OPINION: President Buhari is to Blame For Recent Biafra Agitations- by Femi Aribisala

In the eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency, there was no headline-grabbing demand for Biafra. Ditto for the eight years of the Yar’adua/Jonathan presidency. However, within months of Buhari’s presidency, the Igbo demand for Biafra has become deafening. Without doubt, the blame for this new impetus must be laid firmly at the doorstep of President Buhari. Moreover, rather than attenuate it, the president and the APC have exacerbated separatist tendencies in the country.

This was part of the reason why people like me did not support Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria. I have written severally in Vanguard that Nigeria must remain a united nation. In my column of March 4, 2014 entitled: “Re-inventing Igbo Politics in Nigeria,” I maintained that: “Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbo.” The following week on March 11, 2014, I wrote another article entitled: “Nigeria Cannot Do without the North.”

I remain persuaded by both positions. But if Nigeria is indeed to remain united, there are certain things that must be said and done. The problem with the Buhari administration is that it seems totally impervious to these imperatives.

Second-class treatment

There is no question that, as one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have been hard done by. Since the civil war 45 years ago, they have been treated as if they were a minority ethnic group in Nigeria when in fact they are one of the majorities. No Igbo has been considered worthy of being head-of-state. The South-East of Ndigbo is the only one of the six geopolitical zones of the country with five states. All other zones have six or more.

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Indeed, the number of local governments in the North-East is virtually double that of the South-East. As a result, the Ndigbo receive the smallest amount of revenue allocation among all the zones, in spite of the fact that some of the South-Eastern states are among the oil-producing states.

The roads in the South-East are notoriously bad. Government after government have simply ignored them. Inconsequential ministerial positions are usually zoned to Ndigbo. Time was when it seemed the lackluster Ministry of Information was their menial preserve. It is also a known fact that every so often the Igbo are slaughtered in the North under one guise or the other. Many are forced to abandon their homes and businesses and run for dear life. The people who perpetrate these acts never seem to be arrested or prosecuted.

When a major tribe is treated procedurally as second-class in their own country, there will be a demand for self-determination sooner rather than later. When a group of people feel unsafe in their own country, they cannot but be expected to decide to opt out. It is not the responsibility of the government to imprison the Igbo in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure and guarantee that they feel safe and are treated with respect.

Discrimination against the South

While these issues have been brewing under the surface for some time, the lop-sided tendencies of President Buhari have brought them all out to boiling-point. In his first-coming as head-of-state in 1984, Buhari antagonised Ndigbo by locking up Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, an Igbo man, in jail in Kirikiri, while President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani man was only placed under house arrest. In addition, Buhari arrested and jailed Ojukwu, another Igbo icon for no just cause.

As Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari discriminated blatantly against the South and especially the South-East. For example, his PTF built only 4,440 kilometres of roads in Southern Nigeria representing a paltry 24 percent; while 13,870 kilometres were built in the North representing 76 percent. Of these figures, the South-East and South-South combined only received 13.5 percent.

Under the PTF’s National Health and Rehabilitation Programme (NHERP), the entire South got 0 percent allocation, while the North got 100 percent in the tertiary programme. In the vocational programme, the entire South had only 3 percent while the North had 97 percent. The same was for the primary side where the South had only 12 percent but the north was allocated 88 percent. The secondary area was no different. While the North had 86 percent, the South had just 14 percent.

Disenfranchisement of Ndigbo

These anomalies have been duplicated to date in the seven months of Buhari’s presidency. In the first place, Buhari won virtually without Igbo votes. In order to diminish Jonathan’s votes, a major assault was made against them, recognising that they are some of the staunchest Jonathan supporters. INEC ensured that, far more disproportionately relative to other geopolitical zones, millions of South-East voters disappeared between 2011 and 2015.

Only 7.6 million voters were registered for the 2015 election in the South-East, and only 5.6 million PVCs collected. Compare this with Buhari’s North-West, there were 17.6 million registrations and 15.1 million collections. While in the South-West, there were 4.2 million votes in 2015, relative to 4.6 million in 2011: in the South-East, there were only 2.6 million votes in 2015, relative to 5 million in 2011; a drastic drop of 2.4 million.

While Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Bauchi posted their traditional humongous figures; Imo, Anambra and Abia posted relatively disappointing figures. While the internally displaced Northerners in the North-East could vote; internally displaced Igbos from the North could not. While the card-readers failed in many parts of the South-East, suggestive they were programmed to fail, they worked in most parts of the North. In places like Lagos and Kano, many non-indigenes, including the Igbo, were not even given their PVCs.

Making of a hero

President Buhari then added insult to injury by stating on his visit to the United States that he could not be expected to treat those who voted for him in the same way as those who did not.

He said: “(Going by election results), constituencies that gave me 97 percent cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5 percent. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place.”

While his media assistants later tried to water down this disturbing statement, the reality was that, apart from the constitutionally-stipulated requirement that every state must be represented in the presidential Cabinet, Buhari has virtually ignored the Igbo in his appointments.

