http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/35817-boko-haram-jonathan-condemns-killing-of-igbo.html

No decent human being should be expressing pleasure in the situation where those in danger and already victimized are being advised, blackmailed and intimidated to remain in the same dangerous environment. Especially when these hapless victims are not allowed to defend themselves or their property with effective weapons. Especially when those urging the victims to stay put and those “pleased” with this wicked urging cannot offer tangible and effective protection for the victims; and they would never exercise the option of trading places literally with the victims to show a good example.

No responsible person can say he is “pleased” that hapless, wounded, trapped, terrorized, terrified and defenseless Igbo have been urged to “remain where they are” in Northern region, especially in Kano—the current bloody hotspot of the day—considering what has been going on there, even as we speak.

No honest human being can be “pleased” to support the urging of wounded, dying, and soon-to-be wounded soon-to be-dying Igbo in Kano and other Northern Nigerian towns to stay put “AND GO ABOUT THEIR LAWFUL BUSINESS”. Just how can one already marked and singled out for death who has witnessed the dispossession, maiming and killing of his own kith and kin, “go about their lawful business”? In a lawless territory controlled and ravaged by relentless and vicious Boko Haram, drawing and exchanging fire from armed roaming Nigerian military and security agents, how does one go about one’s “lawful business”? Oh, such damning insensitivity!

This statement by President Jonathan means that he is willing to ignore the awful one-sided damage and destruction of life and property inflicted on the Igbo residing in the North, now in hiding. It also means that President Jonathan is going to deny that there is an element of pogrom, ethnic cleansing and genocide directed against the Igbo in what Boko Haram has been doing in Northern Nigeria recently. President Jonathan told the peoples earlier that Nigeria cannot defeat Boko Haram, in which case, as has already been proven, his government is unable to or incapable of providing security for those foreigners and infidels as the Igbo living in Northern Nigeria are known—those being “urged” to sit there and go on with their normal business when the President has made it absolutely clear that their security cannot be guaranteed by his government.

It is not going to be enough for the President to say that he was merely agreeing with OHANEZE Ndigbo. The President should know by now that OHANEZE has never spoken for the Igbo, choosing rather to work for the individual power and money interests of its members which can only be fulfilled anytime OHANEZE sells out the Igbo. Who knows what they were promised this time by Nigeria and how much they will get to betray the Igbo? Ralph Uwechue, OHANEZE official, who was reported to have sent an official letter to the President, is in fact a turncoat, a quisling whose shameful history of betraying Biafra / Biafrans in the highest quarters during the Biafra War is there for all to read about. His present-day crocodile tears only prove how cynical he and OHANEZE are in regards to Igbo collective interest and survival. The President knows that the Igbo have no respect and no confidence in OHANEZE and the cliquish socio-political class it serves. Siding with OHANEZE places President Jonathan on the anti-Igbo position: no wonder the unbecoming insensitivity of the President to the real plight of the Igbo living in Hell in today’s Northern Nigeria.

Perhaps, President Jonathan being pleased with the sordid plight of the Igbo in Northern Nigeria will change when the body-count of Igbo dead reaches a certain six-digit number, “n”. And, by then, OHANEZE and Igbo governors will have been amply rewarded by Nigeria for delivering hapless Igbo into the waiting mauling jaws of Nigeria. History will hold both parties to account, one day. For now, here are things that President Jonathan can do to prove that he understands the situation clearly.

1) Provide a security escort and secure convoy service for all Igbo desiring to leave Northern Nigerian to bring them safely back to Igboland; bill the Igbo for this service if necessary..

2) Provide low-cost property insurance to cover damages and loss of Igbo property and businesses in Northern Nigeria for all the Igbo fleeing from Northern Nigeria for their own safety and life.

3) Of course, extend the above to all other persons and groups who are as such aggrieved and as such victimized.

4) Support, plan and execute with expedition a plan calling for the sovereign ethnic nations in the Nigeria geopolitical space to meet to decide on conditions, forms, modes and modalities of inter-national relationships if and where there are mutual interests and consent.

There can be no moral justification for continuing this carnage and mayhem playing with God-given lives and livelihoods of peoples for the sake of maintaining the lie, illusion and delusion that Nigeria is or can be one. Everyone—the entire world—knows that such a lie cannot be propped up any longer. It is a crime against humanity to support directly or indirectly the maintenance of an active killing field in the name and form of, and for the sake of, a non-existent national unity.

A word or two for OHANEZE and Igbo governors and Igbo political class: for your insensitive and deliberate poisonous prescriptions for the Igbo masses at the hands of Nigeria, which are based on the satisfaction of your own personal drive and lusting for power, post and money, we leave you in the hands of our Chi.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

Related posts:

1. President Jonathan or the Peoples: Restructure Nigeria Now
2. 1966
3. Nigeria Police lawlessness against MASSOB reflects Nigeria’s policy towards Igbo-Biafra

But, 1966 is a factual and historical reality which Nigeria has done everything in its power to repress and suppress, and David Mark represents a generation which supports and practices such repression, even if he can argue that he has not gone as far as some of his colleagues such as Gowon, Obasanjo, Danjuma, Yakassi, Babangida, Buhari and co. who in fact relish and justify the ethnic cleansing and pogrom which they incited, encouraged and participated in against the Igbo then and afterwards. Until recently, Jonathan for his part represented the generation who did not want to talk about Biafra. As a matter of fact, when Atiku, another member of this league and then Vice President of Nigeria, gave a policy-and-principle speech to the Nigerian Press and Media ostensibly on “Freedom of the Press”, he specifically chided them for allowing the word “Biafra” to reappear and be used and published by any outfit of the Nigerian press and then proceeded to exhort them to never mention Biafra. Imagine that!

Many Nigerians do not know that after the war, Nigerian rulers actually compelled international cartographers to strike the term, “Bight of Biafra” and erase it from the maps of Africa, West Africa and Nigeria. Parenthetically and ironically, just as many Nigerians do not know that the name, Biafra, for this region precedes Nigeria by—yes—five centuries! No matter: Nigerians wanted Biafra erased—literally, figuratively and symbolically. That’s how far they carried on just to avoid admitting and confronting history, and to rewrite such history for gullible Nigerians.

Speaking of that, no one illustrates such gullibility as Orji Uzor Kalu, the former governor of what’s-his-face-state-of-Nigeria in Biafraland, and the generation he represents. About six years ago, Kalu actually officially asked that the Igbo tender a collective apology to the North for the Igbo’s role in the 1966 pogrom against same Igbo by same Northern Nigerians; and for Nigeria’s ensuing genocidal war against same Igbo: imagine that. That was what the North convinced Kalu—and he agreed—had to be done, to accomplish what, one might ask? In fact, Kalu outdid himself: a Christian, he proceeded to use the instruments of state that were available to him as the governor to build mosques in Umuahia when the people of Umuahia made no such request of him. Of course, today, Kalu, like Mark and Jonathan seems to be waking up to the reality which they have tried so hard to avoid; in the news recently, Kalu is beginning to publicly question the on-going killing of the Igbo by Northerners. A case of “Better late than never” or “Too little, too late”?

Nigerian leaders and Nigerians have invested a lot of energy in avoiding a review and reflection on what happened to the Igbo at the hands of Northern Nigerians and the government of Nigeria in 1966, and the genocide committed by Nigeria on Igbo-Biafrans in the war of 1967-70 declared against Igbo-Biafra by Nigeria. Only the unavoidable shock of Boko Haram’s unconscionable, unimaginable atrocities against the Igbo today, but especially coupled with world attention, compels Nigeria to even make an allusion to similarities with the past—a past which they will not even admit, and which there is no sign that they will visit and learn from. This is reflected in the question of why it is the policy of Nigeria never to allow this history to be part of the Education / Academic curriculum.

So, when Mark says:

“We are confronted by security challenges in different parts of the country, which are testing our collective resolve to live together as a united indivisible nation…In the words of Gandhi, for unity to be real it must stand the severest strain without breaking…”

he certainly continues to reveal that he and his ilk are not facing up to reality—the reality of 1966 which he himself called the peoples’ attention to. There is in fact no “collective resolve to live together” as he claims. There is no such thing as “united indivisible nation” called Nigeria. 1966 through today prove him wrong and Boko Haram delivers the correct and practical lesson of the day for Nigeria. Can the Mark’s of Nigeria for once be truthful and factual? Even where Mark invokes Gandhi, one is left feeling sorry for his “…Let us not despair…” Well, Gandhi’s post-colonial India failed Gandhi’s own “unity test”: Muslim-dominated Pakistan could not live in unity with Hindu-dominated India resulting in the break we all know today. This has to be a Freudian slip for Mark: Nigeria, like post-colonial India does not pass Gandhi’s “unity test”, and just as India broke up, Nigeria will surely breakup officially. Biafra will finally split out of Nigeria and such will be reality and the result of the test of “unity” for Nigeria.

Regarding Biafra and the war, in “How I Got My Inspiration To Write Biafra Story -Chimamanda“ in the Saturday Tribune January 14 2012, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning author of “Half A Yellow Sun” was asked: “What led you to write a book about the Nigeria-Biafra war?” Her answer, in her own words, is culled below:

“…because I lost both grandfathers in the Nigeria-Biafra war,
because the war changed the cause [sic] of Igbo history,
because “Biafra” is still an incredibly potent word in Nigeria today,
because many of the issues that led to the war remain unresolved,…
because almost every Igbo person alive in the 1960s was affected by the pre-war massacres,
because colonialism makes me angry,
because the thought of the egos of organisations and men leading to the unnecessary deaths of children makes me angry,
because I realised how central Biafra was to my history…
because I grew up in the shadow of Biafra…
because I think we are in danger of forgetting…”

When pressed on the last point: “You say you think “we are in danger of forgetting.”Can you talk further about how the war is treated in Nigeria today?” Ms. Adichie, without any indication that she had them in mind, accurately describes the Marks’ and Jonathan’s of Nigeria thus:

“The war is still talked about, still a potent political issue. But I find that it is often talked about in uninformed and unimaginative ways–people repeat the same things they have heard and often don’t know the full story. It also remains–surprisingly–very ethnically divisive. The (brave enough) Igbo talk about it and the non-Igbo think the Igbo should get over it.”

