Let Ekwe Nche Organization of Ndigbo lead you to a quick refreshing path to the great history of Ndigbo Biafra.
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LEADERSHIP SERIES - Ekwe Nche Organization.

I hear you:

“What had started as a belief was transmuted to total conviction; that they could never again live with Nigerians. From this stems the primordial political reality of the present situation. Biafra cannot be killed by anything short of total eradication of the people who make her. For even under total occupation Biafra would sooner or without Colonel Ojukwu, rise up again.”

Our cries and plights have reached our Creator in the highest heavens and we, the Biafran children of the Creator will receive solace and freedom. That Biafra Republic will be actualized, is for sure. That Biafrans will build a nation that supersedes all the western nations, is assured. That Biafra will exact and extract a slow and maximum retribution against the hedonistic idolator called Nigeria, is a promise.

Fellow Biafrans, do not despair. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Never shall we resolve to acquire inferior status in Nigeria out of cowardice. Nor shall we compromise the future of our children out of fear. It is more honorable to die in the struggle for freedom than to live as slaves. We have initiated the struggle for the emancipation of our people. It is a long-term project. God will provide the circumstance for the realization of our dream. Our duty is to ensure that the struggle does not die.

Long Live Biafra.

Umunna, let us celebrate the life and times of Julius Nyerere, arguably the best leader Africa ever had:

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When Enahoro went to London in 1967 on behalf of Nigeria, he capitalised on the greed and materialism of the Brits in his opening remark thus:

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He then concluded his speech with some of the most short-sighted statements in living memory:

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The epilogue to Enahoro's story is that he made a few more speeches a couple of decades later from exile; exiled by the "survived" nation he gave his youth for.

VANGUARD: National Newsreel

TUESDAY, 22ND MAY, 2001

I Police arrest 22 MASSOB men in Enugu
By Emeka Mamah

ENUGU— THE police in Enugu have arrested 22 members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) over an alleged plan to mark today as the new Biafra independence anniversary in the former Eastern region capital.

MASSOB activists allegedly travelling to Okigwe last Friday in their bus were arrested along Agbani road following a tip-off.

Docked in their caps, vest and other Biafran insignia, and singing the anthem proclaiming a rebirth of the defunct republic, the activists were said to have been arrested and distributed to the various police stations in the state.

The police yesterday cordoned off their headquarters with armoured tanks though the state police commissioner was not categorical on the arrest of the group, he, however, appealed to the public to be law-abiding and report any suspicious characters and movements to the police.

He pointed out that they have received intelligence reports on alleged moves to destabilise the region, but said the police would not allow that.

Earlier in a statement, MASSOB said they would observe today (May 22) as the new Biafra independence anniversary throughout the former Eastern region.

It advised all markets and schools in the region to remain shut from 7.00am to 3.00pm, as peaceful rallies and procession will be held in all MASSOB zones today.

The release also said that a formal independent speech and ceremonies will be delivered by its leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, at the Biafran Freedom Square, Faulks Road, Aba.

Umunna,
Mazi Uwazuruike himself, assured me that he's at Enyimba City of Aba today the 22nd of May, the anniversary of the Declaration of new Biafra for our new Biafra celebration. Enyimba city is befitting as it was the place where he stood and mde the Biafra Declaration. He stated that the Nigerian govt had deployed a thousand mobile police troop to Aba to confront him today and that he's willing to pay the ultimate price.

As the God of Biafra lives, and as He/She has sent forth this messenger and Liberator of his children, the Biafrans, no a single hair on his head will be harmed.

BEING THE ADDRESS PRESENTED
BY CHIEF RALPH UWAZURUIKE, ON
OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF
THE NEW BIAFRA STATE.

Beloved Biafrans,

Exactly twelve months ago, we declared our New Biafra
State. We also resolved to pursue the realization of
our independence from Nigeria through non - violence.
We affirmed to fight against injustice,
maginalisation, inequality and annihilation of our
people in Nigeria.

We are satisfied that our efforts have brought a new
sense of hope to our people. We are happy that the
cause for which millions of our people were mascared
has once again stared Nigeria on the face. We are over
- whelmed that Biafra, through a peaceful process, has
become a reality.

We cannot be part of a Nation where injustice,
inequality and maginalisation are the order of the
day. We cannot be citizens of a country where
corruption is a way of life. We cannot belong to a
country where dictatorship, violence and intimidation
are principles of State policy. We cannot belong to a
nation where our children have no future. It is better
to die in struggle for liberty than to live as slaves.

In the past twelve months, we have made tremendous
achievements in our struggle. We have established thew
Biafra Intelligence Agency (BIA). We have also
established the Biafra Police. On September 29th 2001,
by the Grace of the Almighty God, we shall commission
the first New Biafran Embassy in Washington (USA).

