TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1
THE
STRUGGLE..........................................................................................................2
THE MYTH ABOUT THE
NEGRO....................................................................................7
SELF-DETERMINATION..............................................................................................10
ARAB-MUSLIM
EXPANSIONISM...................................................................................12
AFRICA
EXPLOITED..................................................................................................14
RUSSIAN
IMPERIALISM.............................................................................................16
ANGLO-SAXON
GENOCIDE........................................................................................18
NEGRO
RENAISSANCE..............................................................................................19
NIGERIAN
CORRUPTION............................................................................................20
RE-DISCOVERING
INDEPENDENCE.............................................................................22
THE
PEOPLE.............................................................................................................23
SHAKING OFF
NIGERIANISM.....................................................................................24
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE
REVOLUTION.......................................................................27
THE TASK OF A
LEADER............................................................................................30
SOCIAL
JUSTICE......................................................................................................32
PROPERTY AND THE
COMMUNITY...............................................................................32
AN EGALITARIAN
SOCIETY........................................................................................33
PUTTING THE REVOLUTION INTO
PRACTICE................................................................34
THE
LEGISLATURE....................................................................................................37
POLITICS AND THE REVOLUTION...............................................................................38
THE
JUDICIARY........................................................................................................39
THE POLICE
FORCE..................................................................................................40
THE ARMED
SERVICES..............................................................................................41
THE PUBLIC
SERVICES.............................................................................................42
TRAINING AND
EDUCATION......................................................................................43
THE RIGHT TO
WORK...............................................................................................45
HEALTH AND
WELFARE.............................................................................................45
CULTURE AND HIGHER
EDUCATION...........................................................................46
SELF-RELIANCE........................................................................................................47
THE QUALITIES OF THE
INDIVIDUAL..........................................................................49
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................51
____________________
INTRODUCTION
PROUD AND COURAGEOUS
BIAFRANS,
FELLOW COUNTRY MEN AND
WOMEN,
I salute you. Today, as I
look back over our two years as a sovereign and independent nation, I am
overwhelmed with the feeling of pride and satisfaction in our performance and
achievement as a people. Our indomitable will, our courage, our endurance of
the severest privations, our resourcefulness and inventiveness in the face of
tremendous odds and dangers, have become proverbial in a world so bereft of
heroism, and have become a source of frustration to Nigeria and her foreign
masters. For this and for the many miracles of our time, let us give thanks to
Almighty God. I congratulate all Biafrans at home and abroad. I
thank you all the part you have played and have continued to play in this
struggle, for your devotion to the high ideals and principles on which this
Republic was founded.
I thank you for your
absolute commitment to the cause for which our youth are making daily, the
supreme sacrifice, and a cause for which we all have been dispossessed,
blockaded, bombarded, starved and massacred. I salute you for your tenacity of
purpose and amazing steadfastness under siege.
I salute the memory of the
many patriots who have laid down their lives in defense of our Fatherland. I
salute the memory of all Biafrans - men, women and children - who died victims
of the Nigerian crime of genocide. We shall never forget them. Please God,
their sacrifice shall not be in vain. For the dead on the other side of this
conflict, may their souls rest in peace. To our friends and well-wishers, to
the growing band of men and women around the world who have, in spite of the
vile propaganda mounted against us, identified themselves with the justice of
our cause, in particular to our courageous friends, officers and staff of the
Relief Agencies and humanitarian organisations, pilots who daily offer
themselves in sacrifice that our people might be saved; to Governments, in
particular Tanzania, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Haiti. I give my warmest
thanks and those of our entire people.
THE STRUGGLE
Fellow country men and
women, for nearly two years we have been engaged in a war which threatens our
people with total destruction. Our enemy has been unrelenting in his fury and
has fought our defenseless people with a vast array of military hardware of a
sophistication unknown to Africa. For two years we have withstood his assaults
with nothing other than our stout hearts and bare hands. We have frustrated his
diabolical intentions and have beaten his wicked mentors in their calculations
and innovations. Shamelessly, our enemy has moved from deadline to deadline,
seeking excuses justifying his failures to an ever credulous world. Today, I am
happy and proud to report that, all the odds notwithstanding, the enemy, at
great cost in lives and equipment, is nowhere near to his avowed objective.
In the Onitsha sector of
the war, our gallant forces have kept the enemy confined in the town which they
entered 15 months ago. Despite the fact that this sector has great strategic
attraction for the vandal hordes, being a gate-way, as it is, to the now famous
jungle strip of Biafra, and the scene of the bloodiest encounters of this war,
it is significant that the enemy has made no gains throughout this long period.
In the Awka sector of the
war, the story remains the same. The enemy is confined only to the highway
between Enugu and Onitsha, not venturing north or south of that road.
In the Okigwe sector, from
where the enemy made the thrust that brought him into Umuahia, the situation
remains unchanged, with our troops making the entire enemy route from Okigwe to
Umuahia no joy ride. In Umuahia town itself, fighting has continued in the
township.
In the Ikot Ekpene, Azumini
and Aba sectors of the war, the vandals, whilst maintaining their positions in
Ikot Ekpene and Aba with our troops surrounding them, have continued to suffer
heavy casualties in their attempt to hold firmly on to Azumini.
We now come to the
Owerri/Port Harcourt sector. After the clearing of Owerri township and our
rapid move towards Port Harcourt, our gallant forces are holding positions in
Eleele town, in the outskirts of Igirita and forward of Omoku.
Across the Niger, the
successes of our troops have been maintained despite numerous enemy
counter-attacks. Our Navy has continued to support all operations along the
Niger with good results. Our guerrillas have continued their magnificent work
of harassing the enemy and giving him no respite on our soil. I salute them
all.
In the air, the Biafran Air
Force has made a most dramatic re-entry into the war, and in a brilliant series
of raids has all but paralyzed the Nigerian Air Force. In four days’
operations, eleven operational planes of the enemy were put of action, three
control towers in Port Harcourt, Enugu and Benin were set ablaze, the Airport
building in Enugu, and the numerous gun positions were knocked out. The
refinery in Port Harcourt was set on fire. And, more recently, three days ago,
the Ughelli Power Station was put out of action. The brilliance of this
performance, the precision of the strike, the genius of target selection, have
left Nigeria in a daze and her friends bewildered. Another way of looking at this
is that in four days of operation, the Biafran Air Force has destroyed more
military targets than what the Nigerian Air Force has been able to do for two
years.
In cost, probably twice
what the Nigerian air raids have cost us in military equipment and installations.
The only superiority left in the record of achievement of the Nigerian Air
Force is the number of civilians and civilian targets their cowardly raids have
destroyed. Proud Biafrans, I have kept my promise.
Diplomatically, our friends
have increased and have remained steadfast to our cause; and despite the
rantings of our detractors, indications are that their support will continue.
At home, our sufferings
have continued. Scarcity and want have remained our companions. Yet, with
fortitude, we seem to have overcome th once imminent danger of mass starvation
and can now look forward to a period after the rains of comparative plenty. Our
efforts in the Land Army programme give visible signs all over our land of
imminent victory in the war against want.
Fellow countrymen and
women, the signs are auspicious, the future fills us with less foreboding. I am
confident. With the initiative in war now in our own hands, we have turned the
last bend in our race to self-realisation and are now set on the home straight
in this our struggle. We must not flag. The tape is in sight. What we need now
is a final burst of speed to breast the tape and secure the victory which will
ensure for us, for all time, glory and honour, peace and progress.
Fellow compatriots, today,
being our Thanksgiving Day, it is most appropriate that we pause awhile to take
stock, to consider our past, our successes notwithstanding; to consider our
future, our aspirations and our fears. For two long years we have been locked
in mortal combat with an enemy unequalled in viciousness; for two long years,
defenceless and weak, we have withstood without respite the concerted assault
of a determined foe. We have fought alone, we have fought with honour, we have
fought in the highest traditions of christian civilization. Yet, the very
custodians of this civilization and our one-time mentors, are the very
self-same monsters who have vowed to devour us.
Fellow Biafrans, I have for
a long time thought about this our predicament - the attitude of the civilized
world to this our conflict. The more I think about it the more I am convinced
that our disability is racial. The root cause of our problem lies in the fact
that we are black. If all the things that have happened to us had happened to
another people who are not black, if other people who are not black had reacted
in the way our people have reacted these two long years, the world’s response
would surely have been different.
In 1966, some 50,000 of us
were slaughtered like cattle in Nigeria. In the course of this war, well over
one million of us have been killed; yet the world is unimpressed and looks on
in indifference. Last year, some blood-thirsty Nigerian troops for sport
murdered the entire male population of a village. All the world did was to indulge
in an academic argument whether the number was in hundreds or in thousands.
Today, because a handful of white men collaborating with the enemy, fighting
side by side with the enemy, were caught by our gallant troops, the entire
world threatens to stop. For 18 white men, Europe is aroused. What have they
said about our millions? 18 white men assisting the crime of genocide! What
does Europe say about our murdered innocents? Have we not died enough? How many
black dead make one missing white? Mathematicians, please answer me. Is it
infinity?