1966 will not go away; it will not let anyone go either. The Igbo can never “get over it.” Neither can Nigeria / Nigerians, stealth-references notwithstanding. 1966 was there before Boko Haram. It will be there long after Boko Haram—in one form or another. After all, it already started in the 1940’s.

After the dust settles from the Subsidy debacle, 1966 will still be here—in the cloak of “Boko Haram” today; and tomorrow, by a different formation; and just as deadly, if not deadlier. Only the Independence of Sovereign Biafra can provide the proper lens for all sides to explore it, and the appropriate context to effectively deal with it—for all sides. Indeed, that is the destiny of the Igbo. But it, Biafra, is a destiny that will not come about passively: the Igbo must actively court and actualize that destiny—now. There is no time like the present: it is still 1966 and for the Igbo, that urgently means, “get out of the Hell called Nigeria!”

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

Related posts:

1. On Balarebe Musa and “South-east still paying for civil war”
2. Per Azazi, Nigeria now embracing the Somali path; is South Sudan option still possible?
3. In Amichi, Nnewi, a Monument to Witlessness

In his own words: “…the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha disclosed that his administration is determined to partner with trusted groups and individuals in disease control and in the improvement of the living standards of the people, adding that the “best governance is one that cares for the people’s lives.”

Governor Okorocha: why do you consider “the Yakubu Gowon Foundation” a “trusted group”; why do you consider Gowon a “trusted individual”?

Gowon is responsible for the genocidal murder of 3 million Igbo people. Recently, in Gowon’s own statement on the occasion of Ojukwu’s death the whole world has learned that Gowon shows no remorse for this crime against our people and against humanity and continues to mock the Igbo. Hear him, Gowon:…

“Let us say that the civil was for the unity of the country. If there was no secession, there would not have been a civil war. Although all men of good will to Nigeria will admit that, yes, what happened to the Igbos in Nigeria at the time, it was really bad enough, but I do not think that it should get [to] the stage whereby any leader of a people would wish to take his people out of nation,” Gowon said, in VoA (Voice of America) News of November 26 2011 under the title, “Former Nigerian Leader Pays Tribute to Late Secessionist Ojukwu”
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Butty-Nigeria-Ojukwu-Death-React-Gowon-28november11-134576098.html

Gowon murders millions of our people and taunts them, and you, Governor Okorocha, want to partner with him because he is giving you a few mosquito tents (which, by the way, come as free donations from international organizations) to “save” our people from Malaria? Is it not the same Gowon who specifically ordered the shooting down of Red Cross and other International Relief agencies planes trying to reach dying Biafran children and other civilians during Gowon’s war of genocide against Biafra? How many of those brave and courageous pilots and their team were killed by Gowon’s actions? The spirits of our psychically aggrieved people will see to it that anyone involved in this present-day travesty is hopelessly tangled up by those mosquito-nets.

Can you imagine a Jew or an Israeli after the fact accepting any so touted life-saving device from an unrepentant Nazi or from Hitler himself? Only an Igbo so-called “leader” these days would make such a gaffe.

Governor Okorocha does not stop there: “…He charged the Centre to channel its resources to the detection and control of cancer which he described as the fastest killer disease in the country…” Oh Okorocha: where doth stupidity start and end? Do you remember Biafra’s Research and Development department which served our outnumbered and blockaded people so well during the war? Who was waging that war against the Igbo? Was it not Gowon? Who destroyed this scientific think-tank? Was it not Gowon? When the war ended, and the spirit of the work of these scientists could have been harnessed—encouraged and incorporated—in your Nigeria, who refused, and instead killed it off? Was it not the same Gowon? Now you are asking Gowon and his Foundation who have no iota of scientific acumen, who depend entirely on what world charity doles out to them, to “channel its resources to the detection and control of cancer…” What resources? Champion a cause that Gowon himself killed?

Finally when it states that the “high point” of the occasion was Governor Okorocha’s call on Gowon “to champion the cause of the burial ceremony of late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,…” one has to ask oneself:

just what kind of people are these?

So, it is not enough that Gowon kills our people, and the trend he started continues to this day; it is not enough that he shows no contrition for what he has done, but now, he has to be formally invited to officially dance and piss on Ojukwu’s grave, Ojukwu the symbol of Biafra? And the invitation is initiated and extended to Gowon by a so-called Igbo leader? Tufiakwa!

Does the ignorance of Igbo so-called state so-called governors and so-called Igbo leaders really know no bounds? Have they seen Gowon’s Profile on the website of that “Yakubu Gowon Foundation”?
(http://www.yakubugowonfoundation.org/about-us/biography.html)
Even though slanted in every possible way to paint Gowon in a positive light, no amount of whitewash could cover his guilt which still oozes out of the rebranding Biography, like foul-smelling pus oozing out through every pore of the dressing of a nasty festering ugly wound.

It is the same ignorance—refusal to learn and understand basic things and then to react correctly to such—which is resulting in Boko Haram on this Christmas continuing the wanton killing of our people today, merely changing the banner under which Igbo people are being incessantly destroyed all over Nigeria, a bloody tradition that dates to the time when the British first forced un into Nigeria.
Igbo governors, Igbo leaders: what kind of people are you?

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD

Nwa Biafra

A Biafran Citizen

oguchi@comcast.net

                          

No related posts.

Here is my take on Mingione’s article of the above caption in his response to the unprecedented (in Nigeria) courage and honesty of the UMBYC youth whose collective contrition and apology regarding the role of the Middle Belt in Nigeria’s ethnic cleansing exercise and genocidal war against the Igbo and other Biafrans is a first for Nigeria. This singular show of courage and decency needs to be emulated and repeated.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201112191306.html

“…the North Tricked Middle Belt to Fight Igbo…”

An invitation is hereby extended to the Arewa Youth to show similar courage and honesty by admitting that it was wrong for the North to engage in and savor ethnic cleansing against the Igbo living among them in 1966, and then proceed to pursue the Igbo into the latters’ enclave in order to annihilate them.

The Odua Youth are invited to follow suit and agree with their very own—our—Wole Soyinka that Nigeria’s war against Biafra was wrong; that the North “tricked [them] to fight the Igbo”, and in so doing used them to commit genocide against the Igbo during the Biafra-Nigeria war.
The invitation also goes to the Igbo Youth to show contrition for allowing themselves to be manipulated by the Igbo elders who are under the thumb of the North, acquiescing to continued Northern occupation of Igbo space and enslavement of the Igbo people. OHANEZE, WIC (World Igbo Congress) and suchlike trick the Igbo and confuse Igbo youth into fighting and dying with utmost futility to belong to a Nigeria that rejects them and kills them without mercy.
There is an invitation for the Niger Delta Youth to show contrition for the role of the Niger Delta in the genocide against their Igbo brothers and neighbor. Let them see that they, too, have been tricked into thinking that the Igbo are their mortal enemy, hence, into fighting against the Igbo. And here is where Mingione comes in: this invitation to the Niger Delta youth is made through Mingione.

Why? Because Mingione’s response is actually a continuing anti-Igbo statement so deeply enmeshed that it wouldn’t be a surprise if he fails to see it, although any objective reader is left scratching his or her head as to why Mingione positions himself as pro-Ojukwu, pro-Biafra, even as he relentlessly tears at the Igbo. Mingione says Ojukwu is vindicated and leads us to believe that Ojukwu is his champion, but he, as a Deltan—by his own emphatic reminder to the reader—is quite glad Biafra was defeated. He even invokes something else (which he does not tell us what of) from Ahiara Declaration written by Ojukwu during the Biafra war to support his accusation of Igbo having an “ulterior motive” as Biafra. Mingione praises Gowon for creating States…thereby, according to him, liberating the Niger Delta from Igbo domination; however, everyone knows that the only reason Gowon created the States was to punish and divide and dispossess the Igbo. He succeeded. But, as it turns out, contrary to Mingione’s claims, this calculated anti-Igbo action by Gowon never helped the Niger Delta, and it never helped the Middle Belt either, where the manipulative hegemony continued it’s deceptive “one North policy.” As long as this act by Gowon thoroughly victimized the Igbo, Mingione is well pleased by it.

Nowhere is Mingione’s subterfuge so heavy as when he heaps blame for the sour lot of the Niger Delta today personally on Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo man. This is based on Decree No. 34 of 1966 by which the then military government of Nigeria then under Ironsi centralized the powers and authority in Nigeria. Not once but twice Mingione is tricking readers and Nigerians to believe that it was Ironsi’s fault then and ongoing fault still that Nigeria is pathologically centralized up till today. Let’s assume that the man historically and accurately known to harbor no political, power or wealth-mongering ambition, Ironsi, was personally responsible for this. He paid with his life for this error: when Mingione’s real champion, Gowon, and his cabal of fellow-Northern Nigerian military putschists clearly cited this as the reason why they murdered Ironsi. Facts will show that Ironsi was Head of State of Nigeria for 194 days; so, for a little over half-a-year, he imposed Decree No. 34 on Nigeria; but Gowon and his cabal and their successors have had almost half-a-century to reverse Decree No. 34, and yet have not done so. Gowon and his comrades are still alive today, supporting and operating Decree No. 34; why not blame them? Why not go after them, if change was the real desire, rather than choose the self-serving path of blaming Ironsi the Igboman who is no longer here to make any type of changes? Common sense would assume that the minute Gowon killed Ironsi because of Decree No. 34, he, Gowon would have killed the decree too, and reversed it completely: why hasn’t he, and why does Mingione want to blame Ironsi?

