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The Phenomenon Of Biafra (16) by Nobody: 5:26pm On Nov 12, 2017 |
By Douglas Anele
President Muhammadu Buhari hates the
separatist agitations of IPOB. For him,
majority of the youths agitating for Biafra
do not really appreciate the horrors of the
civil war because they were not yet born
at the time and, as a result, should not
precipitate another conflict.
As far as the President and other caliphate
colonialists are concerned Nigeria’s
disfigured unity, no matter how
suffocating it might be to the Igbo and
other “conquered” ethnic nationalities in
southern Nigeria, is not negotiable.
Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra,
IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
Buhari even blames south-east leaders for
the activities of IPOB. Now, the President
has always exhibited a condescending
attitude towards Ndigbo and their
concerns, probably because they lost the
war and must be kept in their place so
that Ahmadu Bello’s ideal of unquestioned
Islamic Fulani hegemony over Nigeria
would be realised. In my opinion, Buhari’s
response to the Biafran problem is too
provocative and unimaginative.
As a leader in an admittedly rudimentary
fractious democratic setting, he should
have invited leaders of genuine separatist
movements in the country to a meeting
for serious discussions as a caring father
would, work out a consensus with them
on how to address the complex issues
fuelling their secessionist agitations, and
begin the process of devolving power
from the centre to the geopolitical zones
or ethnic nationalities.
But the President, given his rigid,
temperamental dispositions, and misled by
bulimic sycophants benefitting from the
current system, will not do that. Instead,
he relies on the military to deal with a
difficult issue that requires wisdom and
statesmanship to resolve.
I believe that President Buhari’s approach
to the national question cannot engender
lasting solution to problem of ethnic
rivalry and suspicion, because it is based
on the flawed premise that Nigeria’s unity
constructed by British imperialists is non-
negotiable and that the best way to
maintain it is by force. Meanwhile, the
unstated presumption that those who did
not witness the civil war are somehow
disqualified from agitating for the
resuscitation of Biafra is wrong, an
indication of ignorance concerning the
critical role of history in shaping human
activities.
To be sure, the demand by IPOB for a
referendum to determine whether the
Igbo want Biafra or prefer to remain part
of asphyxiating Nigeria is definitely not a
call for violence or another civil war, as
Buhari and other ardent caliphate
colonialists have been proclaiming.
Indeed, the demand is a civilised attitude
to the issue at stake. Therefore,
demonising Nnamdi Kanu and his cohorts
by falsely claiming that IPOB’s request for
referendum would lead to armed conflict
is a case of calling a dog a bad name to
hang it.
On the supposition that those without
direct experience of the hardships caused
by the civil war should not agitate for
Biafra, I argue that anyone appalled by the
plight of Ndigbo in Nigeria could, through
historical research, critical reflection, and
empathic imagination be in a state of
mind remarkably close to the feelings and
mindset of a typical Igbo when the
pogroms against Ndigbo living in
northern Nigeria escalated from May, 1966
to the time war broke out in July 6, 1967.
It follows that through the psychological
mechanisms of transference and
imaginative intellectual reconstruction, any
well-informed person concerning the
Biafran war who did not witness the
conflict either because he was too young
to understand what was happening at the
time or was born after the war – or even a
foreigner unconnected in any way with
the conflict – can imaginatively be so
connected vividly or attuned mentally to
the Biafran phenomenon as if he was
actually involved directly. Consider this: On
May 30, 1969, an American, Bruce
Mayrock, a part-time student of General
Studies at Columbia University who neither
visited Biafra nor was related to any
Biafran, set himself ablaze in the lawn of
the United Nations building in New York
to protest the genocide Nigerian
government was committing against
Biafrans.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, became
an atheist at thirteen because he could not
understand why a supposedly omnipotent
good God would allow children to suffer
the way Biafran children suffered during
the civil war.
More examples can be cited but the two
highlighted above suffice to establish that
one does not need direct acquaintance
with an event of profound social
significance, such the Biafran war and its
repercussions, before that person can
genuinely identify with it. Would
Christianity and Islam have survived, let
alone thrived, if the earliest believers had
insisted that only those that actually saw
Jesus of Nazareth and Prophet Mohammed
(SAW) preach were qualified to identify
with their teachings?
