Reiteration of reasons for implementing self-determination for the nation of Biafra
The primary reason driving the self-determination form and effort of the people of Biafra is the imperative to provide the traditional existential human needs of survival and prosperity of our people (something most other peoples and nations take for granted), but even more important, to gain control over own means to provide such succor. The current and future envisioned structure of the State of Nigeria makes it impossible for these human needs to ever be met for our people, should Biafra continue to exist within the State of Nigeria. In fact, the working policy of the State of Nigeria is to deprive Biafrans of the opportunity and means to satisfy these needs, and when not entirely possible to accomplish this, to heap as many obstacles as possible in order to delay the provision of such needs of the Biafran people, even if Biafrans resort to using alternative means. It is necessary to keep in mind that this is not just a perception: it is fact, it is reality, and the State of Nigeria itself makes no secret of it. Yet, the reason for Self Determination for Biafra goes well beyond human needs: the aforementioned structure of Nigeria, put together by its colonial master and inherited as such, is a forced amalgamation of peoples and nations who were never suited, and are still not suited to be lumped together as one nation in the first place. The architect of the amalgamation, the British Lord Lugard, is reported to have stated, 100 years ago, that such a “union” would never work—that “[Easterners] Biafrans and Northerners were like oil and water and would never mix.” He was right then. He is still right at this time. The problem is that Nigeria is still trying to make it work, using all manner of force and intimidation, buoyed by the support of other self-interested parties who benefit from the ongoing resultant dysfunctional and pathologic status of the state of Nigeria . Primal among human needs are human security and human welfare. Let us take a look at the experience of Biafrans in the state of Nigeria when it comes to security and welfare.
1. Security of Person: life and limb. Biafrans are killed on a daily basis all over Nigeria , including occupied Biafra . Most times, it is extrajudicial killing by Nigeria Police, Nigeria Armed Security Agencies, and Nigeria ’s Secret Death Squads. Even when such is admitted by the State of Nigeria’s killing machinery there is no inquest, no accountability, no explanation, no apologies, no proper trials, no convictions, no remorse, and no compensation. Lately, MASSOB members have borne the brunt of these unconscionable acts. Biafrans are also killed en masse, singled out and targeted as a group, in Muslim Northern Nigeria , with a frightening cyclicity and staggering toll. This is the result of a combination of Muslim religious imperative coupled with racially-motivated and targeted mayhem directed against Biafrans. Once again, this is done openly, using state-provided logistics; there is no inquest, no arrests, no real trials, no convictions, no remorse, no apologies, no compensation and no end in sight for this abhorrent behavior; even when Biafran casualties number in the thousands. Although this atrocious activity qualifies as genocide and or ethnic cleansing, the international community has yet to react. A recent press report states that between 2001 and mid-2004, 54,000 persons died in Jos, Northern Nigeria alone, as a result of this type of mayhem. The government official announcing the figures refused to give a breakdown as to the ethnicity of the victims, but we know that a huge majority of them were Biafrans. He was also silent about Kano and Kaduna and other Muslim cities where such bloody events occur on a much larger scale over a longer period of time and with more frequency. Since 1980, in almost all the cities of Northern Nigeria Biafrans have been attacked and slaughtered in tens of thousands by organized Northern militants more than two dozen times. For each death of a Biafran resulting from the above, at least ten times have been injured, maimed, displaced and or unaccounted for.
2. Security of Person: Property There is no respect for the property or property-rights of the Biafran. Recently, the Nigerian Police destroyed the home and ransacked the compound of the leader of MASSOB, and bragged about it, with the reason that they were looking for Biafran flags and Biafran paraphernalia. This was not the first time that they destroyed MASSOB or Biafran property with such impunity and without accountability. In Onitsha , the Nigeria Police and Security agents are still destroying property which they claim belong to MASSOB and Biafran sympathizers. The Lagos State government razed business stalls and markets built and maintained by Biafrans living in that State, without reason, without compensation, and threatened to burn more such structures. In the Muslim North, during and after the aforementioned rampages, Northern civilians and security agents would selectively target, loot, burn and destroy the business and personal property of Biafrans residing in Northern Nigeria, as well as Christian Churches where Biafrans worship.
