The group,
in an open letter to the acting president, urged him to take “steps to
facilitate the actualization of the Biafran nation in line with the principle
of self-determination as an integral part of the contemporary customary
international law.”
The
coalition commended Mr. Osinbajo for initiating series of discussions with
leaders from the north and southeast. The signatories, however, said they
believe the talks would not yield any positive results.
The letter,
which was signed by five leaders of the group and sent to PREMIUM TIMES on
Monday, said the principle of self-determination has, since World War II become
a part of the United Nations Charter which states in Article 1(2), that one of
the purposes of the UN is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on
respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples”.
“We submit
that this protocol envisages that people of any nation have the right to
self-determination, and although the Charter did not categorically impose
direct legal obligations on member States; it implies that member States allow
agitating or minority groups to self-govern as much as possible,” they said.
Read the
full letter below as reported by saharareporters:
June, 19th
2017
His
Excellency,
Professor
Yemi Osinbajo,
Acting
President,
The
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock
Presidential Villa
Abuja
OPEN LETTER
Your
Excellency,
APPRECIATION
On behalf
of this coalition and all the peace-loving people of Northern Nigeria, we
begin this letter by commending your efforts towards finding a lasting
solution to the lingering Igbo-induced crisis that is undoubtedly overheating
the polity.
We
sincerely believe Your Excellency’s good intentions as shown by your prompt and
genuine actions towards ensuring peace and stability in holding talks with
leaders of the North and the South-East.
Though we
do not doubt Your Excellency’s bona fide concerns for the peaceful resolution
of the crises, we nevertheless have reservations as to the efficacy of
this approach in ensuring lasting solutions.
Our
doubts are informed by the following historical antecedents that have
characterized the behavior and conduct of the Igbo in Nigeria and previous
efforts at containing them.
PAST
EXPERIENCES
The Igbo
of Eastern Nigeria manifested their hatred for Nigeria’s unity barely five
years after we gained our independence from the British when on January 15,
1966, their army officers carried out the first-ever mutiny that marked the
beginning of a series of crisis which has profoundly altered the course of
Nigeria’s history.
By that
ill-motivated, cowardly and deliberate action, the Igbo killed many
northern officers from the rank of lieutenant colonel upwards and also
decapitated the Prime Minister and the political leadership of the Northern and
Western regions but left the zenith of Igbo leadership at the Federal level and
the Eastern region intact.
In line
with the Igbo plan, General Aguiyi-Ironsi took advantage of the vacuum and,
instead of returning power to the remnants of the First Republic government, he
appropriated the coup and attempted to consolidate it for his people.
Army
officers of the Northern Region were eventually compelled to execute a
counter-coup on July 29, 1966, following a coordinated series of brazen
provocations from the Igbo who taunted northerners on northern streets by
mocking the way leaders of the region were slain by the Igbo. This, unfortunately,
resulted in mob action which resulted in the death of many Igbos.
And when
Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, from the North, took over as Head of State following the
counter-coup, the Igbo through Lt. Col. Ojukwu, characteristically refused to
recognize Gowon.
[Ojukwu]
Ojukwu
declared the secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria and the formation of the
Republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967, resulting in a civil war that led to the
tragic deaths of more than 2 million Nigerians.
It is
important to note here that the Igbo eventually capitulated and conceded defeat
in an unconditional surrender, not an armistice, on January 15, 1970,
which renders any talk about Biafra at any other time, a repudiation of the
terms of that surrender signed by Phillip Effiong and other Biafran
leaders.
BIAFRA
REINCARNATED
In a shot
out of the blues, the Igbo have over the last 2 years regrouped and fiercely
and openly started discussing Biafra again under Ralph Uwazuruike of the
Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra MASSOB.
This was
given greater impetus by a more furious Igbo rogue group called the Indigenous
People Of Biafra IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu who even operates
an illegal radio station spreading hate and war messages across the nation,
calling other ethnic groups all sorts of names and threatening them with
violent extermination.
The
activities of the Igbo under Kanu’s IPOB has grown exponentially
ranging from ordering people of other regions out of the South East –
particularly the Yorubas and Hausa /Fulani from the South West and the North
respectively, to open declaration of the amassing of arms and forceful total
shutdown of the entire South-East.
