BIAFRA - is this the way?are we doomed as a people?

 News Update

BIAFRA - is this the way?are we doomed as a people?

We kill ourselves to protest what others are doing against us. In 1967 good Igbo leaders begged Ojukwu not to declare Biafra, to avoid war, he declared Biafra and we lost 3 million people and all our wealth, including our leadership position in Nigeria. Our youths, our girls, our culture and heritage. All were lost because of that war, which started as a result of declaration of Biafra. 

Ojukwu went into exile. Igbos were defeated, humiliated and made second class citizens. Their properties seized as abandoned. All their money were seized and their children abused and brutalized. 

In humiliation and humility they started with nothing and from no where to rebuild themselves. 

Ojukwu was told that all these may happen if he declares Biafra. His father specifically begged him to wait at least let us find a strong country that can support us before he can declare, if he must. 

He called all the advisers saboteurs and claimed that his father was selling out because of his wealth that was scattered all over Nigeria.

Three years after, by 1970 all was lost. Three million well trained and our best all wasted. 

By 1983 when Ojukwu came back from exile he declared that Biafra was no longer fashionable. He joined a national political party and contested for an elective office in Nigeria. At this time all have been lost. Igbos have lost power, properties, political leadership, values, good men and respect. Yet we hail Ojukwu as our hero. 

Compare it to now. We have managed somehow to rebuild part of what we lost in the Biafra war. 

Now a new agitation for Biafra was started again by MASSOB, which is now followed by IPOB. By creating insecurity in igbo land alone, every developed human person in that zone will be on the run. Education will suffer set back as well as every other thing. 

We are crucifying our selves to shame our oppressors.

Like in 1967 they have started calling Igbo leaders saboteurs again. Unfortunately we don’t have the likes of Zik any more to plead our case within the international comnunity, to beg Nigeria to allow relief food in order to reduce 28000 dying children per day. We don’t have Zik to come and negotiate our surrender in order to have no victor no vanquished. Our opponents are already regretting that, they should have taken the remnant of Biafra as slaves and war booty.

The questions are.

1. Why must we fight a losing battle to lose everything?

2. What do we want to achieve in Biafra that we can’t achieve in Nigeria politically?

3. Who will lead Biafra when we eventually get it and where will he come from?

4. How do one convince an Anambra man and Enugu man to let Ebonyi man lead him? Remember sometime ago we had the slot for senate presidency,Hmmmm what happened? We were impeaching ourselves till all south eastern states tasted the sit,what a shame

5. Where can we get the leaders from? The stock of existing Governors or manufactured by IPOB?

6. What will constitute the main economic drive for our development within Biafra? Etc.

Federalism as we have it today in Nigeria, makes every state a country. A quasi sovereignty. That is why we have state courts, states can make their own laws. States can make their budgets and own their properties etc. Governors like Wike have already started applying true federalism by collecting VAT in his state. Let other states go to Supreme Court and ask for powers to secure their people by licensing gun carriers and state police. Also by using available gas in their state to power turbine and provide electricity to their industrial parks in order to employ their work force. Etc

The Biafra we are asking for we already have it in our hand but we don’t know what to do with it. Those who are at the forefront of Biafra agitation today, should know that when the real Biafra emerges, they will not be in a position to determine its leadership. It will be chaos. By then it will be too late to have an opportunity like Nigeria today.

Nigeria is ours to be taken. All we need is to get involved in politics and protect our political interests. 

Please stop blaming others for protecting their own political interest. We have all it takes to win in Nigeria.

1. We have the largest population but we are not united.

2. Our people are scattered all over Nigeria and beyond.

3. Our political interest is merit, Justice, equity and Rule of law. Which is easy to sell to other good men.

4. We have people in diaspora to support our case.

5. We have commerce to back up our pursuit.

6. Our Nigeria Political leadership will bring development to everyone.

Even if we get Biafra. It will be too small to withstand the pressure from the vast poor and uncontrollable North. Therefore, let’s hold a meeting with all the parties and discuss what we need before we make more mistakes.

The meeting should have representations of,

1. IPOB,

2. Ohanaeze 

3. Political leadership 

4. Traditional leadership 

5. Academicians 

6. Business leaders 

7. State representatives.

8. Diaspora representatives.

9. Religious institutions 

10. Women representatives 

This conference will determine what we need to develop as a people. 

If we want Biafra, let it be a collective decision. However, if we want Biafra, there are simple and less dangerous ways to go about it.

1. The South East and South South Congress men could sponsor a bill to that effect and call for a referendum. A survey will be conducted to determine the demography and topography. Then referendum will be conducted and on a certain date we will seize to be Nigerians and instead become Biafrans. However, where that is being frustrated by the Northern lead national assembly, a petition can be sent to UN committee in-charge of state creation, who will bring it to the UN assembly. Nigeria as a party, will state their case after which the Assembly will hear the other sides and vote on it. If the vote is in favour of a referendum, it will be conducted and if majority says yes, Biafra will be created as a new member state of the United Nations.

