A Peep Into 2024 Nigeria

 By Owei Lakemfa

The  year 2023 held a lot of hope for Nigerians as the Buhari administration  which had put the country on autopilot, was programmed to end its tenure by mid-year. Indeed, the past year had begun as a traumatic one with a currency change   which impoverished the people as they could not readily access their  bank accounts or money.

The Naira, rather than be a means of exchange became a commodity traded in the streets. The local currency was  so  scarce that people paid as high as 15-20 per-cent as commission for Naira notes.  Unfortunately, in the first seven months of the Tinubu administration, governance has not changed in a fundamental way. If  anything, the economy for the people got worse with the ill-advised and ruinous increases in PMS prices and the water boarding of the of the Naira. These are the major factors   that  pushed inflation  to 28.2 per-cent. Also in 2023, the Tinubu government was unable to end the scarcity of the Naira leading to it being traded in the streets, sometimes at rates as high as 10 per-cent.

President Tinubu: Set The Captives Free!

 By Owei Lakemfa

Violence was expected last Friday, July 28, 2023 when the Shia population in the country marked the Ashura Festival held worldwide by the Shiites. The prediction almost did not come to pass but for a last minute duel near the Wuse Market, Abuja when as usual, armed security men engaged the Shiites, and bullets flew.

*Tinubu

No, it is not as if the Shiites are bounded to violence, but the security services, including the armed forces, seem to have locked it in their brains that the Shiites will always be violent, so a counter-force must be on ground. It is like a cat and mouse game and the mouse cannot plead innocence even if the facts on ground supports its claim. Even if the Shiite processions are peaceful, the security services assume they have a duty to disperse them because the latter would not have taken permission from the police.

Dokubo Asari’s Sinister Dance

 By Ochereome Nnanna

True friends of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should call him aside and whisper wisdom into his ears with regards to his dalliance with Niger Delta “repentant” militant and self-acclaimed “Biafra fighter”, Dokubo Asari. This is not the first time I am raising this issue on this forum. And which way you look at it  this “friendship” is bound to end in regret. Not much was known of the relationship between Tinubu and Asari until the latter confessed in several media outings that Tinubu once helped him when he was facing the consequences of his armed activities in the creek.

*Asari

Dokubo Asari can posture as anything, depending on the direction his current interest is looking. We call it  anywhere belle face  in popular Nigerian parlance. Asari’s garrulity especially in the social media has laid bare almost everything about him for those who care to pay him any attention. He claimed that his grandfather, a hunter, migrated from Abam in Abia State to Kalabari land. According to him, the hunter magically transformed into a slave merchant specialising in selling his fellow Igbo to the White man. Mind you, he has never provided any proof of his claims. Asari is more of mouth. In contrast, Tompolo is more of effective action.

Nigeria: The Conversation We Don’t Want To Have About Biafra!

 By David Hundeyin

Fourteen years ago, when I was a 19-year-old fresher at the University of Hull, I met Ify. She was at that time, probably the most beautiful girl I had ever set my eyes on. I immediately tripped, hit my head and went into an infatuation coma.

Ify was the quintessential social butterfly – witty, friendly, distinctly intelligent and culturally Nigerian, with a few notable modifications like her South London accent and a slight tomboy streak.

*Biafran children... 

I think my eyeballs actually turned into heart emojis every time I saw her, and within a week of starting university, my mission in life was to get Ify to be my girlfriend. The problem was, it didn’t matter how much time and attention I dedicated to her – Ify was not interested in me.

We were very good friends, but as time went on, it became clear to my great dismay that she and I as an item, was just never going to happen. Eventually, I gave up on Ify and retired to lick my metaphorical wounds, completely assured in my 19-year-old wisdom that I would never love again.

Same Country, Different Worlds

Buhari and the Biafran Challenge

By Tunde Rahman

Last Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari met with South-east leaders, majorly from his the All Progressive Congress, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja. The meeting came a day after the country celebrated yet another May 29 Democracy Day.

*Buhari

But it was also a day after the bloody Biafran protests in the South-east cities and Asaba in the South-south, which left in its wake death and destruction. Over 50 pro-Biafran protesters were reportedly killed across South-east states and in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

According to newspaper reports, two policemen also lost their lives in the protests. One of the policemen was said to have been thrown into River Niger. The South-east leaders met with Buhari under the aegis of South-east Group for Change and the 18-man delegation was led by former Senate President Ken Nnamani. After the meeting, the delegation declined to speak with State House Correspondents, but asked by the newshounds whether Biafra came up for discussion at the talks, Nnamani reportedly said, “No, no, not now”. If we believe the former Senate President that the issue of Biafra did not come up for discussion at that meeting, then it was just a matter of time for a presidential meeting on Biafra to be arranged because the Biafran issue has become a thorny issue for the South-east and for Nigeria.

