By Chris Enyinnaya
The word
Biafra has been a taboo to successive governments in Nigeria
simply because Republic
of Biafra was defeated by
a coalition of Nigerian Armed Forces and forces deployed by Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) to join them in 1970. The first thing the government of
General Yakubu Gowon did was to outlaw the word Biafra, and gazetted it; which
is why any mention of Biafra got any Nigerian
government angry. Yet, the Igbo cannot do away with the word Biafra.
Why? Biafra is a spirit. You can kill the body
but not the spirit. That is why the word Biafra
keeps recurring like a decimal. To the true Igbo man, Biafra means freedom from
operation in this country called Nigeria. The Igbo man feels, and
events seem to justify it, that he is oppressed in Nigeria nation. The Igbo man
believes in fairness and level playing ground in a competitive environment.
Like all competitions, it is winner takes all. The corollary is that the Igbo
man believes in merit-driven, just and egalitarian society. Nigeria is not
providing the Igbo man the platform to freely express himself.
When the
University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was established by the Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe-led Eastern Nigerian government in 1960, it was widely criticised as a
glorified secondary school when compared to the University College Ibadan,
which was actually University
of London, Ibadan Campus
which was established in 1948. UNN was awarding her own certificates to pioneer
graduates in 1963, when University of Ibadan, established was still awarding the
certificate of University
of London.
Because the
Nigerian nation is denying Igbo man merit in the scheme of things, and in the
right sense of the word, Igbo man feels short-changed with Federal Government
policies like federal character, state of origin, catchment area, and equality
of states principle applied in admission to Federal Government owned secondary
schools and tertiary institutions. That was why my daughter, born in Lagos and
classified as an indigene of Abia State with a higher cut off mark than Lagos
State (72% post JAMB) was denied admission to read Economics at the University
of Lagos whereas her classmate from Ogun State that scored 65% was offered
admission.
The irony here is that my daughter was born in Lagos like her classmate. But when it comes
to admission to Federal government college or university, she is classed as
indigene of Abia State
where my father comes from, and get knocked out by higher Abia cut-off mark
being classed as an educationally advantaged state instead of Lagos State
which at the time was lower.
