This is the News Analysis segment of the Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) Broadcasts.

For September 6, 2003

You have heard the news; now the analysis…

Fellow Biafrans:

We continue to witness the abomination where Ndigbo fall over one another to prove that they are more one-Nigerian than the rest of Nigeria . The rest of Nigeria of course watch this, and they laugh at Ndigbo. They mock Ndigbo. They deride us. It is bad enough to be loathed by them; yet, to be loathed is far better than to be the laughing stock. But we deserve it: we have brought it on ourselves—the loathe and the mockery and laughter directed against Ndigbo has been brought on us this time by Ndigbo ourselves.

Let us give some examples. This week, WIC, in its usual misguided and wasted tradition, provided the context and the venue at its annual jamboree, for this ongoing mockery of Ndigbo. The fact that high-ranking PDP officials had a prominent presence is the first give-away. How quickly we forget that it was PDP who vehemently denied Ndigbo a fair shake during the primaries. How quickly we forget that it was PDP who actively engineered the thorough humiliation of Igbo sons in PDP ranks during the primaries. PDP accomplished this without apology to Ndigbo or regret for their actions. This week, WIC and PDP were as one. All is now forgotten?

Is this not madness on the part of WIC and all Ndigbo who support WIC? Is this not weakness? Is this not cowardice? Is this not stupidity? Is this not foolishness? When PDP throws a party, does it invite WIC? When PDP engages in its power-plays, does it invite Ndigbo? Since when has PDP acted in the best interest of Ndigbo, when it has not finished pleasing General Obasanjo, the Northerners, and then, the Yoruba?

Did PDP not roundly rig the last elections? Do you know who bore the brunt of this rigging? Eastern Region. Igboland. Biafraland. There, our people were killed, injured, intimidated, and jailed so that they could not vote. In some places, voting never happened, yet PDP officials were returned as the winners there. Where voting took place, APGA and Ojukwu won handily, but PDP candidates were declared winners. This happened in broad daylight. This happened all over. Was WIC unaware of this? Can WIC deny what even INEC has admitted to? Ndigbo were just cheated out of their collective political choice by PDP, yet WIC chose to revel together with PDP. Shame. Shame, shame.

Consider the reported issue with Wabara’s statement regarding Ngige and the subsequent reaction. The vocal respondents were using phrases like:

“…a negation of the drive to consolidate Nigeria ’s fledgling democracy...”

How absent-minded can we be? Or shall we call it just what it is—plain stupidity? We ask: where is the drive to consolidate what in Nigeria ? If it is to consolidate fraud, yes. Is it to consolidate usurped power by Obasanjo and PDP? Yes. Is there a drive to consolidate corruption, malfeasance, non-feasance, evil and all the negatives in Nigeria ? Yes! Yes. Yes. But, how could anybody speak of a drive to consolidate democracy in Nigeria —never mind “fledgling”? How do you consolidate democracy by starting off with massive, open rigging of the elections by Obasanjo and PDP, in broad daylight? How do you consolidate democracy by building on non-democratic, fraudulent, rigged elections, whose made-up results are forced upon weaklings such as we have seen here, weaklings who are also apparently stupid, too; so stupid as to apply the expression “consolidat(ing) Nigeria’s [fledgling] democracy”  to what is going on in Nigeria now, to what they have just experienced?

Then, there was this:

“…to smear the person of our illustrious and dynamic President of the Senate, Senator Adolphus Wabara  “

Can you hear the laughter echo in the Savannah and raise dust storms in the North? Can you feel the jeer and mockery from Odualand?  How does one become “illustrious” these days? By rigging the elections; going against the law, using your own private judicial system of bribed and tainted and intimidated judges? Do you become illustrious because you are rewarded for openly rigging the elections and bypassing the established mechanisms—rewarded with the Senate Presidency?

“Dynamic”? In the sense of being a busybody—busy bribing and paying off opponents, yes. Dynamic? In the sense of sinister cleverness and in the sense of the burglar’s nimbleness—yes. But if you are talking about running the Senate or even doing the work of the Senate, forget it! As will become more and more evident, the entire National Assembly sits at the pleasure of General Obasanjo, who makes his own decisions and  then makes his errand boy, the Senate President, deliver them through the Senate. The only dynamism we shall see is how fast the Senate President will run to please General Obasanjo, and how high he will jump when the General says, “hey!” or how quickly he can pack up his bags when the General decides to pick another Senate President.