The Biafran issue had become knotty again since Indian-trained lawyer, Ralph Uwazuruike, around 1999 or so, established the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) with the aim, as the name suggests, of securing the resurgence of the defunct State of Biafra. Based on the group’s activities, including hoisting Biafran flags at different locations in the South-east, the government accused MASSOB of violence and Uwazuruike was arrested in 2005 and detained on treason charges. That year, MASSOB had re-introduced the old Biafran currency into circulation. Uwazuruike was later released in 2007 but the secessionist activities of the group, however, did not stop. For instance in 2009, MASSOB launched ‘Biafran International Passport’ in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the group.

But around May 2014, the Biafran agitation took a new dimension with a new leader for the struggle: the British-Nigerian Nnamdi Kanu who spoke of his readiness to fight all the way. He said Nigeria would seize to exist by December 2015. Speaking at a gathering of members of defunct Biafra, including scores of its aged war veterans on May 30, 2014, Kanu vowed that he would not rest until the Biafran Republic is realised. The event held at Ngwo, Enugu State, was the maiden commemoration of Biafran Day, in remembrance of the events of 1967 when the late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, declared the Republic of Biafra. Kanu who was also the Director of the outlawed Radio Biafra used the occasion to unveil a multi- million naira cenotaph in memory of Biafra fallen heroes killed during the civil war. He alleged that despite the declaration of the “No Victor, No Vanquished” after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war in 1970, successive governments in the country had continued to deliberately marginalise and make life unbearable for the Igbo nation and its people. He said it was unfortunate and painful that 47 years after the civil war, the reasons for which the war was fought were still evident in Nigeria. Kanu has been slammed with treason charges and remains in detention at present.

Biafra Challenge And Nigeria’s Future

By Nze Nwabueze Akabogu (JP)

For the past four weeks or thereabout, the nation had witnessed an unprecedented upsurge in the massive non-violent demonstrations which has now reached a crescendo in the agitation for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra jointly led by MASSOB and the so-called Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The widespread agitation throughout the South East region as well as some parts of the Igbo speaking areas of the South-South region suddenly erupted in the wake of the reported detention of the Director of the clandestine “Radio Biafra” based in the United Kingdom, Nnamdi Kenu, who was reported to have been picked up by security operatives on his arrival from London recently.

The MASSOB led by the irrepressible Chief Ralph Uwazuruike had for many years been in the vanguard for the actualization of the defunct Republic of Biafra through non-violent means. The Biafran Army was defeated by the Nigerian Armed Forces after thirty months of devastating civil war with the famous slogan of “No victor and no vanquished” as was declared by the erstwhile Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) in January 1970.

Regrettably however, almost forty six years after the disastrous conflict, all the contentious issues that originally led to the unfortunate war had remained unresolved, hence the current wave of agitations spearheaded mainly by the restive youths who invariably had inherited the seeming lopsidedness of the nation’s political structure as well as gross marginalization being suffered by the people within the geographical entity known as the defunct Republic of Biafra or South-East region of Nigeria to be precise.

The Nigerian nation seemed to have lost the golden opportunity to put the dark period of the civil war and its horrifying memories permanently behind her hence the nation had failed to take advantage of the famous declaration of “No victor and no vanquished” slogan to build a new nation through the adoption of a deliberate policy of genuine reconciliation and re-integration of the Igbo nation into the mainstream of the nation’s political system of governance.

Biafra Is A Challenge, Not A Solution

By Emeka Asinugo

The current agitation for the unconditional release of the director of Radio Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and the resuscitation of the Biafra nation became more intense after Kanu was arrested during his visit to Nigeria from the UK about a month ago. Before then, the Nigerian government had nothing to worry about a rather distantly located “pirate” radio station and whatever influence it may have been exerting on any section of the country.

Because I recently wrote about Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafra dream, I would not have liked to be dragged into the issue of Biafra any longer. But after listening to my colleague Emma Agu addressing the Biafra issue on YouTube, I was obviously disturbed. Mr Agu and I worked in the defunct Nigerian Statesman newspaper in the early 1980s and I know that he is a respected veteran journalist.

I was disturbed because I know that the Biafra issue is not a matter anyone can conveniently wish away or easily dismiss with a wave of the hand. Biafra was a reality. It happened. And that is perhaps why, in his wisdom and foresight, the universally respected Igbo writer, Professor Chinua Achebe, wrote his last book and titled it “There was a Country”.

Indeed there was.

The Nigeria-Biafra war ended about 45 years ago. And if you take a cursory look at what is happening, you will find that the people demonstrating in Nigeria and Overseas about Biafra and Nnamdi Kanu are all below 45 years of age. Most of them were possibly born in the Biafran side of Nigeria during the war. Their birth certificates say they are Biafran citizens. Those of us who live in Europe and America know what that means. We know the value and importance of birth certificates.