Two moves showed the level of insensitivity of the Buhari administration to these anomalies. The first was the decision to move Boko Haram prisoners down from the North to the South-East; a move firmly resisted by the Igbo as it would have made them a target of suicide-bombers. The other was the blunder of placing Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra, under arrest; charging him with treason and terrorism.

All the government has achieved by this is inflame passions in the South-East. It has also made a hero out of Kanu. Those who did not know about Kanu before now know him. Those who were not disposed to Biafra before are now shouting Biafra. For weeks on end, Biafra has become the biggest news item nationwide, with agitations, demonstrations, threats and arrests.

Agenda for action

The government needs to apply more wisdom here. At the moment, it has become the biggest promoter of Biafra by the way it has gone about things. The idea of Biafra cannot be killed with a sledge hammer, if at all. What is required is to address the root causes that impelled Biafra. Unfortunately, it would appear the Buhari administration is unwilling to do this.

As a matter of urgency, Nnamdi Kanu must be released unconditionally. If the government persists in labeling him a terrorist, his supporters might decide to become terrorists. Nigeria already has enough problem of Boko Haram conflagration in the North-East. We cannot afford to light another fire in the South-East.

Kanu was living in England. If he were a terrorist, he would have been arrested there. The fact that he lived there without constraints or restraints shows he was not considered a threat, either to Britain or to Nigeria.

It is not a crime to fight for self-determination; it is a right. The government must not give the impression that Nigeria is a prison where we must all live, irrespective of the living conditions. The government needs to address the grievances of the Igbo. Their roads and bridges must be built. Their waterways must be opened up to the Atlantic Ocean.

Eastern sea-ports must be developed. Railways must link their mercantile cities to the North. Their coal resources must be profitably exploited for the benefit of their unemployed youth and citizenry. An additional state must be created in the South-East to bring it up to par with other geopolitical zones.

National question

Moreover, we need to revisit again a critical issue addressed during the truncated National Conference: the issue of resource allocation. This is a major gripe of the Igbo and it is a legitimate gripe. It is not in the interest of Nigeria to continue in this age-old practice where all the states gather every month in Abuja for handouts, whether they are productive or not. This gives the wrong impression that some states are insisting on being piggy-backed by others. We need to develop a system that rewards and encourages productivity.

Those who produce should be allowed to keep disproportionately what they produce, instead of the current situation where they are required to share it disproportionately with those relatively less productive. The truth of the matter is that every part of Nigeria is resource rich. Every part of Nigeria has the requisite manpower. Unfortunately, our current over-concentration on oil militates against the development of other indigenous resources.

A situation where national resources are distributed according to the number of local government councils, and where there is now supposedly only 96 local government councils in the South-East, relative to 186 in the North-west does not suggest equity and justice.

The disgruntlement in the South-East about the Nigeria project will not disappear by ignoring it. It will not disappear by arresting Kanu. It will not disappear by issuing threats. Neither will it disappear by denying the youth of the South-East their freedom of speech and assembly.

Today, the demand for Biafra remains the demand of a minority of the Igbo. If the root causes of their anger are not addressed, the minority will soon become the majority. If that happens, Nigeria might unravel. I repeat what I have stated before: the Nigeria of our manifest destiny cannot be realised without the Igbo.

Why

Here are the facts:
- Current IPOB members were GEJ supporters durring the 2015 elections.
- Majority of members of TAN from the SE supports the current agitators.
- These agitators did not organize any mass protests during Jonathan's administration.

These Agitators = PDP Supporters = GEJ Fans = Hates Buhari and will never vote him in 20 lifetime.

So Aribisala and his PDP Crew should call their touts to order and avoid endangering their lives for cheap political scores.

teufelein:

This was part of the reason why people like me did not support Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria.




Today, the demand for Biafra remains the demand of a minority .

Booda Femi.

I feel the pain of being a loser


So MASOBB was created during Buhari's regime


Dooh

On point.

The only blame buhari have was been the president nothing more nothing lees .the Igbo are known for there hatred towards the northeners (Hausa's) . The hatred had gone beyond Biafra.

Front page.....lalastica! This is truetalk

You provoke me of not completing your write up. How has president Buhari administration brough about the igbo people clamouring for Biafra nation?

Talk of roads, Local govt., revenue has been like that since time of former president Obasanjo.

In the issue of igbo not been the head of state, who is to be blame for that? Buhari again or the APC govt.

Stop blaming PMB for igbos

nice write up. be crafty, check my signature

Sall:
The only blame buhari have was been the president nothing more nothing lees .the Igbo are known for there hatred towards the northeners (Hausa's) . The hatred had gone beyond Biafra.

Nah.. you're wrong, the only blame buhari has is that he didnt fulfilled his promises, the rest nah banza, Biafra are just hating because their so call leader is behind bars, infact, e dey pain them go reach their bone marrow....

egift:
Here are the facts:
- Current IPOB members were GEJ supporters durring the 2015 elections.
- Majority of members of TAN from the SE supports the current agitation.
- These agitators did not organize any mass protests during Jonathan's administration.

