and power ultimately rests will the people not one man in Aso rock.

Let him bring his guns we have our pens. When we lose our patience we'll met at the trenches.

The writer was busy making a case for himself by citing a partially burnt mosque as basis why the call for biafra shud be seen as a criminal enterprise while running away from obvious fact that 6 biafrans were killed on that same day, and there had been countless scores of killings surreptitiously on the biafran side by vampires of Nigerian army even when it was a peaceful call to self determination...No biafran needs his comment on biafra issues cos we know their sentiments.