3. Security of the collective: Genocide, ethnic cleansing The first massive and state-directed pogrom, genocide and ethnic cleansing directed against Biafrans (the Eastern Nigerians at that time) by Nigeria occurred in 1966, in Northern Nigeria especially, but also in Western Nigeria . Casualty figures ran into the hundreds of thousands—of Biafrans killed, many more wounded, and all driven out of other parts of Nigeria and chased away there from. By the end of that year, two more similar bloody waves were to occur, with the same devastating consequences for Biafrans. Prior to that, there were few other recorded instances in Northern Nigeria with much fewer casualties, with Biafrans as the target and victims. The 1966 massacres of Biafrans set the stage for the Biafra-Nigeria War of 1967 to 1970, during which Nigeria overstepped the bounds of what is acceptable in war, by maintaining a total food blockade of Biafra, aided by at least 6 other countries, including world-powers, resulting in the starvation-death of millions of Biafran children, women and elderly non-combatants. Nigeria ’s war doctrine, publicized then and even now, and put into practice during that war, was to kill every Biafran, including unborn children. It can thus be concluded and backed up by the experience of Biafrans and even the admissions of the State of Nigeria that the lives and property of Biafrans are to be taken and destroyed, not secured. Not only has the State of Nigeria participated directly in this crime against humanity, but it has maintained an enabling environment which facilitates and encourages other Nigerians and State governments to kill and maim Biafrans at will, destroy the property of Biafrans and uproot Biafrans wherever they may be found in Nigeria . By making no efforts at all to investigate and bring to justice individual and corporate offenders in these crimes, the State of Nigeria has proved that it places no value on the life and property of Biafrans living in Nigeria; worse still, the state of Nigeria has proven that it has a vested interest in the destruction of Biafrans.
4. Economic Security Were it not for the resiliency of the Biafran, the State of Nigeria, using government policies and individual prejudicial initiatives, would have totally destroyed the economic lifeline of the people of Biafra . The first blow occurred in 1970, following the end of the war. The state of Nigeria confiscated the pre-war bank accounts / assets of all Biafrans; instead, it offered a flat rate of miserly 20 pounds (equivalent to 20 British pounds then) to each account owner, no matter what the balance-plus-interest was. This was an indication of (bad) things to come and set the tone and the pace for expectations of Nigeria by Biafra in the postwar era, expectations that have been validated by the ongoing persecution of Biafrans at the hands of the State of Nigeria. Since then, the government of Nigeria has banned or blocked or stifled legitimate economic activities in which there is a preponderance of Biafran owners, in many cases, contriving to deny Biafrans access to requisite foreign exchange required for serious business transactions. No efforts were made or provisions arranged by the Nigerian government to compensate victimized Biafrans for their losses and forfeits, nor to rehabilitate the suddenly unemployed. Realizing the importance of stable and adequate power supply for the sustenance of the manufacturing sector, the State of Nigeria has deliberately maintained an unpredictable epileptic supply of Electrical Power to the region of Biafra, thereby almost entirely wiping out manufacturing as an economic activity in Biafra . In the same vein, the major (and only) East-West route for overland transportation of goods and conduct of commerce across the Niger River, a route connecting major Biafran centers of commerce, has been left unattended to on the Biafran side for many years, despite its obvious condition as a dilapidated structure, and despite the pleas of the people of Biafra, since this road is the responsibility of the Federal government of Nigeria. There is no logical or market-dynamics explanation for the fact that the price of petroleum products, which is controlled directly and indirectly by the Nigerian government, is highest in Biafraland—a huge irony considering that the source of most of the oil produced in Nigeria is right there in Biafraland. It is more likely that the government of Nigeria sees this as a way to extend and implement its anti-Biafran policies, to enforce on-going economic hardship on the people of Biafra; and finally, to underscore the obvious economic exploitation of Biafra . On the subject of transportation, goods and trade, the designation and upgrade of just one airport in the center of commerce in Biafraland to an International Airport would improve the commercial and economic activity of Biafrans, there being no doubt that Biafra is the economic engine and power of Nigeria. While each of the other major regions of Nigeria has at least one or two International airports, there is none (functional, that is) located in the center of commerce in Biafraland. Offers by Biafrans to foot the bill for the upgrade have fallen on deaf ears, although the primary responsibility for the conversion is properly that of the Nigeria government. Thus, the State of Nigeria is determined to stifle any prospects for economic success or improvement for and or in Biafra . One result of this can be seen with the high incidence of employment for both the youth and their elders, and the high incidence of “under-employment” for college graduates with multiple and higher degrees, in Biafraland, whereby a PhD holder is found only able to eke out a living driving dilapidated “motorcycle-cabs” on un-motorable roads. For their part, Biafran youth languish on and roam the dusty and dirty streets literally leading to nowhere but to despondency, desperation and depression. All this is happening in a territory that provides over 90% of all Foreign Exchange for the State of Nigeria
