By Nwobodo Chidiebere
“I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”— Harriet Tubman
FOR
weeks now, the issue of Biafra agitation has
been at the front burner in the polity. The movement is being propelled by
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign
State of Biafra (MASSOB) via peaceful protests ravaging the old Eastern region.
The promoters of IPOB are led by the detained Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi
Kanu.
Agents
of divide-and-rule have gone back to their age-long work of dividing the
indigenous people of Biafra . Their major
target is to Igbonize this present struggle of Biafra restoration using the
instrumentality of the media to tag Biafra
agitation Igbo “affair”. Majority of those divide-and-rule advocates are
non-Biafrans, who ordinarily should not have any say in determining the future
of old Eastern region.
Why
is it that Hausa and Fulani which comprise major ethnic groups especially in
Northern part of Nigeria
are always referred to as Hausa/Fulani – as one indivisible people, instead of
Hausa and Fulani? Why do we have South-South as a geo-political zone carved out
of old Eastern region, but there is nothing like North-North in the Northern Nigeria ? How did the creators of this
South-South mantra invent this word that is not in line with known cardinal
points as enshrined in the principles of geography? How come there is
Niger-Delta in the South but nothing like North-Sahara in the North? Why is
there one Northern Governors Forum in the North, but coming down Southern
Nigeria; we have South-East, South-West and South-South Governors Forums; all
in one Southern Nigeria ? Why do we always hear
about Northern Elders Forum and nineteen Northern states as one socio-political
block and one North, but we hardly talk of Southern Elders Forum, seventeen
Southern states or one South? Someone should put on his thinking cap by now.