₦airaland Forum

Anticabal:
The nation newspaper (a yoruba media outfit) journalist made the observation when he travelled on the west african coast to Benin rep, Ghana. The article was posted on nairaland last year. 1 Biafran pound exchanged for about N680. Now have you conducted your own research to make me believe your statement.

Tell me why i should believe you instead of the journalist that made the findings in Cotonou and Ghana and wrote his article? I really want to believe your 'facts'. Help me

November 12, 2015

Biafran Pound as a Legal Tender in
West Africa


“Produits Fanmilk a vendre…des
produits de Fanmilk a vendre. Nous
acceptions Naira, Cedi, CFA, Dollars, et meme du Biafra Pound…Fanmilk
products e dey for sale…fanmilk
products e dey for sale….we dey
accept am for Naira, Cedi, CFA, Dollar, and even Biafran Pound”, the dairyproducts’ vendor shouted to the hearing of everyone, in apparent attempt to get persons to patronize him. This was at Ilacondji, at the very frontiers of Benin-Togo. The vendor, a Togolese employee of the Fanmilk company, a Nigerian international dairy firm, could speak some pidgin English and good French. He wasobviously a well-travelled West African,
who had probably worked in Nigeria
and lived in Ghana. I needed to find
out more about his Biafran Pound.
“Mon ami”, I politely called him, “avez- vous dit que vous acceptez Livre du Biafra”? (Did you say you accept
Biafran currency here? “Oui”, he
quipped, adding, “i lest legal ici au
Togo et d’autres pays Francophones.
Elle est belle et precieuse. Il est notre
monnaie preferee” (It is a legal tender here in Togo and some other French-speaking countries in West Africa. It is beautiful. It is our favourite currency).

I probed further: “S’il vous plait, pius
je le voir? Quelle est la valeur a Naira?
(Please, let me see it. What’s its value
compared to Naira?) The response
dazed me: “It is currently N368 Naira
to a Biafran Pound!!!” This was the
most explosive part. N368 Naira to an illegal currency of a non-existent
state? Who could be behind this mint and which Central Bank is regulating and standardizing it to the extent of
giving it such a global value?
I took a snapshot of the money and
handed it over to the Fanmilk vendor.
I bought two products from him in
Naira and looked around me to find
out that a startled crowd was looking at me, JJC, who was just finding out for the first time that Biafran Pound
was a major means of exchange in
the Francophone frontiers in West
Africa. The persons crossing the
border like me were just wondering
what drama I was putting up and
soon took their eyes away from my
spectacle the moment I bought my
Yoghurt and allowed the poor vendor
to be.
For me, it was a moment of rare
discovery. I was lost in thought,
perturbed, worried at the deeper
implications of the seemingly
interesting finding I just made. Who is behind the Biafran Pound? Which
Central Bank is printing and regulating
it? Why is it a legal tender outside
Nigeria? Why are Francophone
countries, our so-called good
neighbours and co-members of
ECOWAS the ones recognizing and
accepting it as a means of
transaction? How come it has so
much value, even higher than the
British Pound and other western
currencies? Who and what is Biafra in the present-day Nigeria?

The journey to Aflao was characterized
by mind puzzles. Could France,
Nigeria’s biggest threat in West Africa
be behind this pantomime? Could the Togolese government and its
counterparts in Ivory Coast and other Francophone countries be boldly supporting the re-emergence of Biafra in order to break Nigeria? Are these
governments doing the bidding of
France, their master or is it their own
hideous agenda to reduce the power and influence of the giant around them? If not, why are these
governments allowing the Biafran
Pound, a symbol of decapitated and
emasculated Nigeria, to be a legal
tender in their territories? If the
governments are not aware, the
citizens and other persons using the
coastal trade routes in West Africa
would not accept and spend the
Pound.
Is the Nigerian government even
aware of this development? If not,
what then are our embassies and
Ambassadors in these countries
doing? Do they have any business in
those countries if they could not
detect and report home such delicate developments that can affect the very foundations of the Nigerian State? Is
President Buhari even aware of all this nonsense going on around his
sovereign state?