5. Food Security. Prior to the war and immediately after the war, Biafra was a breadbasket for the entire State of Nigeria. However, soon after the war, the government of Nigeria methodically shifted all major agricultural endeavors to Northern Nigeria, not withstanding the fact that it would require major expensive, extensive irrigation schemes to be implemented in order to turn arid / desert Northern Nigerian sand and soil into productive land, while the naturally fertile Biafran land and industry was made to suffer and wither. The result is predictable: today (and for a long time now), Biafra has lost the ability and opportunity to produce even the basic staple, yam; another staple, cassava, is so scarcely produced that Biafrans and the State of Nigeria now import Garri, the processed product from cassava.
6. Environmental Security. The most obvious and salient example of environmental terrorism directed against the people of Biafra by the State of Nigeria relates to oil exploration in the Niger Delta sub-region of Biafra. With total disregard for the environment and for the people who live in the area, the State of Nigeria has failed to make substantial and effective effort to combat what otherwise would have been manageable ecological fallout from oil exploration, as has been accomplished elsewhere. The water is polluted, affecting both marine life and the life of people who use the waterways for transportation and as a source of salt and food, resulting in the displacement of the people. The heat from flaring of gas warms up the local environment, adversely affecting the inhabitants, the fauna and the flora, forcing them to move or die. Oil spills and slicks damage the land proper, destroying and forestalling agriculture and even habitation. The state of Nigeria has nationalized all oil production and is the custodian of all revenues there from. It spends the money in many ways it sees fit, but none of those ways include a serious, committed and intelligent environmental rehabilitation and responsible population rehabilitation for the people of the Delta sub-region of Biafra . An evaluation of how and where the state of Nigeria spends oil revenues which now account for over 90% of its foreign exchange will show that excluding the huge proportion of money going into corrupt hands by corrupt means, most of the rest is preferentially spent in projects outside Biafraland, in places not even close to Biafraland, out of spite for Biafra and its people. Thus, the environment is allowed to degrade, not because the funds are not there to do something about the problem, but because it suits the anti-Biafran policy of the State of Nigeria to enable and allow any anything that would serve as punishment and spite for Biafra . Of course, it goes without saying that this situation is also a form of selective economic exploitation directed specifically against Biafra and its people. Elsewhere in Biafraland, serious Erosion has destroyed thousands of acres of habitable and farmland, as well as natural forests, in a process that has been going on for decades, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of affected Biafrans. The government of Nigeria has yet to announce a program to evaluate and tackle this problem, in spite of desperate outcry by the people, but it spends huge resources in forestation and “reclamation of the Desert” programs in Northern Nigeria .
7. Political Security: The people political will
While political security addresses respect for human rights and freedoms, which will be addressed next, it should not be forgotten that the respect or lack thereof of democratic processes exemplified by free and fair elections is also a proper issue here. The right of the people to express their collective political will using the ballot system and to see such a will carried out is just as primal as the basic individual right of being. In April 2003, during the elections, the will of the people of Biafra was thwarted and subverted by brazen rigging of results done in broad daylight, whereby the mandate given to the APGA party to represent the people of Biafra in all Biafran areas, was stolen and usurped by the national PDP party, the functional “state-party” of Nigeria. This resulted in PDP hand-picking so-called leaders to rule over Biafra , persons who were not elected by the people. The International observers all agreed that the elections were rigged by the PDP party. The end-result is that Biafra ended up being ruled and controlled by those it did not vote for, those beholden to the state of Nigeria with its oppressive agenda against Biafrans.