Take another example. For
two years we have been subjected to a total blockade. We all know how bitter,
bloody and protracted the First and Second World Wars were. At no stage in
those wars did the white belligerents carry out a total blockade of their
fellow whites. In each case where a blockade was imposed, allowance was made
for certain basic necessities of life in the interest of women, children and
other non-combatants. Ours is the only example in recent history where a whole
people have been so treated. What is it that makes our case different? Do we
not have women, children and other non-combatants? Does the fact that they are
black women, black children and black non-combatants make such a world of
difference?
Nigeria embarked on a crime
of genocide against our people by first mounting a total blockade against
Biafra. To cover up their designs and deceive the black world, the white powers
supporting Nigeria blame Biafrans for the continuation of the blockade and for
the starvation and suffering which that entails. They uphold Nigerian proposals
on relief which in any case they helped to formulate, as being “conciliatory”
or “satisfactory”. Knowing that these proposals would give Nigeria further
military advantage, and compromise the basic cause for which we have struggled
for two years, they turn round to condemn us for rejecting them. They accepted
the total blockade against us as a legitimate weapon of war because it suits
them and because we are black. Had we been white the inhuman and cruel blockade
would long have been lifted.
The mass deaths of our
citizens resulting from starvation and indiscriminate air raids and large
despoliation of towns and villages are a mere continuation of this crime. That
Nigeria has received complete support from Britain should surprise no one. For
Britain is a country whose history is replete with instances of genocide.
In my address to you on the
occasion of the first anniversary of our independence, I touched on a number of
issues relevant to our struggle and to our hope for a prosperous, just and
happy society. I talked to you of the background to our struggle and on the
visions and values which inspired us to found our own State.
THE MYTH ABOUT THE NEGRO
On this occasion of our
second anniversary, I shall go further in the examination of the meaning and
import of our revolution by discussing the wider issues involved and the
character and structure of the new society we are determined and committed to
build. Our enemies and their foreign sponsors have deliberately sought by false
and ill-motivated propaganda to becloud the real issues which caused and still
determine the course and character of our struggle. They have sought in various
ways to dismiss our struggle as a tribal conflict. They have attributed it to
the mad adventurism of a fictitious power-seeking clique anxious to carve out
an empire to rule, dominate and exploit. But they have failed. Our cause is
transparently just and no amount of propaganda can detract from it.
Our struggle has
far-reaching significance. It is the latest recrudescence in our time of the
age-old struggle of the black man for his full stature as man. We are the
latest victims of a wicked collusion between the three traditional scourges of
the black man - racism, Arab-Muslim expansionism and white economic
imperialism. Playing a subsidiary role is Bolshevik Russia seeking for a place
in the African sun. Our struggle is a total and vehement rejection of all those
evils which blighted Nigeria, evils which were bound to lead to the
disintegration of that ill-fated federation. Our struggle is not a mere
resistance - that would be purely negative. It is a positive commitment to
build a healthy, dynamic and progressive state, such as would be the pride of
black men the world over.
For this reason, our
struggle is a movement against racial prejudice, in particular against that
tendency to regard the black man as culturally, morally, spiritually,
intellectually, and physically inferior to the other two major races of the
world - the yellow and the white races. This belief in the innate inferiority
of the Negro and that his proper place in the world is that of the servant of
the other races, has from early days coloured the attitude of the outside world
to Negro problems. It still does today.
Not so long ago the fashion
was to question the humanity of the Negro. Some white theorists attributed the
creation to the Devil, others even identified the Devil as the first Negro.
Later they derived the Negro from the accursed progeny of Ham. Nearer to us
still in time, it became a topic for serious debate in learned circles in
Europe whether the Negro was in fact a man; whether he had a soul; and if he
had a soul, whether conversion to christianity could make any difference to his
spiritual condition and destination. By the nineteenth century it had been
reluctantly conceded that the Negro is in fact human, but a different kind of
man, certainly not the same kind of man as the white. Pseudo-intellectuals went
to work to prove that the Negro was a different kind of man from the white.
They uncovered the abundant so-called anthropological evidence from archaelogy
which “proved” to them conclusively that the Negro was no more the same kind of
man as the European than a rat was a rabbit.
It is this myth about the
Negro that still conditions the thinking and attitude of most white governments
on all issues concerning black Africa and the black man; it explains the double
standards which they apply to present-day world problems; it explains their
stand on the whole question of independence and basic human rights for the
black peoples of the world. These myths explain the stand of many of the world
governments and organisations on our present struggle.
Our disagreement with the
Nigerians arose in part from a conflict between two diametrically opposed
conceptions of the end and purpose of the modern African state. It was, and
still is, our firm conviction that a modern Negro African government worth the
trust placed in it by the people, must build a progressive state that ensures
the reign of social and economic justice, and of the rule of law. But the
Nigerians, under the leadership of the Hausa-Fulani feudal aristocracy
preferred anarchy and injustice.
Since in the thinking of
many white powers a good, progressive and efficient government is good only for
whites, our view was considered dangerous and pernicious: a point of view which
explains but does not justify the blind support which these powers have given
to uphold the Nigerian ideal of a corrupt, decadent and putrefying society. To
them genocide is an appropriate answer to any group of black people who have
the temerity to attempt to evolve their own social system.
When the Nigerians violated
our basic human rights and liberties, we decided reluctantly but bravely to
found our own state, to exercise our inalienable right to self-determination as
our only remaining hope for survival as a people. Yet, because we are black, we
are denied by the white powers the exercise of this right which they themselves
have proclaimed inalienable. In our struggle we have learnt that the right of
self-determination is inalienable, but only to the white man.
SELF-DETERMINATION
The right to
self-determination was good for the Greeks in 1822, for the Belgians in 1830,
and for the Central and Eastern Europeans and the Irish at the end of the First
World War. Yet it is not good for Biafrans because we are black. When blacks
claim that right, they are warned against dangers trumped up by the
imperialists - “fragmentation” and “Balkanization”, as if the trouble with the
Balkans is the result of the application of the principle of
self-determination. Were the Balkans a healthier place before they emerged from
the ruins of the Ottoman Empire? Those who sustained the Ottoman Empire
considered it a European necessity, for its Eastern European provinces stood as
a buffer between two ambitious and mutually antagonistic empires - the Russian
and the Austrian. For the peace and repose of Europe, it therefore became a
major concern of European statesmen to preserve the integrity of that empire.
But when it was discovered that Ottoman rule was not only corrupt, oppressive
and unprogressive, but also stubbornly irreformable, the happiness and
well-being of its white populations came to be considered paramount. So by 1918
the integrity of that ancient and sprawling empire had been sacrificed to the
well-being of the Eastern Europeans. Fellow Biafrans, that was in the white
world.
But what do we find here in
Negro Africa? The Federation of Nigeria is today as corrupt, as unprogressive
and as oppressive and irreformable as the Ottoman Empire was in Eastern Europe
over a century ago. And in contrast, the Nigerian Federation in the form it was
constituted by the British cannot by any stretch of imagination be considered
an African necessity. Yet we are being forced to sacrifice our very existence
as a people to the integrity of that ramshackle creation that has no
justification either in history or in the freely expressed wishes of the
people. What other reason for this can there be than the fact that we are
black?
In 1966, 50,000 Biafrans -
men, women and children - were massacred in cold blood in Nigeria. Since July
6, 1967, hundreds of Biafrans have been killed daily by shelling, bombing,
strafing and starvation advised, organised and supervised by Anglo-Saxon
Britain. None of these atrocities has raised enough stir in many European
capitals. But on the few occasions when a single white man died in Africa, even
where he was a convicted bandit like the notorious case in the Congo, all the
diplomatic chanceries of the world have been astir.; the whole world has been
shaken to its very foundations by the din of protest against the alleged
atrocity and by the clamor for vengeance. This was the case when the Nigerian
vandals turned their British-supplied rifles on white Red Cross workers in
Okigwe. Recently this has been the case with the reported disappearance of some
white oil technicians in the Republic of Benin. But when we are massacred in
thousands, nobody cares, because we are black.
Fellow countrymen and
women, the fact is that in spite of their open protestations to the contrary,
the white peoples of the world are still far from accepting that what is good
for them can also be good for blacks. The day they make this basic concession
that day will the non-Anglo-Saxon nations tell Britain to her face that she is
guilty of genocide against us; that day will they call a halt to this monstrous
war.
Because the black man is
considered inferior and servile to the white, he must accept his political,
social and economic system and ideologies ready made from Europe, America or
the Soviet Union. Within the confines of his nation he must accept a federation
or confederation or unitary government if federation or confederation or
unitary government suits the interests of his white masters; he must accept
inept and unimaginative leadership because the contrary would hurt the
interests of the master race; he must accept economic exploitation by alien
commercial firms and companies because the whites benefit from it. Beyond the
confines of his state, he must accept regional and continental organisations
which provide a front for the manipulation of the imperialist powers; organisations
which are therefore unable to respond to African problems in a truly African
manner. For Africans to show a true independence is to ask for anathemization
and total liquidation.
ARAB-MUSLIM EXPANSIONISM
The Biafran struggle is, on
another plane, a resistance to the Arab-Muslim expansionism which has menaced
and ravaged the African continent for twelve centuries. As early as the first
quarter of the seventh century, the Arabs, a people from the Near-East, evolved
Islam not just as a religion but as a cover for their insatiable territorial
ambitions. By the tenth century they had overrun and occupied, among other
places, Egypt and North Africa. Had they stopped there, we would not today be
faced with the wicked and unholy collusion we are fighting against. On the
contrary, they cast their hungry and envious eyes across the Sahara on to the
land of the Negroes.