More specifically, why is President Buhari a
devout Muslim despite the fact that he was
born more than a thousand five hundred
years after the religion was founded? The
point is: anyone from the defunct eastern
region, particularly an Igbo, can justifiably
agitate for Biafra’s resuscitation because
the conditions that led to secession by Lt.
Col. Ojukwu in May 30, 1967 are still
rearing their ugly heads especially now
largely due to the perceived anti-Igbo
proclivities of President Buhari.
‘Operation Python Dance’ or whatever
military strategy the federal government
might adopt against the separatist
movement in the south-east can halt it
temporarily. Yet, as long as there is a
sizeable number of Ndigbo who believe
strongly that they are treated like second
class citizens, that Nigeria is designed in
such a way that emasculates the Igbo by
making them feel unwanted and alienated,
the quest for actualisation of the
sovereign state of Biafra will continue to
come up from time to time.
At the beginning of our discussion, I
raised the issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s
intellectual, moral and spiritual
qualifications for leading a separatist
movement. Based on his interviews and
speeches, one can conclude that he is
reasonably well-educated, intelligent and
genuinely dedicated to the actualisation of
the sovereign state of Biafra. However, on
many occasions, his irascible speeches
and pseudo messianic behaviour
undermine his efforts. For instance,
vitriolic utterances against the Igbo elite
generally and other ethnic groups, and
conducting himself like a divine being to
be worshipped, are clearly detrimental to
his core objective.
Like Ojukwu, Kanu’s mistakes are due to
youthful exuberance, characterological
weaknesses and hyperbolic idealism. But
unlike Ojukwu who, as the proactive
military governor of eastern region
mandated by his people, particularly the
elite, to lead them out of Nigeria, Nnamdi
Kanu is a relatively obscure individual
before the emergence of IPOP without
cognate leadership experience.
Moreover, and this is crucial, he does not
have the mandate of the Igbo
intelligentsia and business elite in the
country probably because they do not see
him as the right person to liberate Ndigbo
from Nigeria, and also to protect their
vested interests. Consequently, Kanu is in a
considerably weaker position than
Ojukwu was in 1967.
Now, although the IPOB agitation
resonates with a sizeable number of Igbo
youths, it is clear from the somewhat
uncoordinated speeches of Nnamdi Kanu,
Emma Powerful and others that the IPOB
leadership has not articulated a reasoned,
coherent and pragmatic ideology
containing the foundational principles of
the kind of society they intend to create
through Biafra, something akin to the
Ahiara Declaration of June 1, 1969.
Without a doubt, absence of sound
ideological framework that should guide
IPOB is affecting the movement negatively
especially now that President Buhari has
deployed his customary iron hand method
in dealing with problems pertaining to
Ndigbo.
Moreover, the IPOB leader has repeated
the same deadly mistake Ojukwu made by
underestimating the extent caliphate
colonialists can go to stifle dissent or
anything that threatens the present
lopsided political economy that makes
Nigeria a glorified animal farm in which
some citizens are more unequal than
others depending on one’s ethnic group,
religion or some clandestine group called
cabal.
The best option for IPOB at this point is to
re-examine its goals and methods, adopt
the ones that are realistic, and work
towards both intellectual and emotional
penetration of Igboland as a formidable
force for projecting Igbo Interests in a
restructured Nigerian nation.
I wish to remind caliphate colonialists in
power presently that the irrational
strategy of obscuring the truth about the
civil war and threatening violence against
Biafran secessionists is counterproductive,
that the Biafran phenomenon is the most
significant event in Nigerian history next
to the amalgamation and attainment of
independence.
Therefore, unless Nigeria becomes a
confederation of ethnic nationalities each
with relative autonomy to run its own
affairs like it was before the first military
coup, no amount of operation this,
operation that, will stop permanently
agitations for separate nationhood by
aggrieved ethnic nationalities in the
country. And since no condition is
permanent, caliphate colonialism will not last forever. Concluded
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