By Elochukwu Nicholas Ohagi
For Family Writers Press
Blood has become nothing in Nigeria as discovery of mass graves become an every day thing in the Eastern part of Nigeria. For clarity sake, I will like to intimate my readers that it was this same region that witnessed a genocidal war in 1967 to 1970, where the Nigerian Federal government led by Yakubu Gowon committed the worse genocide ever recorded in Africa. The war left not less than 3million Biafra people dead which includes more than one million children who died as a result of blockade and reckless bombing of schools, hospitals and refugee camps by the Nigerian government.
If told, one could not believe that 48 years after the civil war, graves of about 180 youths of Biafrans will still be discovered in the Eastern region of Nigeria in 2018, with bodies of about 50 youths dumped in Ezu river in Anambra state some years back. One would have thought that Nigeria would have learnt a lesson from the barbaric of a war waged on Biafra by Nigeria. But we are practically wrong. Rather than learning anything, Nigeria has continued the killing of the same people they killed their fathers in 1967 yet again in 2018. It is quite unfortunate that Nigeria instead of forging a bond of unity amongst her citizens, decided to use the same military that ought to protect citizens against the same citizens.
The Biafra war presented the people of Biafra as a world leading technocrats. They invented bombs, refined oils, flew their airplanes amidst bombardment and above all constructed Biafran made armored vehicles and fighter Jets they code-named "Biafran Babies". Note that all these happened within 3years and in a time of war. It is not even surprising that five little daughters of this same people called Biafrans from a school in Anambra state in 2018, went to America, competed with about 119 countries of the world and clinched gold medal. Nigeria never learnt anything from the ingenuity of this people. Rather they criminalized the name Biafra and always arrest anyone that mentions the name.
In the late 90s when I was still in secondary school, I experienced the worse molestation from two Nigerian Mobile police men. I have just returned for break from a boarding school, and decided to go for a walk. I was then in JSS2. This unprofessional Nigeria police with his thunderstorm of a voice asked me to stop.
So I stopped abruptly immediately as I was asked to. 'Are you a Biafran' he asked. I looked at him and retorted in what seemed to be a question than an answer. 'Do we have a country within a country' was what I asked him. From that day onwards I started researching and bombarding my teachers with questions on The Republic Of Biafra.
This is exactly how they intimidate people in Nigeria. Police men in Nigeria practically go out everyday hunting down Nigerians, like hunters do to animals in the forest. It is no longer news that when ever the Nigerian police wants you to commit an offense, and where you didn't commit any, they invent an offense for you. Do you know how many Nigerians that die every year in what Nigerian police always call accidental discharge? Sometime ago they killed a woman returning from work in Lagos. They have also dropped a bomb 'accidentally' in Internally Displaced People's Camp (IDP Camp) somewhere in Maiduguri, Boronu State.
Why is it that the sons of those that fought and defended themselves against Nigeria Military in 1967 are today rising up again in demand of their own nation through a well organized referendum? Let me quickly and unequivocally give an answer to this question.
'It is because for 48 years the country called Nigeria has suppressed them, placed an Economic blocked on them by denying them access to international airport and Seaports. The Nigerian government stationed military and police checkpoints every where in the East as though there's an ongoing war therein. You sight these fiercely looking security men at every nook and cranny. They make sure those security men stationed there are from the Northern parts of the country.
They intimidate commuters and torture people that ever try to answer calls anywhere close to the checkpoints. Infrastructural development are denied them. They have the worst road network in Nigeria. The second Niger Bridge till today is being used to play politics. The government made sure the new modern railways never reached the East. They declared psychological war on the people of Eastern region. From the end of the war they have made sure the true leaders of the people never made it to a reasonable political seat of power. They made it easy for their puppets, betrayals and saboteurs to lead the people. Puppets who will rather support the oppressors than their own oppressed, impoverished and disenfranchised people. The country have perfected a system cum structure with which they keep the Biafrans out of the scheme of things in the country. Forced them to desert their region in search of greener pastures and are being mistreated in the regions they ran to.
This is why they are rising up demanding for a country they can call their own. This is the reason people like Nnamdi Kanu have risen. For this IPOB is born. The killing of 1967 and the continuous killing up to 2018 have no doubt made the Easterners call for legitimate referendum to determine their fate.
Nigerian government reached the apogee of the killing in last year September 2017. September became another name for graveyard. Almost all the entire states in the Eastern Nigeria became a graveyard. When natural borrow pits became filled with bodies of Biafran youths, even as the security forces started creating mass graves to deposit their lifeless bodies. The people continued to disappear without traces. Taken alive to the edges of those graves and summarily executed. Today, most of those graves have been discovered and the people are thrown into mourning without any shoulder to cry on, for their political leaders seemed to be in tandem with their killers.
The Indigenous People Of Biafra have risen up. They have called for a GENERAL STRIKE cum sit at home on 14th September 2018 for everywhere in Eastern Nigeria in remembrance of all those armless innocent youths murdered by Nigerian military in September. There are much reason they should be honored and remembered. They are the real heroes of Biafra who died in active service for their fatherland. They paid the ultimate price for what they believe in. THEY ARE THE REAL HEROES OF BIAFRA.
