By Greatson Chinaka
It is not in the culture of the intellectual power base of the Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB and even other Biafra agitation groups today in the country to respond to all manner of peoples’ views on the subject matter of freedom for Biafra, especially those marked saboteurs who will always maintain contrary views.
This is because even at the heat of the main agitation between 1967 and 1970 which was the Nigeria-Biafra war, Biafra as a nation suffered and fell not because of its inability to withstand the combined forces of Nigeria with its international allies, but due mainly as a result of activities of saboteurs within its camp.
It turned out that some of our brothers from the wet land of Baifraland who were together with their kinsmen on hunting expedition suddenly started seeing their siblings as antelopes. Ever since then, there’s always these fellows that would always rise up to reenact what they did to scuttle Biafran freedom on a platter of porridge.
So, when last week the news broke out that an unstructured group which only operates on the social media issued a communique denouncing Biafra and calling on Biafrans to stop protesting on Biafra land, some people like us who do not belong to any of the Biafra agitation groups but believe in the struggle were not that surprised. We are already conversant with such trends from that region.
What surprised this writer however is the involvement of a certain traditional ruler in the entire shameful project. This was coming on the heels of a recent parade of another traditional ruler from the same zone by the Nigeria police on account of fraud, impersonation of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and attempt to obtain by false pretences. It was at a time an elder statesman, Edwin Clarke was shouting to roof top that the 2017 budget has no provision for the Niger Delta region. It was at a time statistics are showing that allocations to the North is far more than that to the South which contributes more to the centre. One then starts to wonder what calibre of rogues we have allowed to be enthroned these days as our monarchs.
Nothing much was known about HRM, Obong (Dr) EU Ekidem except that he inherited his fore-father’s traditional stool as the Ntisong Ibibio III, the Ntisong of Ibibio land in the present day Akwa Ibom state and currently parades himself as the Acting Chairman of his imaginary “Ethnic Nationalities of South-South Zone”; a platform for selfish bargain with enemy country, Nigeria.
His co-traveller, Barr. Edward Ekpoko has remained the secretary of his oil money spilling contraption known as Itsekiri Leaders of Thought and self-acclaimed chairman of Warri Study Group; all groups he designed for himself as a platform for syphoning the collective wealth of his people in connivance with his Hausa-Fulani paymasters.
Urhobo man Albert Akpomudje is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); a Warri based lawyer who has never been known for any meaningful leadership contributions both in his Akphere in Olomu clan of Ughelli South Local Government Area and Delta state as a whole except his recent appointment by the Nigeria Bar Association to chair its Taskforce on Niger Delta. Ekpomudje who is in his 60s believes his NBA appointments is the only sure way of bringing him closer to success, thus sees the agitation by his Biafra people for freedom as distraction.
Prof A.M. Onyeozu is the self-made President General of an Igbo organization called Ogbakor-Ikwerre. As a card-carrying member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and a lecturer with the University of Port Harcourt, he has managed to develop an identity for himself all to no avail until shortly after the 2015 general elections he had the opportunity of a handshake with General Muhammadu Buhari hoping for a ministerial appointment. This never came and he is still very much working for it even if it entails selling off his birthright and identity.
It then continues that all signatories in the so-called communique issued recently by the so-called “Ethnic Nationalities of the South-South Zone” denouncing Biafra after a meeting with the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were all hirelings. These were same men who did same dirty job sometime in 2015 shortly after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari as President.
They were roundly denounced and denied by several other groups and they disappeared ever since then in shame. Today, after extracting a promise from the Presidency through the Vice President who recently had a meeting with them, that contracts would be awarded to them as guards across the Niger-Delta, they are back again shouting on high heavens against their people. Shame!
If only Pastor Nelson Koko Bassey, Ulap Bidiak Ulo, Obong Ukpong Umoli and Obong Aniete Ndem knew that within a cabal of saboteurs exists a bigger cabal, they would have thought twice before appending their signatures on the shameless communique released recently. Unfortunately, they have opened wide their mouths and maggots are now pouring out. They have leaped without looking. They have all broken their legs.
The promise of a N2.4b Oil Fields Protection Taskforce they are expecting from the presidency after their closed-door meeting with Mr. Vice President will ever remain a dream, and behind them shall be Biafra. Those who sell and betray their kinsmen to slavery will not only remain slaves themselves but shall die in chains.
For the records, Obong Ekidem and his Fulani-Hausa masters cannot stop Biafrans from protesting in Nigeria, let alone their land in Biafra. Biafra as is well documented is not only of the Igbos, no matter how our enemies try to divide us. Biafran last Head of State and Commander-in-Chief was not from the Igbo-speaking area of Biafraland, thus Biafra land is beyond areas occupied by the Igbo-speaking people of the country.