Court challenges were an exercise in futility, the courts themselves under the control of the State-machinery, with an occasional just court finding only few months to the end of the 4 year term, and even more rare, a court decision obeyed by the Nigerian government if the government did not like it. Thus, the originally fraudulent election results were conferred legitimacy by force or time, expediency and collusion, over a helpless people. Confirming what the people of Biafra could easily predict, these so-called leaders foisted over Biafra have remained either silent in the face of it, or are in support of the systematic undermining of the human and civil rights of Biafrans, even right within Biafran territory, of which there is no better or more deadly example of shirking of responsibilities. A most telling event occurred when the Nigeria Police tear-gassed and injured supporters of Dim Ojukwu at a pre-election presidential campaign rally in one of the Northern cities in 2003. The rally was thus completely broken up by the Police, although there was in fact no reason or justification for the police action and behavior. Dim Ojukwu, running as a Nigerian citizen and as the flag-bearer of his party, APGA, with a Biafran base, was thus prevented from campaigning in Northern Nigeria , something that did not apply to other candidates. It is not too difficult to surmise that Ojukwu is intimately associated with Biafra , even though he has since then rehabilitated himself as a Nigerian, of which he was the staunchest defender. No matter: he was not allowed to campaign in Northern Nigeria, simply because of his being associated with Biafra, and the Nigeria Police was used to effect that policy, in what was slated and later celebrated by the state of Nigeria as a “free and fair election.” Many persons attempting to cast their votes in Biafraland were killed by the Nigeria Police; other Polling Stations were closed, and in many places in Biafraland, no voting was held at all. As General Buhari, a Nigerian presidential contender put it later, no region bore the brunt of the rigging of the 2003 Nigeria elections more than the region of Biafra: none region was more cheated than Biafra . The brazen act by the President of Nigeria using the instruments of State to foist a State governor in Anambra State of Biafra is a well documented and well-covered travesty of electoral justice and governance whose repercussions continue till date. Such is the total control of Biafra by the State of Nigeria’s PDP party that serious criminal acts performed specifically against the people of Biafra by PDP officials are never brought to the court of law or to the people of Biafra for resolution and settlement. Rather, PDP takes over the cases, dubbing them “PDP family affair,” and the matter would end there, dealt with without transparency, without consultation with the Biafran community, and with no sanctions and actions against the culprits.
8. Political security: human right and freedoms The state of the respect of the human rights of Biafrans in Nigeria can be summarized by a recent public statement of a consultant for, and functionary of the State of Nigeria who must have been informed and influenced by the ongoing policies and attitude of Nigeria to Biafrans, to the tune and effect that “Biafrans have no rights under the constitution of Nigeria.” As a matter of fact, the State of Nigeria treats Biafrans as if Biafrans have no rights at all—not even the rights accorded to ordinary Nigerians. What is evident is a painfully obvious and odious double standard where Biafrans are slammed for the same act that no one would even raise an eyelid coming from any other quarters. Typifying this situation is the most recent incident, where Odumegwu Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra , expressed his personal opinion during a newspaper interview that he supports MASSOB and the events of August 26 2004. He was immediately summoned by the feared SSS, the inscrutable and murderous Nigerian secret service, with a one-way plane ticket to SSS headquarters symbolic of, and indicating a terminal event. On the other hand, many prominent persons from other parts of Nigeria support their own ethnic-nationalistic organizations, and are even appointed to offices in the government of Nigeria , without challenge, without molestation.