Our Biafran ancestors
remained immune from the Islamic contagion. From the middle years of the last
century Christianity was established in our land. In this way we came to be a
predominantly Christian people. We came to stand out as a non-Muslim island in
a raging Islamic sea. Throughout the period of the ill-fated Nigerian
experiment, the Muslims hoped to infiltrate Biafra by peaceful means and quiet
propaganda, but failed. Then the late Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto
tried, by political and economic blackmail and terrorism, to convert Biafrans
settled in Northern Nigeria to Islam. His hope was that these Biafrans on
dispersion would then carry Islam to Biafra, and by so doing give the religion
political control of the area. The crises which agitated the so-called
independent Nigeria from 1962 gave these aggressive proselytizers the chance to
try converting us by force.
It is now evident why the
fanatic Arab-Muslim states like Algeria, Egypt and the Sudan have come out
openly and massively to support and aid Nigeria in her present war of genocide
against us. These states see militant Arabism as a powerful instrument for
attaining power in the world.
Biafra is one of the few
African states untainted by Islam. Therefore, to militant Arabism, Biafra is a
stumbling block to their plan for controlling the whole continent. This control
is fast becoming manifest in the Organisation of African Unity. On the question
of the Middle East, the Sudanese crisis, in the war between Nigeria and Biafra,
militant Arabism has succeeded in imposing its point of view through blackmail
and bluster. It has threatened African leaders and governments with inciting
their Muslim minorities to rebellion if the governments adopted an independent
line on these questions. In this way an O.A.U that has not felt itself able to
discuss the genocide in the Sudan and Biafra, an O.A.U. that has again and
again advertised its ineptitude as a peace-maker, has rushed into open
condemnation of Israel over the Middle East dispute. Indeed in recent times, by
its performance, the O.A.U. might well be an Organisation of Arab Unity.
AFRICA EXPLOITED
Our struggle, in an even
more fundamental sense, is the culmination of the confrontation between Negro
nationalism and white imperialism. It is a movement designed to ensure the
realization of man’s full stature in Africa.
Ever since the 15th
century, the European world has treated the African continent as a field for
exploitation. Their policies in Africa have for so long been determined to a
very great extent by their greed for economic gain. For over three and half
centuries, it suited them to transport and transplant millions of the flower of
our manhood for the purpose of exploiting the Americas and the West Indies.
They did so with no uneasiness of conscience. They justified this trade in men
by reference to biblical passages violently torn out of context.
When it became no longer
profitable to them to continue with the depopulation and uncontrolled
spoilation of Negro Africa, their need of the moment became to exploit the
natural resources of the continent, using Negro labour. In response to this
need they evolved their informal empire in the 19th century
under which they controlled and exploited Negro Africa through their
missionaries and monopolist mercantile companies. As time went on they
discarded the empire of informal sway as unsatisfactory and established the
direct empire as the most effective means of exploiting our homeland. It was at
this stage that with cynical imperturbability they carved up the African
continent, and boxed up the native populations in artificial states designed
purely to minister to white economic interests.
This brutal and
unprecedented rape of a whole continent was a violent challenge to Negro
self-respect. Not surprisingly, within half a century the theory and practice
of empire ran into stiff opposition from Negro nationalism. In the face of the
movement for Negro freedom the white imperialists changed tactics. They decided
to install puppet African administrations to create the illusion of political
independence, while retaining the control of the economy. And this they quickly
did between 1957 and 1965. The direct empire was transformed into an indirect
empire, that regime of fraud and exploitation which African nationalists aptly
describe as Neo-Colonialism.
Nigeria was a classic
example of a neo-colonialist state, and what is left of it, still is. The
militant nationalism of the late forties and early fifties had caught the
British imperialists unawares. They hurried to accommodate it by installing the
ignorant, decadent and feudalistic Hausa-Fulani oligarchy in power. For the
British, the credentials of the Hausa-Fulani were that not having emerged from
the Middle Ages they knew nothing about the modern state and the powerful
forces that now rule men’s minds. Owing their position to the British, they
were servile and submissive. The result was that while Nigerians lived in the
illusion of independence, they were still in fact being ruled from Number 10
Downing Street. The British still enjoyed a stranglehold on their economy.
The crises which rocked
Nigeria from the morrow of “independence” were brought about by the efforts of
progressive nationalists to achieve true independence for themselves and for
posterity. For their part in this effort, Biafrans were stigmatised and singled
out for extermination. In imperialist thinking, only phoney independence is
good for blacks. The sponsorship of Nigeria by white imperialism has not been
disinterested. They are only concerned with the preservation of that corrupt
and rickety structure of Nigeria in a perpetual state of powerlessness to check
foreign exploitation. I am certain that if tomorrow I should promise that
Biafra is going to be a servile and sycophantic state, these self-appointed
upholders of the territorial integrity of African states will sing a different
tune. No...I shall not oblige them. Biafra will not betray the black man. No
matter the odds, we will fight with all our might until black men everywhere
can, with pride, point to this Republic, standing dignified and defiant, as an
example of African nationalism triumphant over its many and age-old enemies.
Fellow countrymen and
women, we have seen in proper perspective the diabolical roles which the
British Government and the foreign companies have played and are playing in our
war with Nigeria. We now see why in spite of Britain’s tottering economy Harold
Wilson’s Government insists on financing Nigeria’s futile war against us. We
see why the Shell-BP led the Nigerian hordes into Bonny, pays Biafran oil
royalties to Nigeria, and provided the Nigerian Army with all the help it
needed for its attack on Port Harcourt. We see why the West African Conference
Lines readily and meekly co-operate with Gowon in the imposition of total
blockade against us. We see why the oil and trading companies in Nigeria still
finance this war and why they risk the life and limb of their staff in the war
zones.
RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM
And now, Bolshevik Russia.
Russia is a late arrival in the race for world empire. Since the end of the
Second World War she has fought hard to gain a foothold in Africa recognising,
like the other imperialist powers before her, the strategic importance of
Africa in the quest for world domination. She first tried to enter into
alliance with African nationalism. Later finding that African nationalism has
been thwarted, at least temporarily, by the collusion between imperialism and
the decadent forces in African society, Russia quickly changed her strategy and
identified herself with those very conservative forces which she had earlier
denounced. Here she met with quick success.
In North Africa and Egypt,
Russian influence has taken firm root and is growing. With her success in Egypt
and Algeria, Russia developed even keener appetite for more territory in
Africa, particularly the areas occupied by the Negroes. Her early efforts in
the Congo and Ghana proved still-born. The Nigeria-Biafra conflict offered an
opportunity for anther beach-head in Africa.
It is not Russia’s
intention to make Nigeria a better place for Nigerias or indeed any other part
of Africa a better place for Africans. Her interest is strategic. In her
challenge to the United States and the Western World, she needs vantage points
in Africa. With her entrenched position in Northern Nigeria, the Central Sudan
of the historians and geographers, Russia is in a position to co-ordinate her strategy
for West and North Africa. We are all familiar with the ancient and historic
cultural, linguistic and religious links between North Africa and the Central
Sudan. We know that the Hausa language is a lingua franca for over two-thirds
of this area. We know how far afield a wandering Imam preacing Islam and
Bolshevism can go. When Russia gives the Nigerians Illyushin jets to bomb us,
the MiGs to strafe and rocket us and AK-47 rifles to mow us down, we should see
all this in proper light that Russia, like other imperialist powers, has no
regard for the Negro. To her, what is important is to gain a vantage point in
Negro-land from which to challenge American and Western European world power
and influence. The Arabs also in this find further attraction in that it gives
to them a back-door entry eventually into Israel. In this jungle game for world
domination and black man’s life, let alone his well-being, counts for nothing.
Fellow Biafrans, these are
the evil and titanic forces with which we are engaged in a life and death
struggle. These are the obstacles to the Negro’s efforts to realise himself.
These are the forces which the Biafran Revolution must sweep aside to succeed.
ANGLO-SAXON GENOCIDE
If the white race has
sinned against the world, the Anglo-Saxon branch of that race has been, and
still is, the worst sinner of all. The Anglo-Saxon British committed genocide
against the American Indians. They committed genocide against the Caribbs. They
committed genocide against the Australian Blackfellows. They committed genocide
against the native Tasmanians and the Maoris of New Zealand. During the era of
the slave trade, they topped the list and led the genocidal attempt against the
Negro race as a whole. Today, they are engaged in committing genocide against
us. The unprejudiced observer is forced in consternation to wonder whether
genocide is not a way of life of the Anglo-Saxon British. Luckily, all white
people are not like the Anglo-Saxon British.
NEGRO RENAISSANCE
Luckily too, all African
states not like Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan, sworn enemies of the Negro,
willing tools of white racism, white economic imperialism and Arab-Muslim
expansionism. We salute the shining and enduring examples of Negro renascence
throughout the world. To Tanzania, to Gabon, to the Ivory Coast, to Zambia and
Haiti, we wish more success in their soldiering for all that is right, just and
honourable.