For Family Writers Press
Blood has become nothing in Nigeria as discovery of mass graves become an every day thing in the Eastern part of Nigeria. For clarity sake, I will like to intimate my readers that it was this same region that witnessed a genocidal war in 1967 to 1970, where the Nigerian Federal government led by Yakubu Gowon committed the worse genocide ever recorded in Africa. The war left not less than 3million Biafra people dead which includes more than one million children who died as a result of blockade and reckless bombing of schools, hospitals and refugee camps by the Nigerian government.
If told, one could not believe that 48 years after the civil war, graves of about 180 youths of Biafrans will still be discovered in the Eastern region of Nigeria in 2018, with bodies of about 50 youths dumped in Ezu river in Anambra state some years back. One would have thought that Nigeria would have learnt a lesson from the barbaric of a war waged on Biafra by Nigeria. But we are practically wrong. Rather than learning anything, Nigeria has continued the killing of the same people they killed their fathers in 1967 yet again in 2018. It is quite unfortunate that Nigeria instead of forging a bond of unity amongst her citizens, decided to use the same military that ought to protect citizens against the same citizens.
The Biafra war presented the people of Biafra as a world leading technocrats. They invented bombs, refined oils, flew their airplanes amidst bombardment and above all constructed Biafran made armored vehicles and fighter Jets they code-named "Biafran Babies". Note that all these happened within 3years and in a time of war. It is not even surprising that five little daughters of this same people called Biafrans from a school in Anambra state in 2018, went to America, competed with about 119 countries of the world and clinched gold medal. Nigeria never learnt anything from the ingenuity of this people. Rather they criminalized the name Biafra and always arrest anyone that mentions the name.
In the late 90s when I was still in secondary school, I experienced the worse molestation from two Nigerian Mobile police men. I have just returned for break from a boarding school, and decided to go for a walk. I was then in JSS2. This unprofessional Nigeria police with his thunderstorm of a voice asked me to stop.
So I stopped abruptly immediately as I was asked to. 'Are you a Biafran' he asked. I looked at him and retorted in what seemed to be a question than an answer. 'Do we have a country within a country' was what I asked him. From that day onwards I started researching and bombarding my teachers with questions on The Republic Of Biafra.
This is exactly how they intimidate people in Nigeria. Police men in Nigeria practically go out everyday hunting down Nigerians, like hunters do to animals in the forest. It is no longer news that when ever the Nigerian police wants you to commit an offense, and where you didn't commit any, they invent an offense for you. Do you know how many Nigerians that die every year in what Nigerian police always call accidental discharge? Sometime ago they killed a woman returning from work in Lagos. They have also dropped a bomb 'accidentally' in Internally Displaced People's Camp (IDP Camp) somewhere in Maiduguri, Boronu State.
Why is it that the sons of those that fought and defended themselves against Nigeria Military in 1967 are today rising up again in demand of their own nation through a well organized referendum? Let me quickly and unequivocally give an answer to this question.
'It is because for 48 years the country called Nigeria has suppressed them, placed an Economic blocked on them by denying them access to international airport and Seaports. The Nigerian government stationed military and police checkpoints every where in the East as though there's an ongoing war therein. You sight these fiercely looking security men at every nook and cranny. They make sure those security men stationed there are from the Northern parts of the country.
They intimidate commuters and torture people that ever try to answer calls anywhere close to the checkpoints. Infrastructural development are denied them. They have the worst road network in Nigeria. The second Niger Bridge till today is being used to play politics. The government made sure the new modern railways never reached the East. They declared psychological war on the people of Eastern region. From the end of the war they have made sure the true leaders of the people never made it to a reasonable political seat of power. They made it easy for their puppets, betrayals and saboteurs to lead the people. Puppets who will rather support the oppressors than their own oppressed, impoverished and disenfranchised people. The country have perfected a system cum structure with which they keep the Biafrans out of the scheme of things in the country. Forced them to desert their region in search of greener pastures and are being mistreated in the regions they ran to.
This is why they are rising up demanding for a country they can call their own. This is the reason people like Nnamdi Kanu have risen. For this IPOB is born. The killing of 1967 and the continuous killing up to 2018 have no doubt made the Easterners call for legitimate referendum to determine their fate.
Nigerian government reached the apogee of the killing in last year September 2017. September became another name for graveyard. Almost all the entire states in the Eastern Nigeria became a graveyard. When natural borrow pits became filled with bodies of Biafran youths, even as the security forces started creating mass graves to deposit their lifeless bodies. The people continued to disappear without traces. Taken alive to the edges of those graves and summarily executed. Today, most of those graves have been discovered and the people are thrown into mourning without any shoulder to cry on, for their political leaders seemed to be in tandem with their killers.
The Indigenous People Of Biafra have risen up. They have called for a GENERAL STRIKE cum sit at home on 14th September 2018 for everywhere in Eastern Nigeria in remembrance of all those armless innocent youths murdered by Nigerian military in September. There are much reason they should be honored and remembered. They are the real heroes of Biafra who died in active service for their fatherland. They paid the ultimate price for what they believe in. THEY ARE THE REAL HEROES OF BIAFRA.
