March 11 2006

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

For March 11^th, 2006

You have heard the news; now, the analysis…

Fellow Biafrans:

On Wednesday, March 8, 2006 the Nigeria Police shot at unarmed MASSOB (Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra) protesters in Onitsha, Biafraland, who were conducting a non-violent rally for the release of Ralph Uwazurike and other MASSOB leaders and members unjustly jailed by Nigeria’s government of General Obasanjo. One MASSOB member was killed outright; the number of injured is unknown. We mourn the death of yet another one of our brethren and member of MASSOB. Today, we vow on his deathbed, by his blood, that his death will not be in vain: we shall actualize Biafra, and in so doing complete the work which he participated in and gave his life for. And, we shall continue the protests until Ralph Uwazurike and the other MASSOBians are released.

We ask General Obasanjo, president of Nigeria, to release Ralph Uwazurike, the leader of MASSOB, a non-violent movement, and other MASSOB leaders and MASSOB members, from jail where they are imprisoned on his orders. We urge General Obasanjo to release Uwazurike and others from jail, with urgency.

General Obasanjo should remember that had Nelson Mandela been killed in jail like many of his fellow-freedom fighters, or had he still been held in jail by the oppressive Apartheid government, the peace, stability and bright future which has returned to South Africa today, and the enthronement of reconciliation and justice, would not have been possible. As a matter of fact, the only brightness on the entire continent of Africa today, in the eyes of the rest of the world, is the result of the candle lit by the same Nelson Mandela: had he been kept to rot to death in prison, this would not have been possible. For this reason, Ralph Uwazurike and his MASSOB colleagues ought to be released from prison at this time..

General Obasanjo himself should also know all about unjust imprisonment. If you, General Olusegun Obasanjo, believe that you are doing such a great job for Nigeria, enough for you to state that you want to die for Nigeria, then, think: if Abacha and Abubakar had let you die in prison, or if you were not released, how would you have accomplished those things you now take credit for in Nigeria? Whatever you, General Obasanjo, count as your achievement for Nigeria, will mean exactly nothing viewed through a moral prism if you fail to demonstrate that you have personally learned a lesson, and if you fail to apply such a lesson, by your ongoing order to remand Ralph Uwazurike and other MASSOB leaders and members in prison.

Nor should the General forget so soon the effects of the death of Abiola in prison. Every single Nigerian and even Biafrans today agree that had Abiola been freed from prison to fulfill his electoral mandate as the duly elected president of Nigeria then, that the exacerbation and the re-opening of the fractures of Nigeria’s evident and obvious non-union would not have happened this quickly. Is this not the losing battle which the General is fighting against so quixotically today in Nigeria? Yes, the release or failure to release from unjust imprisonment of just one individual can, and does, have profound repercussions for millions of peoples and for the fate of a State. This is added justification for the release of Ralph Uwazurike and other members of MASSOB being held unjustly in Nigerian jails.

For the record, MASSOB is a non-violent organization. No attempt by Nigeria and her agents to cast MASSOB in a different light will stand the light of truth. All attempts by Nigeria and her agents to frame MASSOB with throw-down weapons and trumped-up charges are being seen by the rest of the world, and even by Nigerian citizenry, as ridiculous and brazen hypocrisy. Today, those involved in such gross travesty may revel in their crimes: tomorrow, they will be branded what they are, and the world will be after them for capture and overdue justice. General Obasanjo himself is not immune from such treatment by the world: just read the news of related events in other parts of the world—even as we speak!

And, for the record, MASSOB seeks a non-violent process for the self determination of the people of Biafra, a self-evident right of all human groups; and in so far as natural rights are said to originate from God, a right thus guaranteed by God Himself. It is a right now affirmed and ratified by the United Nations to which Nigeria is a signatory. The exercise of the right of self determination for the people of Biafra does not interfere with or mitigate or abrogate or impinge on similar rights of any other groups of peoples associated with Nigeria, nor does it dictate how such other groups might want to relate to one another. A sovereign and independent state of Biafra does not dictate a dissolution of whatever structure other nations choose to bind them: therefore, if those other nations chose to remain in Nigeria as Nigeria, Biafra does not in any way threaten or bother such a relationship: it should not, cannot, and will not.

For the record, MASSOB has offered to engage in peaceful negotiations with other nations making up Nigeria, and or with Nigeria itself, as one sovereign and independent nation with another sovereign and independent nation or state, to work out the other problematic enmeshments accruing from over 100 years of the failed efforts to make Nigeria a peaceful union of disparate nations, as hoped for by the founders of Nigeria, the colonial British government, who also recognized early that their efforts were futile and their hopes impracticable and unrealizable.