Truth be told, it was not even Decree No. 34 that messed up the Niger Delta. It was the so-called ”Land Use Decrees” forced on the peoples by well-after-Ironsi successive Nigerian governments which have been led and or controlled by the North, that did the job. It started with Gowon’s “Petroleum Decree of 1969” which gave the entire ownership and control of Petroleum resources to the State of Nigeria. By the Land Use Decree of 1978 (Obasanjo’s Military government) followed by the Gas Re-injection Decree of 1979, government usurpation and control of private and communal / ancestral lands, property and resources was complete. In 1999, this State-control was carved into the cement of the 1999 Nigeria’s so-called Constitution which mocked “…we the people…”, the doing of another Northern military cum Northern leadership oligarchy of Nigeria under the rulership of Mohammed Abubakar. Yet, that’s not all: today, a Niger Delta man is the ruler of Nigeria. Since President Jonathan was the Vice under late Yar’Adua, he was part of Yar’Adua’s Land Use (Amendment) Act of 2009 which was hailed as a corrective Bill aimed at restoring what had been taking from the peoples by the government. This means that Jonathan, a Delta son, has had at least 2 years to solve this problem. Why does Mingione keep blaming dead Igboman Ironsi?

Perhaps, Mingione will also blame the Igbo for the fate of Bakassi. Gowon promised away Bakassi to Cameroon to continue to limit the Igbo and squeeze Biafra. Later, in these contemporary times, Obasanjo gleefully handed over not just the Bakassi land, but also, the protesting hapless Bakassi people and their nation to Cameroon, in consummation of Gowon’s plan and in the spirit of Obasanjo’s well known, open anti-Igbo anti-Biafra stance. The most important information in reading the ICJ (International Court of Justice) proceedings in this case is how the Cameroonians lawyers, though happy to win, were so shocked and taken aback by the fact that the Nigerian lawyers never put up a defense at all to keep Bakassi.

The Igbo are not the mortal enemy of the Niger Delta that Mingione subconsciously or consciously projects. For that matter, the Igbo, for all their drive and energy, show no propensity for hostility towards any other ethnic nation in Nigeria. For example, and this can either be to their credit or their foolishness, destruction, suicidality and even downfall, the Igbo have returned to the same villages and towns in Northern Nigeria and the rest of Nigeria where their shed blood and broken bones, hacked sinews and burnt flesh have become part of the fabric of the physical infrastructure and of the collective lore and psychic scar. They did not and do no demand an apology nor did they wait for one before going back to the place of their torment to live again among their unrepentant and unremorseful tormentors. Biafra happened because there was no other way: one who does not put up a genuine effort to defend oneself with the full intent of winning is not part of the human family and is not worthy of humanity. Mingione, take note; do carry this message to our Niger Delta brothers and neighbors: the Igbo are not your enemies. Let’s stop tricking anyone to fight and kill the Igbo.

And of Biafra, it is still the best, if the only, answer to Nigeria. It is a pity that in these days of Self Determination, people are still talking about “resource control” and ethnic minority-majority dichotomy politics, or even confederation of Nigeria, and the inane concept such as “making Nigeria better.” We should be past all that: we are past all that. Nigeria will never smell anything more than it smells now—its own stinky self. The Middle Belt should be looking to exercise their Self Determination rights leading them to an independent sovereign nation—if they so choose, for it is their choice. Ditto, Arewa. Ditto, Oodua. The Niger Delta had always wanted out of Nigeria: now is their chance to use the principles and power of Self Determination to accomplish that, an Independent Sovereign Delta Nation. The Igbo nation can and will have their Biafra using the same Self Determination workings; a Self-Determined Biafra can and may only include Self-Determined nations willing to participate, otherwise, the Igbo nation is content alone as Biafra. Self Determination is for every group. In fact, the Bakassi have now turned to Self Determination to rescue their land and nation from the unconscionable, unfathomable wickedness of Nigeria and the likes of Nigeria’s Gowon and Obasanjo and their Cameroonian accomplices.

One thing is certain: Nigeria can never be, though some try in vain to prove otherwise, and in so doing, only subject all to more gratuitous misery. Self-Determined Nationhood beckons us all. This is the only true basis for mutually acceptable and consenting inter-national relationships—the type that allows for peace, progress and prosperity within borders and without. Along the way, or perhaps before we move to that natural rhythm, we need to clear our conscience of excess baggage –following the example of the Middle Belt youths. Only thus can we claim and multiply the goodwill necessary to respect without question the right of each ethnic nation to be in complete charge of its own natural sovereignty and national Destiny. We salute the Middle Belt youths.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

Related posts:

1. Nigeria Police lawlessness against MASSOB reflects Nigeria’s policy towards Igbo-Biafra
2. Lend me your ears, Ndi Igbo
3. Gowon And Obasanjo: Villainous Actors Who Permanently Wrecked Nigeria

“The Biafran dream is the Igboman’s quest for a place in the greater Nigeria…So what one is really asking for in Biafran dream is that the Igboman will be part of Nigeria but will have equal say with every other component part…” –Colonel Joseph Achuzie
http://allafrica.com/stories/201112100016.html?viewall=1

By these statements, Achuzie, on the surface, mars what otherwise was and still is for the most part a factual even if personal account of how Dim Ojukwu became the “Ojukwu of Biafra.” This account, with the exception as noted, is so accurate that any author or person who labeled or labels Ojukwu a “rebel leader” or “secessionist” or “warlord / war-monger” immediately betrays his or her own ignorance of historical facts. Young Igbo, other Biafrans and the rest of Nigeria, along with the world of parroting lazy reporters and journalists should learn and take note of how things really came about that Dim Ojukwu led Biafra. It is only a pity that it took Ojukwu’s death to get people to say, hear or learn the truth of these matters.

Yet, doing such a huge favor (setting the history straight) for posterity does not in any way make up for the faulty interpretation by Achuzie of what he terms the “Biafran Dream”, presumably, Biafra and what Biafra stands for to the Igbo and other Biafrans. The Igboman never dreamt Biafra as his “quest for a place in Nigeria”—greater Nigeria or lesser Nigeria: no! The Igbo know Biafra as a place not in Nigeria, not of Nigeria, not by Nigeria—a place completely separate and set apart from Nigeria: a Sovereign Independent Nation. In fighting for and defending Biafra, no Biafran soldier or civilian or citizen known to us thought that he or she was fighting to continue to cling to being part of Nigeria, or fighting and dying to stop him or her from being kicked out of Nigeria by Nigeria. No Igbo or Biafran citizen died during the Biafran war just so he or she should be accorded the privilege of “hav[ing] equal say with every other component part [of Nigeria]…”

If in fact Achuzie’s claim is correct, and if his fellow top military leaders of Biafra then indeed shared his view as such, one could see why Biafra lost the war. Is this a “Freudian slip” which fully explains how Biafra lost a moral war? Imagine the scenario: Colonel Achuzie was commanding Biafran soldiers asking them to fight and die so that they could reintegrate themselves with Nigeria which was already killing them and pushing them out of Nigeria and annihilating them in order to accomplish their erasure from Nigeria and even from their own ancestral land. (Even by the Colonel’s own admission this is an accurate description of the prevailing circumstances then.) Does this make sense to anyone? Let’s put it another way. Nigeria does not want the Igbo and other Biafrans in Nigeria, sets out to push the Igbo and other Biafrans out; succeeds in driving the Igbo and other Biafrans back to their own ancestral lands, goes a step further and destroys them in their own homeland and dispossess them of their life and property. The Achuzie’s of Igbo and Biafra respond by rallying the Biafrans to fight, not to defend themselves, their honor and dignity, not to protect their own land and way of life, but to embark on a quest to rejoin and claim the same Nigeria and cling to the same Nigeria? Can you now see why the Obasanjo’s and Gowon’s of Nigeria taunt and mock the Igbo and other Biafrans?

Achuzie’s statements signify a betrayal of the Biafran Cause and all of his colleagues who prosecuted the Biafran war with the goal that we the Igbo and other Biafrans were only fighting to get back to Nigeria must regard themselves as betrayers of the Biafran Cause also. When I fought in that war as a proud Biafran foot-soldier, ragtag, hungry and without a rank, I fought for Biafra, as did the rest of “we band of brothers”; I would have died, happy joining felled Biafran soldier-heroes, and in so doing, a Biafran to the end, a Biafran forever, for Biafra eternal. None of the people that I know from the Biafra war era fought or endured for anything else but Biafra—for our own country where no one could reject us or drive us out; where no one could slow us down in our pursuit of individual and collective progress, excellence and fulfillment. That is the authentic Biafra—and it is not just a “dream”; it is our ultimate destiny; we welcome it and look forward to it as our reality.

None of the foregoing should be taken lightly, for we now know why—thanks to Achuzie—the war was lost by Biafra. Biafran leaders had their own ulterior motive: an agenda to return Biafrans to Nigeria, unbeknownst to the Biafran masses who were genuinely fighting with conviction for Independent Biafra. Little did the masses suspect that their own so-called leaders were intent on moving them back to Nigeria, though they never doubted that their effort and sacrifice was for Biafra, to this day. Consider this an epiphany.

