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Biafra StudentsWe quote from a segment of the Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) News Analysis of December 20, 2003, addressing our Biafran Students: "...Today, we lament that you, our Biafran Students, know NOT the potential, nor the exploits of your Biafran parents and elders, or of our Biafran ancestors. Nor have you known the joy of fulfilling your own potential educationally, the joy of competing academically or in the workplace with anybody from anywhere on this planet and beating them all!!! But your entire being tells you that you have that same stuff—that same right stuff. Unfortunately, the structure of one-Nigeria has made sure that other forces from Perhaps, nowhere is the impact of the deliberate destructive policies of Nigeria against Biafra today more evident or more devastating than in the area of education. To hear Nigerians talk, you would think that Biafran youth are abandoning education in favor of paltry petty trade. Nothing can be further from the truth. Every year, Nigeria publishes statistics of applicants for higher education. And every year, those same statistics show that Biafra youth have more qualified applicants than from any other region of Nigeria. The cruel irony is that many more of these qualified Biafrans are turned down than their counterparts from other regions of Nigeria, because their comparatively less qualified counterparts have reserved and protected placements in better funded and maintained institutions in their regions of Nigeria. At the same time, nowhere is the paranoia of Nigeria regarding Biafra better exposed than in education. Fearing the hardworking ethic, diligence, brightness and strong motivation of the Biafran in general, and having experienced first hand the implications thereof in any situation where merit is the criterion, Nigeria has gone to unimaginable length to make sure that the playing field is so grossly tilted and crooked as to deliberately punish and handicap the Biafran in the field of education also. And, Nigeria would not stop there, but has carried on the propaganda of labeling Igbos (Biafrans) a people whose "main preoccupation is petty-trading" thus conveniently and maliciously denying the academic prowess and unmatched intellectual and practical skills of Biafrans, qualities which even the British are not not shy to attest to. While Nigeria revels in punishing Biafra and Biafrans and keeping them away from meaningful participation in her affairs, she, too has suffered greatly as a direct consequence of this hateful posture. Without the contribution of educated, skilled, hardworking and meritorious Biafrans, Nigeria has failed woefully to reach its predicted potential, falling hopelessly behind her peers in the world. Now, our students, too, are awakening from the bad influence of Nigeria's propaganda. But, they are also awake to the fact that they carry the Biafran traits of industry, diligence, self-motivation, drive and achievement. Furthermore, they understand that Nigeria has a vested negative interest in suppressing all Biafrans and all Biafran productivity in all areas including education. Yes: at last, Biafran students understand that the problem is Nigeria, and that the solution is Biafra. Biafra is the answer. It is only in Biafra that our Students and all Biafrans for that matter shall achieve their God-given potential in any field of human endeavor. Our students now know that. They will be operating off this paradigm. At last, our Biafran students have come home. They will contribute their part to our struggle to actualize Biafra in a modern world, wherein they, along with the rest of the nation of Biafra, can also make their true mark on the world, unfettered by envious, nefarious and suppressive forces. Proceed, then, and read their contributions. |