ENUGU – The
Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of
allegedly having more interest in the welfare of his cattle in his country home
in Daura, Katsina State than Biafrans or other Nigerians.
IPOB said that apart
from overseas countries which Buhari had visited for about 30 times since he
became president over a year ago and Daura or other northern states, he had not
stepped into any part of Igbo land or Biafra, adding that he usually travelled
to see his animals rather than his fellow citizens.
This was
contained in a statement issued by IPOB Spokespersons, Mr Emma Nmezu and
Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya yesterday.
They spoke against the backdrop of the
comments credited to Buhari to the effect that south east youth corps members
serving in Daura should educate their people on the need to ensure Nigerian
unity when they get home after completing their compulsory one year national
service.
“The first question is, why can’t Buhari come to Biafra land to
lecture Biafrans on unity rather than mouthing it every time he visits his cow
ranch in Daura or someplace in Northern Nigeria?
“Is Northern Nigeria the only
place that a president travels to? Can anyone point to a single visit that
Buhari has made to Biafraland from May 29, 2015 till date? “Buhari has more
regards and affection for his cows than the average Biafran because he finds
time to visit animals rather than those he claim to be his fellow citizens…
“Buhari has made 30 foreign trips as at the end of May 2016 as well as
countless trips to the Northern part of Nigeria including Boko Haram controlled
regions but he has not set his feet on Biafran soil since he was sworn in on
May 29, 2015.
“Buhari must understand that a nation develops organically and is
predicated on the commonality of shared value systems. A nation is markedly
different from a country even our colonial masters know this.
“That is why
Scotland which is a nation can seek independence from Britain which is a
country.
The same way that Biafra a nation is seeking her independence from
Nigeria. Buhari must know that Nigeria may claim to be a country but definitely
not a nation.
“Muhammadu Buhari should also understand that unity cannot be
force-fitted or enforced by one region on other regions within a geographical
expression.
This is why David Cameron, immediate past British Prime Minister,
did not deploy troops to Glasgow or Edinburgh with Rules of Engagement, ROE, to
kill innocent Scottish people in the quest to preserve one Britain.
“If Britain
our colonial masters and the creator of Nigeria can allow the Scots to
determine their fate, how much more their product Nigeria refusing the nation
of Biafra the same right.
Therefore the assertion by Buhari that Biafrans must
stay together with the rest of Nigeria is not enforceable under any known law
on this planet earth.
“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous People, UNDRIP, makes it clear that Biafrans have the inalienable
right to be on their own as a sovereign nation. The right to self-determination
is not synonymous with war or violence.
“Buhari should therefore, not juxtapose
self-determination with war because the two are not interchangeable.
The least
he can do is to use the instrument of referendum to test the resolve of
Biafrans in their quest for the restoration of the nation of Biafra.
“We will
also like to remind Buhari that the sovereignty of a nation is not premised on
size. The excuse that Nigeria is big enough and therefore Biafrans are bound by
the sheer size of Nigeria to be part of it, is not logical.
The Soviet Union
was big and a super power but they broke up. “Yugoslavia went their separate
ways with the active support of Britain.
Those familiar with the history of
British politics will know that it was Paddy Ashdown, MP the leader of the
Liberal Democrat Party that sought and gained the backing of the British
government of the day to support the independence of the Muslim enclave of
Bosnia Herzegovina from Yugoslavia.
“There are nations that are significantly
smaller than Biafra both in size and in population. For Buhari’s information,
Biafra has a population of over 70 million. The total area of Biafra is over
29,400 square miles.
Thus Biafra is almost as big as Gambia and Sierra Leone
put together, and is bigger than Togo or Rwanda and Burundi combined, and is
four times the size of Israel.
“Additionally, we do not need Buhari to lecture
us on the resources in Biafraland because we are already aware of them.
For us
in Biafra, we cherish and give the greatest priority to human resource unlike
Buhari’s Nigeria which operates a rentier economy with heavy dependence on
Biafran oil and gas resources. Buhari should understand that one of the
requirements of a soldier is endurance trekking.
Therefore, that he may have
trekked from one location to the other should not be used to scare Biafrans
from exerting their rights to self-determination.
After all General Ratko
Mladic walked all the way from Serbia to Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina to
commit war crimes in the name of preserving Yugoslav unity yet in the end he
lost.
Buhari intentionally refused to inform the graduates that during his
trekking experience from Degem to Biafra’s boundary with Ambazonia (Southern
Cameroon), he committed genocide along the way and this includes the two
million Biafrans he killed at Owerri in 1968.
“Because Buhari was a junior
officer in the Nigerian Army, it is understandable that he was not privy to the
motive behind the war of genocide on Biafra which had the backing of our colonial
masters. “It may interest Buhari to know that in August 1967, the British
Commonwealth Minister George Thomas informed the British Parliament that: The
sole immediate British interest in Nigeria is that the Nigerian economy should
be brought back to a condition in which our substantial trade and investment in
the country can be further developed, and particularly so we can regain access
to important oil installations. “It should now understand that oil is the main
reason why they got the support of Britain. It was because of the control of
oil in Biafraland that Britain in 1968 alone supplied hundreds of armoured
personnel carriers, APCs; 10,000 machine guns, 20 million rounds of ammunition,
3,000 bayonets, 10,000 rifles with grenade launchers, 15,000 pounds of
explosives, 21,000 mortar bombs, 42,500 Howtizer rounds, 5,000 submachine guns
and other weapons of mass destruction deployed, in one year alone, leading to
the killing fields in Biafraland under the supervision of Muhammadu Buhari and
his co-travellers. “Without this one-sided military support from the British to
Nigeria while at the same time denying Biafra access to weapons, even Buhari
himself knows that there is no way in a billion years Nigeria could have
defeated Biafra in a war. “Buhari must know that 1967 to 1970 is in the past
and similar conditions are no longer obtainable in today’s world.
Self-determination by an indigenous people is not equivalent to declaration of
war especially as is being peacefully pursued by Biafrans. “However, should
Buhari tow the path of war then he must know that Nigeria cannot win it. We are
peaceful campaigners for the self determination of the peoples of Biafra. We
have not come to war with anybody but if in the end Buhari chooses war then we
can assure him that it will be the greatest mistake of the Caliphate. History
is on the side of Biafra because the youths of Niger Delta have woken up to
their responsibility in the organised resistance of Biafrans of all persuasions
to oppression from those that think they cannot live without oil.
“He should
stop living in the past and face the realities of the 21st Century.
War-mongering and regurgitation of the stories of Biafra genocide will not
shake the resolve and determination of Biafrans on the restoration of their
God-given nation of Biafra. The earlier Buhari understands that nothing on this
earth can stop the restoration of the nation of Biafra, the better for him and
his blood-thirsty Hausa-Fulani parasites and oligarchs. We reiterate that the
restoration of the nation of Biafra is divine and beyond the whims and caprices
of Muhammadu Buhari and his co-travelers. Biafra or death!!!”
Vanguardngr
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