FATAL ATTRACTION

The story of the Moth and the Flame has become the story of the Igbo and Nigeria. This story always ends the same way, an outcome one hundred percent predictable. It is to be hoped that the Igbo have a little more sense than the doomed moth, where once again Achuzie has reminded us of the difficulty in entertaining, never mind realizing, such a hope. Today, the Igbo are being killed in scores, hundreds and even thousands in other parts of Nigeria, especially in the North; the lucky ones escape, driven out of their holdings and forcefully pried off their clinging from those areas, now mere walking human shells and gaping wounds and ugly scars trying to limp home. Yet, Achuzie tells them to fight to stay on and continue to fight to be accepted by those who would not only reject them but, truly want to kill them—and succeeding at it, too. All this, so that they, the Igbo, could find “a place in [Achuzie’s] greater Nigeria”? This is the “Biafran Dream” which Achuzie says “lives on”?

Igbo so-called leaders today come in “shades of Achuzie.” They still act like they are dreaming Achuzie’s illogical Dream which makes no sense at all, and they are fulfilling such a dream of always fighting to belong in Nigeria. Have you talked to Uwechue at any time? What about our famed Achebe? They are all one-Nigerianists and they want to keep the Igbo delivered to Nigeria at any cost. OHANEZE wants one-Nigeria for the Igbo in perpetuity and acts as a one-Nigerian institution. Yet these examples will articulate with accuracy the sordid details of what the Igbo have suffered at the hands of Nigeria; as we can see, Achuzie had no problems there either. Remember WIC (World Igbo Congress)—any faction of it? WIC is a special case. WIC is purely one-Nigerian; its leadership and membership will not even bother to acknowledge the ceaseless suffering and injuring of Igbo people by Nigeria. Visit their Internet forums and weep for the reason of the extent to which they are living Achuzie’s Dream. What a pity that at the death of an Igbo leader, that he loved the Igbo is the assumption; that he also loved Nigeria is a fact; the only remaining question is whether he loved Nigeria more. This is indeed a great pity. The Bible says that when the fabled Moses died both the Angels and the Devil showed up to claim his body/soul: can you imagine what a tragedy? What does it mean, what does it really say, that Nigeria, an unrepentant, unremorseful, still taunting enemy should have a good cause to show up to claim anyone of our leaders when Biafra or at least, Igbo, is his true legacy?

There is an Igbo proverb which goes something like “do not pick out and eat the meat if you already reject the stew.” On the surface, one would think that this is wise counsel designed for Nigeria concerning the Igbo: leave the Igbo alone to go their own way since you have already rejected what they are. While that is indeed proper counsel, the proverb is really for the Igbo. It is the people’s counsel directed to Igbo leaders. It is the veritable advice from the people who believe and know only Biafra, to their so-called leaders who already know that we have, for good reason, turned our back on Nigeria: let them not look back there. It is also a reminder to all Igbo and to all Biafrans: get your fingers out of Nigeria.

Our people want Biafra, not Nigeria, not any part of Nigeria. Take note of that, Colonel Achuzie. When you dream your dream of Nigeria, it is not a “Biafran Dream”; it is your own personal, shall we say, “nightmare.” Our people fought for Biafra; that you defeated their desire by using them and leading them back to Nigeria is not a victory for any party. The current events in Nigeria and in Biafraland, as well as since the end of the war, continue to prove how insane your Dream is, a disaster of unimaginable proportions. These same events reinforce the wisdom of our people to leave Nigeria and be in their own secure homeland and space. Our people continue the fight until we re-actuate Biafra, our only destiny. Any Igbo who cannot understand this is un-teachable.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

No related posts.

The reactions of these remorseless men on the occasion of Biafran Dim Ojukwu’s death, makes these points so vividly.

“Let us say that the civil was for the unity of the country. If there was no secession, there would not have been a civil war. Although all men of good will to Nigeria will admit that, yes, what happened to the Igbos in Nigeria at the time, it was really bad enough, but I do not think that it should get [to] the stage whereby any leader of a people would wish to take his people out of nation,” Gowon said, in VoA (Voice of America) News of November 26 2011 under the title, “Former Nigerian Leader Pays Tribute to Late Secessionist Ojukwu”
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Butty-Nigeria-Ojukwu-Death-React-Gowon-28november11-134576098.html

Questions for Gowon: You admit that what happened to the Igbo in Nigeria “was really bad enough”? And just for admitting that, you reward yourself by promoting yourself to the class of “all men of goodwill,” right? But didn’t you forget one thing—that you were also the person directly leading the charge and representing the Nigeria in causing that really bad thing which was happening to the Igbo? Is this not precisely the problem with psychopaths: no conscience, no sensitivity? You, Gowon, do not qualify as a man of goodwill. Psychopaths do not belong in the club of men of goodwill.

Does Gowon really have it in him to understand how bad he and his Nigeria treated the Igbo and other Biafrans, the reason for the secession of Biafra? Apparently, not. In 1966, Gowon and his people of Northern Nigeria engaged in ethnic cleansing of the Igbo then residing among them in an orgy of bloodshed that makes Rwanda look like a true dress-rehearsal. The brutal murders did not stop there: in July of 1966, Gowon and his fellow Northern Military Officer-brethren herded together Igbo officers in the Nigerian army in Lagos and then shot all of them to death in cold blood, save for a handful that was lucky to escape. To Gowon, none of these horrendous events perpetrated by his Nigerian gang and him should be reason enough to justify the secession of a people targeted and marked for annihilation by him and his Nigeria, a victimized nation systematically pushed out of Nigeria and then hotly pursued into their own ancestral enclave, the victims’ last refuge. No; according to Gowon, the Igbo cannot justify leaving Nigeria under these conditions!

Was it not Gowon who reneged on the Aburi agreement, a plan that might have saved Nigeria if implemented as agreed upon? History and facts recall that it was Ojukwu, representing the Igbo and other Biafrans, who proposed a cooling off period for chaotic Nigeria, a confidence re-building period during which each people would be in charge of their own space and security under a region-based confederation arrangement. It was an arrangement that would have permitted time and space for healing of deep wounds and ugly scars. That was the crux of what then Nigerian leaders, including Gowon as their headman, agreed to and signed off on in the Aburi Accord. But then, Gowon broke the agreement. Yet it is the same Gowon who claims that he “didn’t think that it should get [to] the stage whereby any leader of a people would wish to take his people out of nation.” For certain, Gowon “did not think.” Gowon does not think, period. It would be too much to expect different of him.

Gowon’s assertions make him a cretin and or an outright liar, in addition to being a psychopath—an insensitive, conscience-less coldblooded murderer. What do you call a person who breaks his own word? What do you call him when after breaking his word, he deigns to condemn the reaction of the other party—the cheated and victimized party? That’s the kind of dishonorable monster Gowon is.

For his own part, Obasanjo’s reaction to Ojukwu’s death is predictable. Here is a hate-filled crusty, corrupt hypocrite and megalomaniac, a pathologically anti-Igbo anti-Biafran whose only regret in life is that he did not snuff out the entire Igbo race. He is here to tell us that he was trying to extract an expression of remorse from Ojukwu regarding the secession of Biafra.

“In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from London, Obasanjo recalled particularly that at several times, he discussed the possibility of an expression of remorse from Ojukwu “on the Nigerian civil war which in itself was a culmination of actions and reactions”. (“Obasanjo—I Talked With Ojukwu On His Possibly Expressing Remorse On Biafra”– Nov 30, 2011 This Day/Ail Africa Global Media via COMTEX)
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId=%7bed3f459d-1f57-438b-9824-6a72d5ca4bb6%7d

Can anyone with a brain, a heart, and feelings understand Obasanjo’s response here? Who should be feeling remorseful about Biafra and what she and her people suffered at the hands of Nigeria: Obasanjo who represented Nigeria’s genocidal agenda to annihilate the Igbo; or Ojukwu who stood with his Biafran people looking for security and survival, while being relentlessly chased by a determined and rabid Nigeria?

In a just world, both Obasanjo and Gowon, therefore, Nigeria should be on trial for Genocide against Biafra. They are the ones who made it really so bad for the Igbo, to use Gowon’s own disconnected and insensitive characterization of the victims’ plight. It was a plight so horrendous that the picture of suffering Biafran children on the cover of Life Magazine in July of 1968 would make the late contemporary genius, Steve Jobs of Apple, question and literally fall out with God. These two psychopaths, Obasanjo and Gowon, may yet be hauled to court for crimes against humanity; it is not over yet; it is not too late.

And now, a word with the Igbo. Those of you who love Nigeria so or who cling tight to it place yourselves in the same camp as the Obasanjo’s and Gowon’s of Nigeria: make no mistake about this. Gowon has no shame talking about a “nation” and “unity,” as if Nigeria could ever be a nation; talk less of united, when the same Gowon and Obasanjo do everything to destroy it while targeting the Igbo for elimination. If you like Nigeria, then, you side with these psychopaths: they are unrepentant, same as their Nigeria. The reason why Biafra was declared was in response to the deliberate ethnic cleansing against the Igbo and other Biafrans in all parts of Nigeria, but especially in Gowon’s Northern Nigeria. After Biafrans limped back to their own ancestral lands, Nigeria under Gowon and Obasanjo still came after them. Why would any Igbo stay in such a “nation” or believe in its “unity”? Even at that point, the Igbo had lost hundreds of thousands of their people to senseless slaughter by Northern Nigerians. When Nigeria declared war against Biafra, the Igbo and other Biafrans fought back in self-defense; then Nigeria got help from her friends to mount a ferocious blockade against Biafra, a blockade which claimed the lives of millions of our people. Today, Obasanjo says that you should express your remorse to Nigeria—imagine that! Obasanjo says you should be thankful to him and Nigeria that you are still breathing! His fellow psychopath, Gowon, believes that nothing that you suffered, including being pushed out of Nigeria, could justify your leaving Nigeria to try to protect and defend yourself and your families. In other words, you should have stayed pushed out of Nigeria and in addition, offered your throats to Nigeria as lamb for slaughter by Nigeria. Why would any sensible Igbo or Biafran then want to belong in Nigeria or with Nigeria? Why does any Igbo want to agree with Gowon and Obasanjo and their Nigeria?