My discovery at Aflao was more
worrisome. Ghana, a supposedly
most trusted fellow Anglophone
country also recognizes and accepts
the use of the Biafran Pound as a
means of exchange! However, most
Ghanaians and Nigerians of Igbo
origin, I learnt, use the currency
discretely. They are not as brazen
about it as the Togolese, Beninoise
and Ivorians. But the Biafran Pound is the most popular currency in Ghana.
My take on the Ghana episode is thatthe “friendly” government of that country cannot not say it does not
have any security report about a
Biafran Pound-business that is said to be as old in Ghana (Aflao in particular)
as immediately after the Civil War.

On return to Nigeria, I approached
some senior Igbo colleagues in the
academia, narrating my encounters
and expressed my worries.
Concerned but not new to them, they explained that it had been an old development, which has however
gained momentum in more recent
times. I was made to realize that the
Igbos have not yet given up on
“Biafra” and that there are grand
plans to “regain” their independence.
I gathered that the Pound had been a collectors’ item, which, ipso facto,
would give it a lot of value, but
explained that the tenability of the
currency along the West African
coastline is the machination of some powerful and unrepentant “Biafran leaders”, whose international goodwill and connections have pervaded West
Africa and beyond.
But, the situation is an
embarrassment to Nigeria, its
government and people. It is more
worrisome than Boko Haram because the popularity and value of the
Biafran money simply means that a
break-up is already established and
recognized, or is “at best”, imminent.
So, while the West African leaders
smile to Abuja, praising and hailing
Nigeria as a giant and dependable
neighbour, they go behind and mock
the country, gleefully sipping wine as
they manipulate its disintegration and
watch the ignorant and idiotic giant
cracking and bound for a collapse.
President Buhari is trusted to handle
this matter with fiat. The embassies ofNigeria in Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory
Coast and other places where the
Biafran Pound is acceptable must be
called to account for their negligence and dereliction of duty. The Foreign Ministry should be called to question
and the Nigerian military/intelligence attaches in these countries must be
fired immediately.

The Federal Government must invite first, the
ambassadors of these countries and later the leaders and sit them down in Abuja for a hard talk. The Igbo separatist leaders must be
apprehended and an international
network promoting the secessionist
bid, through symbols, insignias and
the Radio Biafra must be brought to
the table for another round of hard
talk. President Buhari must take
advantage of the visit of the UN
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon to
address the issue of UN recognition of belligerents, which has been a factor goring the Biafran secessionist bid and indeed the acceptability of the currency of a non-existent state.

By sherriff Folarin

yapapa:
mugu1 detected

Princewill1:
You are the real mugu here.

Palestine is not yet recognized as an independent country by UN.

But countries of the world allows Palestinians to travel into their country with Palestinians passport.

adeyemi2015:
Biafra Passport can only grant you access to one Country..... the Republic of Lagoon!







Beware!

Anticabal:
DABUllit our wishes are not usually realities. Have your read this?

Anticabal:
The nation newspaper (a yoruba media outfit) journalist made the observation when he travelled on the west african coast to Benin rep, Ghana. The article was posted on nairaland last year. 1 Biafran pound exchanged for about N680. Now have you conducted your own research to make me believe your statement.

Tell me why i should believe you instead of the journalist that made the findings in Cotonou and Ghana and wrote his article? I really want to believe your 'facts'. Help me

jpphilips:
You must be a hypnotized goat to believe that Naira existed alongside the Biafran pounds.
Nigerian naira came into existence in 1973 while Biafran pounds went extinct in 1970, how could your yoruba Journalist friend compare an existing and nonexistent currencies?
Is it lack of Education or you guys are born without brains by default?

Anticabal:
Mr Gorrilla, Read up carefully, this time very slowly. We are talking about November last year when a yoruba journalist visited West African francophone countries. Not in the 70s'. Scroll up and read, carefully this time.