Obong Ekidem and his cohorts should know that Biafra land cuts across Itsekiriland on the western boundary, Oduduwa to Bakassi on the eastern boundary with Cameroon. Biafraland also stretches across from Idoma and Igala land on the northern boundary with Arewa or Northern Nigeria to the Bight of Biafra which is South of the beautiful island of Bonny. These are facts of history that can never be rewritten.
As it is today, the nation of Biafra consists of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, and Rivers states as well as Igbanke in Edo state, Igala in Kogi State, and Idoma in Benue state. What this shows is that Biafra is not populated by only the Igbo-speaking people as always sold to some of the Hausa-Fulani agents who take pride in answering whatever names they are given by their masters.
What I have always found difficult to comprehend is how these saboteurs derive joy in working against their own people. Why do they fear and feel that their Igbo brothers are their greatest enemies and are interested in their oil while those that maim, slaughter and covert their resources are their friends? How much do these characters truly worth that they are ever ready to trade off their people at each given opportunity?
With due recognitions to the writer, Lazarus Obinna, I wish to join in asking our South-South brothers with this contrived theory that Ndigbo want your oil and desired to recolonize you, these simple questions; who cast this spell on you? Who actually want your oil; the Igbo people who already have oil or the almajiris who have no single oil deposit on their desert?
“It wasn’t the Igbos that killed Isaac Adaka Boro. Hausa /Fulani oligarchs did even though he denied his people and fought against them.
It wasn’t the Igbos that killed Ken Saro-Wiwa for asking for resource control. Hausa/Fulani Oligarchs did even though Ken was against his people as well.
It wasn’t the Igbos that killed or imprisoned your Niger Delta chieftains for asking for resource control. Hausa/ Fulani oligarchs did.
It wasn’t an Igbo man that led the military operation that massacred over 700 people in Asaba. Hausa/ Fulani oligarchs did.
It is not the Igbos that own and control over 80% of the oil well in your land according to your brother, Senator Ita Enang. Hausa/Fulani oligarchs do.
When they hated your (Our) brother, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and wanted him out of power at all cost, it was the Igbos who stood by him, supported him against all odds even when you, his own brothers ( Timipre Sylva, Rotimi Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhole) sponsored all the dangerous lies and propaganda and protest against him. They have not stopped hating him and we have not stopped loving him.
The Igbos are not the people killing farmers in your villages and feeding their cows with your farm produce and destroying your lands and raping your wives and daughters. Hausa/Fulani herdsmen and their oil companies’ partners do.
No Igbo man has laid claim to the oil in Bayelsa, Rivers or Delta. Hausa/Fulani man from Jigawa state did.
How terrible our brother, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu would be wriggling now in pains and heart break! His people have turned to zombies in their own land. Oh, shame to a people without identity. When it pleases, they call you Lower Delta, Upper Delta, Niger Delta, South-south, etc. When it pleases, you answer Igbo and at another time you denounce Igbo. You have misguided your children. You are Igbo by convenience and have lost your identity. Your birthrights have been thrown to the dogs and you are celebrating and fighting over crumbs.
It is until you understand the divide and rule tactics of our enemies, you may remain their slaves forever. I agree that the Igbo man is proud and also agree there is a possibility of Igbo dominance because of their size, but don’t you think the spirit of competition of the Igbo man is better than the spirit of conquest of the Hausa/Fulani man?
Texas is the oil hub of America but it is not richer than the state of Illinois……. The Igbos can survive without oil but can those deceiving you survive without the allocation coming from oil?
They will tell you the Igbos are after your oil while in actual sense they are the ones who want your oil and have killed your brothers to have it and they still want to have it forever.
With the Igbos, you have an ally and a competitor who would propel you to do your best to get the best not one that will always intimidate or kill you over your own property.
Let’s put an end to this divide and rule tactics that they have used over the years to pitch us against one another. The Igbos want you because we are brothers not because of your oil as sold to your parents who are still today their agents.
However, the earlier Obong Ekidem and his co-travellers appreciate that their time is up; the earlier they learn that such cheap and shallow propaganda does no longer divide us, the better. I am not against their taking up any contract from their agents (because it is theirs actually), but what is stupid, distasteful, repugnant and abominable is when they try to deny Biafrans existence in their own land or stop us from having peaceful assemblage and protests on Biafraland. This will be punishable by the wrath of God, not man.
Greatson Chinaka wrote from Dubai, UAE.
