Exposing the lie called “Biafra government

Nigerians and Biafrans alike were recently served a huge pie of lie, which was that Biafra government was being formed by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). To make the news plausible, pictures of a newly completed and glittering building – resembling a hotel complex – was shown as secretariat of the new government.

Biafrans were excited. But in their euphoria of excitement, they did not look at the issues well or study critically the photograph that was shown to them. They did not see in the photograph that there was nothing indicative of the presence of a country’s secretariat in the picture. There were no flags there, not even a single Biafra flag, and the houses and the environment were not touched with even a dash of any Biafran colour.

It is necessary now to expose the lie about the so-called Biafran government, and to tell the people what a big scam it is. But to show how amateurish the promoters of the lie were, they could not, at least, host a Biafran flag (probably with other countries’ flags) to dismantle them immediately after the photo-shoot. No wonder former Nigerian dictator, Olusegun Obasanjo, few weeks ago described Biafran agitators as miscreants looking for ways to extort money from government.

But the good news today is that Obasanjo has seen that real Biafrans are truly on the barricade and pushing for Biafra strongly. He has seen the huge protests, the media onslaught, and several other pro-Biafra activities that have proved to Nigerians that there are hardcore Biafrans who are fighting to have their country restored. Obasanjo and Nigeria know that the leader of that genuine struggle, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently in detention but slugging it out with Nigerian government in court and winning.

This explainswhy lying about the forming of a Biafran government now cannot be anything more than people positioning themselves to be bribed by the Nigerian government. Unfortunately Nigerian government is falling for their pranks, as the outrageous amount budgeted in the 2016 indicated. The budget showed that Nigerian government, among other things padded the budget and planned to borrow funds from Arab countries to bribe Biafrans into jettisoning their struggle. But they are mistaken, real Biafrans cannot be bribed. That is why the IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu has as one of its slogans, “we are whiter than white and whiter than snow; we cannot be bribed”. (We understand today that the budget has been withdrawn as the people have been exposing the scam that is imbedded in it).

Instructively, the nuisance of those claiming to be forming a Biafran government is not limited to Nigeria and Biafraland alone, their agents have also gone to other parts of the world, scamming and hoodwinking government agents by claiming they were the real IPOB, and that Nnamdi Kanu was a usurper. Rather than work for the release of their brother, Kanu, who is in the enemy camp; rather than work wholeheartedly for the restoration of Biafra, they are busy concocting and executing schemes for crumbs from their masters’ table.

Point blank, the group claiming to run a government of Biafra is BILIE Human Rights Initiative. Its members have been identified as agents of Nigerian government being used to distort and destroy the Biafra struggle from within. It is instructive to note here that back in 2002 the group went to court, claiming to be in the vanguard of achieving Biafra independence through legal means. Then it was in partnership for the struggle with Radio Biafra.

Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB), was a term descriptive of the people inhabiting Biafraland and a sort of catch-phrase for the Biafran struggle. It was a brainchild of the partnership between Radio Biafra and BILIE Human Rights Initiative. Nobody could claim patent to it, or claim it as his/her intellectual property. It was not a political movement, neither was it a legal entity. As a matter of fact, Nigerian government did not recognize it even as a description of those who inhabit the land for it argued that much in court – that there was nothing like indigenous people of Biafra. But real Biafrans under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu know that it existed, which was why they took the challenge to make it known to the world. And they succeeded!

It was under Kanu that IPOB was made a political movement and a legal body that it is today. They were the ones that registered it as a legal body in many countries of the world, and also at the United Nations (UN).

Another product of the partnership BILIE and Radio Biafra was Biafra Council of Elders, a body of elders that was appointed by the partnership to act as leaders and arrowhead of the struggle. But unfortunately, along the line, accusations were labeled against BILIE for attempting to hijack the struggle and turn itself (a mere human rights group) into the government of Biafra. It was accused of having cornered the Council of Elders for this purpose. This led to the partnership being truncated.

Part of the reasons the partnership was ditched was not only because BILIE wanted to hijack the struggle as Biafra government, it was also because it and the Council of Elders were found to be hobnobbing with Nigerian politicians (asking them for funds to prosecute the struggle) which was an anathema to those at Radio Biafra, and its followers. True Biafrans were operating with the philosophy that Nigerian politicians and money bags should not be allowed to fund the struggle. There was the belief that once elections were near, that they would try to hijack the group (as they did with MASSOB under Ralph Uwazuruike) and then use it to prosecute their elections, thereby jettisoning the struggle.

Uche Mefor, Deputy Leader of IPOB and Deputy Director of Radio Biafra had this to write concerning the partnership: “But after finding out that the so-called council of Elders (indeed appointed by Nnamdi Kanu and hijacked by BILIE) has been criss-crossing Abuja and conniving with the Nigerian government to keep Biafrans in bondage, they were jettisoned. The so-called SCE and BILIE are political contractors”.

What happened after the collapse of the Radio Biafra/BILIE partnership was that the two groups chose their parts and pursued it. Radio Biafra chose the part of political action to achieve Biafra, while BILIE and its Council of Elders chose the part of hobnobbing with Nigerian government, claiming they were working to achieve Biafra through peaceful and legal means. That was how they got funding from Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to fund their Internet radio: Biafra Voice International (BVI), a station which its sole preoccupation was to run-down Nnamdi Kanu and Radio Biafra.

But Kanu and his group through Radio Biafra’s numerous followers around the world labored day and night to take the Biafra quest off the ground. They spent their time, spent their money, and tasked their intellect to bring about the ubiquitous and irrepressible IPOB that is known everywhere around the world today. Yes, let it be stated again that it was Radio Biafra and its followers that made IPOB a political movement and a legal body that it is today. They were the ones that registered it as a legal body in many countries of the world, and also at the United Nations (UN), while BILIE and its Council of elders pursued contracts and political appointments from Nigerian government. It was after Radio Biafra and its followers turned IPOB a political movement and grew it to what it is today – a political force – that BILIE started throwing up its Council of Elders as leaders of IPOB and leaders of Biafra government.

Let it be known today that Biafra has no government yet. Biafrans have not voted at any time to have a government. BILIE and its Council of Elders claim to be fighting for Biafra through legal means and went to court to ask for Biafra. So, has the Nigerian court mandated them to establish a government for Biafrans? The answer is a capital “NO!”

So if they claimed to be pursuing Biafra through legal means, how come they are establishing a government through “illegal means”? Biafrans and world governments should beware of these men.

ByTim Tochukwu