Why Everyone Should Join The Biafra Restoration Struggle
A bit more on why I urge everyone from the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria to quickly join the Biafra restoration struggle and to be ready to ‘fight’ in every way possible for the restoration of the Sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra. Shamefully, the destiny of our people are tied to the apron-strings of ‘foreigners’ who take away our resources, spite us and kill our people at will. Today the burden is becoming unbearable and the people are rightfully getting restless. Today in Nigeria, we are treated like a conquered people, though we pretend it is not true or try to hide our shame by not talking about it. But it is true! And sadly so! ‘They’ are born to rule! We are born to be ruled! And ‘they’ have made it clear to us both in words and in works. Today, all the natural ports and harbours in the coastlands of our region, the Lower Niger, are either suppressed or managed by these ‘foreigners’. All our international outlets/inlets and borders are either shutdown or placed under ‘their’ spiteful watch.
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Today, the oilfields that God graciously gave to our peoples, along the gulf of Guinea, are owned and exploited by the same ‘foreigners’. They enrich themselves with the treasures in our region, then they ‘buy’ some of us and use them against us; to divide us, to convince us that we are not brothers but enemies of each other and to persuade us never to unite as one. In the past they succeeded in this game. But now, no! They will not! Dear Easterners, dear Biafrans, today in Nigeria, professionals, public servants and even politicians from our region are either side-lined or sacked whenever they reach the peak of their career. They are never fit to be in-charge! Today, the God-given talents and ingenuity of so many of our people are ignored, frustrated, ‘condemned’ to rot and waste away. Today, while ‘they’ empower themselves and monopolize the market, our businesses are ‘strangled’, the investments of our entrepreneurs are tactically, tacitly ‘mowed’ down.
Today, our people can only excel if they adopt ‘their’ names or ‘their’ religion or travel abroad. Thus, the best among us have all gone abroad or are seeking to. Today, even the politicians from our region advance in national politics only if they play second fiddle or if they agree to corporate in subjugating their own people. Today, other people eat the food and ask us to wash the plates: they take the oil and leave the land for us polluted. Yet ‘they’ defile our land with the blood of our young. Our youths are hunted like game and crushed at any little ‘protest’, but ‘they’ groom and arm their own for conquest. Even to police our land and protect ourselves from killers, we not only need permission from these ‘foreigners’, we also depend on them for it.
Today, we cannot elect our leaders, refine our gas, generate electricity, import or export anything, secure our borders or relate with the world around us without their consent. We cannot build factories, universities, banks, roads and railways, tv and print media stations, etc, unless we get permission from ‘them’. Clearly, we are in a bondage! We are in a democratic enslavement, where the terms of slavery are written in the 1999 constitution that our people did not make. It is quite a mystery that for 50 years, we have been moving on with this enslavement as though everything were alright. Surely, God would not be happy with us for being so cowardly, so unworthy of his many blessings, for this long! Even if we do not fight to liberate our generations — past, present and prospective — from this bondage, we should fight to vindicate God our Father; we should fight to justify God’s decision to bless us with such abundance of natural and intellectual treasures.
What about the millions of our forebears who believed in the Sovereignty of Biafra and gave their lives for it? Should we abandon the cause for which these real men died? What about our brave warriors who did not shrink before their enemies but resisted the lion with bare hands and empty stomach? Should we trample their unburied bones and taunt their bravery? What about our millions of women and children strangled with starvation and disease because of Biafra? What about our people slaughtered all over the country just because they come from the Biafra region? What about the blood of MEND, MOSSOP, MASSOB, IPOB etc, spilled before our eyes by agents of the same people who hate the name Biafra? Should they all die in vain? How shall we be able to honour them if Biafra is not restored? How? Where shall their warrior-souls find rest? In Nigeria or in their Biafra? If the living do nothing to honour the dead, the dead may rise against the living!
What about the fortune in talent and treasure wasted by the Nigerian State after the war only to further subjugate the rise of Biafra? Who will wipe away the shame of our people? What about that noble vision of Biafra, by Frank Opigo who also suggested the name Biafra? What about the labours of Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Philip Effiong, Hugh Taffy Williams, Albert Okonkwo, Ignatius Kogbara, Okoko Ndem, Ogbugo Kalu, Joe Achuzie, Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Humphrey Chukwuka, Obi Wali, etc? What would be the verdict of history on the present generation of Biafrans, if we fail to vindicate the conviction of our fallen forebears and choose to dine with those who unjustly brought war and death upon them? There is no doubt that we have more reasons to ‘fight’ for Biafra today, than our fathers had 50 years ago. The situations that ‘angered’ them to fight for Biafra then are even worse today! Therefore, all of us — Anang, Anioma, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Ikwerre, Itsekiri, Ogoja, Ogoni, Urhobo, etc — should join the freedom-struggle in whatever way possible; through IPOB, MASSOB, MOSSOP, MEND, IYC, BCG, BNL, BZM or BZF, LNC, NINAS, etc or individually. We should all unite and do whatever is needed to restore the sovereignty and freedom of the defunct Republic of Biafra. With the new wave of self-determination, with the rise of the Yoruba and with the partnership of the Ambazonians, the best time to set ourselves free is now.
Michael Richmond Duru
Saturday, 1st May 2021 https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
