Written by Professor INNOCENT ODENIGBO
In the year 1914, Lugard as colonial administrator and friend of the Hausa-Fulani using his connections with the British colonial office committed the most outrageous fraud in human history by unilaterally declaring the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorate in our part of Africa and naming these territories NIGERIA. This British mercenary did not consult the people before forcing them into an unholy union of his dreams. The name Nigeria was really a coinage from two words, Niger i.e the river Niger and area meaning the area of land around the river Niger.
It does not require a rocket scientist or a wordsmith to forge this name. I understand that the name was in fact suggested by Lugard's wife. For Lugard to choose the name Nigeria for his contraption, it's clear evident that he was only interested in the land and its resources not in the well being of people of diverse cultures inhabiting the land. So ab-initio, the name Nigeria was only a geographical description without any cultural or historical content and has remained so up till today. For even Lugard himself described the north and the south as oil and water that can never mix.
About 30years into Lugard's experiment in 1945 to be exact. The first catastrophe struck. Biafrans were slaughtered in northern Nigeria by the Hausa-Fulani as the clear expression of their resentment of the amalgamation. In 1953, the northerners struck again. One small Biafrans were the victims. The Nigerian census of 1956 was rigged in favor of the northerners by their British friends who inflated the population figures for the north to the detriment of the south.
The pre-independent federal elections were similarly rigged by the departing British colonial administrators to benefit the north against the south. It was not therefore surprising that a few years after independence, Nigeria descended into anarchy and chaos. This time again, Biafrans were the target. Chased away from all over Nigeria as hundredths of thousands of them were murdered in the northern Nigeria. In May-October 1966, Biafrans were hounded and massacred all over northern Nigeria by the Hausa-Fulani shouting ''ARABA ARABA''meaning SECESSION.
The bruised and battered Biafrans returned to the safety of their homeland to nurse their wounds. Abandoned by the federal government of the country to which they were supposed to belong. A national conference was held in Aburi, Ghana under the chairmanship of Gen. Ankra the Ghanaian head of state. Far reaching agreements aimed at keeping Nigeria together were concluded between Gen. Yakubu Gowon representing Nigeria and Gen. Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu representing the people of Biafra. But in a most arrogant display of power, Nigeria unilaterally annulled those agreements. The Biafrans had no other choice than to declare their independence on May 30th, 1967.
Instead of allowing Biafrans to nurse their wounds in the peace of their homeland, Nigeria propelled by share hatred and arrogance of power declared a war of aggression against the beleaguered Biafrans. Nigeria wanted the land of Biafra without the people of Biafra and conducted a three year genocidal war to achieve that purpose. At the end of it all, about 3.5 million different men, women and children were killed in their homeland. I have never read anywhere that people of different cultures and religions have been forced to unite by share military means.
The American civil war was a unique case. Prior to that war, all the states had voluntarily consented to join the union after a gruesome war of independence against the British. But when the southern states refused to give up slavery and decided instead to secede from the union, the northern states led by Abraham Lincoln took up arms against the south as a matter of principle. The north believed that since all men were created equal, it was unjust for people to own slaves at private property. The American civil war was not in reality to unite the country, but a war in defense of human right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
In its genocidal enterprise, Nigeria obtained the ready military and diplomatic assistance of Britain, the formal soviet union, Spain, the then Organization of African Unity led by the formal Ethiopian head of state Emperor Haile Selassie, non-alliance nations led by President Tito of formal Yugoslavia and the United Nations Organization led by U Thant. The lie being bandit about by Britain and Nigeria was that if Biafra was allowed to secede from Nigeria, the whole of Africa would be afflicted by the disease of secession. Shamelessly, the so called civilized world colluded with Nigeria in the massacre of millions of Biafran men, women and children.
The principle of human rights was thrown to the winds. Biafra was strangled by overwhelming military force, diplomatic frauds and starvation. Even, christian charity organizations and the International Red Cross were dissuaded and frustrated by Britain and Nigeria from delivering urgently needed food material and medicine which would have saved lives. Whether we believe it or not, there is a great being who is in control of events on earth. Some refers to him as Karma, we call him God. Nigeria thought that once Biafra was defeated in battle, everything would be alright and she will live happily ever after. There is no way you can spill the blood of 3.5 million people and expect that there would not be some retributions. We all know what is happening to Nigeria today.