These Agitators = PDP Supporters = GEJ Fans = Hates Buhari and will never vote him in 20 lifetime.

So Aribisala and his PDP Crew should call their touts to order and avoid endangering their lives for cheap political scores.

Thank you

He cannot hide his bias in the stupeed write up by saying he opposed Buhari's election

Apparently he is just another sore LOSER.

Sall:
The only blame buhari have was been the president nothing more nothing lees .the Igbo are known for there hatred towards the northeners (Hausa's) . The hatred had gone beyond Biafra.

^^^Please, just zip it if you have nothing reasonable to say!

Who is the ethnic group that had conspired through all sorts of underhand and clandestine activities to deny the other a shot at the presidency? Who has slaughtered the other in their hundreds of thousands since the 50s? Who has invested and lived more in the region of the other.....despite the wickedness visited on them by their so-called 'fellow countrymen'? whose elite and clerics have been documented and caught on tape displaying their hatred or dislike for the other simply because they can't keep up with the others developmental strides in academics, sport and business?

Femi Aribisala is spot on in his assessment of the situation!

Bishop4bella:
You provoke me of not completing your write up. How has president Buhari administration brough about the igbo people clamouring for Biafra nation?

Talk of roads, Local govt., revenue has been like that since time of former president Obasanjo.

In the issue of igbo not been the head of state, who is to be blame for that? Buhari again or the APC govt.

Stop blaming PMB for igbos

Like I said earlier, booda femi is just another sore LOSER.

Their pride will not allow all of them admit they lost election and move the nation forward.
They still want us to Believe they are still right and we are wrong.

If all this change does is to ensure they stop stealing our resources, I am OK.

The only promise I am holding Buhari on is pigthing kwarropshan

Igbos have a right to want to leave or stay in Nigeria. Buhari has nothing to do with that. If anything, the agitation for sovereignty after putting all their eggs and in one basket and losing, is evidence of political naivete and wickedness .

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.
The one that”s out always looks the best.

What is aribisala saying. Those that were shouting "Jonathan till 2019" are the ones singing "biafra till they die"

How is that BUHARI's fault


Lubbish.

captainflash:
Nah.. you're wrong, the only blame buhari has is that he didnt fulfilled his promises, the rest nah banza, Biafra are just hating because their so call leader is behind bars, infact, e dey pain them go reach their bone marrow....

For 16 yrs the PDP did not Transform Nigeria and solve all of its problems, you and the Wailing Agitators did not complain nor protest.

Now you are choking yourself because Buhari has not solve all of Nigeria's problems in 6months. Really!

If there is one thing I am happy not doing, it is voting Buhari. I knew from day one that, that man has nothing to offer to anybody. Junketeer in chief.

egift:


For 16 yrs the PDP did not Transform Nigeria and solve all of its problems, you and the Wailing Agitators did not complain nor protest.

Now you are choking yourself because Buhari has not solve all of Nigeria's problems in 6months. Really!

Here we go again, a friendly reminder:
The same PDP are now APC so they have a legitimate right to complain against hypocrites.

BushidoBlue:


Here we go again, a friendly reminder:
The same PDP are now APC so they have a legitimate right to complain against hypocrites.

Unless you are saying APC has been ruling Nigeria since 1999, I stand by my comment. Your inability to differentiate the meaning of an institution and members is the foundation of your confusion.

egift:


Unless you are saying APC has been ruling Nigeria since 1999, I stand by my comment. Your inability to differentiate the meaning of an institution and members is the foundation of your confusion.

Emma how your web hustle in Enugu? any headway? I noticed you've been scarce on biafran threads with your 'pack out of nigeria' and 'miscreants' loud shouts. Hope we are safe?
Greet your father in Damboa for us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CdX32JGczw

[size=15pt]"Biafrans Are Better-of Staying in The United Nigeria" - Igbo Conscience Group[/size]

The Igbo Conscience (TIC) led by Barrister Monday Ubani hosts a Press Conference in Lagos, dismissing the renewed agitation for the State of Biafra as a misplaced effort. In one of the series comments during the conference, Joe Igbokwe said "Biafra is history".

children of hate oya over to you

Blame game continues till 2019

Buhari is a very wicked fulani man who hates ndigbo. that is why i kept telling my people, if a fulani herdsman kill one, then we kill all. Buhari or not, biafra is here to stay.

As usual, Aribisala did justice to this.

Those who have ears should hear and act. #enoughsaid

Buhari's shallowness and ethnic bias is to blame for the current upsurge of the Biafran agitation in the east. The push for secession has always been there even under OBJ and GEJ. But Buhari's tribalistic and anti-Igbo policy blew it out of proportion.
There were other injustice the writer mentioned that has contributed to the push for secession. Issues that successive government had continually fail to address. Until these issues are settled once and for all, the Biafran push will never die down, and if the government decide to toe the line of brutality instead of reasoning then they'll be shocked to see, that what was once termed a minority struggle will engulf into a majority hurricane.
I respect Femi Aribisala again for this article. Indeed, Nigeria has a date with the truth.