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

For September 20, 2003  

You have heard the news; now the analysis…  

Fellow Biafrans:  

Does it come as a surprise to you that the government of one-Nigeria does not have any funds to pay pensioners? Does it come as a surprise to you that the government of Nigeria has been deceiving pensioners and civil servants by not admitting to them earlier that it does not have the money which it owes to them? Everyday, year in year out, the pensioners keep a vigil, night and day, in Abuja , waiting; hoping, praying that someone from the government will come out and pay them what is due them. Everyday, night and day, year in, year out, no representative from the government comes out to tell them the truth. Finally, the pensioners and civil servants know the truth. Finally, all the peoples living in Nigeria have the truth: the government has squandered their pension funds and their salaries—don’t ask us how!  

What are you going to do now, pensioners? What are you going to do now, civil service personnel? What are you going to do now, all the families, friends and relatives that count on the availability of these funds for just a meager subsistence? Children of pensioners—sons and daughters—what are you going to do? Wives and husbands of pensioners and civil service personnel, what are your plans? And for that matter: peoples living in Nigeria , what do you intend to do about this?  

How long are you going to be patient with one-Nigeria? How long are you going to blindly accept one-Nigeria? For how long will you acquiesce to one-Nigeria? How long are you going to forgive one-Nigeria? How much longer are you going to pretend that one-Nigeria is doing you any good? How much longer are you going to ignore the constant injury that you keep suffering at the hands of one-Nigeria?  

One-Nigeria has touched you with its leprous fingers all along. In fact, one-Nigeria has always had its leprous fingers around your throat all the time. One-Nigeria has killed the peoples living in Nigeria , and is still doing so today. One-Nigeria has robbed the peoples living in Nigeria —and continues to do so at the present, with the same plans for tomorrow and the future. You, the pensioner, the civil service personnel, thought that you were faring “less worse” than the rest of the peoples living in Nigeria . Now, do you still feel that way? Do you still think that way? As with the goose, so with the gander: one-Nigeria cheats and robs and kills and suffocates and humiliates everything in its path, everything under the dark span of its evil wings.  Now, you can’t fail to notice.  

We invite you to join us in demanding that one-Nigeria must go. It is not just the current government of General Obasanjo who rigged his way into governance by fraud, intimidation and usurpation of power, that must go. It is the entire structure called one-Nigeria that must go.  If you replaced the government in one-Nigeria, the same thing would happen again. Because one- Nigeria is evil. Because one-Nigeria is a visionless place (even General Obasanjo has told you the same: there is no vision in one-Nigeria; he should know, having ruled Nigeria in the 1970’s and now in the 2000’s). Because the structure of one-Nigeria is incapable of producing anything good or decent, be it leadership or governance or security. Join us in denying the likes of General Obasanjo—PDP and all those already talking about, and planning for, 2007 grand fraud otherwise known as elections, a gigantic mockery of democracy and fairness, let us deny them—an ongoing opportunity to ruin your lives, to hurt you at will and without care and without sensitivity (never mind accountability), to kill you, to humiliate you, to finish you off. You see, if there is no one- Nigeria , then, these evil persons will not be there to hurt you any more. If there is no one- Nigeria , there can never again exist any government to be used as a vehicle and a front to mess you up, to mess with you, to rob you and to kill you.. Stop one-Nigeria, and we will have defeated these unscrupulous persons who commit these dastardly acts.  

Recall what happened during this last futile exercise at elections. Do you remember how much money was pledged to, and collected by, General Obasanjo and PDP? This money could have paid your pension and your salaries.  And, where do you think they got the money from in the first place? And on top of that, General Obasanjo and PDP’s agents still had to murder innocent peoples living in Nigeria , intimidate others, detain and imprison quite a few, just so that the General and his PDP party could rig the elections in their favor.

Do you know how much PDP spends daily to maintain its godfathers and control the hapless peoples living in Nigeria ? Where does PDP get that money from? We know that PDP does not own any goldmines and does not own any oil wells. We know that PDP does not provide any marketable skills or services. PDP steals this money from the coffers of Nigeria . When PDP is done, little wonder there is nothing left in the treasury to pay your pension. Let us break this mold called one-Nigeria and teach these leeches a lesson once and for all. You must join us in rejecting one-Nigeria and looking towards a different and bright future, away from the darkness called Nigeria .  

