THOSE WHO FAIL TO LEARN FROM HISTORY: THE BIAFRAN STRUGGLE AND THE WAYS FORWARD.

‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.’-Karl Marx.

For some months now, Nigeria’s socio-political atmosphere has been marked by an upbeat in struggle for the independent state of Biafra that never really died. This struggle has triggered several reactions; some people have reacted in support of the struggle, while some have reacted in the other direction. In the course of this agitation, several lives and properties have been lost. Furthermore, it is becoming a growing concern to the Nigerian state. Consequently, this piece will address the history of the struggle, critique the arguments for and against the struggle and suggest the pathway to justice and progress.

The fundamental problem with the new age Biafran idea is that many people at the vanguard of the clamour have failed to critically interact with Biafra’s history. Of a truth, the genuine and fundamental causes of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) are not quite different from present-day realities. In other words, the economic cum political condition of Nigeria at that very time share some resemblance with what we have now. Poverty, hunger, corruption, oppression, exploitation and so on were present then. Similar issues are still being grappled with today. It was because of these troubles that the South-eastern people of that time resorted to secession as the solution but history has proven the futility of such survival strategy as it all ended in the Nigerian Civil (1967-1970) that accounted for the loss over one million precious lives and unrecoverable properties. I appreciate the fact that in Nigeria’s current pitiable state, people are coming out with ‘redemptive’ solutions, but we must be wary of these solutions. We need to wake up to the reality that we all have the same enemies – those who employ religion and ethnicity to divide us against one another.

In every struggle, there are usually sympathizers-supporters and critic-opponents. The supporters come out with arguments to defend their ideas while the opponents with counter-arguments to justify their antagonism. The predominant supporters of the present Biafran struggle are the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and their arguments are basically premised on the marginalisation of the Igbo people. This premise precipitates certain essential questions. What is marginalisation? Who are those constituting the marginalised class? These questions will be subsequently treated with the aid factual points.

According to www.reference.com, ‘marginalisation, or social exclusion, is the concept of intentionally forcing or keeping a person in an undesirable societal position.’ An online dictionary, English Oxford Dictionary, defines the concept as the ‘treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral’. Deducing from these definitions, it can be safely established that marginalisation suggests injustice, inequality, exploitation and oppression. Frankly and factually speaking, the Igbos are not the only marginalised in Nigeria. I am a young Igbo man and of course, I am marginalised. My friends from other parts of Nigeria - Ochuko, Musa, Gbenga and Mary - are all marginalised.

Marginalisation is neither a religious nor an ethnic problem but an economic war between the oppressors and the oppressed. The pro-Biafrans are either oblivious of this fact or they are conscious of it but have only chosen to be propagandist in approach. For instance, in the streets of Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara, one will find famished people and too many out-of-school children. In fact, according to www.nigerianinfopedia.com, the seven poorest states in Nigeria are Sokoto (81.2%), Kastina, Adamawa (74.2%), Gombe (73.2%), Jigawa (72.1), Plateau (71%), and Ebonyi (70.6%). It is clear from the data that the northern states of Nigeria are also marginalised.

Furthermore, the 2016 poverty report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has it that about 112 million Nigerians (that is a staggering 67%) of the country’s total population of 167 million live below poverty line. Therefore, we see that all tribes in Nigeria are victims of oppression and marginalisation. Moreover, in every instance of oppression, there are the oppressors and the members of the oppressed class. Who are our oppressors? They are those who have privatised the educational, health, and agricultural sectors, and amassed Nigerian oil wells to their aggrandizement. Our oppressors are those who, out of their filthy lust after lucre, have embezzled and exploited our resources. We pay dearly for their lack of will and good faith to lead. They are in every tribe as well as religion in Nigeria. Our marginalisers are not the hustling Aminat, Chibuzor or Yemi in the streets of Kano, Benin or Lagos.

Some Biafran apologists believe that all northerners are Moslems, and Islam is inherently violent while Biafra is Christian and peace-loving. In other words, they have painted Islam as a terrorist religion. In fact, most Biafrans see every Hausa or Fulani as a potential terrorist. This is condemnable! Baruch Spinoza, in one his works, referred to this kind of belief pattern as an ‘idol’. The philosopher also stated that idols hinder progress in any society. The existence of ill-intentioned terrorist organisations that adopt a religious mask cannot be denied. This is another indication that our wars might wear a religious or tribal mask, but they are fundamentally economic.

There are terrorist groups in the world that are ostensibly Christian in outlook. Some of them include The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Eastern Lightning (a.k.a the Church of the Almighty God) and The Concerned Christians, and so on. Most of these groups aim at establishing states governed by Christianity. To be more specific, the Joseph-Kony-led LRA aims to actualise an independent state governed by the 10 commandments of Moses. As a result, thousands of innocent people have been killed, abducted and displaced for the actualisation of this futile aim. At this juncture, may we be reminded that not all northerners are Moslems, and not all Moslems are northerners. Just like many other terrorist organisations, the Boko Haram sect and the Fulani herdsmen have killed Christians, Moslems, and even pagans. We need to be conscious of the fact that our oppressors at different places use these inhumane groups to perpetuate oppression against us.

Some critics have said that Biafrans do not have the right to demand for their independent state. The last time I checked, nations are not formed by coercion but by volition. In other words, the Biafrans have the right to say that they do not want to belong Nigeria any longer. Moreover, the gesture of the Nigerian government towards the supporters of the Biafran struggle has been questionable. The Nigerian government at this point in time should be calling for intellectual debates on the issue rather than calling for negotiations and violent approaches.

So far, this essay has identified that the Biafran struggle is a by-product of the quest for better living conditions and survival and that all tribes have their share of marginalisation. What then is the way forward? We must first identify our oppressors - our common foe. Also, we must jettison tribalism and religious fanaticism and come together as a people united and strengthened by their diversity. Having identified who our oppressors are, we must unite to collectively expose and serve them justice. We must be ready to protest when necessary, agitate and challenge the bad policies of the Nigerian government. Our leaders must be put on their toes. They must be made accountable to us, the citizens who elected them in the first place.

Nigerian youths to be receptive to proper education - in national development, history and economics. As obtainable in a sane democratic polity, we Nigerians must rest at nothing until we are part of the decision-making body as far as distribution of our resources is concerned. The younger generation must wake up from the slumber of political apathy. Politics is not meant to be as dirty as it has been played by our political office holders. Only we can sanitize the political atmosphere in Nigeria by participating fully in it. Also, no tribe has the monopoly of all natural resources. The problem is not with location of our resources, but the distribution. The walk to freedom might be long and back-breaking but it is a generational mission we must fulfil. At this point in time, we must not let history repeat itself. I step aside with these wise words of George Santayana: ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’.

Grateful Great Chukwunyere (Invictus Emeritus).

The writer of this article is very stvpid..