This is a week of anniversaries in Nigeria. On May 27, which was Children’s Day, Lagos State celebrated its 50th anniversary. On May 29, Nigeria celebrated its Democracy Day, which marked 18 years of uninterrupted civilian rule in the country, the longest in the history of Nigeria. May 29 also marked the second year anniversary of the inauguration of Muhammadu Buhari and Prof Yemi Osinbajo as President and Vice-President respectively of Nigeria. Today, May 30, marks the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra. Therefore, it is a power-packed week.
Lagos State has every reason to roll out the drums. It is the only state that has remained intact since its creation in 1967. No other state has been carved out of it. Even though it is the smallest state in terms of land mass, it is the most significant. It was the capital of Nigeria from 1914 to 1991. It has Nigeria’s key seaports and airport. It has the largest Gross Domestic Product, larger than that of many African states. It hosts the largest assemblage of corporations, factories, markets and businesses, making it the indisputable commercial capital of Nigeria. It is the state with more opportunities than any other state, and consequently the state that will most likely attract any young man or woman looking for greener pastures. Not surprising, it is the most densely populated. Even though it was placed slightly behind Kano State in population in the 2006 census, that result was disputed as not representing the true position.
Lagos is also like a mini Nigeria. Nigerians from all ethnicities and walks of life live in it and feel at home in it. It calls itself the centre of excellence. Indeed, the Lagos standard is the standard of measurement in different spheres of the Nigerian life. A musician who is not popular in Lagos is not deemed yet popular in Nigeria. And if a musician is popular in Lagos, it is assumed that he or she is popular in Nigeria.
Coincidentally, one of the reasons the Republic of Biafra was declared three days after the creation of Lagos State and other 11 states was that the state creation of 1967 by General Yakubu Gowon was seen as an affront against the Aburi Accord between the delegates of the then three regions of Nigeria and the delegates of the Eastern Region. By that state creation, Gowon unilaterally divided the Eastern Region, which was under the leadership of the Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, into three states: East Central State, Rivers State and South Eastern State. On July 7, 1967, the Nigerian troops fired the first shot in Gakem in the present Cross River State, and the Nigerian Civil War started.
That war lasted for 30 months, claiming the lives of between one million and two million people, mostly children who died of kwashiorkor because of hunger and malnutrition, as a result of the food blockade used by the Nigerian side as a “weapon of war.”
Fifty years after, agitations for the resuscitation of the Republic of Biafra are on the front burner. The agitation resurfaced in 1999 by a group called the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, led by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike. He caused some irritation to the erstwhile president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, including issuing a warning that made the then visiting United States president, Mr Bill Clinton, to remove Port Harcourt from his itinerary in August 2000. Obasanjo eventually picked him up and charged him for treason.
In the early 2000s, another group called the Biafra Zionist Movement emerged, led by a lawyer, Mr Benjamin Onwuka.
In 2012, another group called the Indigenous People of Biafra emerged, led by Mr Nnamdi Kanu. It broadcast its messages from a London-based radio station called Radio Biafra. During the 2014 National Conference, Kanu threatened to deal with any Igbo who attended the President Goodluck Jonathan conference. The delegates attended the National Conference and nothing happened to them. The government of Jonathan ignored him and his messages all through. Kanu remained virtually unknown.
However, all that changed in 2015 when the administration of Buhari announced that it had arrested the engineer of Radio Biafra and had blocked the transmission of Radio Biafra to Nigeria. These messages from the government were broadcast as news by Nigerian newspapers, radio and TV stations as well as some international channels like the BBC. Unwittingly, the government was popularising Kanu and his Biafran cause. As if that was not enough, the media aides of the President issued a statement denying the allegation of Kanu that the Buhari administration was anti-Igbo. That conferred legitimacy on Kanu’s cause, since the Presidency could respond to him.
But the icing on the cake occurred in October 2015 when Kanu entered Nigeria and was arrested by the Department of State Services, which celebrated his arrest in the media. From that day he was arrested, Kanu and his Biafra cause have continued to dominate the news every week in Nigeria. The initial refusal of the government to grant him bail on many occasions for one and half years, despite the decisions of the law courts, drew sympathies to him and the Biafran issue. The political appointments and location of projects by the Buhari administration, which have continuously sidelined the Igbo, made the messages of Kanu resonate more with Igbo people. Many people of Igbo extraction who were either against the resuscitation of Biafra or undecided on the issue changed their views.
Last week, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo took a step that President Buhari would not have taken if he were in charge of the country: He attended an event to mark Biafra at 50. He and Obasanjo spoke at the event. The erroneous position of successive administrations in Nigeria has been that the Biafran issue should never be discussed, neither should any aspect of the war be commemorated. The assumption is that such attitude would make “Biafra” disappear and forgotten. This is different from the way the rest of the world treats some ugly incidents like war and genocide. Rwanda celebrates the 1994 genocide every year and has taken clear steps to heal the nation and ensure that there is no recurrence. Some 152 years after, the United States remembers its civil war and continues to talk about it and write books on it, all aimed at forestalling a repeat. The world remembers the Holocaust annually 72 years after World War II.
With IPOB, MASSOB and other pro-Biafran groups declaring a sit-at-home on May 30 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Biafra, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, issued a directive to his lieutenants in the South-East to place their men and equipment on red alert, warning that agitators would be dealt with. Security operatives have been deployed in major cities in the South-East and South-South. Helicopters hover in the skies. Some people told this writer that they would keep indoors on May 30 for fear of being shot by the security operatives. The security operatives are indirectly helping the sit-at-home to succeed, thereby popularising IPOB the more.
The assumption of government officials is that threat and the use of force will quell the Biafran agitation. But the opposite result is usually achieved, because the people get the impression that the state is unjustly against them, in spite of the non-violent approach of the Biafran groups, while Fulani herdsmen who kill people and burn down villages in different states of the federation are treated with kid gloves.
The solution to this Biafran agitation is engagement and inclusiveness. There are feelings of injustice from different parts of the country. Government should engage the people, find out what their feelings are and start a genuine process of addressing the knotty issues.
But one glaring reality is that Nigeria needs to be restructured to have any hope of progress and peace. The earlier Nigeria faced this reality, the better for the nation.
Twitter: @BrandAzuka
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