ITS name is synonomous with the declaration of independence and updates on the brutal conflict that followed, but nearly 50 years after Nigeria’s civil war, Radio Biafra is again making headlines.

The modern-day version—broadcasting online apparently from London and, many suspect, retransmitted inside Nigeria—was taken off air last week after regulators called it illegal.

President Muhammadu Buhari was also forced to issue a statement, denying the station’s claims he had criticised Igbos, one of the country’s three largest ethnic groups, in a recent BBC interview.

“The illegal broadcasts from the seditious pirate radio station… shattered the peace… with unsavoury hate messages,” the National Broadcasting Commission said last Friday.

The messages were “designed to create disunity among Nigerians and mislead young people in a deliberate act of subversion. Nigerians do not need another round of heartache and bloodshed”, it added.

The existence of the station, which was easily picked up in Nigeria’s southeast, is a reminder of the country’s bubbling ethnic tensions and the still-raw wounds of history.

Listeners said its anti-government propaganda showed the dream of a separate Biafran republic is still alive, 45 years after the end of the bloody civil war.

“Although the radio did not have good programmes lined up, its listenership was growing by the day and the government felt threatened by its popularity, especially among the youths,” said Chijioke Amadi, 32, in the southeastern city of Enugu.

‘A state of our own’

With Nigeria’s young demographic, most listeners to Radio Biafra will not even have been born when Igbo General Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared an independent Republic of Biafra in 1967.

But memories linger of the anti-Igbo pogrom in the mainly Muslim north that preceded secession and the war that followed.

When the fighting ended in 1970 with more than one million Igbos dead of disease and hunger, Nigeria’s military ruler General Yakubu Gowon declared there was “no victor or vanquished”.

But the Igbos claim they have been unfairly treated—even punished—ever since.

“Our grandfathers and fathers adopted the ideology of Biafra,” said Uchenna Madu, spokesman for the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

“We believe in their vision and we have continued to build on the foundation laid by our parents. We are being denied our fundamental rights of being Biafrans,” he told AFP.

“We love Nigeria, we want to contribute to its development but the Nigerian state is paying us back with hatred. We want a state of our own.”

One Igbo former military officer, who participated in the so-called “Igbo coup” in January 1966 and later fought for Biafra, said the sense of injustice had been passed down generations.

“The children who were born after the war ask their parents why the five states in the region are underdeveloped,” the 72-year-old said, declining to give his name.

“Their parents tell them of the pogrom and devastation that took place during the war and these children, now adults, feel bitter and demand to go their separate ways.”

‘We shall prevail’

Most “Biafra” agitators assert their region is overlooked in the provision of infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, medical care, education, as well as senior political posts.

There was criticism recently from the southeast of Buhari’s appointments to senior military roles.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, head of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of the Law, said Igbos had been “totally excluded with impunity”.

The appointments were “undemocratic and unconstitutional,” he added, referring to a contentious constitutional provision for posts to be shared among Nigeria’s regions.

For Eze Onyekpere, director of the Centre for Social Justice pressure group, the situation demonstrated how Nigeria has failed to come to terms with its past and diversity.

“They have been swept under the carpet. These are national questions which Radio Biafra has sought to highlight,” he added.

In such a powder keg of competing ethnic and religious identities, dissent—whether on radio or via Biafra Television—can thrive.

Eleven men from a MASSOB splinter group are currently on trial charged with conspiracy to declare a breakaway republic when they stormed a state-run radio station in Enugu in June last year.

For Uchenna, the incidents show “the spirit of Biafra is alive and it cannot die”.

“We shall prevail,” he said. “We are no longer interested in Nigeria. No tribe in Nigeria has the interest of the Igbos at heart, hence our sustained campaign for our own separate republic.”

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/biafra-casts-long-shadow-over-nigeria-nearly-50-110721739.html#TG1Qg37

http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-07-22-radio-biafra-opens-old-wounds-and-casts-long-shadow-over-nigeria-nearly-50-years-on/

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/biafra-casts-long-shadow-over-nigeria-nearly-50-years-on/

FTC

let me know when e reach fp

One Biafra we shall never go down.!""

The awareness and message don dey penetrate.

Long live IPOB, Indigenous People of Biafra, worldwide, actively operating and recognized in over 92 countries of the world and counting.
Long live to all Biafrans in diaspora funding Radio Biafra and it's operations.

and special shoutout to Nnamdi Kanu.

I doubted, but I fully joined my IPOB brothers as I got back to Asia and thankfully, the message is sinking far and wide, small small small.
The world is reading, hearing and talking us, in no distant time, the world will gather for us. Then, the inevitable will happen.

Mods, who amongst u is responsible for FP, do the needful, as yahoo don carry the news, who are you to deny it?

