This is the News Analysis Segment of the Voice of Biafra International Broadcasts.
For January 11th 2003
You have heard the news, now, the analysis…
Fellow Biafrans:
Since the elections / primaries are on your mind now, we shall spend some time on these issues. We do this against the background of our predictions that the elections will not hold; if they manage to hold, the results will be inconclusive and a lot of chaos with a bloody outcome very much likely. If there is still an entity called one Nigeria after May 2003, it will be run by the same cabal of old, tired, inept politician-crooks who have run out of ideas (of which they really didn’t have any to start with); it will be a non-country coasting rapidly downhill for ultimate destruction. Either way, when the dust clears—and it shall— Biafra shall be there, shining in her full glory, ready to begin nation-building.
As usual, General Obasanjo .has reassured all of you that there will be no violence associated with the April elections. He has conveniently ignored the politically motivated violence that has already been going on since he and his friends got the idea of self-succession. The General has used self-succession as blackmail material against his fellow inept politicians—especially the state governors. If they want to self-succeed, they too must support him to self-succeed. So it is that if this succeeds, then, you all will be getting the self-same politicians who have been ruining the lives of the peoples and Nations living in Nigeria in the past 4 years, and longer. They had no good ideas then; how can we expect them to now?. So it is that the General and his friends are inviting the ire of the people, practically goading them into righteous and bloody indignation—once the people see that the General’s ploy is working. The General does not figure on this.
But this won’t be the first, second or even the last time that General Obasanjo has mis-figured. Remember the recent Miss World Beauty Pageant? General Obasanjo went around and convinced everybody, including the rest of the world, that everything was okay, and that it was safe to hold the pageant in Nigeria . Well, you all know what happened. By the time it was all over—if it is, General Obasanjo found a scapegoat to blame: the poor Igbo-Biafran journalist who wrote an article in ThisDay newspaper. This Igbo-Biafran now has a death sentence hanging over her head, thanks to General Obasanjo who egged the Northerners on by apologizing to them and letting them know that they were justifiably provoked into killing, maiming and dispossessing hundreds of innocent Igbo-Biafrans living in the North, because of this article. Thus the Northerners were emboldened to pronounce the Sharia-prescribed Fatwa on our beloved sister, over BBC, to the entire world, without qualm, without shame, without conscience. In the meantime, Igbo-Biafran corpses were being buried in mass graves; the security forces occupying Biafraland and General Obasanjo’s State governor-lackeys conspired to not allow a decent burial for these innocent victims in Biafraland because they did not want to face the wrath of aggrieved Igbo-Biafrans.
Well, it is the same General who is now promising you that the elections will be free of violence. If you want to believe that—if you want to believe him—that’s really up to you. We, of course, do not harbor any ill will to anybody—far be it! But we do want you to use your head. Oh yes, the General may call us “doomsday prophets”; at least, we are using the facts to make predictions. But, he is pretending that the facts do not exist; YOU are the one who is going to pay with your life and property when he is proven wrong.
Now, consider the recently concluded PDP primaries. The General and his friends are happy with themselves because he “won” real big. But this is a telling “victory,” because all it has proved is that the Igbo-Biafran will always be cheated out of any meaningful position even when he or she is the most qualified, or even if the position is due him or her—and it will happen time after time.
So, we feel sorry for all those Igbo-Biafrans who failed, or pretended not, to hear us when we proclaimed here that there is no future for Ndigbo-Biafrans in Nigeria . Yes, even our worst enemies—the rest of Nigeria, that is—will admit that Igbo-Biafrans are the hardest working, most contributing , most-this and most-that of all the nations living in Nigeria. Yet, even our so-called friends, if there are any, in the rest of Nigeria shall be first to deny the Igbo-Biafran his or her due. We trust that the Igbo-Biafrans have been taught their lesson now. It will be so sad if the efulefu’s continue in their idiotic belief that Ndigbo should continue to struggle to stay in Nigeria . The fact is that Nigeria wants the Igbo-Biafrans in one Nigeria only so that Nigeria may use that structure to occupy Biafraland, imprison and suppress and subjugate and exploit and taunt Igbo-Biafrans. All the while, Nigeria pumps and steals Biafra ’s Oil and wealth, refuses to give any back and destroys the Biafran ecology and environment.