Following the war, and until today, the same conditions which led to the declaration of Biafra and to the war are still obvious—the same selective oppression, same targeted wanton murder and driving away of the Igbo from all over Nigeria, persists. Our homeland is under occupation by Nigeria’s Police and other armed forces of Nigeria. To Gowon and to Obasanjo, we must deserve targeted oppressive mistreatment, we must accept it, and we must be willing to take more of it—for eternity; and we have to apologize and show remorse when we protest against such. Is that what you really want? Is that what the Igbo really want? That’s what the Igbo get for, and get by, continuing to embrace Nigeria. That’s the only thing Nigeria holds for the Igbo and for other Biafrans.

The Igbo must wake up from the uncharacteristic foolishness resulting from their assumption and wishful thinking that they are part of Nigeria or that Nigeria is good for them or that Nigeria wishes them well. Gowon the pious-feigning double-dealer and Obasanjo the pompous hypocrite are telling you otherwise, as they actually speak for unrepentant Nigeria. How can one belong to a so-called nation which will not acknowledge the wrong it did to a targeted group to which that one belongs, let alone, make amends? Such a nation can never exist. That’s why Nigeria is finished. And, the victims will for all times be haunted by the spirits of those who were murdered by such a nation should the survivors embrace the evil nation by trying to bury their horrible experience. That’s why the Igbo are wandering in the desert now.

The Igbo must wake up from the fear that Nigeria will pounce on them once again should they exercise their Self Determination rights of political independence. It is this fear that Gowon and Obasanjo are banking on and playing on, but they and Nigeria merely bluff. Even Gowon himself is forced to admit, in the same piece quoted above,…”that, in the end, there was no clear victor…” Nigeria—Evil, will not overcome Biafra.

When it comes to our beloved Dim Ojukwu, the best monument he can have is not through the cacophony of the voices and frenzied activities of the proverbial “dead burying the dead.” Biafra is what Ojukwu is known by and will forever be known by. On the day when Gowon decreed that the Igbo and other Biafrans should not and would not defend themselves and could not act in the Igbo’s self-preservation interest, we had Ojukwu to lead us to prove Gowon wrong. Today, Gowon is saying the same thing: we have to prove him wrong once and for all. By actualizing Biafra, we build the only kind of memorial which befits Dim Ojukwu and all those killed by Gowon and Obasanjo and their Nigeria.

Some misguided Igbo in their own calculations think they see a power-vacuum created by the passing of Dim Ojukwu which they must exploit and finagle to fill. They merely hallucinate. The facts will remind us all that we Igbo all lived and always live our lives not ruled by some “Eze Gburu-Gburu” or “Eze Ndigbo”, nor swayed by the fortunes of such. Such titles are alien to us by nature. Rather, we live as each king in his or her own person and household, the very distinguishing characteristic and essence of Igbo-ness. When we understand this, we can see what Nigeria is robbing us of, what Ojukwu with us stood against in fighting Nigeria. We can then become of one mind once again and get Nigeria out of our collective lot, life and space.

Rather than pander to any illusory and self-serving power struggles and distractions, we need to become sober and gather for the renewed fight to fulfill our national destiny as Biafrans, to complete that which we honor Ojukwu for. Just as in 1966, when we make up our mind this time, a leader, not “Eze,” will appear to take us back to Biafra re-actualized.

Anything short is purely tragic wherein the haunting of the Igbo by dead Biafrans and mockery by Gowon and Obasanjo, continue. Our Destiny is different: it is not haunt and mockery; it is not Nigeria. It is Biafra, where we become fulfilled. Let’s get with it.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen

                          

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1. Nigeria Police lawlessness against MASSOB reflects Nigeria’s policy towards Igbo-Biafra
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3. In Amichi, Nnewi, a Monument to Witlessness

It is perhaps owing to this phenomenon that luminaries like Chinua Achebe once argued (in futility, truth be known) that Nigeria’s fundamental problem is that of (lack of) leadership rather than structure. Who knows if he has since changed his argument with the unfailing understanding that for Nigeria, the fundamental problem is in fact structure: a poor foundation right from the start, clearly recognized and understood as such, even then, on which was erected a construction that was purposely designed not to serve the peoples but strictly to protect the interests and pleasures of Nigeria’s masters. It was all wrong from the standpoint of the peoples; it is still all wrong, this structure thusly designed, christened “Nigeria.” Nigeria is really a structure-problem. Leadership has nil to do with the faulty foundation.

It is not leadership that produced nor sustains Boko Haram: it is the structure of Nigeria which continually breeds and nurtures and justifies suchlike. President Jonathan, in the same speech, glibs over what he calls Nigeria’s thirty-month “Civil War” like a pupil reciting by senseless rote a colonially-scripted History lesson. That Nigeria’s war he speaks of, which is veritably a war of Genocide by Nigeria against Biafra (against the Igbo and other Biafrans), will ultimately be traced to the same fundamentally flawed structure and design which deliberately forces incompatible peoples together into a false union. Unfortunately, President Jonathan on that occasion chooses to profess ignorance of this, but there is neither reason nor excuse for him to imply that Nigeria ever got through that war successfully. Nigeria has not and will never recover from that war. If Nigeria had any hope of ever taking off as a nation, the Nigeria-Biafra War destroyed such a hope; the result is that Nigeria languishes today, a wandering body without Spirit, an irredeemable basket-case. No, Mr. President: Nigeria did not get through that war successfully; Nigeria was actually buried by that war. It is a war whose clouds were pre-seeded by the faulty structure of Nigeria, and whose execution was clearly dictated by that awful unbalanced structure.

It is really up to the peoples suffering in Nigeria to get up now and do what their leaders are completely incapable of doing: face reality, admit the clear and present danger, and restructure Nigeria so to save themselves from having their already devastated life completely crushed out of them. President Jonathan and his ilk want to tell the peoples that Boko Haram is being defeated; and even if not, that the people should live with and endure the violence and terrorism since terrorism is known all over the world. Well, the cowering and suffering peoples in Nigeria should be reminded of history, thus…

In the early 1930’s in Germany, the Nazi party, a tiny minority of the population, terrorized the German people. The Nazis told the people what terrible things they would do and then proceeded to do such; it was quite violent, criminal and inhumane. But the German people who considered themselves “peace-loving,” civilized, cultured and Christian chose not to believe that the minority Nazis were serious and a real threat. In the end, all German people became Nazi in one way or another. We all know today what happened then. Yes, Today, when President Jonathan is busy telling the peoples of Nigeria that Boko Haram is not a serious threat. But the reality is that with Nigeria as currently configured, there is in fact nothing to stop Boko Haram from eventually taking over Nigeria and then “owning” all the peoples. History is the witness. Especially, when it is now reported that Boko Haram is linking up with the global network of known terrorist organizations.

Even if it is not Boko Haram, still, it is something else, something just as terrible or worse, which comes along and ravages the peoples, of which contrary to what they prefer to believe, such Evil stays and soon becomes the people and the peoples become it. Whether it is what they want or not, President Jonathan and his league, just like previous Nigeria’s so-called leaders, have condemned the peoples to such a fate when they pretend or actually believe that the situation in Nigeria is somehow normal—enough to invite security-sensitive investors— and should be endured as such by the hapless peoples.

The peoples need to rise and restructure Nigeria. A mere two or three years ago, how to restructure Nigeria would have presented a daunting conceptual proposition. Today, global winds of change have introduced a tested and effective People’s Power Tool which is here to stay, in the name of “Self Determination.” Self Determination gives the right of the people back to the people: it is the people who decide how they want to be, what they want to be, and how they want to relate one people to another. Restructuring based on the people’s self-deterministic choices presents a simple, concrete workable agenda. And, luckily for those residing in the Nigeria geopolitical space, the peoples and their respective nations are essentially distinct and have their own distinct ancestral land. The restructuring template and lines are already naturally in place.

Self Determination will result in a new structure of indigenous nations reclaiming each its own original God-given (man-stolen) sovereignty. Each sovereign nation will protect its citizens from hurtful activities such as Boko Haram’s, and at least will not have its national character tarnished by such activities originating from other nations. Each will determine which other nation(s) it can enter into mutual relationships with and what types of relationship. The people of each nation will determine what kind of citizenry they want for their own nation as well as what type of nation; and what kind of world-citizens they want to be.

Restructuring Nigeria as such has many other benefits for the peoples. It is the equivalence of building firewalls in a threatened and threatening arena in order to provide an independent and relatively secure internal environment for stability, accountability, growth and development while managing and controlling inbound access and preventing dangerous breaches that intend harm on the people. Every successful biological and sociological family relies on these tenets to raise and sustain the family. The best cure for Corruption now is self-determined nations wherein citizens will be held truly accountable to their kith and kin by their own kith and kin in a structure which would not provide, would not permit, and could not tolerate, the kind of free-for-only-the-connected “national cake” and excesses and parasitic opportunities that is the badge and bane of Nigeria. The best chance for “free and fair elections” (hithertofore a mere distractive election sloganeering), is within self-determined nations: same for effective corrective, remedial and redemptive action when called for. The best answer for a non-working Civil Service which nevertheless extracts pay “at the source” while leaving nothing and providing nothing for the masses which it is supposed to serve, is a self-determined nation.

