For Fifty Years Nigeria Kept Biafrans Down To Avoid Biafra Re-emergence

How Nigeria Worked Against Themselves Thinking They are Working Against Biafra

The desolving of the Eastern region and the removal of many Igbo people from South East was done to make the world think that Igbo is just a dot in the Nigeria map. This will in turn kill the Biafra spirit and curtail any future quest for a separate nation of Biafra. But these moves by Nigeria Federal Government against Biafrans seems to now be working against Nigeria. 

For 50 years this worked for Nigeria as they perfected their divide and rule tactics on the people that were Eastern Region in 1960-67. The Izon (Ijaw) were remotely made to see the Igbo as their problem and the Igbo viewed them as an ungrateful brothers.

I did my unfruitful Nigeria NYSC program in Bayelsa. I had one explosive discussion one day with a teacher who is from a neighbouring state Rivers. He told me how Igbo people killed them during Biafra war. He told me about the forceful recruitment that went on during the war. He said the Igbo did all these to them. I asked him a question I never received an answer to till this very day. I asked him how he believed a military that lacked ammunition and almost confronted the invaders with bare hands could have used the little they had to attack their own brothers, whose men are also in the same Biafra Army. Forceful recruitment happened everywhere and more with the Igbo that formed the majority.

My late grandmother told me how markets were always frequented by the Biafra soldiers whose motive was to catch and recruit little adolescent boys into the military. An incident happened in Orie Akokwa. The Soldiers made a dash into the Market, rounding up the boys who came to save their family from hunger that has become an integral member of every family in Biafra Land as of that time. Mothers in the market had to hid the boys who weren't their children under their wrappers.

I also read from Maduebo's account of the war how Biafra soldiers used ordinary sports equipments to make sounds of guns, using it to hold off Nigeria invaders from attacking them until they get ammunition. This is the military people are accusing of using their limited weapons on their fellow comrades. I wonder how such will happen in a nation Philip Efiong was second in command and he didn't talk about it.

The divide and rule was so much that even Igbo people started denying their origin. Many fought so hard to distance themselves from being Igbo. Igbo towns were corrupted to sound un-Igbo.

Onicha, Ugwuta, Etche, Asaba, Ogwashiukwu, Ikwere etc all denied being Igbo starting from the years that followed the end of the war. Onicha man will always call an Igbo from other places 'Nwa Onye Igbo', claiming not being from Igbo. An Ikwere will pontificate how he is being forced to be Igbo against his wish. On Facebook, I encountered one that answers Uche trumpeting how he is not Igbo and from Benin.

The truth is that, after the terrible and horrendous defeat suffered by Biafra in the hands of British supported Nigeria government, it became a heculian task to be Igbo in Nigeria. Bearing Igbo names opens the door of rejection. The government quickly carved out lots of Igbo lands into what they called South South and they got the opportunity to deny their Igboness. Check the statistics properly. It was after the war that ndị Igbo started moving out of Nigeria in droves for survival. What can a people that had their monies in the bank and properties outside Igbo land taken do, if not to find a way to seek for survival? That was why ndị Igbo are scattered everywhere in the world. Nigeria forced them out. 

Coming to Nigeria, looking at what they have achieved so far, you did not believe that Igbo people lost anything during that genocidic war. For they have transformed every rejection and marginalization they received into benefits.

Nigeria had the opportunity to bring the Igbo back to being their fellow countrymen, but failed. Instead of bringing them back in love, they set up huddles for them, trying to cripple them.

The funny thing is that the many years the Igbo were put down by Nigeria, they never spared the same people denying being Igbo. They only pay one or few people from there who comes to recruit few liars, whose job is to confuse their own people, while they live in abject poverty amidst riches.

The Ijaw have totally lost their oil wells to the Fulani people of the North. They were told how Igbo were their problem, and they move against the Igbo and the Fulani took their oil wells from behind. The entire Ijaw land is today polluted. Goodluck Jonathan was practically thrown out of Aso Rock by those that feel Nigeria belongs to them. 

You need to pity the Ogoni people should you pay them a visit. Do you know that there is limited or no access to drinking Water in Ogoni as we speak? Some areas have gone for years without electricity. Ogoni is one of the many communities rich in oil in Nigeria, but they glory in poverty as we speak.

Nigeria took away their hero Ken Saro Wiwa, just as they took away Adaka Boro. These two individuals worked for One Nigeria and One Nigeria killed them for nothing.

Today, Nigeria seems to be losing it. All their evils against the East seemed to be coming back to haunt them. For both the Igbo, the Ijaw, Ogoni, Efik are all waking up and jettisioning the divide and rule game of the Fulani.

There is a new beginning which has made these people understand that even though they have different tongues, they still have same ancestry. They have for ages used same market and intermarried. There is this banding together that is growing among them. The people have risen up to reject the oligarchy and their agents masquerading as leaders in both the South East and South South.

The Biafrans forced out of Nigeria by the nepotistic Nigeria government have been reunited by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and they have vowed to restore Biafra. As it stands today, Biafrans are scattered all over the world and they are matching front, using their resources to make sure God's kingdom on earth is restored.

In Biafra, there will be no room for marginalisation. It is a complete confederacy of nations. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu rightly said that all component part of Biafra will have their own parliament and most importantly control their resources and commerce, meaning that Biafra will be everything Nigeria couldn't be.

Elochukwu Ohagi is a Philosopher, Teacher And Activist.