₦airaland Forum

IgboNazi2:
BREAKING! Finally,Radio Biafra has commenced broadcasting in Hausa language...
God Bless Anambra,Enugu,Abia,Imo,Ebonyi, Igweocha,Asaba,Benue igbos and South South.

THE CALIPHATE SLAVES MUST BE LIBERATED. THE EVIL CALIPHATE MUST BE CONQUERED.

Source please

Really missing the peaceful and democratic atmosphere we had under Gej. Nigeria presently is under siege. People are being locked up without trials, court orders are being ignored, absentee president, darkness everywhere, no ongoing infrastructural development, clamping down on the opposition and peoples of divergent views and the silence of the already compromised media. Is this the change Nigerians voted for?

When one of Africa’s foremost storytellers, late Prof. Chinua Achebe, published his account of the civil war entitled There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra three years ago, agitation for the actualisation of a sovereign state of Biafra was in a state of suspended animation.

Indeed, from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2015 when Dr. Goodluck Jonathan left office, pro-Biafran activities were low-key, unlike what is happening right now in some major towns and cities in the South-East. As is well known, the Movement for Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) was founded by Ralph Uwazuruike and his cohorts as a platform for realising the Biafran dream violently aborted in January 1970 by the Nigerian armed forces led by Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

Throughout the tenure of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, MASSOB was largely inactive, probably because there was a fair representation of Ndigbo in government at the time, although the serious problem of low federal presence in the South-East, particularly in infrastructural development, heavy industries and solid investment in agriculture remained largely unaddressed.

In addition, MASSOB has been weakened by internal disputes and lack of clear vision among its leaders. Presently, the organisation is factionalised: one of the factions led by its National Director of Information has expelled Uwazuruike and installed Uchenna Madu as the new leader of MASSOB. In fact, a new group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has emerged which appears to be more militant than MASSOB in the forefront of current protests for an independent country for the Igbo and their immediate neighbours.

The recent upsurge in pro-Biafra agitations has generated a lot of discussion both within the country and around the world: the Nigerian media have reported it extensively because it challenges the arrogant pronouncement by our rulers, both military and civilian, that “Nigeria’s unity is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.” More significantly, every movement for resurrecting Biafra brings back memories, both pleasant and largely unpleasant, for Ndigbo who experienced the short-lived euphoria when Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu announced the secession of Eastern Nigeria and the disastrous war that followed.

As I noted earlier, MASSOB’s quest for the establishment of Biafra has been ineffectual, but it started gaining momentum since the “second coming” of President Muhammadu Buhari. In order to understand better what is happening right now, it is appropriate to consider the problem in its historical context by identifying the major cause of the renewed agitation for Biafra and comparing it with the reasons why, on May 26, 1967, the 335-member Consultative Assembly of Chiefs and Elders in Eastern region mandated Ojukwu to pull Eastern Region out of Nigeria “at an early practicable date.”

In my opinion, the most important reason for the on-going pro-Biafran agitations is the I-don’t-care or indifferent attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari to the concerns and aspirations of Ndigbo in general – he has not overcome his penchant for treating Ndigbo as “the last among equals,” so to speak. The clearest demonstration of Buhari’`s disdain for the Igbo is that he completely left out the South-East geopolitical zone in the first twenty-four key appointments he made as President, a decision which is so discriminatory that only someone with stunted moral intuition of fairness who hates Ndigbo passionately can condone or accept it with equanimity.

Were it not for the constitutional requirement that the President must appoint one minister at least from each state of the federation, Buhari would probably have nominated only one or two ministers from the South-East for his cabinet to prove to the Igbo that he can govern without them just as he was elected President without substantial votes from the South-East. In addition, by excluding the zone, the President was actually keeping the promise he made in the United States that he would treat various parts of the country differently based on the number of votes he received from them during the presidential election.

Therefore, for those with Stone Age antediluvian mentality codified in the Mosaic law of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” Buhari is justified in neglecting the Igbo. However, his proclivity for treating Ndigbo like a conquered people or vassals who deserve only crumbs that fell from their Northern master’s table did not start today. As I have argued severally in this column, it was manifest when he served as military head of state, and several years later as chair, Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF).

To buttress my point: after the coup that brought him to power in December 31, 1983, Buhari locked up Vice President Alex Ekwueme in Kirikiri prison whereas Ekwueme’s boss, President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani and Muslim like himself, was placed under house arrest in a cosy house in Ikoyi owned by the federal government. I do not have information on the exact composition of Buhari’s Supreme Military Council. But I am almost certain that Igbo representation in it was either zero or one at most. Available data show that PTF under Buhari constructed 13,870 kilometres of roads in the North, representing 76%, whereas the South-East and South-South together got only a paltry 2,472 kilometres or 13.5%.

The ill-advised discriminatory anti-Igbo decisions by President Buhari must have compelled thousands of mostly unemployed Igbo youths to feel that Ndigbo are not equal stakeholders with their compatriots in the Nigerian project, that they have nothing to gain in Buhari’s administration. Many of them believe that it is better to fight and possibly die in the struggle for a country they can truly call their own where they can be reckoned with as important stakeholders in the scheme of things rather than endure continuously the humiliations of being treated as second class citizens.

