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| pro-biafra agitators |
By Owei
Lakemfa
SOME
days ago, I woke up to find that someone, or group had decided to
change my country. It was there on Facebook; a supposed map of a new country
called Biafra. I was neither consulted nor my opinion sought. I am not also
aware that the Ijaws, who are my parents, our neigbours the Isokos, Itsekiris,
Urhobos, Efiks, Ibibios, Orons etcetera, were consulted. Some fellow
Nigerians in demonstrating their right to self-determination,
decided that I do not have the right to be consulted.
If I
were to reincarnate and have power of choice, I would ordinarily, not decide to
be a Nigerian. I would prefer to be an African, in that united continent Kwame
Nkrumah prophesied, with a single government, currency, economy and
citizenship. I will not trade a continent for another small enclave,
while industrialised Europe has almost evolved into one entity. That will not
be strategic thinking, it will be collective backwardness.
I
understand why the agitators need the Southern nationalities; they require
their oil and gas resources, and access to the sea. But they are being quixotic
by forcing these peoples into a map. They need to consult and persuade. But
this will be difficult as the advocates of a new Biafra have not made public
any known philosophy, ideology, vision, road map, socio-economic programme or
policy, including on peoples and minority rights.
I have
read some juvenile Boko Haram Shekarau-like outbursts by the new kid on the
bloc, Nnamdi Kalu of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) who vomits
words like “If they don’t give us Biafra, no human being will remain alone in
Nigeria by that time; we shall turn everybody into corpses; you better go and
buy your coffin.” He reminds me of the quixotic ‘uprising’ by the
Biafra Zionist Federation led by Benjamin Igwe Onwuka who on June 5, 2014
tried to seize the Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) ostensibly to
declare a Biafra Republic.
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