We have also enhanced peaceful co-existence among our
people through the establishment of Biafran courts.
These courts have jurisdiction to try civil and
criminal matters. While the Biafran Police are not
authorized to carry arms, The Biafran courts are not
permitted to commit persons to imprisonment. MASSOB
will continue with the establishment of primary
aspects of sovereignty under our third stage. The
fourt stage shall commence on the first quarter of the
year 2002 with the call for Referendum, in the Eastern
Region from the United Nations.

MASSOB shall not permit elections to be held in the
Eastern Region come year 2003. The priority of the
people of the Eastern Region today is for freedom and
not for the presidency of Nigeria. No meaningful
election can be held in a country where injustice and
inequality are permissible. It is the inequality in
Nigeria that makes a particular tribe feel it has the
inalienable right to concede presidency to other
tribes.

MASSOB notes with dismay that the scarcity of
petroleum products in the Eastern Region is a Federal
Government policy to sabotage the economy of the
Region. It therefore, has become necessary for MASSOB
to open negotiation with the independent marketers in
the Eastern Region with a view to selling the scarce
products at the prices that may alleviate the
suffering of our people. MASSOB seeks to avoid any
future confrontation with our people vis - a vis the
sale of petroleum products at official prices.

Citizens of Biafra, we have to use this occasion to
pay tribute to our twenty-eight Great Heroes, who paid
the supreme price for the actualization of our dream
in the past twelve months. The reactionary Nigerian
police have found favour in slaughtering our members
for daring to ask for their freedom. This is part of
their secret agenda to obliterate in the world. We
challenge our detractors to disprove our claims.

We salute our great brothers in the Niger Delta. We
support the Ijaws, the Ogonis, the Kalabaris, the
Ikwerres, the Efiks, the Ibibios, and others in their
struggle for emancipation and resources control. We
assure them that in Biafra, every community will
control it’s resources as it is done in other
civilized countries where true federalism is
practiced.

Brothers and sisters, we must appreciate that fact
that our existence as a people rests on the survival
of Biafra as an independent state. Biafra is the
answer, if e must live with the dignity as a people.
Biafra is the only legacy that we can leave behind to
our future generations.

Long lives the New Biafra State.
May God bless you.

CHIEF RALPH UWAZURUIKE
MASSOB Leader
Aba, May 22 2001.

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I've never been so proud to be a Biafran.
My people, I'm looking forward to visiting our New Biafra Embassy in September! What a wondrous therapy it would be! We already have our Biafra Intelligence Organisation functional...among other Nationhood accomplishments.

I keep telling the anti-Biafra monkey-wrench throwers that Biafra Actualization is at hand...whether they like and accept it or not. The UN referendum that I've talked so much about will come to pass...sooner than we visualize.
We have been blest. Our prayers of thirty one years ago has been answered. We shall taste FREEDOM at last!!!

Glory be to the Creator of the Biafrans. Glory be to the God of Biafrans who has visited his mercy on his people, the Biafrans for their freedom, progressive growth and success!

I was going to say you're up early. Thanks for that cheery speech. Made my day. With Ralph's balance of focus and patience, there is no stopping us!

We have initiated the struggle for the emancipation of our people. It is a long-term project. God will provide the circumstance for the realization of our dream. Our duty is to ensure that the struggle does not die.

Ralph Uwazurike
Aba, 22/05/00

SPEECH BY PROFESSOR STANLEY DIAMOND OF THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH IN NEW YORK;
AUTHOR OF "NIGERIA, THE MODEL OF COLONIAL FAILURE" AND
"THE BIAFRAN POSSIBILITY" AN ARTICLE IN THE AUGUST-NOVEMBER. ISSUE 0F THE AFRICAN SCHOLAR:

ON THE OCCASION OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BIAFRA, IN NEW YORK, DECEMBER 7, 1968.

I should like to make a few remarks about the very important issues that were raised by Professor Sklar. I think that the first remark with reference to the people of the middle belt is interesting. They are now supporting the Nigerian Federal Government, for fear of being dominated by the re-emergence of the Northern emirates when this situation is over one way or the other. I should like to say that the problem there is no longer a problem for Biafra or for the Ibos speaking peoples in the erst-while eastern region. The middle belt movement for autonomy within the federation was one of the most important revolutionary movements in pre-civil war Nigeria, and is one which should be encouraged and which will find its own solution within a restructured Northern Region. I say a restructured Northern Region, no reconstruction on the basis of the present paper constitution, but in terms of the actual fair balance of power. The middle belt represents approximately half of the territory of the Northern region and approximately one third of its total population and was the center for dissidents stimulated in part by the parties of the South.

