On paper the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is dead. The five Governors of the South East states proscribed the body a few days ago. They, instead, advised all aggrieved groups in the region to articulate their positions on all national issues and submit them to the Committee of Governors, Ohaneze Ndigbo and the National Assembly members from the region through the Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum.

The action of the governors is futile because they have no power to ban any association, even a rascally one like the IPOB. The 1999 Constitution confers on groups and individuals the freedom to associate. This order by the governors is an infringement of that freedom under the Constitution. The Governors’ Forum is not a parliament that makes laws so its pronouncement on IPOB is not a law. However, each of the governments in the region can get its House of Assembly to pass a law banning IPOB but that law, if passed, will be in conflict with the 1999 Constitution. The Constitution will prevail.

The truth is that the governors’ decision on IPOB is an act in futility. The IPOB members can change the name of their pressure group and still carry on with their activities. There used to be a National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) many years ago. The Federal Government placed a ban on its activities and proscribed it. The Association removed the NUNS garment and renamed itself the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). NANS is alive and well today, doing what NUNS used to do except that it has become a poor shadow of its vibrant ancestor.


To compound the woes of IPOB the military authorities have gone overboard and declared IPOB a terrorist organisation. The military lacks the powers to declare any organisation a terrorist organisation. Only a court of competent jurisdiction can make that pronouncement. Even the charges made by the military against IPOB are not weighty enough for any such declaration. If they think they are right let them head to the court and make a case for the stigmatisation of the pressure group. If the IPOB members decide to challenge these decisions in court they may run away with victory. But that is only my own piece of speculation. The reality is that soldiers are on the ground in the South East marching people’s freedom on their big boots and sending terror into every spine.

Source: http://guardian.ng/opinion/Igbos-death/