If the peoples languishing in Nigeria want to live and thrive again, they ought to restructure Nigeria—today. Self Determination is the template; it is supported and available now. Now is the time. On the other hand, if all they are only capable of doing is grumbling and groaning and complaining, waiting to be eventually assimilated by resident Evil, then, the peoples may continue to criticize President Jonathan (well-deserved), yet without forcing him to do the right thing—embrace and start the restructure process! For that matter, it is within the power of the peoples and it is also in both their immediate and long-term interests to act now to redeem themselves, in spite of President Jonathan and Nigeria’s longstanding oligarchs. Thus, in these heady days of Self Determination, any permanent failing is the peoples’, not the government’s. Every accusing finger the peoples point at President Jonathan means three fingers pointing back at the peoples: do the math.

Restructure now! Self Determination is the most fair and most natural winning formula to accomplish this, and it is available today. For those people praying for miracles to solve Nigeria, Self Determination is a Godsend: it is the right answer, the right divine gift and tool, at the right time, for the otherwise insoluble problem that is Nigeria. Use Self Determination; use it wisely and use it with confidence, to restructure Nigeria—today.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

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Self-determined States

“The current 1999 Constitution of Nigeria has collapsed under the weight of its fraudulent origin having been rejected throughout the country. The 12 contiguous States of the North which have enacted and are implementing Sharia since year 2000 in repudiation of the 1999 Constitution, have by that step opted out of the Nigerian Union. The balance of the country are therefore taking steps in exercise of their right to Self-Determination, to rework the basis of their political future.
“The prospective Federations are currently working out their respective Constitutions and will take same through Referendum in their respective territories in exercise of their right to Self-Determination as enunciated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007.
“Each Federation is to decide its own name.”
By Movement for New Nigeria (MNN)

JUNE 30, MNN DECLARATION: WHY WE REJECT THE NIGERIA DEFINED BY THE ‘1999 CONSTITUTION’
Being text of a Joint Press Conference by the Lower Niger Congress, the Middle-Belt Congress and the Federation of Oodua People under the aegis of the Movement for New Nigeria held September, 5, 2011 at Lagos.

Introduction

It will be recalled that at a World Press Conference held June 30, 2011 in Lagos after a week-long retreat , the Movement for New Nigeria declared its position on the tottering Nigerian Project in a Statement titled ‘THE FAILED STATE OF NIGERIA: OUR STAND’ (later published in full in an advertorial on page 38 of the August 25th 2011 edition of the Daily Sun Newspaper)

The groundswell of support , the deluge of positive enquiries that has trailed our said position as well as the continuing campaign of violence, has necessitated this communication in which we shall attempt to furnish a deeper insight into the reasoning behind the June 30th 2011 Declaration and restate the dire urgency of the situation. The horrendous attack on the UN building in Abuja widens the scope of concern and heightens the need for action.

The paradox of free and fair elections yielding so much bloodshed has left most observers and stake-holders confused and bewildered and has thrown up deeper questions about Nigeria than elections could answer. It is evident that the violence is an open confrontation between the forces of feudalism which had held Nigeria hostage from birth and the forces of liberty which for once, put up a successful challenge. The violence has its roots in the foundations of Nigeria and has in many variants, been recurrent , just that on this occasion the whole country was involved in the fray at a time international attention was beamed on Nigeria. The declaration by the perpetrators of the violence that they do not recognize constitutionalism and democracy as a form of government is very instructive.

The Genesis

The history of how Nigeria came into being as an amalgam of various British Colonies in the ‘Niger Area’ is too well known to bear any repetition, save to mention that in the early 1950s when the departure of the British colonialists became imminent, the peoples of the vast territory, realizing their deep differences accepted to remain in one political Union at independence on the basis of federalism in which the then federating 3 Regions had autonomy over their territories whilst jointly running the Central (Federal) Government as a Union office for a limited range of delegated responsibilities. Each Region had its own Constitution, developed at its own pace using its own resources while contributing to the up-keep of the Centre.

However, the British and their Fulani feudalist friends in the North who had other sinister designs had managed to smuggle certain dangerous ingredients into the broth for which the independence that was offered became hollow for the rest of Nigeria. Thus, whilst the rest of Nigeria celebrated what they thought was freedom from British rule in October 1960, the Leader and Premier of the then Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and his lieutenants were celebrating something else, succinctly captured in the words of Sir Bello one week after the lowering of the Union Jack in October 1960:

“The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools and the South as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them to have control over their future”. – Parrot Newspaper, 12th October 1960. Recalled by Tribune Newspaper, 13th November 2002.

This elaborate Mission Statement and Battle Script has been carried out to the letter and consolidated into a prevailing constitutional regime. This Script holds the key to explaining the mysterious odyssey of the distressed clay- footed giant, Nigeria. All the woes and failures of present day Nigeria as well as the misery of its peoples flow directly from the single-minded execution of that Script; the illicit gains forcefully obtained have been crystalised, concretized and made permanent in the form of a unilaterally imposed ‘1999 Constitution’ which defines Nigeria according to the dictates of those executing the Script. The hapless rest of Nigeria must now obey the ‘law’
.
The Sarduana 1960 Battle Script and the 1999 Constitution

A detailed examination of Nigeria’s current constitutional reality under the microscope of the 1960 Battle Script will show that the unitary constitutional order we have in place today (the so called 1999 Constitution) represents the full implementation of the 1960 Script both in content and process. The key dramatis personae who executed the transmogrification of our supposed democratic federal republic into a feudalistic unitary reality can clearly be identified in their assigned roles and status within the Battle Script; the authentic heirs of the estate from the real North like Murtala Mohammed and Shehu YarA’dua,; the willing tools from the minority North like Yakubu Gowon and Theophilus Danjuma and collaborating slaves from the South led by the head-slave Olusegun Obasanjo .

The ruthlessness by which the cold-blooded murders/pogroms which accompanied the overthrow of 5 Constitutions in 1966 were executed is unmistakable in the spirit of the Script. The kangaroo trial and imprisonment of Chief Obafemi Awolowo for out-performing the British-anointed candidate, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa at the independence election, bears the mark; The May 29th1962 brutal sacking of the Government of Western Region by the feudally-controlled Federal Government via the declaration of State of Emergency in breach of the then Constitution; the Federal-induced electoral heist of 1965 in Western Region that precipitated the wild-wild west wanton killings; the MKO Abiola saga in which victory at the 1993 Presidential election earned him imprisonment and death while the masses who dared to question the annulment of his mandate were mowed down in their hundreds. .All these bear the mark. The judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his Ogoni kinsmen by one Justice Ibrahim Auta under the field supervision of one Lt.Col Dauda Komo, then military Administrator of Rivers State; Odi, Okerenkoko, Ogbakiri, Umuechem and Gbaramatu tasted of the ruthlessness by which any push for change was to be put down
. .
The tenacious processes by which the gains of the entire onslaught had been made permanent in the name of the ‘Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’ is a of reflection the ‘never-allow-them’ aspect of the 1960 Script.

Specific examples of feudal-compliant contents of the ‘1999 Constitution:

1. Force as basis of the Nigerian Union/ Constitution:. The 1999 Constitution was imposed via Decree No. 24 of 1999 with a false claim in its preamble that ‘We the people…’ enacted and gave same unto ourselves. In contrast, the 5 Constitutions (4 Regional and 1 Federal) sacked by the Military in 1966 were painstakingly negotiated and agreed upon by the leaders and representatives of the then federating Regions. Today, force as against consent remains the basis of the Nigerian Union since the feudal overlord does not require the consent of the slave to make any law, even if called ‘Constitution’
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2. Unilateral Structural Reconstruction of Nigeria: Of the 4 Regions sacked in January 1966, one, (the Northern Region) has by fiat (Decrees) become 19 States plus the Federal Capital Territory, thus controlling a solid majority in the National Assembly while the other 3 Regions (Eastern, Western, Mid-Western) plus the then Lagos Federal Capital Territory have been compressed into a mere 17 States together being a minority in the National Assembly. This is compounded by the creation of 774 revenue sucking outlets called Local Government Areas in which the North hold more than half. Altogether, no matter who becomes President, the revenue sharing reality is one in which those who bring nothing to the treasury take away about 70% of its contents as dictated by the ‘Constitution’. These terrible reconstructions were decreed by Yakubu Gowon, Muritala Mohammed, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and embedded into the impregnable fortress of the ‘Constitution’ by Abdusalam Abubakar. Where went the officers from Southern Nigeria when these major pillars of polity control got so radically reconfigured if there was no Script. The feudal overlord must be in control even if disguised as constitutionalism.

3. Resource Hijack. The 1969 Petroleum Decree by which the oil and gas assets of Eastern Nigeria (so-called South-East & South-South) got hijacked by the Federal Government was issued by willing-tool Yakubu Gowon in the name of the war with break-away Biafra. That hijack was made permanent and ‘legitimate’ by the inclusion of oil and gas on the Federal Exclusive Legislative List in the ‘Constitution’. We ask Gowon and his confederates and successors: has the war not ended?. The email statement from MEND heralding the October 1st 2010 bombings in Abuja referred specifically to this constitutional mutilation as the injustice they are fighting to reverse. By the same design, the seaports of Port-Harcourt, Calabar and Warri which belonged to the then Eastern and Mid-Western Regions are now property of Abuja. The Lagos seaports have fallen into this category since the Federal Capital role which ostensibly justified federal control of Lagos ports has shifted to Abuja. Bottom-line: all assets of value must be in the hands of the feudal overlords who then dispense as they deem fit.