Speaking of MASSOB, it has been accused of and charged with treason against the state of Nigeria for engaging in the struggle for the actualization of Biafra, although MASSOB is non-violent, even resisting the urge for retaliation for the unconscionable injustice and violence meted to its members. Daily now, Nigeria police and security agents are out in force going from house to house arresting MASSOB members manhandling and detaining and jailing them without even charging them to court, some times, for months. As we speak, Chief Ralph Uwazurike, the leader of MASSOB, many of the officers of MASSOB and many members of MASSOB are in jail, on the orders of General Obasanjo, the President of Nigeria. Many other Biafrans are also in jail for supporting the MASSOB agenda. Earlier, 53 Biafrans of various ages were arrested and manhandled in a soccer stadium in Lagos by the Nigeria Police, who stated that their crime is Treason, for holding a MASSOB meeting. In actuality, those fifty-three odd Biafrans are soccer players and their fans who were attending or playing in a soccer rally for Uwazurike Cup, the prize named for the MASSOB leader and hero of Biafra . The games were advertised well before hand, even on the internet and email forums, so there was nothing furtive about the event. Even the Police couldn’t claim that the 53 were carrying weapons (as the Police have done in the past) and or otherwise engaged in any activity considered illegal. Nevertheless, the Police arrested and jailed these 53, and bail was denied them. Among them was a 15 year-old girl. They languished in jail for over 1 to 2 years, where reports have already leaked out that the female Biafrans have been abused and or raped, while there is no medical care provided for the rest, some of whom were injured during the arrest. Such egregious violation of human rights! The obvious pattern of total disregard of the civil and human rights of Biafrans and their violation by the state of Nigeria is seen again when the Nigeria Police broke up a Sanitation and Clean-up exercise organized by MASSOB in Biafran communities. In fact, the Nigeria Police went the further step of actually arresting and jailing some of the MASSOB members. Their “crime” is that they organized and engaged in a sorely needed community clean-up exercise, in a pre- and well publicized campaign. MASSOB members had taken the extra steps of not carrying any clean-up instruments which might be suspected of being a weapon; making participation completely voluntary; training and conducting themselves in such a way as not to block road access or impede or interfere in any way with citizens going about their normal business. In spite of all this, the Nigeria Police stopped them, harassed them and imprisoned some of them. Similarly, the same pattern was evident in another incident when the Nigeria Police stormed the meeting of the Women’s wing of the MASSOB and manhandled the female attendees, destroyed their property, confiscated equipment; in so doing, breaking up a meeting—a peaceful assembly of women—thereby proving that gender is not a hindrance to the Nigeria Police in their eager, brazen and arrogant efforts to violate the civil rights and other human rights of the people of Biafra.
The state of Nigeria has not stopped its Police, which is under a centralized command, contrary to its own constitution, from detaining and jailing Biafrans and MASSOB members without charge. Many Biafrans are languishing in Nigerian jails without charge, some for well over 2 years. In the rare instance when a court finally intervenes and orders the release of such Biafrans, the police drag their feet and the order may or may not in fact be carried out. Even the Biafran Youth have not been spared as one of their major peaceful non-partisan meetings was broken up by Armed Nigerian agents dressed in battle gear, and the organizers jailed or declared wanted, even though they had obtained all necessary government permits earlier for their meeting to discuss the plight of Biafran youths. Other practices of the Nigeria Police which call to question the respect of humanity of the State of Nigeria include the refusal of the police to provide food and water (never mind clothing) for Biafrans who are being detained by the police and detained without charge in the first instance. The responsibility of feeding these detainees then devolves to their relatives and friends. But, that’s not all. Any food or drink items brought in for them is “confiscated” by the police, which really means that the police will help themselves first, and decide if leftovers will get to the originally intended detainees.
Often, the situation is used as bait: any visiting relative or friend can be arrested on the spot by the police as a MASSOB member-suspect. The Extrajudicial Killings of Biafrans, especially MASSOB members, has been brought up earlier. One or two here and there is bad enough. In April 2003, MASSOB members were headed for a political rally when their convoy was ambushed by Nigeria Mobile police, which then opened fire on them without provocation. Keep in mind that the MASSOB members were unarmed. Hundreds of MASSOB members were murdered by the police that day; many were wounded and maimed. Quite a few are still unaccounted for. The Police finally admitted that the incident occurred, gave a ridiculously low casualty figure of only 5 dead MASSOB members, and yet failed to explain why the Police opened fire on unarmed civilian convoy, after laying in wait for them, a fact that revealed premeditation and planning. There was no inquest. There was no apology. There was no explanation. There was no remorse. Newspaper accounts of Biafran Youth being shot in the back by armed Police as the unarmed youth fled from the police are plentiful. Then, one of the Nigerian Police Commissioners publicly declared that the Police would label every MASSOB member an “armed robber,” which he did not fail to remind us meant that the Police would summarily execute such a MASSOB member on sight, the punishment for armed robbery. The Nigeria Police proceeded with that policy—unchecked. It would be premature and misleading to assume that only MASSOB is victimized by these acts that deny Biafrans their human rights and freedoms. All over Biafran territory, there are police checkpoints, whose only real function is to impede the movement of Biafrans, harass them and extort money from them. Nowhere else in Nigeria does this happen with this intensity, concentration and malice as in Biafraland. At such checkpoints, Biafrans have been known to die, shot on the spot by the armed police for refusing to offer bribe to the police. There is no recourse for Biafrans; there is no inquest, no apologies, no arrests, no trials, no sentences handed out; no remorse, and no compensation.
