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E-mail: biafrafoundation@yahoo.com

September 4, 2003

CONTACT: Board of Directors

RE: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BIAFRA: A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE SITUATION OF NDIGBO IN NIGERIA.

As a participant at this conference we invite you to take a very critical look at the situation of Ndigbo in Nigeria. Think of these:

v The almost absolute lack of FREEDOM of speech, assembly, and even the freedom to elect one’s representative to an assembly;

v The denial of LIBERTY to live in a place of ones choice, practice ones religious faith, seek employment and happiness and pursue legitimate means of earning a livelihood;

v The unabated trampling of the INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS of Igbo men, women and children;

v The sustained assault on Igbo CULTURE and the pulverization of Igbo IDENTITY, an effective strategy for rendering a people irrelevant and inconsequential;

v The unrelenting chokehold of ECONOMIC and SOCIAL INJUSTICE that is squeezing life out of millions of young and not so young Igbo men and women;

v The undeclared war on those COMMON FACTORS that account for the remarkable successes that the Igbo have recorded in the past few centuries; Such factors as strong adherence to democratic principles and practices; the rejection of feudalism, authoritarianism, and despotic monarchy; respect for industry and creativity; enthusiasm for education and skill acquisition; respect for labor and private property; admiration of enterprise and entrepreneurship; belief in individual achievement tempered by community orientation; belief in equal opportunity and respect of individual merit; respect for the rule of law; respect for honesty, selfless service and service to the community; respect for and protection of the environment; unrelenting quest for freedom, liberty, justice, equity, and fairness etc, etc.

We ask you to look at these, and to note the systematic and progressive erosion of these values, beliefs, principles, and practices, the steady decimation and ultimate destruction of Ndigbo by their continued association with Nigeria and the Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba feudalists, “jihadists” and despotic monarchs.

It has been 33 years since the end of the Biafra-Nigeria War. The humiliation, devastation and destruction of Igbo Society have continued unabated. This destruction has gathered momentum with the passage of time and the situation has progressed from bad to worst. If this decline is not stopped NOW our civilization will surely disappear and eventually cease to exist. It is of no benefit to sit in one corner and whine and point accusing fingers. The time for action is now.

We all remember the magnificent economic development (the sixth fastest growing economy in the world then), the miracle in agricultural development, the leapfrog in primary, secondary and tertiary education, the solid foundation for the industrialization of Igbo land and Eastern Nigeria through industrial layouts all of which were taking place in Igbo land and indeed in Eastern Nigeria in the early 1960’s before the Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba feudal government of Nigeria invaded Igbo land and Biafra. Before this invasion, the Igbo were in control of their lives. They had and enjoyed their freedom, liberty, and were proud of their identity. Ndigbo made their own laws and enforced them. They controlled their resources. They planned their own social, economic, educational, agricultural, industrial, and technological development programs, implemented these programs and evaluated their effectiveness. Most importantly they chose their own leaders, not rulers. Different communities held their leaders accountable to whatever standards of conduct the communities prescribed. They recognized, rewarded, and revered, honest, intelligent and visionary leaders and reviled, removed and often punished irresponsible, corrupt, visionless, or simply bad leaders. Thus Igbo men, women and children everywhere and in every community strove for excellence as they emulated the shinning examples laid down by their positive role models.

Today, Ndigbo are in slave like bondage. Nigeria has taken away their freedom, liberty and crushed their identity. Ndigbo are still the same people. They still live in the same environment. Only one thing has changed - government. Ndigbo are now trapped in a criminal feudal structure whose hallmark is denial of individual rights, freedom and liberty, and an insatiable appetite for graft, stealing, corruption, fraud, lying, cheating, and other outrageous criminal behaviors that are seen only when the bottom of the barrel of the basest society is scrapped. It is no wonder that Nigeria has the unenviable “honor” of being acclaimed “most corrupt country in the world” two times in three years by Transparency International. To survive, Igbo society must get out of this monstrous sociopolitical contraption. Igbo and other Biafrans, you really have no choice but to get out of Nigeria now or risk disappearing into oblivion.

It is on this ground that we invite you to this International Conference on Biafra.

The conference has three main goals:

To brainstorm on the strategies for actualizing the Sovereign Republic of Biafra,
To ex-ray the model of the Republic of Biafra with a view to clearly conceptualizing, articulating, and appreciating the nature of the society that the Republic of Biafra intends to build,
To lay out in broad outlines the plans for achieving the kind of society we envision having in the Republic of Biafra.

In essence we ask you to focus your thoughts on how we can actualize the Sovereign Republic of Biafra, what the model Biafran Society we want to build will look like and how we can go about achieving this model Society that all Biafrans will proudly call their Nation and their Home.

We urge you to spend some time thinking seriously about these issues. We suggest that you put your thoughts concisely in a paper you will present at the conference. The paper should be about 3-5 pages, typed double spaced. We request that you email a short abstract of 500 words to Biafrafoundation@yahoo.com to enable the organizers schedule your paper for delivery. Abstracts must be received by September 30, 2003 to be included in the program package. You will be given about ten minutes to summarize or read your paper before it is thrown open for discussion. All the papers will be collated, and edited for publication.

PS.

We urge you to remit your registration fees ahead of the conference date of October 18, 2003 ( Please see the invitation to the conference which was posted earlier).