We do not claim that the
Biafran Revolution is the first attempt in history by the Negro to assert his
identity, to claim his right and proper place as a human being on a basis of
equality with the white and yellow races. We are aware of the Negro’s past and
present efforts to prove his ability at home and abroad. We are familiar with
his achievements in prehistory; we are familiar with his achievements in
exploring and taming the African and American continents; we are familiar with
his achievements in political organisations; we are familiar with this
contributions to the world store of art and culture. The Negro’s white
oppressors are not unaware of all these.
But in spite of their
awareness they are not prepared to admit that the Negro is an man and a
brother. This is why we in Biafra are convinced that the Negro can never come
to his own until he is able to build modern states (whether national or
multi-national) based on a compelling African ideology, enjoying real rather
than sham independence, able to give scope to the full development of the human
spirit in the arts and sciences, able to engage in dialogue with the white
states on a basis of transparent equality and able to introduce a new dimension
into international statecraft.
In the world context, this
is Biafra - the plight of the black struggling to be man. From this derives our
deep conviction that the Biafran Revolution is not just a movement of Igbo,
Ibibio, Ijaw and Ogoja. It is a movement of true and patriotic Africans. It is
African nationalism conscious of itself and fully aware of the powers with
which it is contending. From this derives our belief that history and humanity
are on our side, and that the Biafran Revolution is indestructible and eternal.
From here derives the support we enjoy from the brave and proud peoples of Tanzania,
Gabon, the Ivory Coast, Zambia and Haiti who share these ideals and visions
with us and who are already engaged in realising them.
We have indeed come a long
way. We were once Nigerians, today we are Biafrans. We are Biafrans because on
30th May, 1967, we finally said no to the evils and injustices in which Nigeria
was steeped. Nigeria was made up of peoples and groups with very little in
common. As everyone knows, Biafrans were in the fore-front among those who
tried to make Nigeria a nation. It is ironic that some ill-informed and
mischievous people today will accuse us of breaking up a united African
country. Only those who do not know the facts or deliberately ignore them can
hold such an opinion. We know the facts because we were there and the things
that happened, happened to us.
NIGERIAN CORRUPTION
Nigeria was indeed a very
wicked and corrupt country in spite of the glorious image given her in the
European press. We know why Nigeria was given that image. It was her reward for
serving the economic and political interests of her European masters. Nigeria
is a stooge of Europe. Her independence was and is a lie. Even her Prime
Minister was a Knight of the British Empire! But worse than her total
subservience to foreign political and economic interests, Nigeria committed
many crimes against her nationals which in the end made complete nonsense of
her claim to unity. Nigeria persecuted and slaughtered her minorities; Nigerian
justice was a farce; her elections, her census, her politics - her everything -
was corrupt. Qualification, merit and experience were discounted in public
service. In one area of Nigeria, for instance, they preferred to turn a nurse
who had worked for five years into a doctor rather then employ a qualified
doctor from another part of Nigeria; barely literate clerks were made Permanent
Secretaries; a university Vice-Chancellor was sacked because he belonged to the
wrong tribe.
Bribery, corruption and
nepotism were so widespread that people began to wonder openly whether any
country in the world could compare with Nigeria in corruption and abuse of
power. All the modern institutions - the Legislature, the Civil Service, the
Army, the Police, the Judiciary, the Universities, the Trade Unions and the
organs of mass information - were devalued and made the tools of corrupt
political power. There was complete neglect and impoverishment of the people.
Whatever prosperity there was, was deceptive. Unemployment was growing.
Thousands of young school-leavers were drifting away from the villages which
had nothing to offer them into towns with no employment openings. There was
despair in many hearts and the number of suicides was growing every day. The
farmers were very hard-hit, their standard of living had fallen steeply. The
soils were perishing from over-farming and lack of scientific husbandry. The
towns like the soils were wastelands into which people put in too much exertion
for too little reward. There were crime waves and people lived in fear of their
lives. Business speculation, rack-renting, worship of money and sharp practices
left a few extremely rich at the expense of the many, and these few flaunted
their wealth before the many and talked about sharing the national cake.
Foreign interests did roaring business spreading consumer goods and wares among
a people who had not developed a habit of thrift and who fell prey to lying
advertisements. Inequality of the sexes was actively promoted in Nigeria.
Rather than aspire to equality with men, women were encouraged to accept the
status of inferiority and to become the mistresses of successful politicians
and business executives, or they were married off at the age of fourteen as the
fifteenth wives of the new rich. That was the glorious Nigeria, the mythical
Nigeria, celebrated in the European press.
Then worst of all came the
genocide in which over 50,000 of our kith and kin were slaughtered in cold
blood all over Nigeria, and nobody asked questions, nobody showed regret,
nobody showed remorse. Thus, Nigeria had become a jungle with no safety, no
justice and no hope for our people. We decided then to found a new place, a
human habitation away from the Nigerian jungle. That was the origin of our
Revolution.
RE-DISCOVERING INDEPENDENCE
From the moment we assumed
the illustrious name of the ancient kingdom of Biafra, we were re-discovering
the original independence of a great African people. We accepted by this
revolutionary act the glory, as well as the sacrifice of true independence and
freedom. We knew that we had challenged the many forces and interests which had
conspired to keep Africa and the Black Race in subjection forever. We knew they
were going to be ruthless and implacable in defence of their age-old imposition
on us and exploitation of our people. But we were prepared and remain prepared
to pay any price for our freedom and dignity.
And in this we were not
mistaken. Five weeks after we had proclaimed our independence Nigeria, goaded
by her foreign masters, declared war on us.
For two years now we have
fought a difficult war in defence of our Fatherland. From the beginning we have
never been in doubt about our ultimate victory. But, seeing the odds ranged
against us, the world did not believe that we had any chance of success
whatever the merit of our case. Perhaps our determination and persistence are
making the world think again. Biafra today is no longer a lost cause. For us,
Biafra’s eventual triumph has never been in doubt: Biafra has always been the
shining light at the end of our dark tunnel. In the two years of our grim struggle,
we have learned important lessons about ourselves, about our society and about
the world. In some ways this struggle has been a journey in self-discovery and
self-realisation.
Our Revolution is a
historic opportunity given to us to establish a just society; to revive the
dignity of our people at home and the dignity of the Black-man in the world. We
realise that in order to achieve those ends we must remove those weaknesses in
our institutions and organisations and those disabilities in foreign relations
which have tended to degrade this dignity. This means that we must reject
Nigerianism in all its guises.
THE PEOPLE
Fellow countrymen, are we
going to say no to Nigerianism and then let a few unpatriotic people among us
soil our Revolution with the stain of Nigeria? Are we going to watch the very
disease which caused the demise of Nigeria take root in our new Biafra? Are we
prepared to embark on another revolution perhaps more bloody to put right the
inevitable disaster? I ask you, my countrymen, can we afford another spell of
strife when this one is over to correct social inequalities in our Fatherland?
I say NO. A thousand times no. The ordinary Biafran says no. When I speak of
the ordinary Biafran I speak of the People. The Biafran Revolution is the
People’s Revolution. Who are the People? you ask. The farmer, the trader, the
clerk, the business man, the housewife, the student, the civil servant, the
soldier, you and I are the people. Is there anyone here who is not of the
people? Is there anyone here afraid of the People - anyone suspicious of the
People? Is there anyone despising the People? Such a man has no place in our
Revolution. If he is a leader, he has no right to leadership because all power,
all sovereignty, belongs to the People. In Biafra the People are supreme; the
People are master; the leader is servant. You see, you make a mistake when you
greet me with shouts of “Power, Power”. I am not power - you are. My name is
Emeka. I am your servant, that is all.
SHAKING OFF
NIGERIANISM
Fellow countrymen, we pride
ourselves on our honesty. Let us admit to ourselves that when we left Nigeria,
some of us did not shake off every particle of Nigerianism. We say that
Nigerians are corrupt and take bribes, but here in our country we have among us
some members of the Police and the Judiciary who are corrupt and who “eat”
bribe. We accuse Nigerians of inordinate love of money, ostentatious living and
irresponsibility, but here, even while we are engaged in a war of national
survival, even while the very life of our nation hangs in the balance, we see
some public servants who throw huge parties to entertain their friends; who
kill cows to christen their babies. We have members of the Armed Forces who
carry on “attack” trade instead of fighting the enemy. We have traders who
hoard essential goods and inflate prices thereby increasing the people’s
hardship. We have “money-mongers” who aspire to build hundreds of plots on land
as yet unreclaimed from the enemy; who plan to buy scores of lorries and buses
and to become agents for those very foreign businessmen who have brought their
country to grief. We have some civil servants who think of themselves as
masters rather than servants of the people. We see doctors who stay idle in
their villages while their countrymen and women suffer and die. When we see all
these things, they remind us that not every Biafran has yet absorbed the spirit
of the Revolution. They tell us tht we still have among us a member of people
whose attitudes and outlooks are Nigerian. It is clear that if our Revolution
is to succeed, we must reclaim these wayward Biafrans. We must Biafranize them.
We must prepare all our people for the glorious roles which await them in the
Revolution. If after we shall have tried to reclaim them and have failed then
they must be swept aside. The people’s revolution must stride ahead and like a
battering ram, clearing all obstacles in its path. Fortunately, a vast majority
of Biafrans are prepared for these roles.