And, we equally feel sorry for the rest of Nigeria . They are celebrating what they consider victory over a more deserving candidate who lost out merely because he is Igbo-Biafran. Let us paint the picture for you, Nigerians. Although Nigerians can claim that they have not voted yet, and that primaries are a partisan crony-affair, much like thieves getting together to select the most thieving of the lot, there is no denying that these partisans reflect the general thinking of the rest of Nigeria as that thinking applies to Igbo-Biafrans. By choosing Obasanjo in the primaries, you have chosen:
1) A murderer. General Obasanjo first incited his Army, then gave the command, for the Army to go out and kill innocent and unarmed civilians in Odi and Junkun, and destroy their villages, going as far as decorating and promoting the commanding officer of one of the bloody massacres, afterwards. It was not until a few days ago, while oiling his self-succession bid, that General Obasanjo expressed remorse for just one of these dastardly acts. Of course, he had to do so for the Northerners. Clearly, the Odi people—Biafrans—did not deserve the General’s apology.
No other head of State in the world today, including the most backward countries (of which Nigeria has joined the club, thanks to her rulers), would commit such acts in this present era. The people living in Nigeria still see no reason to disqualify this man from office. Why should Nigeria deserve any better?
2) A known incompetent and ineffectual politician and an administration which has run out of ideas—just like the preceding ones. General Obasanjo’s only success is that he spent money that Nigeria does not have in buying and maintaining a presidential airplane so that he could jet around the world, spending almost one third of his current tenure outside of Nigeria. Otherwise, everything else got worse; and the peoples of Nigeria , long dulled by constant adversity and poverty even sensed and felt the accelerated pace of decline.
3) To place the final nail in the coffin of Nigeria as a corporate political entity. We always knew that Nigeria was not whole or one, in spite of your not-so-hidden pretenses. We thank you for making it easier for Biafra Actualization. We have always known that in spite of the heavy-handedness of Nigeria in their treatment of Biafra , and in spite of occupation of Biafra by Nigeria , the actualization of Biafra actually depends solely on Biafrans. By the events of these primaries and their extrapolation to elections which you may never get to, it will be a foolhardy and masochistic Igbo-Biafran who still refuses to turn away from Nigeria and look towards Biafra for emancipation, for fulfillment, and for security. Thank you , Nigeria , for convincing Igbo-Biafrans of their sole identity and sole citizenship of Biafra when we ourselves were having problems getting them to see the light.
Fellow Biafrans, let us capitalize on the confirmatory revelations from these primaries by resolving firmly and insisting on Biafra actualization through the vehicle of a Sovereign National Conference. And if further chaos and hostility make Sovereign National Conference impossible, we must have the courage and fortitude to make a formal declaration of our sovereignty and independence at that time.
It is once again our sad duty to announce the detention of another set of committed Biafrans of the MASSOB group by the Security Agents of Nigeria at the Cameroonian border with Nigeria . International law and Human rights do not recognize as crime non-violent self- or group-expression and right of association as, and with, non-violent groups. MASSOB is not a violent organization. MASSOB is an avowed non-violent movement. We urge General Obasanjo to release our Biafran people without further delay. Neither General Obasanjo nor the government of Nigeria has any moral or legal standing to arrest and detain these Biafrans. Everybody, even hostile (to Biafrans) Nigerians, know that the chief destabilizer of Nigeria today is not MASSOB, but General Obasanjo and the likes of him, whose selfish insistence on self-succession rather than allowing the spirit of regional rotation of the Presidency, is about to finish off Nigeria. It is in fact the policies and the agenda of Nigeria, supported and carried out by successive Nigerian administrations and leadership, including and especially General Obasanjo, calculated to exploit, dispossess, displace, cheat, humiliate, hurt and kill Igbo-Biafrans, that have ensured the imminent dissolution of Nigeria. MASSOB is not the problem; when you, General Obasanjo, take a look in the mirror, with Nigeria at your side or you as a representative of Nigeria , you shall know who the enemy of Nigeria is. We ask you to release MASSOB members and leave them alone. Do, keep in mind: the laws of humanity represented as United Nations are watching you. You shall someday be held accountable to this legal body for your deeds today.
Fellow Biafrans, it is time to say: Give us Biafra ! Nothing else has any chance of replacing Biafra .
It is equally time to say, we have Biafra ! When we mean it and we say it, it shall happen. Biafra actualization is up to Biafrans. We therefore re-state our appreciation for all those contributing in any way and in their own ways to Biafra actualization: our Chi shall crown all your, our, efforts.
Biafra lives!!!
That’s the news analysis for the week. Thank you
God bless and keep Biafra this New Year; and you, this New Year, and until our next broadcast. Voice of Biafra International Broadcast continues (go to http://www,biafraland.com; follow “Voice of Biafra” link for the web version).