For the record, the majority of Biafrans support and accept and have adopted the MASSOB agenda of a non-violent process for the actualization of Biafra, as evidenced by their enthusiastic, massive and near-unanimous voluntary response to requests by MASSOB to engage in non-violent acts of conscience and civil disobedience, in the form of mass sit-in protests, street protests, and adoption of the Biafra currency, to name a few. The evidence shows that each passing day, the few Biafrans still sitting on the fence are joining other Biafrans with the agenda, and the masses are demonstrating that whatever it takes to achieve Biafra actualization will be done—with a renewed sense of urgency.

It is therefore in the interest of Nigeria and other nations residing in Nigeria, nations of West Africa, Africa and the entire world, that General Obasanjo release Ralph Uwazurike, the other leaders of MASSOB and the other members of MASSOB from Nigerian jails. It is also in General Obasanjo’s personal interest that Ralph Uwazurike and other MASSOB members not stay in jail any longer, since they are there on his orders; and that not one of them die while in jail. General Obasanjo should not take this lightly nor respond with the typical arrogance of those in power: sooner or later, power changes hands, and immunity is dissolved, as events of even contemporary history have proven.

Biafra is our right. It’s a God-given right. We choose to exercise our right and fulfill its substance as the sovereign and independent nation of Biafra and the citizenry, promises and opportunities so conferred.

That’s the News Analysis for the week. Thank you.

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God bless and keep Biafra, and you, until our next broadcast. Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) broadcast continues (http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm), now with the summary of the News Analysis in Igbo language.

Ndi Biafra, ekele e o-o! Anyi e kelee unu.

Nkea wu akuko nke anyi na a kpo News Analysis si na Voice of Biafra International Radio, di na Washington DC, na ala America, na a bia ra unu na abali a.

Ndi Police Nigeria a gbagbuola otu onye otu MASSOB mgbe ndi MASSOB na e me ngaari-iwe na Onitsha na Wednesday izu a gara a ga; ngaari-iwe ka ndi Nigeria kpoputa Ralph Uwazurike na ndi otu MASSOB ndi ozo ndi Obasanjo na govumenti ya tinyere na nga. Anyi na e ri onuma maka onye anyi a ha gburu, ma anyi na e kwe ya nkwa na anyi ga e nwetariri Biafra; na anyi ga na e mesi ngaari-iwe ike rue mgbe Obasanjo ga a kpoputa umu nne anyi ndea na nga.

Anyi na a gwa Obasanjo ka ya weputa Ralph Uwazurike na ndi ozo ndia na mkporo. Anyi na a gwa Obasanjo na ya cheta kwa na a si na e weputaghi Nelson Mandela na mkporo, ma o wu na e gburu ya na mkporo, na udo na olile-anya na oga-na-ihu di na South Africa taa a gaghi e nwe isi. Ya e chefughikwa la na nsopuru ndi Uwa na a sopuru Africa taa wu maka otu dike ya, Nelson Mandela. Na ihi nkea, anyi na a gwa Obasanjo ka o kpoputa Uwazurike na ndi ozo na nga.

Obasanjo e chefughikwa la na ya onwe ya, na a turu ya mkporo, ma lee nu onodu o no na na ya taa. A si na a hapuru ya na mkporo, ma o wu na e gburu ya na mkporo, ya were zie nu ire ya guo eze ya mara ihe nke ahu meaniri. Ya si na ya nwere ezigbo mmuo ma o wu obi-ocha, ya wu Obasanjo kwesiri i kpoputa Uwazurike na ndi otu MASSOB na mkporo. Na otu aka ahu kwa, Obasanjo e chefughikwa la na o wu maka e tinyere Abiola na mkporo, ya a nwuo na mkporo ahu, ka ihe jiri mebiwa zie nke ukwu, nke osiiso-osiiso, na ime Nigeria taa. Maka nkea, anyi na a gwa ya ka ya hapu kwa Uwazurike na ndi MASSOB ndi ozo aka, kpoputa ha na ile na mkporo.

Mara kwa unu na so-o-so ihe MASSOB choro wu anyi i nwere onwe anyi, na a chi onwe anyi, otu Chineke siri kee anyi, na ala Biafra. Ndi Biafra na ile kwu MASSOB na azu i nweta Biafra na uzo nke udo; Biafra ka anyi dum na a cho. MASSOB na a cho ka anyi wu Biafra noro onwe anyi, Nigeria noro kwa onwe ya: o nweghi okwu anyi ga a cho Nigeria ma o wu unrho anyi wu Biafra ga a nrho Nigeria ma anyi na ya diri otua ahu—mba abuo di ichie biri onwe ha, ka nde agbata-obi, na udo. Chineke kere anyi nye anyi Biafra, tinye anyi na Biafra: otua ka o ga a di; otua ka o di.

Biafra, ndu gi! Biafra, ndu gi!! Biafra, ndu gi!!!—na ndu anyi kwa. Maka Chineke nonyere la gi—nonyere kwa ra anyi!

Ndewo unu.

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Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) broadcast continues

Voice of Biafra International (VOBI)
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