Biafra agitation and push for secession from Nigeria led by Nnamdi Kanu under the aegis of the Indigenous People of Biafra – IPOB, might be the end of the recurrent rise of Biafra agitation since the first declaration in 1967 by the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Despite being popular among many Southeasterners, the Biafran idea championed by IPOB has shown clear signs of fundamental challenge that has erased the need for it altogether. The whole essence of an independent Biafra has been grossly tainted by Igbo blood and sweat, the very things it set out to protect. All manner of internal wrangling among IPOB leaders over accusations of misappropriation or abuse of trust has been witnessed. But even more, the soul of Biafra lies in the feeling of insecurity among Ndi Igbo in other parts of Nigeria, particularly the North. The Nigerian government’s inability to protect or guarantee the safety of the Igbo in different parts of Nigeria, especially when nerves are frayed, directly led to the proclamation of a Biafran Republic. The Republic was envisioned as an oasis of confidence and a fortress of safety for all the Igbo. But in IPOB, Biafra defeated itself and turned the war within. The idea was that it doesn’t matter what is happening in Nigeria, but once an Igbo man or woman steps into the Southeast, he or she is safe from harm. This is no longer the case. Instead, people now run away from the Southeast to be safe.
Never, in the history of agitation for self-determination, has a people turned the war within, the way IPOB has done to the Southeast, leading to avoidable deaths, capital and investment flight, deepening insecurity, and development challenges. The intensity of how the agitation has been exposed beyond repair finds expression in the fact that the two known leaders of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu and Simeon Ekpa, are both serving prison terms on terrorism related convictions in Nigeria and Finland, respectively. No decent individual, government, or group can boldly associate with an organization whose leaders are duly convicted and imprisoned in different continents for the same or related offence. It has to be said that the agitation has collapsed. Any agitation that can no longer leverage the credibility of its leadership has lost it completely.
At first, the level of cruelty and abuse associated with the neo-Biafra agitation was linked to external forces, particularly the Fulani militia. But, over time, that façade of falsehood has fallen off. Today, such claims are easily laughed off as baseless and meaningless deception dressed as propaganda. Repeatedly, the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, has said that those involved in the kidnapping and maiming of innocent people in Anambra State are Igbo. The governor has maintained that, based on records of arrest from security agencies, those hiding inside the forest to commit crime are Igbo, not outsiders. This did not come to many as a surprise because, even on social media, no other individual or group threatens fellow Igbo more than an Igbo who is sympathetic to IPOB. Any abusive comment and threat against an Igbo who disagrees with IPOB comes from another Igbo person 100% of the time. This pattern is not a mere coincidence as it correlates with support to the activities of gunmen christened unknown gunmen or UGM, long suspected to be the same as IPOB’s ESN. The pattern online and offline is unmistakable. IPOB is fueled online by a mirage of social media accounts that might not be real. This has left an impression that the group is popular and has caused fear, forcing many to withdraw. To buttress, many of these accounts online are locked by owners so that they are not randomly viewed. This goes to show that what is happening in the Southeast is a calculated onslaught, nurtured by a disruptive passion that lacked direction and intent for the public good. Unfortunately, this is an agitation founded at inception on the absolute and non-negotiable safety of Ndi Igbo in the Southeast.
The recent expose by Chukwuka Ofoegbu, otherwise known as Ijele, who is on the team of the Joint Task Force clearing criminal camps linked to armed gangs masquerading as freedom fighters in Anambra and Imo, has been extremely disturbing. The courage to commit such crimes in the Southeast in the pretense of fighting for Southeasterners is nothing short of a special kind of delusion and lunacy joined together. However, it should not come as a surprise to many, because one cannot give what one does not have. In a situation where jobless or menial workers embrace a “liberation movement” to liberate themselves from hardship through criminality, it is impossible to expect less from such a so-called movement. It was impossible for such an arrangement not to turn its access to weapons and competence in extreme violence within. Professionals and successful businesspeople within Nigeria and outside, those who are up the economic and social ladder and are sympathetic to the agitation, when they need armed protection, they go to the Police, Army, or DSS. But when it comes to so-called Southeast protection from violent herdsmen, they gather all manner of characters and hand them rifles.
Having now gone the full cycle with Ndi Igbo bearing the loss exclusively at each stage, Biafra agitation should now be confined to history. The Igbo must devise other political means to advance its just cause in Nigeria.
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