Oya, take it to FP and tell me my bill, ozugbo!

Leopardd and EasternLion, let's talk on private.

lygn19:
Leopardd and EasternLion, let's talk on private.

Still about the plan?

EasternLion:


Still about the plan?

U guys are jonesing big time.
I want u to see one Nigeria tru my eyes.

Ok

Biafra is non-negotiable, it's either they give us Biafra or Somalia would be a paradise compared to that ZOO called Nigeria.
this is 2015 not 1967-70,
ignore these words at your own PERIL

darkness can never overshadow light,

A greater sign has appeared in heaven,
The angels have taken their positions to usher in the great BIAFRAN republic, but the blinds are yet to see it.

Thanks be to God!
We are going higher everyday.

Long live republic of BIAFRA.

The zoo is a criminal enterprise

Biafra is here

mrofficial:
Unnecessary struggle. Starting all over again. Wonder what will happen to all their investments and properties nationwide.

Just like Jesus said to the women of Jerusalem, so I say into you

'Weep not for us but for your children and your children's children'

Of what use is the property when your people(out of jealousy and hatred) will still wake up one morning and destroy them and call us immigrants.
Nonsense

Long live the federal republic of Biafra

mrofficial:
Unnecessary struggle. Starting all over again. Wonder what will happen to all their investments and properties nationwide.

my people do say "ndu bu isi" - "life is supreme".

Which means that, as long as one is alive, nothing lost can't be regained.

EasternLion stop dz, hear me out first.

lygn19:
EasternLion stop dz, hear me out first.

broh u can still do what u are doing.

Go sell ur ideas to IPOB, they will fund it and help u achieve it, trust me.

EasternLion:


broh u can still do what u are doing.

Go sell ur ideas to IPOB, they will fund it and help u achieve it, trust me.

If I was to ever do that and part of it escalates into the public, as a result of some imposters in it, It would never see d light of day. Nigga have patience with Nigeria and hear me out.

Nigeria has a Date with Truth--dearpreye



Dear dearpreye,is the "date" fast approaching than anticipated,owning the rate at which the Internation community,and their media houses,are on the subject matter?.BBC,AFP,FOX NEWS,etc.
Well,we already knows the answer.


As for the tribalized mods and others," Like the Bible would say,If humans refuses to praise God,He will command creations to do so.Therefore,you guys can continue in the game of Ostrich.

mrofficial:
Unnecessary struggle. Starting all over again. Wonder what will happen to all their investments and properties nationwide.

Me thinks this emotional comment is totally unnecessary.stop thinking for us.

Gentlemen breaking up the country might not be the real solution, however be the case the country can be used by biafrans to achieve better objectives.

Leopardd:
Mods, who amongst u is responsible for FP, do the needful, as yahoo don carry the news, who are you to deny it?

Oya, take it to FP and tell me my bill, ozugbo!

The bigoted imps that call themselves mods won't take this to the FP. Trying to shut down Biafrans from talking will even help to fuel fuel the vociferocity of the Biafran truth. Zoogerians be warned! This Biafrans are intelligent and some have left their businesses to fight for this cause. When an Igboman leave his business for a cause you know what that means.......

"nigeria is the giant of Africa"
depending on mostly Oil
which comes from BIAFRA-LAND
.
and u wonder y though they hate Igbos they won't want them to go.

NDPVF:
Nigeria has a Date with Truth--dearpreye



Dear dearpreye,is the "date" fast approaching than anticipated,owning the rate at which the Internation community,and their media houses,are on the subject matter?.BBC,AFP,FOX NEWS,etc.
Well,we already knows the answer.


As for the tribalized mods and others," Like the Bible would say,If humans refuses to praise God,He will command creations to do so.Therefore,you guys can continue in the game of Ostrich.

That date must come. The human desire for a better life cannot be repressed forever. All hope isn't lost; we can still make a better nation out of this one. Are we willing? Or should we continue playing the ostrich?

Mods?

waiting are you what for?

FP, na yahoo source oh, no be Sahara reporters.

mrofficial:
Unnecessary struggle. Starting all over again. Wonder what will happen to all their investments and properties nationwide.

As if you care for us genuinely. Think about the carcass nature of what will remain of Nigeria after the exit of Biafra.

kettykings:
Gentlemen breaking up the country might not be the real solution, however be the case the country can be used by biafrans to achieve better objectives.

There is no better objective than being master of your fate and architect of your destiny. Freedom is priceless. I don't accept that the Biafran struggle should be a smokescreen for any other objective(s). That was the mistake Zik made several years ago.

When the option to leave Nigeria comes, we must VOTE yes for Biafra, and NO to Nigeria.