Until recently, no newspaper in Nigeria could mention the word, “Biafra,” or write anything directly or indirectly about Biafra . Even the Vice-President of Nigeria , Mr. Atiku, found cause, in a keynote speech, to exhort the newspapers to return to the wonted ways when no one mentioned Biafra; this was at the inaugural of a new newspaper, and his theme, was “Freedom of the Press.” The irony is not lost. The State of Nigeria has far-reaching arms when it comes to hounding Biafrans. It constantly lobbies other nations to harass Biafrans living in those countries, using bully tactics and diplomatic blackmail, especially with African countries. Recently, the state of Nigeria sent members of its feared SSS to represent Nigeria in a foreign country in a meeting between that country and Biafran residents. It has been learned that foreign immigration departments have been lobbied by the State of Nigeria to toughen immigration checks and practices against Biafrans living in those countries.
9. Communal Security: cultural integrity The State of Nigeria has pressured some Biafran communities within Biafra to renounce their linguistic and blood ties to the major ethnic group, Igbo, in Biafra , with the goal of planting discord. Villages and towns in Biafran territory have been arbitrarily renamed, under directives (and duress) from the State of Nigeria, for no other reason than to cause dissent and discord within and among Biafrans, and also, to induce cultural liquidation. The President of Nigeria, General Obasanjo, is on record for making statements during official visits calculated to incite fear and hatred by one Biafran community against another, without provocation, and gratuitously. At other times, he is on record for insulting the real community leaders of Biafra , even while visiting Biafran cities and communities. Once, his aide made every single community leader that attended a meeting held in a community in Biafran territory kneel down and bow before General Obasanjo’s feet; Obasanjo did nothing to stop that and actually encourages such mass humiliation and degradation of the leaders and people of Biafra. General Obasanjo happens to be the current personification of the mistreatment of Biafrans by the state of Nigeria ’s rulers; he is not alone in this. During the now inconclusive National Political Reform Conference arranged by General Obasanjo, a Constitutional amendment was floated which specifically removed Igbo, the major language spoken in Biafra, from the original list of 3 official major indigenous Nigerian languages. This was a gratuitous insult and provocation. Biafrans have a long history of adherence to the principles and practice of democracy. They elect their leaders at all levels of society through a strict application of one-person-one-vote and hold this practice in great reverence. Since the occupation of Biafra by the Nigerian State , Nigerian leaders have systematically prevented Biafrans from electing their leaders. Instead the Nigerian State foists its own handpicked men and women on Biafrans—often men and women who know nothing about Biafran culture and do not care about the welfare of Biafrans. The consequence is that Biafran society is fast becoming unrecognizable to people who knew Biafran people and culture forty years ago, and if nothing is done to arrest this systematic destruction of the Biafran people and their culture by the Nigerian state, Biafran society and culture will be wiped out in a matter of decades. This will be a major tragedy, to say the least. The issue of unidentified mass graves presents a complex and compound adverse effect on the culture of Biafra . It is the custom of the people of Biafra to perform proper burial for their dead. Without a body, there is no proper burial; without identifying the corpse, proper burial cannot proceed. Healthy psychosocial closure becomes impossible. It is also the policy of the State of Nigeria to quickly burn beyond recognition corpses of the Biafran victims of the well-orchestrated and targeted killings of Biafrans and other Christians in Northern Nigerian by Muslims; and thereafter, dump the remains in secret, unmarked mass graves. The same treatment has been given to scores of Biafrans recently being hunted down and shot to death by the Nigeria Police in Onitsha and other cities in Biafra , following which their bodies are dumped in unmarked mass graves in the forests. The State of Nigeria has no qualms defending its policy, not based on Public Health considerations, but based on the reason that repatriating corpses of Biafran dead back to Biafraland for proper postmortem care would only infuriate Biafrans into reprisal and revenge. There are many problems with this practice by the state of Nigeria . First, the State of Nigeria does not keep official records of Biafran casualties. Secondly, the State of Nigeria accounts to no one for the Biafrans it has murdered. Third, this practice shows a gross lack of respect for Biafrans—both the living and now, also the dead; and a deliberate lack of sensitivity to the culture and customs of the people of Biafra . All this adds up to the consistent profile of the State of Nigeria as decidedly anti-Biafran in any and all ways. Today, in almost every community in Biafra , there are relatives and friends who are tortured by the uncertainty over the fate of their loved one, and the ensuing lack of customary closure. All this grief, angst and agony, credit to the a-moral malevolence of the State of Nigeria towards the nation of Biafra and her people.
