The United Nations under its Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People provided citizens of member states with the right to self-determination. This right empowers every citizen to agitate for the separation of his or her region from a recognized or sovereign nation that it belongs to. However, that right is not absolute as it comes with some conditions. One of those conditions is that any region that wants to enforce the provisions of the declaration must be able to prove that it is a victim of continuous persecution and established discrimination by the present state. Whether the Igbo have experienced such will be a topic for another day.
Before I proceed further, I want to make it clear that I am fully in support of the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous People but I will never encourage or support anybody or group of persons to twist the provisions of the UN declaration in order to satisfy their selfish interests.
Nnamdi Kanu, a London-based dual citizen formed an association that addresses itself as the Indigenous People of Biafra popularly referred to as IPOB. This association has been defiled from the onset because if I may ask, who are the Indigenous People that Kanu claims to be leading? Who did he consult before establishing such association and who elected its executives to speak for the proposed state of Biafra? From facts available, IPOB was formed by Kanu and some other Igbos residing in London. The group also went ahead and established an underground radio station which has ended up as a tool for spreading hate, falsehoods and unnecessary propaganda. I earlier wrote about the evil acts of the pirate radio in an article titled “the evil called radio Biafra.” In that article I raised alarm at the rate in which the IPOB uses the pirate radio to poison the minds of misinformed Igbos with hate against other tribes and falsehoods but it is unfortunate that the government failed to promptly and effectively take actions to jam the radio signal from Nigerian airwaves and that led to the production of multiple poisoned minds who are ever ready to commit suicide in the streets in the name of protest or Biafra agitation. I have written extensively on the acts of the pirate radio station and will now focus on the funny and deceitful acts of IPOB.
For any self-determination to be successful, intelligent diplomacy must be employed. But instead of doing so, IPOB continued to expose itself as an association of touts and hoodlums. The IPOB leadership should have known that today’s United Nations is not ready to listen to any group that refuses to employ dialogue or diplomacy in its activities. Any separatist group should know that its agenda will not be achieved without the peaceful cooperation of its present state or government. Even though there is no relationship between the controversial Brexit and the secession motive of IPOB, that should have taught them that dialogue and diplomacy are key tools for achieving any separation agenda.
Rather than employing the required diplomatic techniques, the IPOB delights in insulting all persons and institutions that supposed to be its best friends. This association insults Igbo elders, insults Igbo traditional rulers, insults southeast governors, insults South East Senators and the region’s representatives at the federal house of Representatives, insults the Nigerian government, addresses Nigeria as a zoo, insults an elected president and addresses him as a pedophile, insults America, United Kingdom, other world powers and even the United Nations and addresses them as enemies of Biafra. If you insult the whole world, who do you think that will push for a referendum for you? According to IPOB, Biafra will be the last miracle to happen on earth and the association claims that the miracle will be achieved without the support of the world. What a ridiculous association!
The most funny part this association that calls itself IPOB is that since it’s formation, it has never organized a general conference in the southeast region to discuss its objectives and plans that it has put in place to successfully manage the proposed state of Biafra but rather, it keeps insulting everybody and threatening the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Someone should please tell the IPOB that the United Nations does not joke with the territorial integrity and sovereignty of member nations. Also, IPOB is yet to tell Igbos living in other parts of Nigeria the plan it has to ensure that their investments outside Igboland will be protected if the proposed state of Biafra is achieved but instead of doing so, it uses its pirate radio station to insult them by addressing them as fools, baboons and monkeys that deserve to die because they failed to live in Igboland. Funny enough, the pirate radio station was not even established in Igboland but in far away London and none of those hypocrites operating it are living in Igboland. IPOB should better know that the world is a global village and no nation will ever like to live alone.
The IPOB has also failed to inform Igbos on the kind of government and constitution that the proposed state of Biafra will operate. How will the leader of the proposed state be chosen? Will it run a monarchy, parliamentalism or presidentialism? Where will its capital be located and will it be a secular state? The association has also failed to tell Ndị Igbo how the economy of the new state will be sustained and till now, it is not even clear if the Niger-Delta region will be part of the proposed state because the region may not afford to be a slave in their land anymore as it experienced during the Nigerian civil war when Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu forced the Niger Delta region into its Biafran state and that forced marriage was one of the major reasons why the Biafran cause under Ojukwu was sabotaged. Instead of conducting an opinion poll in the Niger Delta region to ascertain their stand on Biafra, IPOB delight in claiming that Ijaws are their brothers and that there is nothing like Niger Delta, as well as commending any criminal act perpetrated in the region by militants but funny enough, the militants either address themselves as Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Niger Delta militants or Niger Delta Avengers and non of those groups have ever attached Biafra to their name.
Moreover, the IPOB failed to understand that now should be a period of Grassroot campaigns and professional lobbying at both the National Assembly and the United Nations but instead of lobbying relevant stakeholders and authorities to push for a referendum, the IPOB insults them and deceive misinformed youths to go and commit suicide in the streets with the hope that the world are watching and will always protect them as the association through its pirate radio usually lie to them. For God’s sake, why should somebody stay in London and instruct his brothers and sisters to celebrate the independence of a non-existing state inside the territory of a sovereign state? Not only that the IPOB leadership gave such deceitful order, it also encouraged the youths to fight back the security forces if they try to stop them and such evil and illegal instruction led to the throwing of two policemen inside the River Niger by some IPOB protesters and that consequently led to the unfortunate deaths of some protesters on 30th May 2016. The blood of the misinformed youths that died in Onitsha and Nkpor on that day will continue to be on the heads of IPOB executives namely Uche Mefor, Emma Mmezu and Mr. Iroanya who stayed far away and ordered young bloods through radio Biafra to go and commit suicide in the name of Biafran independence day celebration.
Also, before he was arrested, Nnamdi Kanu through radio Biafra claimed that he has the support and backings from 88 countries and according to him, the zoo will fall if he is arrested but where is him today? No wonder why a writer addressed him as watermelon head. IPOB have been releasing lots of lies to the misinformed Igbos and have been deceiving them through its pirate radio to believe that they are employing professionals around the world that will ensure the speedy achievement of a Biafran state. Funny! This is why many misinformed Igbos are paying monthly dues to the ridiculous association and thereby enriching Nnamdi Kanu and other IPOB executives. What a fraud! No wonder why many address them as Biafrauds. If you have followed Nnamdi Kanu closely before he was arrested, you would think that he chats with Obama every hour but his arrest and events after his arrest showed that he is an empty vessel that wants to utilize the sentiments of his Igbo brothers over the loss of former President Jonathan at the poll to cause confusion and threaten the peace of the land with the hope of getting some pay from government but he never knew that he has entered a one-chance bus and that is the reason I prefer to address him as Nnamdi Cownu.
Igbos should know that IPOB is the greatest enemy of Biafra and the world sees the association as a group of fraudsters and upcoming terrorists. That is why the world refuses to act on their claims and will never discuss Biafran referendum as long as the association is concerned. If the dead and buried Biafra should be resurrected, it will certainly not be under Nnamdi Kanu or the unstructured and fraudulent IPOB. Rather, a disciplined and well-structured group should take charge.