It is for these reasons that the rest of Nigeria are laughing at us. It is only Ndigbo who do not want to accept and understand that they are not wanted in Nigeria ; that whatever token position they are begrudged comes with a hefty prize, and is only temporary. Like the rejected who have also rejected themselves, we talk and act in such a way as to over-compensate for our rejection by wanting so much to over-embrace that which would have nothing to do with us. We push for one-Nigeria when every other nation living in Nigeria knows fully well that Nigeria can never be one, and that the Igbo are not really wanted in it, anyway. We believe our illusion of democracy in Nigeria and draw laughter from others because they can see that there is no (possibility of) democracy in Nigeria .

When will Ndigbo learn? When will Ndigbo come to terms with their true plight in one-Nigeria? Obviously, it will take a while. While the Igbo are busy holding their WIC-type celebrations, the rest of Nigeria continue to dig deeper the grave into which the Igbo are being steadily lowered. While Ndigbo expect civility from one-Nigeria, the rest of Nigeria laugh and mock and taunt Ndigbo for their naiveté or rather, foolishness, for Ndigbo actually thinking that there is, or will be, civility in Nigeria .

Ndigbo are busy talking about “treason” in Anambra as if treason exists in a vacuum, and you can apply it any time you like, without context. Is treason based on the constitution? Does not the constitution talk about duly elected officials in a free and fair election? Why would anybody forget that? The facts are that the constitution was already contravened when Dr. Ngige was sworn in as the Governor of Anambra: he was not freely or fairly elected; he was not even duly elected. That honor belongs to the APGA candidate. Why are the people not demanding that the APGA candidate be the rightful Governor of Anambra? How is it that you can allow and accept the breaking of the constitution in the first instance, and then have the guts or moral courage to challenge the consequences, citing the same constitution which you earlier conveniently abandoned? It does not become a people with a functioning conscience so to do!

Having learned how godfathers controlled the outcome and declared and chose the winners of the April elections and hand-picked the list of appointees at all levels of government, why is anybody still talking about the constitution, or democracy in Nigeria ? Sure, the rest of Nigeria may talk about it in lip-service; but only Ndigbo take it seriously and will sacrifice even their own Igbo nation for this lie.

While Ndigbo are engaged in this farce, can you believe they also fail to take note of other significant events? Once again, Anambra can be used to make this point. Recently, huge deposits of oil were discovered in Anambra.  (Actually, “confirmed” is the right word. As it will turn out and as we shall find out later, the whole of Biafra sits over large oil deposits! But, that’s a different story.) Anyway, this oil wealth is confirmed in Anambra. The company involved in the exploration then announces that it will move its headquarters to Lagos ! Yes, you heard it right. Oil discovered in Anambra. Headquarters of the Oil Company to be relocated to Lagos ! What is wrong with this picture? Our oil, found on our land, is good enough for them. But we are not good enough for them to build their headquarters in our land! Imagine that? And to think that nobody raised a voice in protest. No, that would be too much to ask for. Just for somebody to raise a brow in recognition of this impropriety and insult, not to speak of exploitation. They never raised a brow.  Where was Ngige? Where was Wabara? Where was WIC? Where were those talking about duly elected governors and illustrious sons?

Fellow Biafrans: it is clear that only Divine intervention can save us as a people. We are far too gone; like the fly that received no counsel, we have followed this corpse called one-Nigeria into its grave, and are almost buried alive with it. If our liberation depended on us as a people, all has already been lost.  Even this understanding is lost to the present generations of Igbo-Biafrans, young and old!

So, fellow Biafrans: join us in asking God to remove our burden so that we can be who He made us—Biafrans, and be where he created for us, Biafra; having now realized how weakened we are as a people, and how drugged we are with the noxious poison called one-Nigeria. Because with God, all things are possible, all things come to fruition; let us nurture the hope that God shall deliver us; let us live with the faith that God has already delivered us, in spite of ourselves. For in that day when we shall proclaim, Hail the Sovereign Nation of Biafra! let nobody or group attempt to take credit, but rather, accept with profound humility and gratitude what God had wrought with His own hands for God and for us.  Amen.

Biafra lives!

That’s the news analysis fro the week. Thank you.

God bless and keep Biafra ; and you, until our next broadcast. Voice of Biafra International broadcast continues. (http://www.biafraland.com; follow “Voice of Biafra” ink.