10. Religion In general, the two main religions in Nigeria have a discernible regional base. While Western Nigeria is one-half Muslim and one-half Christian, and Northern Nigeria has about a quarter Christians in an otherwise predominantly Muslim Region, Biafra is almost entirely Christian. Nigeria is supposed to be a secular state with no State-sponsorship of religion. However, the Muslim Northern domination of power affords them the means and opportunity to operate Nigeria as primarily a Muslim nation, to such an extent that one of the Muslim military leaders of Nigeria registered Nigeria as a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), in the 1980’s, without consulting with, and without the consent of, the Christians of Nigeria. Recently, the Nigerian state allowed fundamentalist Islamic Sharia law to be introduced in twelve of the nineteen states in Northern Nigeria and three of the six stated in Western Nigeria . The fundamental Islamic Sharia law is now applied to equally to both Muslims and Christians, despite strong protests from Christian Biafrans. Since Biafrans (who are non-Muslim) have the biggest non-Muslim presence in Northern Nigeria, it does not take much to discern who as a group would be found without rights and treated as such in Northern Nigeria . The State of Nigeria looks the other way while government institutions such as the police and the courts are used to impose fundamentalist Islamic Sharia law on Christian Biafrans living in Northern and Western Nigeria . To this day, the State of Nigeria has never acknowledged that it is a crime for Muslims to kill Biafrans exercising the right of Nigerian citizenship in the North. Nor has the State of Nigeria investigated thoroughly, arrested and tried even one principal involved in any one of the scores of Muslim attacks on Christians spanning several years. Neither the Muslims nor the State of Nigeria have ever expressed remorse or apologized to Biafrans, nor offered any compensation for the death, mayhem and destruction visited on Biafrans and their property. Frightening as this situation is for Biafrans who venture into Northern Nigeria, it is even more ominous to realize that the same structure of Nigeria , powered by the State of Nigeria, now allows Muslims to forcibly encroach into Biafran territory to Islamize the Biafran population using its usual modus operandus force, without challenge and without recourse for Christian Biafrans. Several Moslem Nigerian leaders from Northern and Western Nigeria have declared openly that they will Islamize Christian Biafrans by force. The people of Biafra thus feel trapped by the State of Nigeria, encaged on purpose and left helpless readied for easy victimization and forced Islamization by determined Muslims bent on swallowing up everything in their path which resists their religion.
