In defence of Radio Biafra (1) By Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije

2000px-Flag_of_Biafra.svg_

biafra

IT is quite surprising how all of a sudden the so-called illegal Radio Biafra reportedly being operated by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, said to be resident in the United Kingdom, is increasingly becoming a source of seri­ous concern to the government of President Muham­madu Buhari, a section of the Nigerian Online Media and some Nigerian elements who are wont to believe that Ndigbo must always dance to their tune or do what suits their thinking and/or act in line with their personal and group expectations – so as to be quali­fied to be called good citizens of Nigeria or, better still, nationalists. What a beautiful nonsense!

Similarly surprising is the rate at which the operator of this now all-important Radio Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is being denigrated by the officials of the gov­ernment of President Muhammadu Buhari and their retinue of parasitic sycophants.

Little wonder that while some of these officials now seem be dissipating a lot of energy, time and re­sources striving to outdo one another in a bid to jam the signals of Radio Biafra, the security operatives are reportedly busy loafing around every nook and cranny of the South-East and South-South geo-political zones searching for the sponsors of this pirate station.

Furthermore, it smacks of curiosity that these op­eratives appear to be carrying out this task with more vigour, strength, uncommon commitment and un­precedented diligence than they seem to have so far deployed in the perennial fight against the Boko Ha­ram terrorists that have been wrecking havoc here and there in the Northern region.

Apparently in an effort to shore up what seemed to remain of its dwindling image – which has been ad­versely dealt with by the seemingly superior strategies and operations of the Boko Haram sect – and in order to create the impression of possessing the technical knowhow to control the country’s airwaves, the gov­ernment, through the instrumentality of the National Broadcasting Commission, recently announced its success in jamming the signals of Radio Biafra.

According to Dr. Yemi Folashade Esan, the Perma­nent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, “right now the signals from Radio Biafra have been jammed successfully by the NBC”. As pleasant as this remark sounds, there is no gainsaying that only time and events will give credibility to this claim.

Now let us dwell on the crux of the matter about the things believed to be said or done wrongly by Ra­dio Biafra. First of all, apart from the media reports about the station’s pejorative reference to President Muhammadu Buhari as terrorist-in-Chief and sundry other names, which is roundly deplorable, could it be empirically wrong for rational minds in a sane society to think that the station’s metaphoric use of the word “zoo” or “zoological republic” in describing the de­grading and appalling state of human existence in Ni­gerian today is really misplaced? For sure, this should, as a matter of fact, be the fundamental question of abiding concern to all of us, even as we continue to take a swipe at the general operations and content of the pirate radio station.

As it were, going by the abysmal, unacceptable and, in fact, clearly uncontrollable spate of killings and wanton destruction of property on a daily basis by the Boko Haram sect since the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari, could it not be an understate­ment to submit that the Radio Biafra’s characterization of Nigeria as a ‘zoo’ is a mild word in the depiction of the near animalistic state of living in the North-East geo-political zone? For goodness sake, how else do we aptly describe a situation whereby human beings are daily slaughtered like animals in Nigeria by the Boko Haram sect? Or, how else do we rationalize a state of human existence with a government ostensibly in place whereby no fewer than 625 innocent and hap­less Nigerians got butchered in a day in four villages in Borno State as reported by Vanguard Newspaper of July 14, 2015?Funny enough, not even in the US now­adays would anybody take the lives of ordinary ani­mals in just a day and in such a large number without the government swiftly unveiling its deadliest fangs of law enforcement in retaliation against the culprit. But here we are watching our government setting 182 Boko Haram suspects free on grounds that they had been duly investigated, discharged and acquitted. It is well indeed!

In fact, no matter the things that we do or say against the Radio Biafra and its operator, Nnamdi Kanu, the point is that Nigeria cannot live in self-delusion for­ever, more so now that the government of the day appears to be pontificating so much about change – though one hopes that this is far from being a lip-service approach aimed at taking Nigerians for a ride.

Undoubtedly, there is need for change in the style of governance in Nigeria. But then, the change the country needs or desires is not such that is currently being tilted in favour of the Hausa-Fulani and a few of their Northern brethren, in collaboration with their fellow ‘Muslim brothers’ in the South-West. Of course this desired change ought not encapsulate or envisage the emerging notion (as evidenced so far in President Buhari’s appointment) that the people of Northern Ni­geria know it more than their southern counterparts and as such have a duty to take over all the strategic security and other positions in the country, to the ex­clusion of others co-existing with them in this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious entity called Nigeria.

SUN

END

CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR NEWS & ANALYSIS EMAIL NOTIFICATION

1 Comment

  1. What i dislike about this write up is that it portray you as someone bias with ethic and religious bigotry as the last govt of GEJ. If the igbos are tired of begin part of nigeria you can carry out a referendum between your five states to determine to know if the south east still want to remain in nigeria.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.