Biafra, Biafra – ‘Biko Ozoemena’ – Please never again!

The ongoing cascade of views over the arrowhead of secession politics in Nigeria – Biafra, has provided many lessons for the country, depending on which side an observer stands. While some of the views may be incendiary and seemingly toxic, others have commendably raised valid, fresh perspectives on the way forward for the country. Above […]

The ongoing cascade of views over the arrowhead of secession politics in Nigeria – Biafra, has provided many lessons for the country, depending on which side an observer stands. While some of the views may be incendiary and seemingly toxic, others have commendably raised valid, fresh perspectives on the way forward for the country. Above all, the issue now is that after the convoluted, Nigerian style politics of the pre-civil war years, the 30-month civil war, and 45 years of albeit bumpy post war co-existence by the over 350 ethnic nationalities that make up the country, the dispensation of Biafra has not vanished out of sight.
For some weeks now the nation has been on edge, reeling as it were over the broadcast by a pirate radio station which styles itself as Radio Biafra, and claims to be advocating the interests of a group it calls the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Following the hate content of its inciting message the security agents arrested its director one Nnamdi Kanu. The arrest triggered a wave of protests in many parts of the country, largely by thousands of impressionable youth – ostensibly of Ibo extraction, who are demanding his unconditional release. That is as if he was arrested for eating ice cream in a sports stadium! In the swirling drama little mention is made by his supporters of the fact that operating a broadcast facility in any part of Nigeria without legal authorisation from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is illegal and punishable, and that Mr Kanu actually crossed the line.
Interestingly, most of these protesters are younger than the age of forty, hence are too young to appreciate the causes and effects of political trends associated with the country’s history pre 1970, as they were even unborn by then. Hence their protests seem to be driven by impressions fed to them through tales that comprise mere fables or half-truths or admissibly, even some valid facts. This is more poignant when even the word Biafra is not of Ibo origin, but was adopted by the colonialists of yore to name the bight on the West African coast. The town bearing that name and caught their fancy was from neighboring Cameroun!
 According to an Ibo proverb ‘if you are searching for a missing item above, you ask the monkey. If the search is under the ground you ask the mole. But if it is within the house you ask the domestic rat’. Hence the impression any individual often has and acts upon really depends on the source as well as quality of information available to him or her, as well as the associated insights drawn from such. So is the case of the pro-Biafra protesters whose ranks may be growing by the day. Indeed the Biafra saga demonstrates eloquently the price which this country is paying for poor management of institutional information, as a tool for mobilizing society towards designated goals. When the public information organs allow society to run on mere rumours and junk gist, what should be expected is a state of anomy where everyone feels justified to act in self-justification; no matter how wildly.
Since the Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970, public access to official records on it have either been routinely stifled or in some cases such records have even been destroyed. Hence the present generation of Nigerians (the agitators for Biafra inclusive), have little or no credible references to rely on in terms of getting to grips with the history of the country. It is the hope of this column that the Minster of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohamed capitalizes on the present situation to address with urgency the sundry debilitating factors that cripple the National Archives and other depositories of the nation’s institutional records. The lessons of the present national debacle, dictate that it should be a policy position to predispose such records for public access in order that Nigerians can be guided properly with respect to where the nation is coming from, and where it properly needs to be heading.    
In another vein, some aspects of the general response by the authorities have not demonstrated the benefit of superior insight and therefore justification. While the security agents are inclined to respond to flashpoints on a case by case basis depending on the threat value of each situation, the fact remains that this new wave of agitation for Biafra is another expression of dissent by the demonstrators, which like other instances require key adjustments in the processes of national politics and governance to resolve.
Established flash points in the country have been spawned by movements such as the multi-group driven Niger Delta resource control agitation, Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Boko Haram, with some others presently in the pipeline and awaiting the right time to launch themselves at the nation’s conscience. It is as if that is all required to obtain attention at the national level and secure whatever they deem is the due of their constituencies. This is Nigerian politics of the day for you!
The wide spread concern by Nigerians over the virulence of the ongoing Biafra agitation points to the onus resting on the shoulders of the present administration of Muhamadu Buhari, to facilitate a rapid change in the nation’s political space in order to give all Nigerians  a sense of belonging. Sense of belonging here means opportunity to participate in the sharing of the national patrimony.
It is significant that every agitating group claims marginalization of its constituency. It is even more worrisome that in the Nigerian political space where the majority groups always dominate the minorities, those who represent the former readily cite marginalization as the mantra driving their agitations. Who then is marginalizing who?
This scenario more than any other dispensation accentuates the fact that the Nigerian federation is not yet a stable nation but a project in progress. This fact was not lost on the founding fathers of the country when the adopted various mantras for harnessing shared values for all the component parts of the country such as “unity in diversity”, “one people one nation” and the iconic rhyme of “to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”, which drove the prosecution of the Nigerian civil war during the regime of former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon.
As for the agitators for Biafra, the questions around their claims of marginalization are self-manifest. Firstly have they established that their five home states of Abia, Anambra, Ebony, Enugu and Imo are denied the statutory fiscal allocations by the federation? Have they also established the propriety of administering the resources of the zone by the leaders they elected for themselves, at least during the democratic dispensation? Beyond the foregoing, in case they are granted their desire of Biafra, will the Ibos at home and in diaspora make do with the restrictive terrain of the five South Eastern states, as that is all that represents their claim to territory?
The foregoing incongruities and other reasons are why the voices of reason among the Ibos are calling for a change of mind by the agitators for Biafra, for now and in the future. Ibos are a vital and integral part of the nation and do not need a separate country to move to the next level in any aspect of life. Given the linkages between Ndigbo and the rest of the country, the agitation for Biafra by some starry eyed youth remains a booby trap and disservice, with consequences that may translate into a shot in the foot for them and whoever are their sponsors.
It is neither helpful nor welcome for both the ‘Ndigbo’ and Nigerians in general. That is why this column, joins several other pacifists to plead ‘Ozoemena biko’.