Biafra Foundation 1629 K ST. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 TEL NO: 202 508 3795 FAX: 202 508 3759 Email: Biafrafoundation@ yahoo.com
The Political Structure Envisaged for the Future Biafra. vob011004. Fellow Biafrans, as we promised in our last broadcast, here now are the outlines of the political structure we envisage for Biafra . As stated earlier, we re-emphasize that the state of Biafra will be built on the principles of self-determination and autonomy. Every ethnic group, every community, will exercise the freedom to govern itself. Make its own local laws peculiar to the community provided they do not conflict with the constitution and well-being of the nation at large, provide for the safety and protection of its own members, determine for itself what priorities it wants to pursue, plan its own educational program, economic development and general infrastructure for the welfare and destiny of its people without interference from any outside bodies. Contrast such freedoms with what obtains in Nigeria today. A clear case in point is the total mess that has been made of politics and governance in the Nigeria-imposed and artificial geographical entity known as Anambra State . The Federal Government under Obasanjo has determined to usurp and destabilize the operation of this regional government by first installing through a fake election, a puppet governor. This was followed by brazenly ignoring the constitution to overthrow the puppet in broad daylight on the suspicion that he was not following to the letter, all aspects of the evil program to destroy the people. To forestall any hope of a reprieve for the people, the fortunes of the region have been mortgaged by Obasanjo to the private greed of an illiterate, hand-picked contractor who is provided with all state security and further invested with the official paraphernalia of state power. This sorry state of affairs is what politics in Nigeria has become for our people.
Further on, our last broadcast states: The State of Biafra will be built on the principle of liberty. Freedom from arbitrary and despotic government arrest and imprisonment will be the hallmark of the Biafran State and the people of Biafra will reserve the right and freedom to use every means at their disposal to resist and throw off any arbitrary and despotic imposition by any government or its functionaries including the right to terminate membership of the Biafran State. The noble principle inherent in the latter pledge revolves around the supremacy of the people's will. This fact is further recognized in the following statement from the Ahiara Declaration of 1969: Again and again, in stating the principles of our revolution, we have spoken of the people. We have spoken of the primacy of people, of the belief that power belongs to the people, that the revolution is the servant of the people. We make no apologies for speaking so constantly about the people, because we believe in the people, we have faith in the people. They are the bastion of the nation, the makers of its culture and history. But in talking about the people, we must never lose sight of the individual who makes up the people. The single individual is the final, irreducible unit of the people. In Biafra , that single individual counts.
In recognition of the supremacy of the people's will and the resultant right of the individual, the State of Biafra will be built on the principle of full respect for the human rights of the individual and protection of the civil rights and liberties of all citizens and groups. Freedom of speech, _expression, assembly, press and religion will be guaranteed by the state. Rights to life, right to ones language, right to communicate with whoever one chooses, right to protest, right to disassociate, right to vote and be voted for, right to legal protection, right to popular participation in legislative process will all be guaranteed and protected by the State of Biafra. Contrary to these valued goals, Nigeria has reduced all within her boundaries to her degrading level of abysmal disregard for the individual and utter debasement of the people's traditional value system. One distressing example is the creation of states which has introduced unnecessary division and strife in Igboland. For instance, when Enugu State was created out of Anambra , every civil servant not an indigene of Enugu was driven out without compensation or regard to the attendant suffering so imposed. It was so bad that even men who were married to indigenes and had children by them were equally affected. This is an abomination! In Igboland, a child is never disowned by the mother's clan and often would seek refuge with them when in distress. The desecration of this sacred injunction may be one of the reasons Igboland is in disarray, and all because of remaining in Nigeria .
In accord with the respect and value of the individual, the Ahiara Declaration states: The Biafran revolution believes in the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human person. The Biafran sees the willful and wanton destruction of human life not only as a grave crime, but also as an abominable sin. In our society, every human life is holy, every individual person counts. No Biafran wants to be taken for granted or ignored, neither does he ignore or take others for granted. This explains why such degrading practices as begging for alms were unknown in Biafran society. Therefore, all forms of disabilities and inequalities, which reduce the dignity of the individual or destroy his sense of person, have no place in the new Biafran social order. The Biafran revolution upholds the dignity of man. The Biafran revolution stands firmly against genocide, against any attempt to destroy a people, its security, its right to life, property and progress. Any attempt to deprive a community of its identity is abhorrent to the Biafran people. These noble ideals for the Biafran State should be contrasted with the current reality of the Nigerian state where certain groups are made to be second class citizens. A country where the ruling class comes from selective areas of the country and who lord it over all others. A country where religious intolerance is a state-sponsored program in which fundamental Islamic jihadists are prescribed the right to murder non-believers at the slightest opportunity. We absolutely refuse to remain in the man-made hell called Nigeria when the glorious alternative of Biafra continues to beckon. Biafra is our destiny and our right. Biafra shall come to stay for this is the people's will.
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