Some of these people who were born in Biafra could have witnessed what happened to their families during the war with the eyes of childhood. And the experience could have remained indelible in their minds. When the war ended, Nigeria did not address this issue of Biafran birth certificates. So, as far as those children born in the Biafran side of Nigeria during the war are concerned, they are Biafrans.

Soon after the war, General Yakubu Gowon introduced his ‘3Rs’ – an acronym for reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction. It was his vision of implementing his National Development Plan [NDP], following his “no victor, no vanquished” declaration at the end of the war. 

It is 45 years since. Yet, most Igbo who were either born in Biafra or fought on the side of Biafra are yet to be reintegrated and fully rehabilitated into the Nigerian mainstream. Some of them come from the Igbo heartland. Others come from such riverside areas as the Niger Delta Region. Marginalization which was the foundational cause of the Nigeria-Biafra war is still very much the problem of the nation.

Who Really Wants Biafra?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi
In one of his recent articles, my brother and colleague, Oguwike Nwachuku, posited that based on the rabid anti-Igbo sentiment that seems to have become the all-consuming pastime of some Nigerians, there may well be a school where they are thought how to hate the Igbo.

Oguwike wrote in the wake of the Eze Ndigbo controversy in Akure, Ondo State and the resort to ethnic profiling by some Afenifere chieftains who derogatorily labelled Ndigbo “migrants” in their own country, even as they insist that the idea of one, indivisible, indissoluble Nigeria is non-negotiable.

In the last four weeks since some members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) mobilised supporters to take to the streets, I have come to feel the intensity of the hatred against Ndigbo.

Given the opportunity, some people would not bat an eyelid in chasing the Igbo into the Atlantic Ocean as they wished before the April elections.

But just as I noted in my reaction to the Eze Ndigbo saga, those who call Ndigbo names and stoke the embers of morbid hatred against them across the land have not bothered to ask how many Igbo support the agitation for secession.

How many Igbo actually want another civil war? How many Igbo want to abandon their property again for those who were busy sleeping while they were sweating under the bridges, in the scorching sun to inherit?

The military, perhaps reading the now famous body language of the President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, has warned pro-Biafra protesters to stop or face the consequences.

Solving The Biafra Agitation Problem

By Hannatu Musawa

Bckground: For 16 years now, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has made its voice heard. Emeka Ojukwu was alive when MASSOB was formed but he never gave it support, nor have important political and traditional leaders of south-eastern Nigeria. MASSOB leader Ralph Uwazuruike has, several times, clarified that MASSOB is not a violent group and will not engage in armed struggle. The group has relied on some provisions in the United Nations Charter, especially those relating to people’s right to self-determination.  What has made MASSOB and its younger sibling IPOB (Indigenous Peoples of Biafra) popular both at home and abroad is the occasional crackdown on their members during peaceful protests.

*Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu being sworn 

in as the head of state of the Republic of 

Biafra in May 1967

Referendum?
If a referendum were held today, there is no doubt that over 70% of people in the five south-east states would vote YES for separation. A little over 50% in Rivers State would also vote YES. Between 40% and 50% might vote YES in other south-south states: Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Edo.

A similar result might be reproduced if the people of the south-west were to be subjected to a referendum to determine whether Oduduwa republic should come into being.

Therefore, the Federal Government should not agree to a referendum. Every section in Nigeria feels marginalised in Nigeria, apparently because the country is not practising true federalism. The state of the nation’s economy is also a contributor: Many have fallen on hard times and become frustrated.

Political Reform
Political reform is the way to go. The current 36-state structure is not working; it should be replaced by a six-region federal structure. The 2014 National Conference, therefore, needs to be re-examined. The government can go back to that conference and other previous conferences and provide a white paper. Barring any obstacle that may be constituted by the National Assembly, a new political structure should take effect from 2019, along with a new revenue allocation formula. There would not be loud cries over Biafra or Oduduwa or Boko Haram after a restructuring that would shift the country away from Unitarianism. Nigeria needs a weaker centre and stronger regions.

Tackling IPOB and MASSOB
Agitation for Biafra is heightened by the overzealousness of security agents. The agencies should be restrained from arresting people involved in the peaceful demonstration. On occasion, criminals attempt to hijack peaceful protests; anyone caught in acts of lawlessness could be arrested briefly and then prosecuted in court immediately. Similarly, operators of illegal radio stations like Nnamdi Kanu should be charged to court immediately. There have been at least three court decisions directing that Kanu should be released, but he is still held even after he has met his bail conditions. The government itself should abide by the rule of law.