This idea of killing people, burning houses and destroying properties does not in any way address the issues of secession. Instead it gives room for the people to be addressed as criminals and killed.

Who will convene the Confrence of Eastern? Nigeria????

May God help us.

Uyah Humphrey 

 News Update

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali Pictured Driving President Muhammadu Buhari After He Arrived Addis Ababa

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was pictured driving Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari out of the airport after he arrived the country.

Buhari arrived at the newly built VIP Terminal of Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa today, October 3, ahead of the Prime Minister’s inauguration tomorrow, October 4, to begin another five-year term in office.

The Nigerian president was accorded a full guard of honour by the Ethiopian National Defense Force, after which the Ethiopian prime minister gestured to him to join him in a waiting SUV which he drove himself.

Below are photos of Buhari shortly after he arrived at Addis Ababa…

 NEWS UPDATE

Gov Obiano Reveals The Outcome Of His Vist To Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari is not in support of a declaration of emergency rule in Anambra State, State Governor Willie Obiano said on Thursday.

The Governor added that he has reported the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to the President for suggesting a possible declaration of emergency rule in the state.

Governor Obiano made this disclosure while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of his visit  with the president in his official residence at the presidential villa, Abuja.

According to him, President Buhari has assured that he was only interested in free and fair election in the November 6 Governorship exercise in the state, citing the example of his (president’s) numerous attempts to win election until his fourth try.

Governor Obiano described the Attorney-General’s statement as unfortunate and questioned why he had not contemplated the imposition of emergency rule in northern states where there has been a number of mass killings.

The Governor said he would call the Attorney-General to express his mind to him over the suggestion, maintaining that apart from the recent security crisis, Anambra had been the most peaceful in the south east.

He also rejected assertions that members of the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the State’s legislature had defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that what happened was that the members were given N100 million each to join the All Progressive Congress (APC).

He said the members have refused to be bought and have remained in the APGA

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 EDUCATION

Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins The 2021 Nobel Prize In Literature

    He was given the award for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.

Gurnah, who grew up on one of the islands of Zanzibar and arrived in England as a refugee in the 1960s, has published 10 novels as well as a number of short stories.

Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said that the Tanzanian writer’s novels, from his debut Memory of Departure, about a failed uprising, to his most recent, the “magnificent”, Afterlives, “recoil from stereotypical descriptions and open our gaze to a culturally diversified East Africa unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world”.

No black African writer has won the prize since Wole Soyinka in 1986. Gurnah is the first Tanzanian writer to win

Nigerian Army Reveals Why Nollywood Actor Chiwetalu Agu Was Arrested In Onitsha

 NEWS

Nigerian Army Reveals Why Nollywood Actor Chiwetalu Agu Was Arrested In On its he

Troops of Nigerian Army(NA) have arrested one Chiwetalu Agu while inciting members of the public and soliciting for support for the proscribed Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Dressed in a very well known attire of the proscribed group, Chiwetalu Agu was picked up for questioning while inciting members of the public to join the proscribed group. Though he attempted puting up some resistance when troops made effort to take him into custody, he was not assaulted or subjected to brutalization.

While the NA recognizes the inalienable rights of the citizenry to freedom of movement and expression as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is apparently a violation for any individual or group to incite the public to cause mayhem or break down of law and order. It is therefore pertinent to state that while exercising such freedoms, it must be done within the confines of the law, bearing in mind the imperative for peace, and national security 

For the avoidance of doubt and emphasis, the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) remains proscribed . Therefore, any individual or group seen to be projecting and advancing the cause or activities of the group is viewed as brazenly challenging the constitutionality of Federal Republic of Nigeria. More worrisome, was the fact that considering the prevailing security situation of the region, coupled with the ongoing Exercise GOLDEN DAWN , his action could be a tacit endorsement and support for the proscribed group. We have all witnessed the activities of the group take a violent dimension in recent times

Chinwetalu Agu has clearly demonstrated uncharitable disposition to negate peace and security in the region, hence, he is taken into custody for preliminary investigation. It is important to once again place on record that the allegation that he was brutalized is false and should be disregarded accordingly.

While the NA would not allow IPOB and its sponsors to hold the region captive and allow the security situation to degenerate, it is instructive to restate that national interest supercedes any parochial consideration. Individuals or groups who fan the embers of violence are warned to desist or face the consequences of their actions. The ongoing Exercises are on course and will rid the region of all forms of criminality.

The peace loving and law abiding people of the South East are enjoined to please
go about their normal activities, as efforts are ongoing to bring perpetrators of violence to book. They are equally urged to continue to support the security agencies to restore normalcy to the region in furtherance of peace.