KANU and
IPOB have declared full allegiance to a “Republic of Biafra” and continue
to preach hatred and war virtually every day, and not for once did any Igbo
leader call them to order. Instead, many of the leaders including Mr. Ike
Ekweremadu, the Deputy senate president, the most senior elected
Igbo, pay Kanu courtesy calls to prove that he is speaking for the entire Igbo.
It is glaring to all that Kanu has serially breached all the terms of his
stringent jail conditions in total disregard to the sanctity of our justice
system.
Even the
latest statement by the South-East Governors Forum signed by Governor
David Umahi of Ebonyi State in a response to the Northern reaction did not
condemn Kanu and Uwazuruike but characterized their action as “peaceful”.
While all
this is going on, neither the Igbo political and cultural leaders nor other
regional leaders of the North or West nor the international
community or any religious body ever found it necessary to call these
renegade groups to order or in the very least admonish their leaders to do so.
[Imo
State Governor, Rochas Okorocha]
Furthermore,
none of the Igbo leaders holding various positions in this government ever
disowned IPOB or condemned its operations until lately with Governor Rochas
Okorocha’s mild condemnation after the Kaduna Declaration by our Coalition.
GROUNDS
FOR SUSPICION
Given the
unrepentant antecedents exhibited by the Igbo as highlighted above, we strongly
believe that the gruesome picture that the Biafran agitation represents is
beyond a few people showcasing to Your Excellency that the Igbo will eventually
heed the call for peace and desist from their dangerous campaign against
Nigeria.
The seed
of hate planted in the name of Biafra is evidently so deep that the
ongoing interaction between you and the leaders from the South East cannot in
our well informed opinion douse or address the underlying deep seated underlying problems.
We base
our concerns on the following grounds.
Despite
the fact that the Igbo have been the most accommodated and tolerated of all the
ethnic groups of Nigeria, the renewed incessant, spiteful and vile threats and
insults on Northern leaders and their people, culture and religions that are
the targets of this venomous agitation for Biafra, can hardly be addressed
through a series of two hours dialogues.
As if to
prove this, barely hours after Your Excellency’s meeting with
the South-East leaders, the Biafran Igbo openly disowned the
leaders and dissociated themselves from the meeting.
More
disturbingly, Kanu has openly claimed that the Biafran agitators have amassed
arms in readiness for a war of secession which is quite conceivable given the
fact that since 2009, catches of dangerous weapons routinely smuggled into the
country and occasionally intercepted by the Nigerian authorities, were all
traced to Igbo sources.
The
situation continues to be baffling and alarming and therefore unacceptable –
especially with the Igbo political and opinion leaders openly legitimizing the
violent comments, insults, threats, hate speeches and call to anarchy that the
Biafrans led by Nnamdi Kanu are making against the North and the Nigerian state
in general.
Southeast
leaders have instead, enthusiastically given Kanu the platform, patronage and
symbolic legitimacy through an ignominious display of homage, reception and
open embrace.
OUR
CONCERNS
Concerned
by the fact that the Biafrans have confessed to arming themselves for a violent
breakup, we feel that it is risky for the rest of the country particularly the
North to go on pretending that it is safe for us to co-habitate with
the Igbos given how deeply they are entrenched in our societies.
And since
evidently, the Igbos have not been sufficiently humbled by their self-imposed
bloody civil violence of 1966, we are strongly concerned that nothing short of
granting their Biafran dream will suffice.
And since
the Igbo have virtually infiltrated every nook and cranny of Northern Nigeria
where they have been received with open arms
as fellow
compatriots, we strongly believe that the region is no longer safe and secure
in the light of the unfolding threats and the fact that for a long time, the
Igbo have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that in their domain in the
South East, Northerners and Westerners are as much as possible disenfranchised
from owning any businesses whereas, in Kano alone, they own not less than
100, 000 shops across all the business districts.