4. The 1978 Land Use Decree was used to impose the feudal land tenure system of the North upon the South thereby expropriating Southern land owners and toppling the well established, world acclaimed, age-long land tenure systems of the Southern territories and more importantly, destroying a key aspect of the Southern peoples’ traditional economic system which hold sacrosanct, the right to private property. This particular violation locks away billions of Dollars worth of what would have been investment capital in the hands of land owners who are now completely at the mercy of imperial governors for certification (C of O) or consent without which their lands remain without significant commercial value. By another Decree in 1979, that atrocious Law was elevated into the fortress of the ‘Constitution’ where it majestically resides to date. A little probe into the title deeds of one big farm in Otta will reveal the kind of use to which the said Land Use Decree had been put by the head-slave through whom it was wrought. Same evil is replicated throughout the country. The lords of the manor must control all lands!.

5. The NYSC Decree of 1973 by Gowon was a ploy by the feudal North to evade the yawning imperative for a sovereign meeting between the peoples of Nigeria to re-negotiate the terms of their Union and re-establish confidence in the project after the mindless blood-letting pogrom /war of 1966-1970. The ghost of that self -deceit resurrected in April 2011 and came dancing around in Bauchi and other places to the drumbeats of the remnants of the feudal inheritors who had just announced to the rest of Nigeria that they do not recognize democracy as a form of government. They cannot understand why their Crown-Prince, Buhari will have to be subjected to the indignity of contesting for who will rule over their great grandfather’s estate, Nigeria, with a conquered slave under the pretense of some stupid democracy which must be a Southern/Middle-Belt ploy to choke them out of their inheritance. For that, blood must flow and it did flow. The hidden benefit of ‘balance of trade’ in favour of the North whereby their wards get sent to Port-Harcourt and Lagos to melt into oil companies, banks and telecommunication companies , dwelling in absolute safety while the sacrificial lambs from Port-Harcourt and Lagos end up Bauchi and Maiduguri where they get posted to some stone-age, run down primary schools with no job prospects post-service, but running the gauntlet between Boko-Haram and ruthless pupils who can behead their teacher for wearing NYSC trouser-kit , Still on the subject of corper safety, it is noteworthy that the traditions in the Southern territories place a sacred duty upon all to protect a stranger even at the risk of losing one’s life. It was this duty that fell upon Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi as Governor of Western Region when he opted to lay down his life in defence of his guest, Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi from the bloodthirsty Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, instead of having to live to explain the circumstances of shedding a stranger’s blood in his abode. As we sing the requiem of the NYSC program, could somebody explain to Jack and his prayer band that unity is better built on the foundation of mutual volition than that of a forced or decreed intermingling. To the feudal North, the master never negotiates with his slaves, so no to Sovereign National Conference!.

6 The 68-item Federal Exclusive List: The desperate bid to bring everything under absolute control in keeping with the dictates of the feudal Script is reason we have a 68-item Federal Exclusive Legislative List in the 1999 Constitution resulting in over-centralization and gross inefficiency, corruption and infrastructural decay. Electricity generation and transmission, police/firearms, railways, ports/aviation, highways, prisons, mines/minerals, and a long list of other items including driving license and vehicle plate number which the federating units could have more efficiently handled and which the defunct Regions had charge over, now all await the pleasure of Abuja and the result is the disaster we have in our hands now where we shamelessly discuss how our electricity can grow from less than 3000 megawatts to 5000 megawatts for 150million people when South-Africa’s less than 50 million population run on over 48,000megawatts . No amount of reforms, money throwing or Vision 20-20-20 will change anything until that list is decongested. The autopsy reports on Nigeria Airways, The National Shipping Line, The Nigeria Railways, NITEL, NEPA etc are living testimonies of this truth.

7. Non-Accountability under the 1999 Constitution. Since accountability is anathema to the feudal system, provisions were worked into the 1999 Constitution to banish any form of accountability and comprehensively protect the lords of the manor. First, Section.6(6)(c) which render the entire socio-economic welfare provisions in Chapter II of that Constitution non-justiciable, in effect cancels the citizens’ benefits of the social contract of governance and actually absolves the governments of any responsibility to the citizens. The appropriation provisions in Sections 82 and 122 give the spare keys of the entire Nigerian treasury to the President and the Governors while Section 308 offer absolute immunity from probe or sanction to these same officials. Taken together, these three provisions constitute the fountain from which corruption flows freely throughout the land and since they dwell in the impregnable fortress of the Constitution, no amount of mopping by Farida and her EFCC will change anything until we turn off the tap. We dare say in this regard that in Nigeria of today, corruption is official and this is a much bigger problem than officials being corrupt. Those who sit in the fortified refuge camp of Abuja, sharing the billions dollars confiscated by the ‘Constitution’ as well as their field commanders called Governors will do nothing to upset this sweet arrangement unless compelled. The authentic owners of the estate are now set to recover them from the feudal impostors.

Many other policy instruments such as Federal Character, Quota System and the latest mutation of it, zoning, are at the root of the pervasive mediocrity which Nigeria as a country has enthroned above merit and excellence for which reason many developmental issues other countries have resolved and taken for granted for decades remain unattainable. High public office must be by pedigree under our feudal setting. Items 1-7 above fairly capture the contents of the notorious National Question which must be answered now , one way or the other
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LET IT BE KNOWN TO ALL:

I) That the Nigeria of today as defined by the so-called ‘1999 Constitution’ is totally different from and is in fact a dummy of the original one into which the various nationalities consensually federated at Independence which was abandoned .in January 1967 after a failed attempt to resuscitate it in Aburi.

II) That since the basis of the Nigerian Union has been fundamentally altered by a combination of brute force and subterfuge Animal Farm-style, culminating in the fraudulent 1999 Constitution under which a vast majority, along with their assets are ‘legitimately’ enslaved by a tiny minority supported by foreign allies who generously partake of those of those assets, WE OF THE ENTRAPPED ETHNIC NATIONS OF THE LOWER NIGER TERRITORY,THE MMIDDLE-BELT AND OODULAND having participated in numerous countrywide peaceful processes which unsuccessfully sought to persuade the internal colonialists of Nigeria to address this terrible situation, now have no option but to seek the retrieval of our stolen sovereignties from the failed British experiment called ‘Nigeria’ since our pleas and demand for a sovereign meeting had been ignored and resisted since 1967.

III) That those who on May 29th,2011 swore to preserve, protect and defend the ‘1999 Constitution’ were by implication offering their best abilities and might to preserve and enforce the enslavement and torment of those who are currently enslaved by the fraudulent 1999 Constitution. May we wish remind such persons and indeed all stakeholders that there is also a huge community persons, groups and organizations who have earlier sworn and are fully committed to the decommissioning and dismantling of the fraudulent 1999 and have taken decisive steps in pursuit of same, not because they are anarchists but because they believe that force cannot remain the basis of the Nigerian Union . The MNN, Lower Niger Congress, Middle-Belt Congress and the Federation of Oodua People are in the forefront. PRONACO was an initiative for that same goal.. NADECO was there and is back now. CHANGE NIGERIA has been shouting from the rooftops. OPC, MASSOB, MEND, AKWAT AKWOP and even BOKO HARAM etc are all a practical rejection and repudiation of the 1999 Constitution. The Suits at the Federal High Court Abuja and Lagos ( Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/367/07 filed 23/05/07in Abuja and Suit No. FHC/L/CS/558/09 filed in Lagos in 2009 ) challenging the legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution and seeking its orderly termination/replacement by a negotiated alternative, can pass for a winding-up process for the foisted Nigeria. It smacks of criminality for anyone to continue the governance of Nigeria on the basis of the forged and fraudulent 1999 Constitution, 12 years after the exit of the marauders who first imposed it. It is pity that the body of lawyers in Nigeria have kept mum and are colluding in this horrible affront on the rule of law.

IV) That amendment is not an option since the National Assembly is itself in dispute neither do the members have constituent powers to make or remake a constitution. Those who in mischief or ignorance look towards amendments for cure to the issues raised herein are by that suggesting that the hired management team of a company can make or change the contents of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of a company to the exclusion of the shareholders who own the company. The shareholders and owners of the Nigeria enterprise are the federating nationalities in whatever formations, who would be countries of their own if Nigeria was not in place. The damaged house of Nigeria as embodied in the 1999 Constitution is overdue for demolition and reconstruction. Amendments of whatever types is like changing door, windows furniture or painting and will be discountenanced when the bulldozer arrives. We now hear of a bogus Constitutional Convention that will exclude the nationalities.

V) Until recently, the options before Nigeria were clear: Either to return to ABURI or to head on to ARABA since ABUJA has failed beyond redemption. (‘Abuja’ means Nigeria as defined by the 1999 Constitution. ‘Aburi’ means the original federal set-up agreed upon in 1954 as the basis of the Nigerian Union. ‘Araba’ means the inevitable, unilateral self-redemption steps in self-determination, in other words To thy Tents O Isreal!) We fear that the Aburi option has now been kicked out of the table by the sustained post-election violence unleashed by the Sharia North leaving us with Araba only.

ACCORDINGLY, THE ONLY CHIOCE LEFT TO BE MADE BY ALL STAKEHOLDERS IS BETWEEN A COSENSUAL PEACEFFUL DISSOLUTION OF THE FAILED NIGERIAN PROJECT OR TO WAIT FOR THE UNILATERAL, UNCO-ORDINATED EXIT OF ERSTWHILE FEDERATING BLOCS WHICH MAY BECOME DISORDERLY AND EVEN VIOLENT. MNN INVITES ALL TO EMRACE THE PEACEFUL OPTION AS IT HOLDS THE BEST PROSPECTS FOR AN EARLY RETURN FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURLINESS.