ONYEMA NWACHUKWU
Brigadier General
Director Army Public Relations
7 October 2021 

Open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari: Before your first shot on Southeast; check the cost!

 Open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari: Before your first shot on Southeast; check the cost!

HE, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (Rtd) GCFRC)

The President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, State House,

Abuja.

Your Excellency, 

For all the positions I have taken on political discourse as it affects Nigeria's continued existence, I have never advocated for violence as  resolving solutions to any issue, not even a means for an end as the cost is always painful and costlier than the output. Therefore, I condemn any person or group of persons adopting any form of violence or civil disobedience as an option to register any grievances, 'factual or perceived, 

For the umpteenth time in my advocacies, I've always emphasised that we can only progress better as a nation when we  adopt true political system and address the nation's crisis from a more holistic and sincere point of view where the first stone-throw is to tell ourselves the truth and harken to it.

Mr President, it is on that note that I write to say that the escalating situation in the Southeast is not the type that it cannot be addressed, but it is obvious that the methods so far adopted to contain  the situation only ended up polluting and aggrevating the matter thereby compounding the woes of the affected people and closing windows of hope for dialogue. Yet the truth remains that only dialogue can bring the matter to an end because even if you choose to kill the whole youths in the southeast today, the bearers of the ideology of freedom from evidenced marginalisation would continue to fight further after you and I have left the earth s surface.

In case we have quickly forgotten, let me remind us what Philip Effiong told Obasanjo about the surrendering †*†*†**†*Biafrans. 

"Treat them well, or their children will rise to fight again". 

If they are fighting again today, it means they were not treated well and using coercion,guns and bullets approach will only aggravate the tension as this generation who did not witness what their fathers fought for would not be deterred from agitating and fighting for their same rights . What I say here is evident as seen in the way the minor crisis is gradually escalating while we all watch helplessly. 

The truth  remains Mr President  that the way the issue of IPOB has been handled between the Federal Government and the Southeast Governors portrayed betrayal of the people of the region and the haste at which the body was tagged a terrorist organization while  Herdsmen have been on  rampage, killing at will only shows the injustice and unfair treatments that characterise Nigeria and this injustice if not addressed would continue to ferment the spirit of violence. This is another line of truth we must be able to tell ourselves if this anomalies and  deepening crisis would be resolved.

It justifiably wrong and disheartening that at the point where Boko Haram insurgents are captured, transformed and rehabilitated;  Bandits on the other hand are negotiated with and paid handsome ram some and Herdsmen are appeased after sacking communities from their ancestral  land in "ONE NIGERIA PHILOSOPHY" then  IPOB in the contrary was declared a terrorist outfit when their leader was having a dialogue with Governors to find a lasting solution to tackle the situation. Is this not reeves of hypocrisy and injustice in a supposed equality one Nigeria?

I am convinced Mr President that after all the series of crisis that had happened in Bauchi, Kano, Zamfara, Kaduna, Benue, Niger etc, there was not a form of declaration of State of Emergency, but it would amount to a declaration of War on Southeast to declare a State of Emergency as bandied by Malami and get away with it. We must be cognizant  of the fact that times are different and like I earlier said,perceived injustice would always be resisted by the people no matter how hard you hit them of which nobody can tell what the end point would be.

Except there's is an APC Agenda behind the Anambra election, such careless and badly perceived  plans may be the last straw that will break the Camels back if strict care is not taken to withdraw this ill cooked plans."Truth remains a force that no amount of resisting actions can suppress it"

Until Nigeria begins to treat the Southeast with dignity,equal opportunities and good sense of cooperation and not like a conquered people that must be subdued and strangulated, Nigeria problems will be far from over. What is obtainable in the 19th century may not fly in the 21st Century because times and space are different and technology is   hybrid .This is a bitter truth we must tell ourselves and be prepared to defend.

Mr President, this is time to be the Nigeria President and not some 18th-century warlord. Unlike Boko Haram and Bandits, IPOB demands are known and clear. In as much as I will not advocate for the government to bow to the will of these people, I strongly believe the better solution will come when they are brought to a table and listened to. 

If we can negotiate with terrorists and pay Ransome to Bandits, even propose amnesty for kidnappers in the North,Why would it be too hurried to set our soldiers on war exploits on the masses of the southeast at every provocation? These and more are the causes of the escalating crisis.

In conclusion, I would like to point out to your attention Mr President  that while our Governors and leaders are controlling power, the proscribed IPOB we call miscreants are controlling the mind of the people out of years of Orientations and to some extent 'fear of the unknown looms' 

We are tired of losing our youths endlessly, count the cost before your fire that shot into the Southeast,for what is doing is worth doing well. 

Chief Dr. Emeka Kalu.