From comments in the media regarding the agitations, a sizeable percentage of Nigerians from other parts of the country, including top government officials, seem to be either ignorant of the depth of pro-Biafra feelings driving the agitators or are mischievously hoping that the protests would become destructive to provide a convenient excuse for violent clampdown on the Igbo. Meanwhile, some of the actions taken by the federal government thus far, instead of solving the problem, are actually escalating it.

For example, despite the hyperbolic anti-Nigeria statements broadcast by Radio Biafra, the Directorate of State Services (DSS) made a tactical error by arresting and detaining Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra, which means that the present government did not learn any lesson from the ineffectual heavy-handed attempts by the Abacha regime to silence Radio Kudirat, the clandestine radio station established by elements of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to help actualise the truncated mandate of Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

Detention of Kanu by operatives of the DSS has not reduced the clamour for Biafra: on the contrary, it has triggered more protests and inadvertently made Kanu a hero for thousands of his admirers. Before his arrest, Kanu was relatively an unknown figure: now, he is very popular, and many young men and women in Igboland and beyond see him as a role model. Femi Aribisala captured this point succinctly when he observed that “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.”

Although the glaring discriminatory leadership style of Buhari against the South-East is the most important cause of the on-going struggle for Biafra, we should not lose sight of the pent-up emotions and nostalgia for a separate homeland by a significant proportion of Ndigbo because they suffer the biggest casualties whenever there is uprising in the North since the civil war ended in 1970.



To be continued

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/was-there-a-country-agitation-for-biafra-and-its-enemies-1/

Respect to Gej, the man of the people. Without you, they would have fried Dickson abi na Kondoson be him name now.

Just after 2 days? Chai!

Una never see something.

Chino, Spacetour, Where are the pics na?

vincentissue:
Obi already started those project. Ok.

Abeg, leave Obi/Obiano matter, let celebrate Anambra state. Thanks

Please, when will the president visit Nigeria again?

The guy thinks and acts like the Buhari. Very intelligent

What do you expect? Is this not Gowon and the Canadian prime minister when he was just a little boy? While they have moved on to the 3rd generation, we are still recycling the same people that destroyed us. From Gowon to Muritala Obj, Buhari, IBB, Abdusalam,Obj,and back to Buhari. What a shame. Maybe , it will be Abdusalam second coming in 2019.

Which Vivian gist sister are you guys talking about? What kind of stewpid lies for attention is this? Please, somebody should tell that slowpoke, this is not the way to buy a house in banana island. This kind of lies can only land you in Okokomaiko.

vedaxcool:
I wish people can be honest enough to call what is wrong wrong, regardless whether it is Russia, US, China or even Nigeria involved!

Lol... The way you were honest enough with Biafrans self determination. #Hypocrite

When I said it yesterday that there is a grand plan just like 1984 era to rope in political opponents of the APC in the guise of fighting corruption just to silence them, a biased mod deleted the comment within 2 minutes. There was s uneasy calm in the land and most people are not yet speaking out until it happens to them. We are watching as events unfold. Bloody liars

asha80:
look my friend it is high time we start telling ourselves the truth..the military and police as usual as animals for using live bullets like the always do but dont go inviting them ..there has been rallies in most se towns and cities with little or no casualty...even the rally in owerri the police were just escorting them...but blocking a major highway for fucccking 10hrs When I heard about that I knew it was going to be inevitable that would be fracas...do you know there was traffic from asaba all the way to aggor?

You're utterly insane. So the security forces should be condoned for murdering unarmed protesters for blocking highway during their protest but the same occupy Nigeria did same and were not mowed down. What happened to them using other means? You're simply a loser

asha80:
blocking a major highway for up to 10 hrs was also stupid and courting trouble

Does that justify using live bullets on unarmed protesters? What happen to rubber bullets, tear gas or water cannons? The fact remains that there is a deep seated hatred of the Igbos in this country. The lives of any Igbo girl or boy matters and can't be wished away.

Ozid:
pls can u be reasonable for once wat does it profit u if the Hausas in d North start killing Igbos, hope u will be happy

Profit me ke? Do they have monopoly of violence?

GspotAngela:
Apart from the Mosque and trucks that the biafran miscreants burnt, they also killed a youth corper

An invisible youth corper right? Do Igbos look like killers to you? In this modern age and time, you can't even show the world the pics of "invisible corper".

ExInferis:
How can you tell who's who? When you fools refused to listen to the reasonable voice of your elders.

History would record that you flat heads fired the first shot..because very soon we shall begin our own pogrom in the north.

Lol....you have done your worst in the north and Igbos are still standing. The funniest thing is that you guys are so so vulnerable as Igbos knows all parts of Nigeria more than any other group. Think about that

Between the mosque and the innocent lives killed by Buhari security forces, which ones matters most to you guys?

kodded:
my dear nairaland has turn to something else

Can you imagine? Just that I made a statement on events of 1984 repeating itself all over again with the way this government peddle lies and trumped up charges against political opponents and before I know it, the comment was deleted. Nairaland mods, I hail o. Eku change o!

Dinocarex:
So, Buhari spirit entered them to burn the mosque?

Was it Ojukwu's spirit that ordered them to kill unarmed protesters? Between an innocent life and a fcking building, which one really matters to you?

GspotAngela:
What is peacefull about harming Youth Corpers, burning Dangote's trucks and the Hausa Central Mosque at Onitsha ?

Those things were not done by peaceful IPOB protesters. No matter the scheming of the vipers, Biafrans will not be cowed. Let Buhari and his forces keep shedding innocent blood; they will account for it soon.