BIAFREXIT: HOPE, FEAR AND THE INEVITABLE REALITY

BIAFREXIT: HOPE, FEAR AND THE INEVITABLE REALITY

By Maxwell Chuks
For Family Writers


Biafra at exactly fifty years, since after the Nigerian government and her foreign allies laid siege on the Biafran territory with what they termed "police action" which culminated into a full-fledged war, after the then Nigerian Eastern governor Col. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of the blessed memory declared Biafra as a sovereign state, has remained an entrapped entity. Fifty years after millions of Biafran men, women and children were gruesomely murdered, annihilated and indiscriminately butchered in the streets of Biafraland in the 1960s and fifty years after Biafran territories were devastated and destroyed beyond recognition by the Nigerian government, Biafraland has remained a veritable human butchery field for the Nigeria murderous government. Fifty years after Biafrans were gifted with severe starvation as a result of the air, land and sea blockade which the Nigerian government used as a weapon of warfare and tagged it as being "fair" in war and fifty years after Biafrans were "blessed" with twenty pounds and abandoned properties, no reparations were paid to the victims of that genocidal war, both to the families of dead victims and the survivors were all left to their fate, yet, Biafrans have continued to sojourn to different part of the world for greener pastures, due to poverty in Biafraland. Even the war criminals are still masquerading and parading in the streets as elderstatesmen, while others were gifted with political offices, even the highest political office in the country. No justice of any form has been given to the Biafran people and till date the world is still feigning ignorance of that reality.


Regardless of the fact that innocent blood were spilled as a result of the unfettered quest of Biafra restoration, the younger generation of Biafrans years after the Biafra genocide are still fanning the ember of secession with fearlessness and  resoluteness, thereby making the struggle for freedom more stronger and daring than ever before.


There has been questions many people not just in Nigeria but from different parts of the world are asking as to "why" the issue of Biafra is propping up in Nigeria now, even after fifty years the war was fought?  Honestly, I do not know if these set of individuals are not aware of the overlashing poverty and suffering in Biafraland or should I say they are feigning ignorance of the fact that the life span of an average Biafran has been 50years, while there are increase in child mortality and high rate of road accident as a result of deficiency in infrastructural development. In the present day Nigeria, the Biafran territory has little or no infrastructural development, no federal government presence is felt therein since after the civil war. But, the younger generation of Indigenous People Of Biafra now see Biafra as their only "HOPE". Biafrans have lost hope in Nigeria since after the civil war. They only see Biafra as their identity, culture and as an entity where their existence and better livelihood will be secured. For Biafrans, Nigeria is seen as a threat to their collective existence as a result of long aged marginalization and dehumanizing treatments being metted on them on daily bases by the Nigerian state unabated. Biafrans have also continued to ask questions as to why they are being treated as third-class citizens in a country they call their own while their counterpart up North, with relatively little or no academic qualifications will Lord over them as being "born to rule" or first-class citizens? Regardless of contributing 80% of what feeds the nation, resources from Biafraland are being siphoned and the proceeds are used in the development of both Northern and Western Nigeria, while leaving Biafrans in pitiable conditions which indisputably justifies the need for Biafra self determination via Biafrexit referendum.


FEARS:

According to the war  criminals like Gowon, Buhari, Obasanjo et al said that, the genocidal war levied on Biafrans was particularly to keep Nigeria "one" and this brought the question " Who is afraid of Nigeria's dissolution or exit of Biafra from Nigeria"? In Nigeria today, it is very much transpicuous that the Northern Nigeria, politicians, elites and all the beneficiaries of "one Nigeria" are bent in making sure that Nigeria does not split into pieces and that is why you normally hear them on the pages of Newspapers shouting that Nigeria is indivisible and her existence as one is non-negotiable. They are afraid that if Nigeria breaks up, they will lose the avenues of enriching themselves which they do at the detriment of the poor masses they are presiding over. They killed, maimed and have continued butchering people to protect their fraudulent and oppressive political status quo because a free Biafra nation will strip them of their political relevance. The over-dependent of Northern Nigeria on the resources from Biafraland has forced Northern youth, political elites and elders into protesting and demanding that no ethnic nationality should dismember from the contrapted entity called Nigeria, thereby holding other nationalities to ransom with the one Nigeria mantra which is seen as a charade no matter how they want to force Nigeria on others. The earlier the Nigerian political elites and Northerners brace up to the reality of the day and break the country into bits the better for all the ethnic nationalities entrapped therein. However, it will be in the interest of Nigeria to save humanity by disintegrating the country and as far as Biafrans still exist, the quest for Biafra restoration can not be wished away or jettisoned.

THE INEVITABLE REALITY:
Biafra has become a reality in today's Nigeria. The Nigerian government through her actions and inactions has forced the Biafra question to metamorphose from the periphery to the mainstream media of the world, thereby making Biafra an international phenomenon. Nigerian government should stop shying away from addressing the Biafra question rather, they should as a matter of the reality at hand start setting up modalities for a well internationally recognised, organised and monitored Biafrexit referendum geared towards ascertaining the extent with which Biafrans wants' to have a nation of their own. The Indeginous People Of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has unequivocally declared that Biafra restoration is non-negotiable irrespective of what ever it will take for her to be restored and this simply mean complete balkanisation of the Nigerian state. Many people are struggling to sabotage or end the Biafra restoration project without knowing that forces behind Biafra project is divinely orchestrated. This is 21st century and Biafrans want to make their own history by restoring their dignity and identity. Many countries of the world have broken into bits and are peacefully co-existing till today. So the dissolution of Nigeria is a must and shall happen in no distance time, therefore, enslaving and compelling others to stay in one Nigeria is like forcing death on them which is also an abuse of their human rights, even as it is tantamount to denying them their essence of existence.

Conclusively, the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB)  is using this medium to put humanity on notice, that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a freedom fighter on a divine mission, therefore should not be toyed with by the Nigerian government as he remained the figurehead of the struggle for Biafra restoration. He is not just a man but an institution with millions of followers around the world. An African proverb says "If you kill a dog, you will know someone owns it". The impending doom which only those who can read the handwriting on the wall can see, should anything happen to him, is greater than what Africa has ever seen and what Nigeria has experienced. The only peacefully way forward is to do the needful, conduct a referendum and peacefully let Biafra exit from Nigeria as the Biafrans are demanding.


Edited by Ebere Okolie
For Family Writers Press