The struggle for the actualization of the sovereign State of Biafra started decades ago based, among other reasons, on the perceived marginalization of the ethnic extraction by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The struggle culminated in a three-year enduring and bloody civil war in the mid-1960s. It was recorded that over a million people lost their lives from the two sides of the conflict. That struggle was eventually put to an end after the surrender of the main protagonist of the struggle, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, of blessed memory to the federal republic of Nigeria. After a long period of lull, the resurgence aimed at seceding from the country was again experienced in recent times.
In the days of the former president of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Biafran agitation was completely blotted out of memory at least for that period, possibly because of the political affiliation the agitators had with the former President. Shortly after the 2015 general elections, and the subsequent emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the President of Nigeria, the agitations for the Biafran Sovereign Republic again resurfaced, this time around under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu. He fronted the agitation under the caption of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). It was usually a potent and aggressive, though non-violent protest in the bid to actualize their vision. Due to the tempo of the agitation, the federal government under the leadership of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, not only outlawed the group but also declared it a terrorist organization. The military, on its own side, conducted an operation code-named “Python Dance” in the region to nail the agitations. This exercise resulted in the inexplicable and continuous silence of the contemporary protagonist of the struggle, Nnamdi Kanu.
In a sudden political twist to the build-up to the 2019 general elections, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been picked from the same geopolitical region, the South-East which has been agitating for sovereignty. The candidate is Dr. Peter Obi, the former Governor of Anambra State.
The issue this article wishes to raise are: is the desire of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria to secede from Nigeria merely politically-motivated and a deliberate deviation from the remote cause, as demonstrated in the life and times of the heroic Ojukwu? Does it mean that the agitators are easily swayed from their conviction of fighting for an independent State, based on its affiliation or otherwise, to the political party in the helms of the national government? Majority of the South-easterners currently support the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate for the 2019 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. If Atiku wins the presidential election, will the secession bid be suspended for the period of his governance? If Buhari wins, will they resume the protests? I thought that if the secessionists were actually convinced about their reason for secession, which was the principal focus of the Biafran side of the civil war, the agitators could not be so fluidly ‘persuaded’ as to allow the politics of the Nigerian nation (their perceived oppressor to determine the tempo and the end-result of their secession bid.
If the agitation resumes in 2019 if Buhari wins the presidential election, it would then be robustly concluded that the agitations were politically-motivated and the Buhari-led federal government primarily targeted. It, therefore, becomes clearer that the federal government may not have been wrong, after all for responding to a perceived enemy of its administration.
Suggestively, I would think that instead of the South-Easterners dissipating their energies in intermittent struggles for a yet-to-be-realized vision, they would have put high-profile strategy on how to occupy the highest political position in the land – the Presidency. It is clear that the Ibos are still interested in Nigerian politics, hence Dr. Peter Obi being picked to represent them at the presidency come 2019. The struggle for the Biafran republic has smeared the minds of most Nigerians against the multi-focused agitators who. paradoxically, also show full interest in Nigeria and her politics. One can therefore safely conclude that it is either the Ibos are divided on the vision of secession or they are yet to actually reconcile on a collective focus.
It would pay the entire South-East region more if they are fully involved in the Nigerian project as they have the capacity to rule very well when they combine their hardworking, commercial and industrial lives, coupled with political power in ruling Nigeria. It would pay them more also if they jettison the secession attempts and join forces to build a prosperous Nigeria.
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