When we think of our
Revolution, therefore, we think about these things. We think about our ancient
heritage, we think about the challenge of today and the promise of the future.
We think about the changes which are taking place at this very moment in our
personal lives and in our society. We see Biafrans from different partsof the
country living together, working together, suffering together and pursuing
together a common cause. We see our doctors, scientists, engineers and
technologists responding to the demands of the Revolution with brilliant inventions
and innovations. We see our Armed Forces with there severely limited resources
holding back an aggressor who is massively equipped by the neo-imperialist
enemies of African freedom. We see men of learning and mass information
spreading with patriotic zeal the true story and significance of the Biafran
struggle. We see our farmers determined to win the war against starvation
imposed on us by the enemy. We see our ordinary men and women - the people -
pursuing, in their different but essential ways, the great task of our national
survival. We see every sign that this struggle is purifying and elevating the
masses of our people. Every day of the struggle bears witness to actions by our
countrymen and women which reveal high ideals of patriotic courage, service and
sacrifice; actions which show the will and determination of our people to
remain free and independent but also to create a new and better order of
society for the benefit of all.
In the last five or six
months, I have devised one additional way of learning at first had how the
ordinary men and women of our country see the Revolution. I have established a
practice of meeting every Wednesday with a different cross-section of our
people to discuss the problems of the Revolution. These meetings have brought
home to me the great desire for change among the generality of our people. I
have heard a number of criticisms and complaints by people against certain
things; I have also noticed groups forming themselves and trying to put right
some of the ills of society. All this indicates both that there is a change in
progress and need for more change. Thus, the Biafran Revolution is not dreamt
up by an elite; it is the will of the People. The People want it. They are
fighting and dying to defend it. Their immediate concern is to defeat the
Nigerian aggressor and so safeguard the Biafran Revolution.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE
REVOLUTION
I stand before you tonight
not to launch the Biafran Revolution, because it is already in existence. It
came into being two years ago when we proclaimed to all the world that we had
finally extricated ourselves from the sea of mud that was, and is, Nigeria. I
stand before you to proclaim formally the commitment of the Biafran State to
the Principles of the Revolution and to enunciate those Principles.
Some people are frightened
when they hear the word Revolution. They say: Revolution? Heaven help us! It is
too dangerous. It means mobs rushing around destroying property, killing people
and upsetting everything.
But these people do not
understand the real meaning of revolution. For us, a revolution is a change - a
quick change, a change for the better. Every society is changing all the time.
It is changing for the better or for the worse; it is either moving forward or
moving backwards; it cannot stand absolutely still. A revolution is a forward
movement. It is a rapid, forward movement which improves a people’s standard of
living and their material circumstance and purifies and raises their moral
tone. It transforms for the better those institutions which are still relevant,
and discards those which stand in the way of progress.
# The Biafran
Revolution believes in the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the human
person. The Biafran sees the wilful and wanton destruction of human life not
only as a grave crime but as an abominable sin. In our society every human life
is holy, every individual person counts. No Biafran wants to be taken for
granted or ignored, neither does he ignore or take others for granted. This
explains why such degrading practices as begging for alms were unknown in
Biafran society. Therefore, all forms of disabilities and inequalities which
reduce the dignity of the individual or destroy his sense of person have no
place in the New Biafran Social Order. The Biafran Revolution upholds the
dignity of man.
# The Biafran
Revolution stands firmly against Genocide - against any attempt to destroy a
people, its security, its right to life, property and progress. Any attempt to
deprive a community of its identity is abhorrent to the Biafran people. Having
ourselves suffered genocide, we are all the more determined to take a clear
stand now and at all times against this crime.
# The new Biafran
Social Order places a high premium on Patriotism - Love and Devotion to the
Fatherland. Every true Biafran must love Biafra; must have faith in Biafra and
its people, and must strive for its greater unity. He must find his salvation
here in Biafra. He must be prepared to work for Biafra, to stand up for Biafra
and, if necessary, to die for Biafra. He must be prepared to defend the
sovereignty of Biafra wherever and by whomsoever it is challenged. Biafran
patriots do all this already, and Biafra expects all her sons and daughters of
today and tomorrow, to emulate their noble example. Diplomats who treat insults
to the Fatherland and the Leadership of our struggle with levity are not
patriotic. That young man who sneaks about the village, avoiding service in his
country’s Armed Forces is unpatriotic; that young, able-bodied school teacher
who prefers to distribute relief when he should be fighting his country’s war,
is not only unpatriotic but is doing a woman’s work. Those who help these
loafers to dodge their civic duties should henceforth re-examine themselves.
# All Biafrans are
brothers and sisters bound together by ties of geography, trade, inter-marriage
and culture and their common misfortune in Nigeria and their present experience
of the armed struggle. Biafrans are even more united by the desire to create a
new and better order of society which will satisfy their needs and aspirations.
Therefore, there is no justification for anyone to introduce into the Biafran
Fatherland divisions based on ethnic origin, sex or religion. To do so would be
unpatriotic.
# Every true Biafran
must know and demand his civic rights. Furthermore, he must recognize the
rights of other Biafrans and be prepared to defend them when necessary. So
often people complain that they have been ill-treated by the Police or some
other public servant. But the truth very often is that we allow ourselves to be
bullied because we are not man enough to demand and stand up for our rights,
and that fellow citizens around do not assist us when we demand our
rights.
# In the New Biafran
Social Order sovereignty and power belong to the People. Those who exercise
power do so on behalf of the people. Those who govern must not tyrannize over
the people. They carry a sacred trust of the people and must use their
authority strictly in accordance with the will of the people. The true test of
success in public life is that the People - who are the real masters - are
contented and happy. The rulers must satisfy the People at all
times.
But it is no use saying
that power belongs to the People unless we are prepared to make it work in
practice. Even in the old political days, the oppressors of the People were
among those who shouted loudest that power belonged to the People. The Biafran
Revolution will constantly and honestly seek methods of making this concept a
fact rather than a pious fiction.
# Arising out of the
Biafran’s belief that power belongs to the People is the principle of public
accountability. Those who exercise power are accountable to the people for the
way they use that power. The People retain the right to renew or terminate
their mandate. Every individual servant of the People, whether in the
Legislature, the Civil Service, the Judiciary, the Police, the Armed Forces, in
business or in any other walks of life, is accountable at all times for his
work or the work of those under his charge. Where, therefore, a ministry of
department runs inefficiently or improperly, its head must accept personal
responsibility for such a situation and, depending on the gravity of the
failure, must resign or be removed. And where he is proved to have misused his
position or trust to enrich himself, the principle of public accountability
requires that he be punished severely and his ill-gotten gains taken from him.
THE TASK OF A LEADER
Those who aspire to lead
must bear in mind the fact that they are servants and as such cannot ever be
greater than the People, their masters. Every leader in the Biafran Revolution
is the embodiment of the ideals of the Revolution. Part of his role as a leader
is to keep the revolutionary spirit alive, to be a friend of the People and
protector of their Revolution. He should have right judgement both of people
and of situations and the ability to attract to himself the right kind of
lieutenants who can best further the interests of the People and of the
Revolution. The leader must not only say but always demonstrate that the power
he exercises is derived from the People. Therefore, like every other Biafran
public servant, he is accountable to the People for the use he makes of their
mandate. He must get out when the People tell him to get out. The more power
the leader is given by the People, the less is his personal freedom and the
greater his responsibility for the good of the People. He should never allow
his high office to separate him from the People. He must be fanatical for their
welfare.
A leader in the Biafran
Revolution must at all times stand for justice in dealing with the People. He
should be the symbol of justice which is the supreme guarantee of good
government. He should be ready, if need be, to lay down his life in pursuit of
this ideal. He must have physical and moral courage and must be able to inspire
the people out of despondency.
He should never strive
towards the perpetuation of his office or devise means to cling to office beyond
the clear mandate of the People. He should resist the temptation to erect
memorials to himself in his life-time, to have his head embossed on the coin,
name streets and institutions after himself, or convert government into a
family business. A leader who serves his people well will be enshrined in their
hearts and minds. This is all the reward he can expect in his life-time. He
will be to the People the symbol of excellence, the quintessence of the
Revolution. He will be BIAFRAN.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
One of the corner-stones of
the Biafran Revolution is Social Justice. We believe that there should be equal
opportunity for all, that appreciation and just reward should be given for
honest work and that society should show concern and special care for the weak
and infirm. Our people reject all forms of social inequalities and disabilities
and all class and sectional privileges. Biafrans believe that society should
treat all its members with impartiality and fairness. Therefore, the Biafran
State must not apportion special privileges or favours to some citizens and
deny them to others. For example, how can we talk of Social Justice in a
situation where a highly-paid public servant gets his salt free and the poor
housewife in the village pays five pounds for a cup? The State should not
create a situation favourable to the exploitation of some citizens by others.
The State is the Father of all, the source of security, the reliable agent
which helps all to realise their legitimate hopes and aspirations. Without Social
Justice, harmony and stability within society disappear and antagonisms between
various sections of the community take their place. Our Revolution will uphold
Social Justice at all times. The Biafran State will be the Fountain of Justice.