So far as the Ibo speaking people are concerned which was another point made by Professor Sklar, 1 think it is sad to note that it was not just a question of some of the Ibo leaders being progressive initially as was then defined as being progressive, with reference to-the formation of united Nigeria. They and the entire lbo population were in that term, progressive population of Nigeria. That is to say, they identified themselves primarily as Nigerians. This was to a much greater degree than was true among the Ibo speaking people than was true in the northern part of the country. That is to say that the Ibo was a traditional Nigerian Unitarian. Now that they are no longer Nigerian Unitarians, our problem is to discover why that is the case. They are now Biafran Unitarians. They have never been in that sense a narrowly parochial people; which is one of the reasons why they have caused so much irritation and reaction among other peoples in Nigeria.

Biafra has emerged as a symbol of all of the major tragic problems which we face in the post war world. Problem of national self-determination, number one. Now the problem of national self-determination is very complicated. National self-determination implies that there must be a nationality to determine itself and all future developments. Classes of social economic interest, economic exploitations national relations, etc., depend upon the formation of this national arena arid it seems to me that what we have among the Biafrans is the emergence of a genuine nationality, in my judgement at least and perhaps in several other people, the first emerging modern nationality, self-determined as such in all of the sub-Saharan black Africa. It’s not enough to dismiss the development of nationalities as being parochial, it is not. Nationalities form the seed bed for the entire, for all possibilities of growth culturally, socially and economically. Of course, nationalities don’t have to coincide with states or political balances, but in a plural society •which the old Nigerian presumably was, it was not possible f or the Thor speaking peoples to develop their own thrust towards nationality which then defined as Nigerian nationality, in safety and for the benefit of themselves and others. Therefore, they are now Biafrans and that will not change.

Biafra is another symbol the symbol of the whole problem of emerging nationalities in the so-called undeveloped or ex-colonial world. It’s the symbol of the problems of cynical big power manipulation; symbol of the problems of genocide; symbol of the helplessness of the impotent United Nations. When we look at the photographs of the starving children, I think that now we respond in a way that has an echo from the second world war, at least it does in my mind, and I think it does in the minds of others who are old1 enough to recall those days. That is to say, we have come to understand that Biafra is being turned into a large concentration camp and these figures are the figures of concentration camp inmates. Therefore, along with the other factors that I have mentioned, we confront. Biafra as the symbol of the modern nightmare. One of the remarkable features which is emerging on the part of the Ibos speaking people in particular is that they have been able somehow to be inside of this situation and at the same time to be outside of it. That is, they have worked very hard in order to make these factors as clear as possible, as evident as possible for all of us. That is, we have come to recognize Biafra as something more than a relatively "exotic" area in a remote part of the world. We see it as a symbol of our own problems universally and we see it also as a potential nucleus of growth for all of the sub Saharan Africa and an example of what can be done, what should be done in the remainder of the under developed world.

