IGBO IN AMERICA HOLD SECOND PROTEST AT NIGERIAN EMBASSY AGAINST SHARIA AND FOR DEMOCRATIC SELF DETERMINATION

In commemoration of the assassination of Major General J. T. U Aguiyi Ironsi, Nigeria's first and only Igbo executive Head of State; the massacre of most of all the Igbo/Eastern officer's of Nigeria Armed Forces Personnel and the subsequent pogrom which culminated in the genocidal extermination of more than 50,000 defenseless Igbo civilians in all hamlets, villages, towns and cities in Northern Nigeria by Hausa‑Fulani Islamic feudalists and their proxies in July 29, 1966 through September, 1966; "The Igbo Coalition in the Americas" held the "Second Biafra Genocide Convention" in Washington, D.C. from July 28 ‑ 29. Coming on the heels of the "First Genocide Convention" which took place in May in the same city, and which attracted representatives from such states as Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Iowa, the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), etc., this meeting saw the appearance of new delegates from the states of Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. It was also characterized by a higher level of sophistication in message articulation and delivery as well as in heightened Igbo national fervor.

Indeed the second Biafra Genocide Convention was similar to the first in two important ways: Both emphasized the importance of protest marches and symposia. Thus in July 28, delegates carrying the Biafra flag ‑ now fortified by two new ones: the Black nationalist and American flags ‑ engaged in a peaceful and non‑violent march in front of the Nigerian embassy in Washington, D.C. They sang Biafra nationalist songs such as "Chetakwanu Chukwuma Nzeogwu" and "Agaghim Ahapu Biafra", which they supplemented with these chants: "Sharia No Way, Shagari No Way, Buhari No Way, Usama No Way, Gaddafi No Way!" The novel addition of Bin Laden and Gaddafi in the chanting underscores the fact that both are the two most popular heroes in Nigeria's Moslem Sharia States with their pictures splattered all over the place. Usama Bin Laden is the fugitive Saudi Arabian multi‑millionaire alter ego of the antediluvian Islamic Taliban dictatorship of Afghanistan. He is wanted in the US for the deadly bombing of the New York World Trade Center as well as the extremely bloody explosions at the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Gaddafi is the fanatically Islamic Libyan dictator implicated in the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing in which 270 people died, most of them Americans. He, Gaddafi, has also declared a jihad against Christianity in Africa, calling it a "false, infidel and irreligious faith." This Moslem despot, who is building a $330 million "Jihad University" in Kano, Nigeria, has vowed to Islamize and Arabize the countries of Black Africa.

In order to show their opposition to these two modern Arab slave masters, demonstrators at the embassy carried placards some of which read: "MASSOB = Freedom and Democracy", "Sharia = Seccession and Death", "Gaddafi = Sharia = Terrorism", "Usama Bin Laden Turns Nigeria Into Afghanistan", "Stop Genocide Against Igbo", and "Live Free in Biafra or Die a Slave in Nigeria."

The second part of the convention was the symposium, which took place at Howard University located in the U.S. capital. The hall was decorated with the Biafran flag, the Black Nationalist and the American flags, and the Igbo pictures of genocide, also the ancient Igbo writing known as the Nsibidi. The event began with the singing of an Igbo nationalist hymn, the performance of the ancient Igbo ritual known as Nzu ceremony (a novelty), the presentation of kolanuts and the saying of opening prayers. Then followed the presentation of papers by renowned Igbo scholars and professionals. Most of the papers went beyond the listing of the crimes of the Nigerian state and its mis‑rulers against the Igbo, and dealt with ways and means of mobilizing Igbo at home and abroad against the continuing series of pogroms and massacres perpetrated against them by Moslem Sharia‑mongers. All the presenters were in unanimous agreement that the Igbo demand for an independent and sovereign state of Biafra was not only legal and ethical, given Nigeria's blood‑soaked history of serial genocide against the Igbo, it was also unequivocal and non‑negotiable.

Indeed one of the most chilling but encouraging aspects of the convention was the presence of veterans of Biafra Relief campaigns in America during the Nigeria‑Biafra war (1966 ‑ 1970), in which more than 2 million Igbo perished. The presence of these proud and redoubtable nationalist warhorses ‑ now older and grayer ‑ was a source of strength and inspiration to the delegates, who saw their experience as an invaluable asset in future mobilization efforts. Nonetheless, it was a chilling sight to watch these veterans relive their Biafra nightmare as they gazed at the genocide pictures of Biafra past and present ‑ of gouged eyes and decapitated bodies as well as the recently brutalized and dead victims of the Islamic Sharia code. Like the delegates, the veterans lamented the apathy of many Igbo in the U.S. to the plight of their people in Nigeria. They reminded them that the freedom and luxury they enjoy in America was achieved by sacrifice and blood by those who hated tyranny and loved liberty. And that since liberty, stability, peace and prosperity will forever elude Nigeria, the only hope for the Igbo is the actualization of an independent and sovereign state of Biafra. Calling on Igbo in the U.S. to go beyond talking and complaining but to utilize the immense political and diplomatic influence of the U.S. to shape events in Nigeria through organization, mobilization and demonstration, the delegates warned that this could be the Igbo last chance to save themselves from centuries of Hausa‑Fulani genocide and slavery. The Igbo in Diaspora were urged to support organizations like "Aka Ikenga", MASSOB , etc., who were in the forefront of this struggle for the liberation of the Igbo at home. One of the delegates vowed: "I fought this same battle thirty‑four years ago. I will be dead before I let my children and grandchildren fight the same battle in another thirty‑four years. We must have Biafra so that future generations will live in freedom, security and prosperity."

Indeed the words of the Jewish writer, Bruno Bettelheim (1903 ‑ 1990), should be a warning to complacent Igbo. Condemning millions of Jews who never resisted but went quietly to their death in Hitler's death camps during the Nazi holocaust, the author of the landmark study, "Individuals and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations" (1948) warned: "All people ... who dare not defend themselves when they know they are in the right, who submit to punishment, not because of what they have done but because of who they are, are already dead by their own decision." If you are waiting to act until the Sharia fire starts burning down your village, Bettelheim's words may soon be too late for you and your people. That genocidal Sahara wildfire has already consumed the core north of Nigeria without any serious challenge. It is now rushing southward in all its fiendish fury and destructive power. WAKE UP! NDIIGBO! Your time has come! And your freedom beckons! Fear not! The mighty Soviet empire could not extinguish the fires of freedom and liberty burning in the hearts and souls of the captive nations of the communist gulag: the Armenians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Poles, who for so long lived in the bondage of that evil system. The Nigerian empire, which is worse than the Russian gulag, cannot stop you either. For God, history and justice are on your side. Indeed you have nothing to lose but your chains! A lutta continua!

Rev. Fr. Ahamefula Nnorom, Ph.D.

The Igbo Coalition in the Americas and Ekwe Nche.