That
since the younger generation of Nigerians makes up for more than 60 percent of
the nation’s population, it is our hope that they inherit this country in
better shape so that they can build a much better future for themselves and
their offsprings in an atmosphere that is devoid of anarchy, hate, suspicion
and negativity that characterize the polarized, and clearly irreconcilable
differences forced on us by the Biafran Igbos.
To make a
bad situation even worse, their leaders have continued to show support for this
treacherous cause and thus giving credence to our concern that what they say about us
is what they truly mean and intend – “Kill everyone in the Zoo” (North). Your
Excellency, we cannot afford to discard this as mere mischief as the utterances
that caused the terrible Rwandan genocide still resonates in our minds.
Lastly,
Sir, it is quite impossible to expect that other nationalities would simply
stand by and watch while a certain ethnic group perpetrates all the above
heinous misconducts that involve threats, call to violence and extermination,
insults and songs of war without responding.
OUR STAND
While we
unequivocally restate that we are not waging war or calling anyone to violence, we
nevertheless are also not willing to continue tolerating the malicious campaign
and threats of war that the Igbos have continued to wage against us.
Neither
can we afford to continue giving the keys to our cities to a people whose
utterances, plans and arrangements are clearly geared towards war and anarchy.
We,
therefore, demand that the only enduring solution to this scourge that is being
visited on the nation is complete separation of the states presently
agitating for Biafra from the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a peaceful
political process by:
Taking
steps to facilitate the actualization of the Biafran nation in line with the
principle of self-determination as an integral part of contemporary customary
international law.
The
principle of self-determination has, since World War II become a part of the
United Nations Charter which states in Article 1(2), that one of the purposes
of the UN is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for
the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
We submit
that this protocol envisages that people of any nation have the right to
self-determination, and although the Charter did not categorically impose
direct legal obligations on member States; it implies that member States allow
agitating or minority groups to self-govern as much as possible.
This
principle of self-determination has since been espoused in two additional
treaties: The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 1 of
both international documents promote and protect the right of a people to
self-determination. State parties to these international documents are obliged
to uphold the primacy and realization of this right as it cements the
international legal philosophy that gives a people the right to
self-determination.
As the
Igbo agitations persist and assume threatening dimensions, we submit that there
is need to ensure that they are given the opportunity to exercise the right to
self-determination as entrenched under the aforementioned international
statutes to which Nigeria is a signatory.
PRAYERS:
Aware
that the right of self-determination in international law is the legal right
for a “people” that allows them to attain a certain degree of autonomy from a
sovereign state through a legitimate political process, we strongly demand for
a referendum to take place in a politically sane atmosphere where all parties
will have a democratic voice over their future and the future of the nation.
The Igbo
from all over the country and in the Diaspora should be advised to converge in
their region in the South-East for a plebiscite to be organized and conducted
by the United Nations and other regional bodies for them to categorically to
decide between remaining part of Nigeria or having their separate country.
That
government should at the end of the plebiscite implement whatever is agreed and
resolved in order to finally put this matter to rest.
Lastly, we
pray His Excellency to study the references forwarded with this letter
dispassionately and decide who is more in the wrong between those who openly
pledge allegiance to a country other than Nigeria backing it up with persistent
threats of war and those of us whose allegiance remains with the Nigerian state
but simply urge that the secessionists be allowed to actualize their dream
peacefully throw universally entrenched democratic options.
CONCLUSION
Your
Excellency, we want to reiterate our high respect for your office and acknowledge
the efforts you are making to lower tensions. We assure you, as well-brought up
northerners, we listen to the advice and cautions of our elders, and in
particular, their concerns that we do not create the impression that any Igbo
or any Nigerian will be harmed in the North. We assure you that we will defend
the rights of every Nigerian to live in peace and have their rights protected.
While we
do not see this clamour for Biafra as an issue over which a single drop of
blood should be shed, we at the same time, insist that the Igbo be
allowed to have their Biafra and for them to vacate our land peacefully so that
our dear country Nigeria could finally enjoy lasting peace
and stability.
Long Live
the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
SIGNED:
Amb.
Shettima Yerima
Joshua
Viashman
Aminu
Adam
Abdul-Azeez
Suleiman
Nastura
Ashir Sharif
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