What of the greatest ally of Nigeria during that war against Biafrans; Britain? One quiet afternoon early this year, two machete wielding Nigerian extremists attacked a British soldier and killed him in broad day light and bragged about it. That event was one of the worst greatest insults inflicted on a world power such as Britain. Right now, Scotland is in the process of seceding from Britain after about 400 years of marriage voluntarily entered into by England and Scotland. Yet, it was the same Britain that scared the world stiff about the impending vulcanization of Africa should Biafra go its way and let the chorus of the sanctity of the territorial integrity of Nigeria as the Biafran war of independence raged on. I do not know what will happen to the territorial integrity of Britain when Scotland eventually secedes.
The truth is that a territory can never be more important than the people who live in it. That is the basic principle of human rights. But the British government under the leadership of Harold Wilson did not believe that the Biafran people were entitled to the same human rights which British people enjoyed. That is why Harold Wilson is one of the list respected world leaders today. As leader of the Organization of African Unity, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, campaigned against the existence of Biafra because he believed that if Biafra was allowed to exist, the province of Eritrea which was then part of Ethiopia would secede.
But in spite of Haile Selassie, Eritrea is now an independent nation What about President Tito of Yugoslavia, as leader of the non-aligned nations, President Tito campaigned against Biafra because he feared that his country would break if Biafra were allowed to exist. Where is Yugoslavia today? In the dustbin of history. Out of the ashes of Yugoslavia emerged four or five countries in spite of President Tito. Now, the formal Soviet union supplied Nigeria with all the mig-fighter planes with which it terrorized, killed and maimed Biafran men, women and children in their homes, in market places, in schools, in churches, in hospitals and in refugee camps. Where is the great soviet union today? In the dustbin of history.
From the ashes of the formal soviet union emerged 15 independence countries including Russia. What of Egypt? While it was not clear whether the Egyptian government cooperated with Nigeria during its war against Biafra, it was common knowledge that Egyptian pilots were responsible for the indiscriminate bombing and stacking of civilian targets that accounted for the loss of thousands of lives.
They were probably the mercenaries who did not want to risk their lives and therefore avoided raiding the war fronts. Since they did not discharge their bombs and kill some people, they frequently went for soft targets such as; markets, schools and hospitals.
After all, they knew they were engaged in a war of extermination anyway and the civilized world was behind them. See what is happening in Egypt today, not so good.
By contrast, the five countries that recognized Biafra namely: Tanzania, Zambia, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Haiti have enjoyed peace and stability till today. Their heads of state at the time of Biafran saga namely: Dr. Warimu Julius Nyerere, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, Mr. Omar Bongo, Mr. Houphouet-boigny and ''Papa Doc'' Francois Duvalier were some of the most respected statesmen in the world. Tanzania has not disintegrated even-though it is a union between mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar off the coast of east Africa. A union voluntarily agreed by the two entities without a land border but with strong cultural and historical ties.
Where was the United Nations Organization on the bight that was Biafra? Mixing in action! The world body never for once heard testimonies from the Biafran people. It listened only to Nigeria because Britain as a permanent member of the Security Council thwarted all effort by Biafra to present her case to the world and by implication deceived the United States on the issue of Biafra. It is now time for Nigeria to pay its debt to history. It is the wish of everybody concerned that Nigeria should disappear peacefully, letting the component parts go their way after 100 years of unholy marriage that has refused to work or Nigeria may choose to die a violent death.
This will make no sense since too many lives have already been lost and the land is soaked in blood. Since all things made by mortal man perish, so shall Nigeria made by Fredrick Lugard and his wife seize to exist and from its ashes the republic of Biafra shall emerge. The case of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is one worthy of emulation. So also are the cases of former Czechoslovakia, former Yugoslavia, Ethiopia and Eritrea as well as Sudan and Southern Sudan.
Thomas Jefferson writing the American declaration of independence said and I quote ''When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.''
This idea goes back to Athens of the 5th century BC when Socrates spoke of a law of God respected by all Barbarian and Greek alike or in the Antigone of Sophocles from the 5th century BC when Antigone appealed to a law of God that is the same for all, all over the world and justify any actions that might break the law of men. Cicero defines natural law in his works of moral values as ''the law of God revealed in the reason of His universe'' It is one law valid in all places and in all times. It will be the same in Athens and in Rome and in every future nation to come for that law rest with God and there are consequences for breaking the law of God.
I hope the United Nations will be alive to its responsibilities this time around and that the international communities will stop playing games with African lives. The lost of 3.5 million Biafran lives can never be in vain. That will run counter to the principle of natural justice; laws of nature and nature's God. The people of Biafra have waited all these years for reason and common sense to prevail; for justice to be done so that old and current wounds can start to heal and the spirits of 3.5 million Biafran men, women and children can start to rest in peace. It is time for the restoration of the Republic of Biafra. God bless people of goodwill around the world and God bless Biafra.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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