Do you know how much General Obasanjo and his PDP party pay foreign Public Relations firms and consultants in the US and UK and other enlightened countries to paint and sell a falsified image of Nigeria as a progressive and successful country? We can’t tell you—you need to find out for yourself. But, we can estimate that if that money was given to you the pensioners, you could breathe a little easier. Why, even Obasanjo spends more on his so-called presidential jet airplane and his frequent foreign travels than what you pensioners as a group have received since he came to office in 1999. And, he of course made these his priority, proving once again that he cares more for these things than he cares about paying you what is due you.  

As for previous governments, recall the ignoramus called Gowon had no idea how to manage even his own personal finances, and yet tried to manage Nigeria , resulting in the first economic crashing of Nigeria . Successive military rulers suffering from the same moronic qualities as Gowon not only continued to deepen Nigeria’s grave in all areas but especially economically; these military leaders who usually had nothing when they forced their way into the governance of Nigeria; left with unimaginable wealth. Where did they get all that money from? When Babangida prances around and throws his weight and “his” money around and “sprays” cash, have you ever wondered aloud where he got all that money from? In decent, honest countries, anyone with that amount of wealth and no tangible means would be challenged legally and publicly to account for his or her sudden and sustained wealth. In decent, honest countries, your pension money would not be stolen, resulting in you the pensioner and civil servant being left high and dry, without any accountability. In decent countries, no government would be allowed to do that and still be in power; nobody would be allowed to do that to you and allowed to get away with it. But, that is in decent and honest countries. Compare that with Nigeria . There just is no comparison.  

Yet, today, Nigeria is trying to dupe other African countries into joining it in economic ventures. We hear about ECOWAS and NEPAD. We hear how Obasanjo is out there trying to make a name for himself by presenting Nigeria as what it truly is not. Some African countries are being duped into sharing currency with Nigeria and or indexing their national currencies with the Nigerian currency. What madness! Of course, it is those countries whose leaders sing the praises of General Obasanjo and or lobby for Babangida for 2007 (as if 2003 is over). We can only hope that when these stupid so-called leaders from other African countries lose what little money their countries had in the first place in such 419 ventures with Nigeria , that their peoples would punish them severely for their stupidity. No punishment will be adequate for their making Africa and Africans look really stupid. But, you, the duped pensioners and civil service personnel living in Nigeria will help us make sure that this does not happen. You will do your part to show your anger and disgust, your indignation and your dignity by saying “No more!” to one-Nigeria; “No more” to fraud; “No more” to cheating, “No more!” to robbery, “No more” to stupidity.  

We address all the peoples living in Nigeria thus: one-Nigeria has made it possible for General Obasanjo and PDP to falsify the results of, and steal, the elections of 2003, and then, usurp power in Nigeria . One-Nigeria has made it possible that you are not allowed to challenge, contest and change this fraud, but instead, you are forced to live with it and accept it as normal. Yes, you swallowed all that, and nursed the resulting bellyache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, in forced silence. Now, one-Nigeria has made it possible for General Obasanjo and PDP and their government to steal your well-earned pension fund. For over 4 years, they would not tell you the truth—one-Nigeria made sure of that; and one-Nigeria made sure that they got away with that.  Now, we discover the truth: that your money is not there. Are you going to allow one-Nigeria  to hurt you one more time, to humiliate you in your old age, to cause your premature death—a penniless death at that?  

Fellow Biafrans: when we urge you to seek the actualization of Biafra as the only viable solution to the problem that is one- Nigeria , we really mean what we are saying. With each passing day, you can see more clearly why. That handwriting on the wall is jumping out at you, and the meaning is flashing bright, and can no longer be ignored.  We trust your resolve gets stronger and unflagging by the minute and by the hour. Today, we ask you to reach out to the pensioners and the civil service personnel and ask for their help in making sure that this type of thing will not happen to their children. We would like you to show them why the burden of stopping one-Nigeria is no longer just the private cross of Biafrans and groups such as MASSOB, but should be borne by all of us, because one-Nigeria is designed to kill us all. If we let it, by choice or by resignation, one-Nigeria will surely kill us off—all of us. But, we are not going to let it. We are committed and determined to actualize Biafra , as such, to break the evil structure called one-Nigeria, and liberate ourselves from a vehicle known as Nigeria whose only fate is the destruction of all the peoples living in Nigeria . We say Yes to Biafra actualization and Yes to Biafra —we say Yes to life, Yes to decency, Yes to dignity, Yes to liberty, Yes to fairness, and Yes to accountability.

Biafra lives—the just and only answer to a terrible alternative. We believe that it is for that reason that God created and blessed Biafra and Biafrans.  

That’s the news analysis for 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.