So far as Nigerian patriotism is concerned, I don’t believe very much in these latter day patriots. I also spent a good deal of time in Nigeria, and their patriotism is their defense of an authentic national Nigerian identity for the North, for the West, but very much to be denied for Nigeria as a whole. This was not their fault; this was a part of the heritage of the colonial super -imposition and the character of the society which was left behind by the British. Though we don’t really know how many have been killed, prior to the war the population of Biafra was about 14 million, a which is the fourth largest on the African continent and out side the remainder of Nigeria the largest in West Africa. The area is about 30 thousand square miles, and has the highest population density in Africa. It averages out to about 500 people per square mile. It is made up today of 20 provinces; 11 Ibos provinces and 9 minority controlled provinces has, or had, over 300 secondary and higher educational institutions; it had two -universities including a teaching hospital, law school, engineering institutes. It had a primary school enrollment of about one million two hundred and fifty thousand; a university enrollment of over three thousand. Among the professionals, Biafra had 500 MD’s, 700 lawyers and 600 engineers (the proportion of engineers to other professionals in Biafra is far above that in other parts of Africa.) Its agricultural resources are pa1m oil and palm kernel, certain amounts of cocoa, large timber resources, rubber, and so on. Minerals we know petroleum, natural gas, certain amounts of coal, ore and some others. The industries I won’t bother to mention, but they range from tires and textiles to gramophone records, cosmetics, stationery and plastics. Prior to the war, the volume of foreign trade was estimated at about 200 to 500 million pounds per annum. The gross national product was about 552 million pounds per annum and the per capita income about 38.4 pounds per annum which was at that time roughly 100 dollars per capita, quite high for sub-Saharan Africa. So the question of Biafra must be answered in the affirmative. The risky question is, "Is Nigeria viable?" It is now held together through a mechanical coalition of forces, which are focused upon what seems to be a vast scapegoating operation in Biafra. I doubt very much whether the present military regime is going to be able to sustain the kind of political tensions which boil beneath the surface and I think the federal troops in Lagos, the flower of the federal army, so we understand, are there basically for political purposes of Biafra visualized as a principality, as some kind of a private preserve for the present leadership? Of course not. Those of us who have either been there or who have spoken to Biafrans, who have a little understanding of the sub-Saharan black African scene, know full well that the ideology of the Biafrans in this respect was to establish every conceivable kind of productive association with the remainder of Nigeria and with the remainder of Western Africa insofar as that was possible within the structure of the other governments in West Africa. This ranged in cooperation for harbors, road networks, merchant shipping, air lines, ports, customs common currency, higher educational exchanges even common diplomatic representation in those countries which would accept common diplomatic representation. But the one issue which was not negotiable was political sovereignty. Political sovereignty in order to have fair representation, national representation and to have the right to protect the lives and the property and the future of all the people of Biafra. So I don’t think it is a question of narrow or parochial nationalism but rather the formation of a nationality which can emerge as the nucleus j of growth to which associates of a very significant character with the balance of west Africa including Nigeria, and with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa also could attach themselves. I call to your attention that Zambia and Tanzania, the two countries which have the most intelligent and progressive nonmilitary leadership in sub-Saharan Black Africa have recognized Biafra not because they are recognizing a balkanized dutchey of some kind, but because they have fully in mind both the humanitarian and larger political implications of this so-called secession.

I have indicated the economic resources which are available. I have indicated the emergence of the authentic Biafran nationality. This has four perhaps aspects to it. Ibo migrants who numbered in the millions throughout Nigeria, had Pan-Nigerian experience, therefore a kind of cosmopolitan experience, and yet retained their ties to each other. This was a factor in the modern formation of the Biafran nationality. A second factor was the solidarity provided by their improvement unions, located all over the old Nigeria. A third factor, an obvious one, is that these people have been through a terrible time. They have been united through war and through prosecution. In most under developed areas a foreign military presence has been catalytic and so it has been also in Biafra. Let’s not obliterate, however, the deeper historical texture. The Ibo speaking peoples have been the national revolutionary population in West Africa. . This goes back for two generations. The fourth factor is that an industrious, self-modernizing independent population, having developed a national conscious" ness, would refuse to become an instrument of neo-colonial control and would therefore help to catalyze, as I have mentioned before, autonomous developments elsewhere in Africa.

There is no other way. There is no compromise, and there will be no more delays in actualizing Biafra.
I'm optimistic that there will be no 2003 Nigerian election in Biafra. Biafra will have departed Nigeria by then...considering the rate we're going. The world that has the bulky voting and decision influencing power are behind us. They have acknowledged our plights and quest for freedom. I'm cheerfully satisfied that we are diligently staying on schedule, if not exceeding it.

So Biafrans, we shall once again rise! We are the hope and consolation bearer for Africa. New Biafra will not waste time and energy any more on any Nigerian elections. Also, do not get distracted by envious detractors on this board who are the enemies of Biafra progress. Let the dead bury themselves!

This is our testimony and heritage:
I was in Biafra for UNICEF from early September to early October, and the situation has gotten much worse since. At that time, I detected no self-pity among the Biafrans whatsoever. This is an unusual thing. You would think that people with their backs to the wall like this would at least feel sorry for themselves. Certainly there was no suicidal impulse which a lot of people say there is among the Biafrans. Instead, there was an almost pleasant resolve for economic and sociological independence.

...what we have among the Biafrans is the emergence of a genuine nationality, in my judgement at least and perhaps in several other people, the first emerging modern nationality, self-determined as such in all of the sub-Saharan black Africa. It’’s not enough to dismiss the development of nationalities as being parochial, it is not.’

‘... (the) emergence of the authentic Biafran nationality (has) has four perhaps aspects to it...’

‘Biafra is another symbol, the symbol of the whole problem of emerging nationalities in the so-called undeveloped or ex-colonial world. It’’s the symbol of the problems of cynical big power manipulation; symbol of the problems of genocide; symbol of the helplessness of the impotent United Nations (OAU, Commonwealth - my emphasis).’

Nwanna Ohafia:
I don’t know where you get all these stuff, you sure do make me wannabe ‘Oliver Twist’.

Keep supplying nwanna, they are ‘SINKING IN’.

Stay blessed.
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Biafran Unitarian is Real, the Rest is Seeming