former Head of State of Biafra, once spoke about is the only way forward. Now I know that whether we like to admit it or not Igbo and Yoruba co-operation, understanding and unity is a fundamental pre-requisite to the freedom and emancipation of the entire south.
Now I know that the more I attack my Igbo brothers the more I weaken myself, my Yoruba people and the south generally from the incessant and relentless attacks, humiliation and indignities that we collectively receive from the ruling core Muslim Hausa-Fulani north. Now I know that what fuels and feeds northern hegemony and subjugation more than anything else are the petty rivalries and divisions between the southern ethnic nationalities.
And it has made us utterly powerless and hopelessly weak. The end-result is that we have all been turned into pliant and cowardly slaves. This has been the case since 1960 and it will continue into eternity if we don’t sit up, grow up and set aside our many mutual suspicions and differences.
The Biafrans are simply asking for their own country and for an affirmative referendum to give it legitimacy. No-one can be made to join Biafra against his or her will or by force. It appears to me that this is obvious. In any case did Miss Henshaw or her forefathers give their consent to becoming a Nigerian in 1914 when the amalglamation took place? Where is her sense of outrage about that? Did she warn the British or the north about that and did she promise to attempt to fight them because of it? Were we not all just herded into Nigeria like cattle at the time? Were those of us from the south not just lumped together with a north that the British described as our “poor husband” whilst we were described as their “rich wife?”
Have we not been raped, sodomised, cheated, battered and butchered by that poor husband ever since? Have we not been turned into second class citizens and slaves in our own country? Has Miss Henshaw protested about that and has she expressed her outrage and “warned” our collective oppressors as well? Does she not feel a sense of revulsion and outrage about that? Or is her outrage and warning reserved only for her fellow southerners? The people of Biafra are fighting for the self-determination of their own Igbo people and anyone or any other group that wishes to join them. Is that a crime? Would you seek to deny them that right and instead join sides with their oppressors and keep them in Nigeria by the usage of state-sponsored terror, guile, deceit and tyranny?
I do not accept the notion that the Biafrans seek to compel anyone or any group of people to leave Nigeria with them if they do not wish to do so. That would be unacceptable and it is not their intention. Unlike Nigeria, being part of or joining Biafra is not by compulsion but rather a matter of choice. And that choice can only be made in a free and fair referendum. If you do not wish to be part of Biafra and leave Nigeria then dont join them and instead stay in Lugard’s “happy” contraption. That is your right and your prerogative. Yet the truth is that with or without you the Biafrans will achieve their objectives and realise their dreams and aspirations as long as it is God’s will and the desire of the Igbo people.
Whatever you and your people choose to do, either to go with Biafra or stay in Nigeria, do not allow yourself to be used by the retrogressive core north, the primitive forces of oppression and the asinine peddlars of lies, ignorance and falsehood to destroy someone else’s yearning for freedom from oppression and aspiration for liberty.
I say this because such an aspiration, yearning and