PROPERTY AND THE COMMUNITY
In the New Biafra, all
property belongs to the Community. Every individual must consider all he has,
whether in talent or material wealth, as belonging to the community for which
he holds it in trust. This principle does not mean the abolition of personal
property but it implies that the State, acting on behalf of the community, can
intervene in the disposition of property to the greater advantage of all.
Over-acquisitiveness or the inordinate desire to amass wealth is a factor
liable to threaten social stability, especially in an under-developed society
in which there are not enough material goods to go round.
This creates lop-sided
development, breeds antagonisms between the haves and the have-nots and
undermines the peace and unity of the people.
While the Biafran
Revolution will foster private economic enterprise and initiative, it should
remain constantly alive to the dangers of some citizens accumulating large
private fortunes. Property-grabbing, if unchecked by the State, will set the pattern
of behaviour for the whole society which begins to attach undue value to money
and property. Thus a wealthy man, even if he is known to be a crook, is
accorded greater respect than an honest citizen who is not so well off. A
society where this happens is doomed to rot and decay. Moreover, the danger is
always there of a small group of powerful property-owners using their influence
to deflect the State from performing its duties to the citizens as a whole and
thereby destroying the democratic basis of society. This happens in many
countries and it is one of the duties of our Revolution to prevent its
occurrence in Biafra.
Finally, the Biafran
Revolution will create possibilities for citizens with talent in business,
administration, management and technology to fulfil themselves and receive due
appreciation and reward in the service of the State, as has indeed happened in
our total mobilization to prosecute the present war.
AN EGALITARIAN SOCIETY
The Biafran Revolution is
committed to creating a society not torn by class consciousness and class
antagonisms. Biafran society is traditionally egalitarian. The possibility for
social mobility is always present in our society. The New Biafran Social Order
rejects all rigid classifications of society. Anyone with imagination, anyone
with integrity, anyone who works hard, can rise to any height. Thus, the son of
a truck-pusher can become the Head of State of Biafra. The Biafran Revolution
will provide opportunities for Biafrans to aspire and to achieve their
legitimate desires. Those who find themselves below at any particular moment
must have the opportunity to rise to the top.
Our New Society is open and
progressive. The people of Biafra have always striven to achieve a workable
balance between the claims of tradition and the demand for change and
betterment. We are adaptable because as a people we are convinced that in the
world “no condition is permanent”. And we believe that human effort and will
are necessary to bring about changes and improvements in the condition of the
individual and of society. The Biafran would thus make the effort to improve
his lot and the material well-being of his community. He has the will to
transform his society into a modern progressive community. In this process of
rapid transformation he will retain and cherish the best elements of his
culture, drawing sustenance as well as moral and psychological stability from
them. But being a Biafran he will never be afraid to adapt what needs to be
adapted or change what has to be changed.
PUTTING THE REVOLUTION INTO
PRACTICE
The Biafran Revolution will
continue to discover and develop local talent and to use progressive foreign
ideas and skills so long as they do not destroy the identity of our culture or
detract from the sovereignty of our Fatherland. The Biafrans Revolution will
also ensure through education that the positive aspects of Biafran traditional
culture, especially those which are likely to be swamped out of existence by introduced
foreign influences, are conserved. The undiscriminating absorption of new ideas
and attitudes will be discouraged. Biafrans can, in the final analysis, only
validly express their nation’s personality and enhance their corporate identity
Biafran culture, through Biafran art and literature, music, dancing and drama,
and through peculiar gestures and social habits which distinguish them from all
other people.
Those then are the main
principles of our Revolution. They are not abstract formulations but arise out
of the traditional background and the present temper of our people. They grow
out of our native soil and are the product of our peculiar climate. They belong
to us. If anyone here doubts the validity of these principles let him go out
into the streets and into the villages, let him ask the ordinary Biafran. Let
him go to the Army, ask the rank and file and he will find, as I have found,
that they have very clear ideas about the kind of society we should build here.
They will not put them in the same words I have used tonight but the meaning
will be the same. From today, let no Biafran pretend that he or she does not
know the main-spring of our national action, let him or her not plead ignorant
when found indulging in un-Biafran activities. The principles of our Revolution
are hereby clearly set out for everyone to see. They are now the property of
every Biafran and the instrument for interpreting our national life.
But principles are
principles. They can only be transformed into reality through the institutions
of society, otherwise they remain inert and useless. It is my firm conviction
that in the Biafran Revolution principles and practice will go hand in hand. It
is my duty and the duty of all of you to bring this about.
Looking at the institutions
of our society, the very vehicles for carrying out our Revolutionary
principles, what do you find? We find old, jaded and rusty machines creaking
along most inefficiently and delaying the People’s progress and the progress of
the Revolution. The problem of our institutions is partly that they were
designed by other people, in other times and for other purposes. Their most
fundamental weakness is that they came into being during the colonial period
when the relationship between the colonial administrators and the people was
that of master and servant. Our public servants, as heirs of the colonial
masters, are apt to treat the People today with arrogance and condescension. In
the New Biafran Social Order, we say that power belongs to the People, but this
central principle tends to elude many of the public servants who continue to
behave in a manner which shows that they consider themselves masters - the
People their servants. The message of the Revolution has tended to fly over
their heads. Let them beware, the Revolution, gathering momentum like a flood,
washes clear all impediments on its way.
Take any of the
institutions and the history is the same. First, it was fashioned for the
British Colonial Service, then it saw service in that ill-fated country called
Nigeria. It would be a miracle, fellow countrymen, if it should be found to be
adequate for the need of revolutionary Biafra. What is surprising is not that
these institutions fail us today but that there should be Biafrans, and some of
them apparently very intelligent people, who sit back and expect good results
from them. The fact is that one does not require extraordinary common-sense or
insight to see the need for overhauling these machines and discarding those
that are obsolescent.
THE LEGISLATURE
For example, the
Legislature, which should be the primary instrument for effecting the will of
the People, was too often in the past used to frustrate the People. As I have
said over and over again, power derives from the People. Ideally, all the
People should be involved in the actual process of law-making. As a matter of
fact, in our traditional society all adults who had attained the age of reason
were directly involved in discussion, debate and decision-making on all things
affecting the whole people. That was the original government by consensus. That
was possible when the community was small and compact. With the emergence of
the nation-state which is larger and heterogenous, this ideal procedure became
impracticable. Therefore, the process of delegation of power was evolved to
meet a practical need. But this does not invalidate the original principle that
power belongs to the People. A man who is delegated by the People to represent
their interests, therefore, is acting on behalf of the People and ceases to act
for them the moment they withdraw their mandate. Like the ideal leader, the
People’s representative should get out when the People tell him to get out. He
must constantly reassure the People that he is acting in their best interest.
In the past, the People’s
representatives, while paying lip-service to the primacy of the People and the
supremacy of their interest, made sure that in actual practice their own
personal will prevailed over the will of the People and their own personal
interest over the interest of the nation. Thus we had politicians who spent
their time amassing wealth, who did everything conceivable to remain in office,
who would kill, loot, throw acid and do anything to remain in power. The will
of the People meant nothing to them.
In the New Biafra, the
Legislature must be constituted to reflect the spirit and the Principles of the
Revolution.
Legislators must understand
that responsibility goes with power. Those who wield power must appreciate the
responsibility attached to that power. The legislator is a servant of the
People given special powers to enable him discharge special responsibilities.
Power is not given to him to turn him into a big man, to enable him sit inside
huge American cars and build himself palaces. The conscientious legislator who
strives to carry out his responsibility will find no time to pursue his own
lucrative interests. He will find no time for membership of boards of
corporations and directorships of public and private companies, or for doing
deals with foreign business interests.
POLITICS AND THE REVOLUTION
In revolutionary Biafra,
certain basic reforms in politics and political institutions are necessary in
order to safeguard the liberty of the People and protect their interest. For
example, it will be imperative to separate the functions of the Legislature
from those of the Executive. A member of the Legislature cannot at the same
time be a member of the Executive. In the past, it was possible for a
legislator to be a minister of state which is an executive post, in which case
he neglected either his duty to his constituency or his duty to the state. Very
often he neglected both.
In revolutionary Biafra
there will be an executive leader elected by the people with full powers to
choose his lieutenants. If he chooses a legislator or a public servant, such a
person must resign his original appointment.
Another important principle
is that people should be free to vote and be voted for wherever they live in
Biafra. An Ikot Ekpene man living at Etiti should be free to vote and be voted
for at Etiti. He does not have to go to Ikot Ekpene to vote or be voted for as
happened in the past.
The principle of delegation
of power from the People is so important that every revolutionary government of
Biafra must encourage Democratically organised groups of youths, students,
women, workers, farmers, professional bodies, managerial and business
organisations, traders and others to participate actively in political debate
and discussion. The Revolution belongs to them.
Then, let us look at our
Civil Service. It is too rigid and inflexible, too slow and ponderous for the
needs of today. Too often when quick action and initiative are called for, what
the public gets is cold, formal and aloof treatment. What is required in the
future is a modernised and energised Civil Service, a Service which will fit
into our Revolution and become the instrument of change. Its members must
embody the spirit of the New Order by identifying with the values of change and
progress and promoting these values in the conduct of public affairs.