For and on behalf of:
The Lower Niger Congress: Kalada M. Jene; Alfred Ilenre; Dr. Idongesit Ambrose; Alex Ayotalumuo
Federation of Oodua People:Tokunbo Ajasin; Shenge Rhaman; Kunle Olaiya; Leye Akinmodiro; Wole Aina; Suleiman A. Salawu
The Middle-Belt Congress:Professor Leonard Shilgba; Andrew Ayuba Butswat; Nath Apir; Bishop Luke Angula
Tony Nnadi Esq, Secretary-General, MNN
Fred Agbeyegbe Esq, President, MNN

MOVEMENT FOR NEW NIGERIA (MNN)
10 Afolabi Lesi Street, Ilupeju
0702-830-6463; 0702-830-6464; 0802 301 8612
Lagos
E.Mail: movementfornewnigeria3@gmail.com

                          

Related posts:

1. Nigeria Police lawlessness against MASSOB reflects Nigeria’s policy towards Igbo-Biafra
2. Sometimes on May 29: the life and times of Nigeria
3. Per Azazi, Nigeria now embracing the Somali path; is South Sudan option still possible?

It is clear that Azazi was not delivering a personal opinion on this matter. The government of Nigeria—the shadow government, the facade-government, and the real “owners” of Nigeria, along with foreign stakeholder-controllers of Nigeria—have come to that conclusion. Or actually, they are just now admitting what was obvious starting years ago.

For the common person, what does this mean? It means that those “who matter—those who rule Nigeria and speak for Nigeria”—have decided and accepted that the chaos and bloodletting, the terrorism, violence and paralysis that describe Somalia, is now the fate of Nigeria, and there is nothing that can be done about it. For the avoidance of doubt, Somalia is the international “poster-child” of a “failed state”, one of the poorest and most violent states in the world. For twenty years since 1991 there has not been a central governmental authority or control over majority of the territory because armed factions have quartered and taken over different parts, there to lord, rule and inflict their brutality. Somalia is a haven for the training of current and future terrorists by terrorist organizations because there is nothing to stop such anti-people activity.

When the so-called government of Nigeria declares that it cannot control Boko Haram (and the territory claimed and occupied by Boko Haram) and then asks the hapless peoples living in Nigeria to accept that situation, it really means that the first official step has been taken by the government of Nigeria to condemn the peoples to the fate of Somalia. Let’s be clear on one thing: It is the peoples who will suffer—not the government officials and functionaries and their dependents. For sure, like Somalia, the peoples will be thrust into more poverty; but unlike Somalia, the government of Nigeria still controls the revenue from Delta Oil and a thirsty world continues to buy, thereby supplying cash to members of the government who get stupendously wealthy off it. Hence, while the peoples continue to languish in abject poverty now coupled with lack of security, the members of the Nigerian government remain rich and can remove their families and themselves off .the failed Nigerian state and off its geography. But the rest of the peoples—99% or so—will suffer; are suffering.

The peoples living in Nigeria relished the defeat of Biafra forty years ago, in so doing, demonstrating their foolishness and shortsightedness, and also, condemning themselves to eternal passivity. Biafra stood and still stands for the Spirit of a people who would take action, even against all odds, at the risk of perish, in the face of evil, rather than succumb to such evil without a fight to finish. Thus, today, the peoples living in Nigeria do not have the verve to rise up and challenge the individuals and the so-called government these unscrupulous, conscienceless individuals hide behind while driving the people as herd to slaughter. They lie in paralysis and die in misery, and they are happiest when they claim that they are to be known as the happiest people in the world. Such sickness! So, in fact, Biafra, the Spirit and idea and concept thereof, has the last laugh.

Nigeria’s intelligentsia is no help. Those of this class become spokespersons for any administration (of the same “government”) in power. They travel to America and Europe to deliver pompous lectures on topics such as Democracy, Corruption, Economics, Police, Security, Elections, Governance, Religious Tolerance, and Patriotism even as their host-countries laugh themselves silly at the obvious more-than-hypocrisy joke and jokesters. All the while, they prance around as if they are completely unaware of their circumstances and fate in Nigeria.

Of course, the moment of truth, the moment of decision, has come for these Nigerians. Azazi has told Nigerians what the government of Nigeria wants for them. The peoples living in Nigeria will now have to make a conscious effort to either passively go to and become West Africa’s Somalia, whence their government leads them; or they may choose the path of Sudan / South Sudan, where the people can choose to take control of their individual group destinies, away from an erring and inept government.

Earlier this year, South Sudan chose to break away from Sudan because of similar incompatibilities that define Nigeria: now, there are two independent countries, and each people will choose her own path. In so doing, both countries have ended a relationship which for a long while placed them in the same category as Somalia. Not surprisingly, some Nigerian intelligentsia consider the nation-building problems of South Sudan today as “proof” that separation did not solve South Sudan’s problems, another example of the stunted reasoning and cretinoid rationalization of such pundits.

The formula used in Sudan / South Sudan solution is called “Self Determination”, a by now household term around the world which all by itself is proving to be the true paradigm and principle of the much touted “new world order.” It is to be seen whether the peoples suffering in Nigeria, about to be forced into Somali-type bondage, can find the courage to free themselves by adopting this paradigm. The alternative is obvious.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net.

                          

Related posts:

1. Which path, Nigeria: South Sudan or Somalia?
2. Nigeria Police lawlessness against MASSOB reflects Nigeria’s policy towards Igbo-Biafra
3. Elections, Nigeria and “the handwriting on the wall”

After years of intractable and paralyzing warring, the result of the futile attempt at forcibly holding together mutually incompatible peoples, and of ongoing lethal cultural clashes, the concept of Self Determination was introduced to the then Sudan / Southern Sudan complex. The Self Determination compact affirmed and allowed for the exercise of the right of complete “ownership” of South Sudan’s own affairs and own destiny by her people, according to their choice, which choice was later delineated and affirmed through a Referendum. This Referendum called for complete secession from Sudan, and was passed overwhelmingly by, thus clearly indicating the wish of, the people of South Sudan. The process was finally consummated a few days ago, on July 9 2011, making South Sudan the world’s newest nation, and Africa’s first “Self-Determined nation.”

The resort to and respect and support for Self Determination also helped stop the war between the two sides while the Self Determination process ran its course; allowing for interim relatively “peaceful” (tolerable) cohabitation while South Sudan worked out and sorted out her choices. The current flurry of military hostilities at the last moment (totally uncalled for), though, presented a low-point in what otherwise marked a complete success for Self Determination. It is a horrific reminder of what might have happened without the Self Determination process.

Nigeria could use Self Determination now. For that matter, there is arguably no better mechanism to help Nigeria out of her age-old and ongoing quandary. Nigeria is made up of mutually incompatible peoples, cultures, traditions, religions and worldviews; like Sudan, it is being forcibly held together—and badly at that. As a result, Nigeria has engaged in ethnic cleansing, a genocidal war, and ethnic-based crimes and killing—all of which are continuing today, some quite obvious, others in one form or another. If “war” means “lack of security”, then, it can be said that Nigeria is in fact at war—a new one—today; not counting the ever simmering one.

Unfortunately, Nigeria’s response thus far has been typical: denial of the problem and denial of the fundamental issues and relevant solutions. Rather, there is a lot of pontificating, pretense, and scheming aimed at deferring the real solutions to the problem. Nigerians always want to blame their problems on corruption, poor leadership and election woes, as if those matters occur in isolation, without a context or milieu. They do not want to examine the original terms of Nigeria’s existence as a State, wherein the root-problem of incompatibilities originates and is quite glaringly obvious.

For this reason, Nigeria is on the same path as Somalia. Somalia is officially recognized as a failed State; little wonder Nigeria is ranked a few steps behind her. Deny as much as Nigeria wants to, those factors which make Somalia a failed State also place Nigeria in that unenviable club. The only difference is Oil (which Nigeria usurps, high-handedly, from one of the ethnic regions) and the revenue accruing therefrom. Even so, such has also become a real curse for Nigeria, like Oil has proven to be for bumbling so-called third world countries. Therefore, Oil only adds more dysfunction to the insurmountable burden of Nigeria; being a commodity which is ethnic-based in source can also only compound matters more.

It is time that Nigeria embraced Self Determination as a permanent and effective solution. Self Determination is a win-win proposition for all the parties concerned, and it results in a win-win outcome. It is also a relatively non-violent process. Salute to Sudan / South Sudan!

Self Determination is owned by each of the peoples and exercised by each respective people. It restores true participation, choice, legitimacy, validation and dignity to the people. Like basic individual human rights, Self Determination is the collective rights of the people which are undeniable and inalienable.

If Nigeria and or Nigerians congratulate South Sudan, they should apply the same formula that worked there: Self Determination. If Nigeria / Nigerians envy South Sudan, they should emulate her and work with Self Determination. If Nigeria / Nigerians are afraid of what happened with South Sudan where Self Determination was applied successfully, then, they have certainly declared for Somalia; in that case, failed Nigeria should prepare to be worse than Somalia—and worse off, in ways too unthinkable to have crossed anyone’s mind at this time.

Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

                          

Related posts:

1. Elections, Nigeria and “the handwriting on the wall”
2. Morning After: election results in Nigeria, what is the mandate?
3. Revisiting “Self Determination: New US Africa Foreign Policy basis: “hiding in plain sight”?”