A few weeks ago, I had cause to write about the growing agitation in the south east for restructuring of the country championed by Nnamdi Kanu through IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra). That article was entitled, “Treading softly on Biafra agitation”. Since then, there have been other developments in the country. Apart from the military action, Operation Python dance which was unleashed on the agitators in zone, the federal government has declared IPOB  a terrorist organization.

This has come with its attendant problems with the Senate disagreeing with the executives on that stand. There have been other reactions by prominent Nigerians to the declaration and the ban too, especially against the background of the ruling by an Abuja high court presided over by Justice Binta Nyako that the body cannot be declared illegal. “It may be true that IPOB is not registered in Nigeria, but does that make it an illegal organisation?”, she had queried. In my earlier article on the Biafra issue, I had argued that the government should look critically at the underlying cause of the agitation. Excerpt of the article is reproduced. ‘For Nigerians of good conscience who love the country at heart, the Biafran agitation is a worrisome development. Before I continue, I want to state that I am against the dismembering of the country, but this could become unavoidable if the ongoing development is not quickly arrested and I am not talking of the military action that has turned that part of the country into a war zone. It is not still too late to retrace our footsteps and take a look at the causes of these agitations with a view to assuring all those who believe that they have nothing to gain in the present union that unity could still be achieved in spite of our diversity. There is strength in our diversity, if only we take the necessary steps to wield the country into a nation.

With over 100 years as a country, one can say we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. Times, it was when no one bothered about your ethnicity, but what value you could add to your present society. But that has changed. Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been in the news for some time now agitating for the parting of ways from the rest of the country. The agitation is borne out of the fact that the average south easterner believes he is being marginalized in the present arrangement. That he is treated as a second class citizen in his country.

Today, there is an overwhelming support for IPOB most especially from the masses in the zone. Presently, the old Biafran flag, currency are trending on the social media. The Biafran Security Services (BSS), made of able bodied, young men, has been constituted. In the present Nigerian constitution, all these are illegal. It is an affront on the sovereignty and direct challenge to the constituted authority, no doubt.

This must have informed President Mohammadu Buhari’s speech when he came back from abroad after his medical sojourn that the federal government would clamp down on agitators. “We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood”, he had said then. We know who he is referring to here as he followed up that statement with his meeting with the late Biafran leader, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu where he said the two of them agreed that the unity of the country was non negotiable. As stated earlier, the constitution frowns on the creation of a sovereignty within a sovereign state. Thus Kanu could be said to have embarked on an illegal act which the federal government would not take kindly to as it constitutes a  challenge to its authority. But we should ask ourselves what led to this present situation?

Would Kanu have embarked upon this journey if the political leadership had taken action on the strident and persistent cry from that zone since all these years. In Yorubaland, there is a saying that it is only a bastard that would see justification for anger and fold his arms. The south east has justification from several years of crying that has gone unheeded.

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Let’s take a look at the most simplistic of their agitations. While most of the zones in the country have six states, the southeast zone has only five. Why has it been difficult to create an additional state in that zone, even if it is to pacify the people and give them the sense that someone is listening to their cries?

Is there a document somewhere on how the Igbos should be marginalized? If such a document exists, it is time to tear it. Why has it been difficult to ensure an Igbo presidency since after the civil war? I thought the slogan after the war was, ‘no victor, no vanquished’. If that’s the case, why are Igbos still  being treated like conquered enemy? The Southeast is one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria. The other two have produced the president for the country, this has equally been extended to the minority when former President Goodluck Jonathan became president. So why should we blame IPOB or  MASSOB for their agitation.

The agitation is a cry, calling on the political leadership to listen to them, but no one is taking note. Let’s say your child wakes up everyday and as soon as he gets to a particular corner of your house, he or she gives a fearful cry, as parents, would you not want to find out why that child was always crying and pointing at that particular spot, everyday?’

Looking at the above the strident cry from the south east seems to have galvanisd the rest of the country into action. Nigerians have come to the realization that the country cannot continue wit the way it has always been. Why not calling for the dismembering of Nigeria, we can still live together as one if we agree to discuss the existing relationship. It has been argued that the major landmarks and developmental strides in the country came about when the country was operating the regional arrangement. It was a period of healthy rivalry among the regions. We can still achieve that. All the states that make up the regions are all naturally endowed. This was aptly captured in Chief John Nwodo’s speech at the Biafra’s remembrance day conference organized by the Shehu Musa Yar Adua Centre, ,when he said of the regions at the time, ‘On the economic front, the economy was buoyant. Import substitution industries grew rapidly and were more profitable. In the North, groundnut production and export fuelled economic growth. Textile industries flourished, agriculture boomed. Ahmadu Bello University thrived with outstanding international reputation.

In Lagos and the entire Western Region growth was phenomenal. Cocoa was a dependable foreign exchange earner. Cement, soft drinks, rubber, beer, soap and other import substitution industries grew phenomenally. Lagos, Ibadan and Ife housed universities of world standards. The first television station in black Africa was built. The first stadium in Nigeria was also built in the West.

In the Eastern Region palm produce grew the Eastern economy. Coal was mined and exported. Beer, cement, cashew nuts, tyres, aluminium, steel and soft drink factories grew rapidly. University of Nigeria was built and run by Americans’.  Nigeria can still regain this, only if we allow that healthy rivalry to thrive.