THE JUDICIARY
Since our Revolution has
its foundation in the Rule of Law, the Judiciary becomes a most important arm
of the State. It is the instrument for the protection and defence of our
people’s liberties, for interpreting the will of our Revolution and for promoting
the values of the New Order. It will be necessary, in the first place, to
review our body of laws and bring it into line with the values and concepts of
the New Order. It will be essential to stream-line this machinery so as to
facilitate its processes and make legal redress available to all citizens.
Every Biafran should find it possible and easy to have recourse to law courts
when his rights or liberties are interfered with or threatened. In this he
should be able to count on the support of his fellow citizens.
In the past, justice and
its processes were often very remote from the life of the ordinary citizen. The
ways of justice were beyond his understanding. And yet justice was meant to
exist for his benefit. In revolutionary Biafra, the citizen should understand
what law and justice are about. Our Revolution, therefore, aims at involving
the citizen in the process of justice so that he will participate actively in
the protection of his life and liberties and in the defence of the integrity,
stability, and moral health of the nation.
THE POLICE FORCE
Like the Judiciary, the
Police Force is a very important institution, very important because it is
given the special responsibility of maintaining law and order and guarding the
security of the People and the nation. Like other institutions of our society,
the Police Force needs to be reformed so that it can better fulfil its function
in the Revolution. Its members must absorb the ideals of the New Biafran Social
Order. The Police have often been criticised by the public. They have been
accused of corruption, bribery and inefficiency. We say that some of these
evils and weaknesses can be traced to the fact that the Police Force, like many
other institutions of our society, had a colonial beginning and was vitiated in
Nigeria. Today we are involved in a task of building a New Society with new
values and new outlooks. Our Police Force must be part of this New Order. It
must promote the ideals of the New Order - ideals of change and progress. The
conduct of its members must, in the spirit of the Revolution, be scrupulously
honest. The Biafran Police must be a People’s Police, that is to say, a
champion of the People’s rights. The Policeman is not there simply to arrest
criminals. He is also there to help people avoid going wrong. He must never
exploit the People’s ignorance of their civic rights. On the contrary, it is
his duty, where such ignorance exists, to teach the citizen his rights. Above
all, he must be a dedicated patriot fanatically devoted to prosecuting the
safety and security of the State. Fortunately, we know there are members of our
Police Force who are imbued with these ideals. It is on them that the Force
will be rebuilt.
THE ARMED SERVICES
The Biafran Armed Forces
hold a key position in the Biafran Revolution. They have been rightly in the
front-line defence of the Biafran nation and the People in the past two years.
They have performed this task creditably, for which the Nation is indebted to
them. But like the others, our military institutions carry the stamp of their
Colonial and Nigerian origin. For our Revolution, the Biafran Armed Forces must
be transformed into a true People’s Army.
The New Biafran
Armed Forces should have love, unity and co-operation between the officers and
other ranks, between them and the People.
They must rid themselves of
the starchiness and rigid class distinctions which are the hall-mark of an
establishment army; they should always ensure that their members never maltreat
fellow citizens; that they never loot or “liberate” the People’s property; that
they treat Biafran womanhood with respect and decorum; and that they pay fair
price for whatever they buy and return whatever they borrow from the People.
The Biafran Armed Forces
must unite with the People to build the New Society and must share with the
People the Biafran ideology which sustains the Revolution.
THE PUBLIC SERVICES
What emerges from our
examination of the public services is that the public servant is yet to learn
that he is a servant of the People, not their master; that he must love the
People and seek their welfare. There is no room in the New Biafra for the
public servant who is arrogant, insolent and overbearing. The Public Service is
created to provide an efficient service for the People. It is the
responsibility of the public servant to provide this efficient service. There
is no room in evolutionary Biafra for the inefficient or indolent public
servant, for that man who sits at his desk filling out football coupons; for
that woman who makes endless telephone calls, or for that worker who comes late
and watches the clock for an hour before closing time. There is no room for the
public servant who is corrupt or who uses public facilities to promote his
private ends. I think of that man who uses official transport to evacuate his
personal belongings and abandons the property of the State to the enemy. I
think of that public servant in the Ministry of Lands who allocates State land
to himself, his wife and his friends. I think of that Army officer who drives
past in any empty car, leaving a wounded soldier to bleed to death. I see these
things and I say to myself: these men have yet to grasp the lesson of our
Revolution or else sooner or later the Revolution will grasp them.
I ask myself: what can be done
to bring the lesson home to them? Nothing at all, unless they are ready to do
something for themselves. The revolution cannot wait for the indolent,
inefficient and corrupt public servant. He has to catch up with the Revolution,
or the Revolution will catch up with him. The public servant who cannot, or
will not, do the work for which he is hired, will be fired. It is no good
saying: I have been in this job for twenty years. The Revolution cannot go into
your long record. We repeat that if you cannot do the job of the Revolution,
someone else will be found to do it.
However, we recognize that
some devoted public servants may be inefficient simply because they have not
received the right and adequate training for what they are required to do. In
this respect, our Revolution will do one of two things. Either move them to a
job they can do, or provide the right training-on-the-job if this is likely to
produce worthwhile results.
TRAINING AND EDUCATION
Our experience during this
struggle has brought home to us the need for versatility. Many of our citizens
have found themselves having to do emergency duties different from their normal
peace-time jobs. In the years after the present armed conflict, we may find
that in the defence of the Revolution the general state of mobilization and
alertness will remain. One of the ways of preparing ourselves for this
emergency will be to ensure that every citizens will be trained in two jobs -
his normal peace-time occupation and a different skill which will be called into
play during a national emergency. Thus, for example, a clerk may be given
training to enable him to operate as an ambulance-driver during an emergency,
or a university lecturer as a post-master or a Signal Sergeant in one of the
Armed Forces.
We realize here that the
problem is more than that of providing narrow technical training. It has to do
with re-orientation of attitudes. It has to do with the cultivation of the
right kind of civic virtue and loyalty to Biafra. We all stand in need of this.
It is quite clear that to
attain the goals of the Biafran Revolution will require extensive political and
civic education of our People. To this effect, we will, in near future, set up
a National Orientation College (N.O.C) which will undertake the needful function
of formally inculcating the Biafran ideology and the Principles of the
Revolution. We will also pursue this vital task of education through seminars,
mass rallies, formal and informal address by the leaders and standard-bearers
of the Revolution. All Biafrans who are going to play a role in the promotion
of the Revolution, especially those who are going to operate the institutions
of the New Society, must first of all expose themselves to the ideology of the
Revolution.
The full realisation of the
Biafran ideology and the promise of the Biafran Revolution will have the
important effect of drawing the People of Biafra into close unity with the
Biafran State. The Biafran State and the Biafran People thus become one. The
People jealously defend and protect the integrity of the State. The State
guarantees the People certain basic rights and welfare. In this third year of
our independence, we re-state those basic rights and welfare obligations which
the revolutionary State of Biafra guarantees to the People.
THE RIGHT TO WORK
In the field of employment
and labour, the Biafran Revolution guarantees every able Biafran the right to
work. All those who are lazy or refuse to work forfeit their right to this
guarantee. “He who does not work should not eat” is an important principle in
Biafra.
Our Revolution provides
equal opportunities for employment and labour for all Biafrans irrespective of
sex. For equal output a woman must receive the same remuneration as a man.
Our revolutionary Biafran
State will guarantee a rational system of remuneration of labour. Merit and
output shall be the criteria for reward in labour. “To each according to his
ability, to each ability according to its product” shall be our motto in
Biafra.
Our Revolution guarantees
security for workers who have been incapacitated by physical injury, old age or
disease. It will be the duty of the Biafran State to raise the standard of
living of the Biafran People, to provide them with improved living conditions
and to afford them modern amenities that enhance their human dignity and
self-esteem. We recognize at all times the great contributions made by the
farmers, the craftsmen and other toilers of the Revolution to our national
progress. It will be a cardinal point of our economic policy to keep their
welfare constantly in view. The Biafran Revolution will promulgate a Workers’
Charter which will codify and establish workers’ rights.
HEALTH AND WELFARE
The maintenance of the
health and physical well-being of the Biafran citizen must be the concern and
the responsibility of the State. The revolutionary Biafran State will at all
times strive to provide medical service for all its citizens in accordance with
the resources available to it; it will wage a continuous struggle against
epidemic and endemic diseases; and will promote among the People knowledge of
hygienic living. It will develop social and preventive medicine, set up
sanatoriums for incurable and infectious diseases and mental cases, and a
net-work of maternity homes for ante- and post-natal care of Biafran mothers.
Furthermore, Biafra will set great store by the purity of the air which its
People breathe. We have a right to live in a clean, pollution-free atmosphere.
CULTURE AND HIGHER
EDUCATION
Our Revolution recognises
the vital importance of the mental and emotional needs of the Biafran People.
To this end, the Biafran State will pay great attention to Religion, Education,
Culture and the Arts. We shall aim at elevating our cultural institutions and
promoting educational reforms which will foster a sense of national and racial
pride among our People and discourage ideas which inspire a feeling of
inferiority and dependence on foreigners and foreign interests. We must produce
the kind of manpower that will nurture the Biafran Revolution. It will be the
prime duty of the revolutionary Biafran State to eradicate illiteracy from our
society, to guarantee free education to all Biafran children to a stage limited
only by existing resources. Our nation will encourage the training of
scientists, technicians and skilled workers needed for quick industrialisation
and the modernisation of our agriculture. We will ensure the development of
higher education and technological training for our People, encourage our
intellectuals, writers, artists and scientists to research, create and invent
in the service of the State and the People. We must prepare our People to
contribute significantly to knowledge and world culture.
