By Ifeanyi Chijioke
If any new country or nation will emerge in the world today; Biafra stands the only indigenous people that have paid all her dues for statehood. Other people are paying or have paid but none has paid more than Biafra.
In this era of freedom or rather secession; there is only but one indigenous people with a stronger case than all. Yet; the people with a stronger case seem to be trailing with the latest development; many have accused Britain of purposely derailing the movement with stronger case while few believe that sabotage has more effect. Just as Kurdish referendum was held and Catalonia referendum on that pace, Ambazonia declared her independence but Biafra was declared ‘terrorist’.
Biafra is the oldest nation among all in the quest for statehood; her quest for independence started since 1967, which was gotten but was taken back in 1970 after they lost a war to Nigeria. Having surrendered her sovereignty in 1970 after losing millions of lives to a brutal war that was tagged genocide, the people claimed they became slaves to their captor. The worst of the ‘genocide’ was that the world looked on while children were starved and women abused and murdered. Britain was accused of shielding Nigeria and misinforming the world on Biafra situation.
In Biafran territory of today; there is no functional or built infrastructure and neither are social amenities. The Biafran territory is considered the rural part of Nigeria while many Biafrans travel North and West in search of greener pasture. Politically; the people of Biafra have not had a good share, the only one- Goodluck Jonathan that succeeded the seat of the presidency was by inevitable circumstance. Economically; the people of Biafra have been subjected to hardship, that they have to travel 800km to clear goods when that could be possible at home if their seaports’ were given due attention. They have been suffering ever since after the war; endlessly paying the price of ever declaring independence.
In 1999; the agitation for the restoration of Biafra resurfaced and Ralph Uwazurike championed it after Biafra flag was hoisted in Aba in Abaia state. Since 1999; Biafra agitation has been on the front burner but recently, the agitation reached its prime and Nnamdi Kanu made the quest more colorful. The people of Biafra continue to lose their citizens in the hands of Nigerian murderous military even despite lawfully and peacefully going about the quest for the restoration of Biafra. He has vowed to remain peaceful even amidst the terrorist label that had taken scores of lives.
Among the whole nations in the quest for statehood; Biafra has lost more lives and needs urgent humanitarian help than any other. Biafra is older and more striking than all other indigenous people; the strategy adopted by Biafra and the movement itself has made her the most talked about freedom fighting outfit in the world. Biafra restoration quest has reached a fever pitch that often suggests crisis will dawn but IPOB’s perseverance has been able to save the day.
The people of Biafra are the most marginalized among the people in the quest for freedom; the inability of the parent-country to bring economic and political balance fuels the agitation for the restoration of Biafra. For Biafrans, the agitation is viewed as a way out of political and economic strangulation and a means of saving the lives and the future of the people of Biafra and not essentially for comfort. The people of Biafra are under premeditated slavery that even when the parent-country is with the option of restructuring, turns it down because it would give Biafra a breath in Nigeria.
The lives of the people of Biafra are no longer guaranteed in Nigeria with quit notice served to them to leave Northern Nigeria and in most cases, there businesses, religious centers and homes are brought down by religious and ethnic extremism in Nigeria. In the West, they have been threatened to be thrown into the lagoon if they failed to do what a traditional ruler or the people of West demanded from them. Their businesses in the West have been a target of ethnic molestation and divisive intent; being forced to quit places they established for the indigenes of the West.
On their quest for a referendum; they have been murdered in the thousands, arrested during peaceful and lawful protest. They have been attacked with raw acid and massacred without constraint and yet they have remained peaceful. Biafra of today has lost more than five million people and still counting and no other people on the quest for referendum has sacrificed the much Biafra has done politically, economically, on the indigenous front and otherwise. They are not needed in Nigeria hence treated like slaves and their quest for freedom is a quest for a home that can guarantee their lives and protect their properties and device a better future which is not attainable in Nigeria.
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