Biafra has come to stay



Biafra is just one of the separatist movements
scattered around the globe. Most people do
not know that there is an autonomist and
secessionist movement in the United State of
America. In the hours after president Barrack
Obama was re-elected in November 2012,
Texas was the second state after Louisiana to
be represented in online petitions on the White
House website calling for secession from the
U.S. This agitation by the people of Texas did
not start today. It has been on for many
years. Texas is one of the only four states
that joined the United Sates from the position
of an independent state applying for
admission. Others are Vermont, Hawaii and
California. The membership of the Texas
Nationalist movement has grown over the
years.
Not too long ago, Catalonia, a rich region in
northeastern Spain shot into international
limelight for its shocking separatist
tendencies.
This part of Spain has long considered itself
less Spanish because of closer cultural and
linguistic affinities to France. This same
agitation is at work among Italy’s northern
separatists and Belgium’s Flemish ones.
There are also separatist movements in
Galicia and the Basque country. Students of
history will readily remember the Quebec
Sovereignty movement. It is a political
movement that advocates sovereignty for the
Canadian province of Quebec. Most people
that are part of this movement seek to gain
independence through non-violent approach;
using negotiation- based diplomatic
intervention. But there are minority elements
that have advocated the use of violent means.
The primary mainstream political vehicle for
the movement is the Partti Quebecois, which
has governed Quebec on multiple occasions.
There is also the agitation for the creation of
the Azawad Republic from Mali. The National
Movement for the Liberation of Azawad is
dominated by the Tuareg. These nomadic
people that are related to the Berbers occupy
the arid, sparsely populated northern part of
Mali. They have been fighting for the liberation
of their vast landlocked Sahara homeland.
Unfortunately, the struggle has been high
jacked by two radical Islamic armies: Ansar
al-Dine and the Algerian based Movement for
Unity and Jihad in West Africa. The Kurds that
can be found in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria
are also agitating for a separate nation. And
they have been reluctantly granted a measure
of autonomy in Turkey. It could also be
recalled that the Kurds in Northern Iraq
became a de facto independent region in the
1990s during the ‘no fly zone the U.S imposed
on Saddam Hussein.

There is a movement to partition Belgium into
Flanders and Wallonia. The province of
Baluchistan in Pakistan want to be a separate
country. South Yemen wants to secede from
the republic of Yemen. We also have a strong
campaign for northern Italy to secede as
Padania. This is spearheaded by their
charismatic leader, Umberto Bossi. We have
also a declaration of autonomy in the
Cyrenaica region of Eastern Libya. We also
have this agitation in Indonesia’s far –eastern
Papua and West Papua. There is a Muslim
separatist movement in Mombasa, Kenya;
Zanzibar separatist movement in Tanzania.
Jubaland in the war ravaged Somalia is a
concern for the weak government in
Mogadishu. The battle of the People’s
Republic of China with Tibetans is fresh in our
memory. The struggle for self-determination
by Tibetans has led to self-immolation by
Buddhist monks in protest over the political
situation in that region. Zambia is still
struggling with the agitation for the
independence of Barotseland.

Autonomism and secessionism are endemic
to the human condition. Biafra, for me, is an
ideology of values, concepts and ideas. Like
Dim Emeka Ojukwu, I now believe in the Biafra
of the mind. But there are those who believe
in the territorial Biafra and they must have
their say. The right to self-determination is
enshrined in International Law. There is a
disturbing mismatch between Biafran
agitators and government brutal response to
it. The Federal government needs to call our
security forces to order. We all know that
Nigerian soldiers have the most egregious
human rights record, including summary
execution. Governance in Nigeria is a place
more susceptible than ever to rogue
provocateurs fermenting violent upheavals.
Evil politicians are always ready to ignite the
combustible mix of ignorance and suspicion.
A little wrong move by the government can
put a match to the tinderbox.
At the moment, Nigerian is an enduring
disaster. A country of vast resources and 150
million people do not have any reason to be
in such a hot mess. In a situation like this,
people will resort to self-help. The highly
promising government of President
Muhammad Buhari needs to be responsive to
the needs of the Eastern part of this country.
These agitators are not delusional. You
cannot overlook historic grievances. In life, it
is the unexpected and unimaginable things
that matter. The actions and inaction of the
government will determine if president Buhari
will be an overseer of Biafran extraordinary
regeneration.

We have three outstanding groups fighting for
the actualization of the Sovereign state of
Biafra. They are MASSOB of Ralph
Uwazuruike, Biafra Zionist Movement led by
Barrister Benjamin Onwuka and the
Indigenous People of Biafra led by Nnamdi
Kanu. Nothing of these agitators has
Ojukwu’s lighting reactions and precision. I
am not an admirer of Radio Biafra. It traffics
in demagoguery and hatemongering. Despite
how passionate I am on any issue, I do not
forget the fact that I am a believer in the
teachings of Jesus the Christ. According to
Obi Nwakanma of the Vanguard Kanu’s
politics is bad and unrefined. ‘Kanu’s Radio
Biafra is a blustery affront to professional
broadcasting or even professional
propaganda, because it often mouths
misinformation ,and broadcasts serous libel
against those perceived to be against the
Biafra movement.” But these are not enough
to deny him of his rights as a citizen of this
country. He still has the right to agitate for a
separate Biafran Republic.
The spirit behind Biafra remains a determining
factor in this current struggle. Biafra was a
vortex of disaster, starvation, disease and
babies with flies in their eyes. Igbo men and
women were among the cast of characters in
that tragedy. The pre civil war violence is still
fresh in their minds. It was all violence and
subversion against the Igbos.
The mob got encouragement from the
establishment- that gave them air to bloviate
and a political culture that makes little effort
to take away their oxygen. In that era, the
industry of outrage was allowed to flourish
without check. Those attacks were not
spontaneous or amateurish. The instigators
and executors worked in concert. The then
government was irresponsibly lazy in
confronting the killings. That insouciant
response by the Gowon government was
hugely responsible for the civil war.
These things are facts of history that cannot
be wished away. Everything should be done
by the government of the day to look into the
grievances of the people from this part of
country. I was part of Buhari’s Media team
during the electioneering campaign. I worked
and voted for him partly because of his hatred
for corruption and partly because of Goodluck
Jonathan‘s insensitivity to the plight of the
poor and the depraved. I still believe that
Buhari is responsible and responsive. He
needs to handle the current agitation for the
sovereign state of Biafra with caution and a
great deal of tact.