Finally, the present armed
struggle, in which many of our countrymen and women have distinguished
themselves and made numerous sacrifices in defence of the Fatherland and the
Revolution, has imposed on the state of Biafra extra responsibility for the
welfare of its People. Biafra will give special care and assistance to soldiers
and civilians disabled in the course of the pogrom and the war; it will develop
special schemes for resettlement and rehabilitation. The nation will assume
responsibility for the dependants of the heroes of the Revolution who have lost
their lives in defence of the Fatherland.
In talking about the rights
of the Biafrans and the welfare obligations the State owes to them, I have had
cause to refer to our limited resources. These limitations are particularly
severe at the moment as a result of the war. But even without the war we would
be short of adequate resources for putting into effect all the principles and
policies for transforming our society. This is partly because of the wrong
economic policies of the past, policies that we must immediately tackle if the
Revolution is to fulfil its promise to the People; for the Revolution is also
the servant of the People.
SELF-RELIANCE
One of the key problems of
the economy of under-developed countries is the fact that they are controlled
and exploited by foreign monopoly interests. Under-developed countries cannot
advance unless they break the strangle-hold of the foreign monopolies. The only
hope of success lies in the state pursuing an active policy of self-reliance in
putting its own economic house in order. But it cannot do this unless it takes
control of the main springs of the economy - the means of production,
distribution and exchange. This will ensure central mobilization of the
national economy through proper planning and control. This is what Biafra must
do; this is what African countries must do; this is what the under-developed
world must do, if they are to save themselves.
As primary producers, we
are economically at the mercy of the industrialized countries. We are obliged
to sell our products cheap to them and to buy their manufactures dear from
them. Like other under-developed countries, our economy is fragile, and because
we do not earn enough for what we produce we remain poor and cannot improve the
standard of living of our people. And because we are poor we cannot develop our
economy. How then can we break this vicious circle? If we try to unite with
other primary producers to obtain better terms of trade, we find that because
of our poverty we cannot hold out long enough against the aggressive policies
of these rich industrialized countries.
Here, as in all other
spheres of our Revolution, the answer must come from within, from ourselves. We
must pursue an enlightened dynamic policy which will concentrate on employing
our primary products in various domestic manufactures. The present war has
already opened our eyes to what we can do by relying on our own resources in
material and men. It is unthinkable that after the war we shall return to the
old system of selling our primary products to someone in Europe at his own
price so that he can turn them into manufactured goods and sell back to us,
again at his own price. Our primary products shall henceforth be used mainly to
feed Biafra’s growing industries.
Another economic goal of
the Biafran Revolution is self-sufficiency in food production. Our experience
during the present war has emphasized to us the importance of this. The work of
the Biafra Land Army has also shown us the tremendous possibilities that exist
for a major agrarian revolution. The Biafran Revolution will intervene actively
to end the exploitation of the countryside by the town - a baneful process
which is often easily lost sight of. The Biafran Revolution will encourage
farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen to form co-operatives and communes, and will make
them take pride in their work by according them the recognition and prestige
they deserve. The programme for industrial progress in revolutionary Biafra
will achieve balanced development between industry and agriculture, between
regions or provinces within Biafra, between town and country and finally
between Biafra and other African countries who desire to do business with us.
Again and again, in stating
the Principles of our Revolution, we have spoken of the People. We have spoken
of the primacy of the People, of the belief that power belongs to the People;
that the Revolution is the servant of the People. We make no apologies for
speaking so constantly about the People, because we believe in the People; we
have faith in the People. They are the bastion of the Nation, the makers of its
culture and history.
THE QUALITIES OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
But in talking about the
People we must never lose sight of the individuals who make up the People. The
single individual is the final, irreducible unit of the People. In Biafra that
single individual counts. The Biafran Revolution cannot lose sight of this
fact.
The desirable changes which
the Revolution aims to bring to the lives of the People will first manifest
themselves in the lives of individual Biafrans. The success of the Biafran
Revolution will depend on the quality of individuals within the State.
Therefore, the calibre of the individual is of the utmost importance to the
Revolution. To build the New Society we will require new men who are in tune
with the spirit of the New Order. What then should be the qualities of this
Biafran of the New Order?
# He is patriotic,
loyal to his State, his Government and its leadership; he must no do anything
which undermines the security of his State or gives advantage to the enemies of
his country. He must no indulge in such evil practices as tribalism and
nepotism which weaken the loyalty of their victims to the state. He should be
prepared, if need be, to give up his life in defence of the Nation.
# He must be his brother’s
keeper; he must help all Biafrans in difficulty, whether or not they are
related to him by blood; he must avoid, at all costs, doing anything which is
capable of bringing distress and hardship to other Biafrans. A man who hoards
money or goods is not his brother’s keeper because e brings distress and
hardship to his fellow citizens.
# He must be
honourable; he must be a person who keeps his promise and the promise of his
office, a person who can always be trusted.
# He must be truthful:
he must not cheat his neighbour, his fellow citizens and his country. He must
not give or receive bribes or corruptly advance himself or his
interests.
# He must be
responsible: he must no push across to others the task which properly belongs
to him, or let others receive the blame or punishment for his own failings. A
responsible man keeps secrets. A Biafran who is in a position to know what our
troops are planning and talks about it is irresponsible. The information he
gives out will spread and reach the ear of the enemy. A responsible man minds
his own business; he does not show off.
# He must be brave and
courageous: he must never allow himself to be attacked by others without
fighting back to defend himself and his rights. He must be ready to tackle
tasks which other people might regard as impossible.
# He must be
law-abiding: he obeys the laws of the land and does nothing to undermine the
due processes of law.
# He must be
freedom-loving: he must stand up resolutely against all forms of injustice,
oppression and suppression. He must never be afraid to demand his rights. For
example, a true Biafran at a post office or bank counter will insist on being
served in his turn.
# He must be
progressive: he should not slavishly and blindly adhere to old ways of doing
things; he must be prepared to make changes in his way of life in the light of
our new revolutionary experience.
# He is industrious,
resourceful and inventive; he must not fold his arms and wait for the
Government to do everything for him; he must also help himself.
CONCLUSION
My fellow countrymen and
women, proud and courageous Biafrans, two years ago, faced with the threat of
total extermination, we met in circumstances not unlike today’s. At that August
gathering, the entire leaders of our people being present, we as a people
decided that we had to take our destiny into our own hand, to plan and decide
our future and to stand by these decisions no matter the vicissitude of this
war which by then was already imminent. At that time, our major pre-occupation
was how to remain alive, how to restrain an implacable enemy from destroying us
in our own homes. In that moment of crisis we decided to resume our
sovereignty.
In my statement to the
leaders of our community before that decision was made, I spoke about the
difficulties. I explained that the road which we were about to tread was to be
carved through a jungle of thorns and that our ability to emerge through this
jungle was, to say the least, uncertain. Since that fateful decision, the very
worst has happened. Our people have continually been subjected to genocide. The
entire conspiracy of neo-colonialism has joined hands to stifle our nascent
independence. Yet, undaunted by the odds, proud in the fact of our manhood,
encouraged by the companionship of the Almighty, we have fought to this day
with honour, with pride, with glory so that today, as I stand before you, I see
a proud people acknowledged by the world. I see a heroic people, men with
heart-beats as regular and blood as red as the best on earth.
On that fateful day two
years ago, you mandated me to do everything within my power to avert the
dangers that loomed ahead, the threat of extermination. Little did we, you and
I, know how long the battle was to be, how complex its attendant problems. From
then on, what have been achieved are there for the entire world to see and have
only been possible because of the solidarity and support of our people. For
this I thank you all. I must have made certain mistakes in the course of this
journey but I am sure that whatever mistakes I have made are mistakes of the
head and never of the heart. I have tackled the sudden problems as they unfold
before my eyes and I have tackled them to the best of my ability with the
greater interest of our people in mind.
Today, I am glad that our
problems are less than they were a year ago; that arms alone can no longer
destroy us; that our victory, the fulfilment of our dreams, is very much in
sight. We have forced a stalemate on the enemy and this is likely to continue,
with any advances likely to be on our side. If we fail, which God forbid, it
can only be because of certain inner weakness in our being. It is in order to
avoid these pitfalls that I have today proclaimed before you the Principles of
the Biafran Revolution.
We in Biafra are convinced
that the Black man can never come into his own until he is able to build modern
states based on indigenous African ideologies, to enjoy true independence, to
be able to make his mark in the arts and sciences and to engage in meaningful dialogue
with the white man on a basis of equality. When he achieves this, he will have
brought a new dimension into international affairs.
Biafra will not betray the
Black man. No matter the odds, we will fight with all our might until Black men
everywhere can point with pride to this Republic, standing dignified and
defiant, an example of African nationalism triumphant over its many and age-old
enemies.
We believe that God,
humanity and history are on our side, and that the Biafran Revolution is
indestructible and eternal.
OH GOD, NOT MY WILL, BUT
THINE FOREVER.
<Ojukwu’s signature>
Ahiara Village, Biafra.
1st June 1969.
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