Niger-delta and Southeast resist plots against Biafra

Nigeria rulers have already planned, and are executing their plans to humiliate Biafran peoples and to destroy their legacies and legitimate aspiration for a restored Biafra. Biafrans have been able to identify and side-step these plots.

The Plot

Few days after the swearing-in of Muhammadu Buhari as president of Nigeria, a secret telephone conversation between two Nigerians went virile on the social media. Their conversation revealed the mindset, and the plans by the Fulani people of Northern Nigeria, as well as their Yoruba counterpart from the Southwest region against Biafran peoples. It was a plan to further subjugate Biafrans by force, and further exploit and degrade their land.

The Alhaji had declared to his friend, a certain “Kunle”, how the Northern peoples would work with their conniving Southwestern counterparts to render Biafrans – Southeast and South-south peoples – irrelevant in the scheme of things in Nigeria and in the world. It was a plot that would ultimately render Biafraland a wasteland worse than it had already been.

It did not take long for Biafrans to notice signs that the plot was already being executed by Buhari and his Southwestern allies. For instance, long before the scam called Buhari’s 2016 budget was drafted, the government had already given notice of intention to invest N39. 4 Billion in oil exploration in the North. For the Yoruba people, it was conceded to them the sum of N22 Billion for infrastructural development in Lagos State. Biafraland – Southeast and South-south – which provides all the resources that Nigeria is known for, had nothing in the plan for them. Instead, as the Alhaji indicated in his conversation with Kunle, Oshodi market in Lagos State was destroyed. The market is mainly used by Igbo people. But it was demolished by Lagos State government in a wicked manner. No prior information was given for the people to evacuate their goods from their shops. They came to the market that faithful morning to set bulldozers set on their shops and goods, crushing all into pieces. The people were not allowed even to remove a pin.

The illegal abduction and detention of Nnamdi Kanu, which has sparked off a worldwide movement that is rocking the foundation of Nigeria, was also discovered to be part of the plot.

Southeast Decodes and evades the plots

It was through the telephone conversation that Biafrans knew that the abduction of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Radio Biafra was part of the plan to further subjugate them. They discovered that the intention was to provoke them to violence, which would make it possible for the Nigerian government to declare them terrorists. Declaring them terrorists would make the world to turn their backs on Biafrans when Nigeria begins to escalate the problem to the point of a war. Feelers showed that Biafrans chose to keep their cool in spite of provocations. It is a position they believe have enabled them to make remarkable progress in their Biafra independence struggle.

Realizing what the plan was, Biafrans refused to fall for it. They held massive peaceful demonstrations, which saw millions of Biafrans in the streets of Biafraland, without any single trace of violence being recorded. Even when Nigerian Police and military resorted to shooting into the crowd and killing many of them with the intention of provoking them into violence, the people refused to turn violent.

At a time, the Nigerian government, in consort with Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, sponsored trouble-makers to infiltrate the crowd to try and turn the protest into a violent one, IPOB members isolated them and carefully eased them out of the crowd. Apart from demonstrations in Biafraland, IPOB also demonstrated in more than 66 countries of the world, and no violence was recorded anywhere. So, Buhari and his goons were shamed in the eyes of the world.

Niger Delta decodes and sidesteps the plots

In the Niger Delta part of Biafraland, two things happened to convince the people that the plot in that region had also been triggered off. The first was the Bayelsa State election, where it was observed that ex-militants from the state were made to fight themselves as they pitched sides with each of the two prominent political parties.

Already, majority of the people knew the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as their party because it was the party of their son, Goodluck Jonathan. They knew that Jonathan was hounded out of office by a combination of Fulani and Yoruba “lies and intimidation” using the All Progressives Congress (APC) as their political party. The people considered the APC as Muslim brotherhood party which was in the business of Islamizing the whole country. They were therefore not happy that some militants actually fought for the APC against the PDP. For this reason, they believed that Buhari’s idea was to divide the militants, have them fight and neutralize themselves before moving in to finish them off.

After the Bayelsa election, it was believed that the same divide-and-rule strategy would be used in other Niger Delta states. Incidentally, that was not the case. But the people quickly realized that the plot was actually being executed in a slightly different way.

The second happening, which convinced Biafrans in their territory called Niger Delta, was the recent bombings of oil installations in the region. By Sunday, January 17, such installations as a gas pipeline of Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, and a Tank Farm in Warri West Local Government Area of the State had been breached. Also, the main crude oil line from Makaraba through Otunana and Abiteye to Escravos was blown up as well as Olero to Escravos gas line, which was attacked on Saturday, January 16. Before these attacks took place, the Escraos – Warri – Abuja – Lagos pipelines had come under attack.

While these attacks were going on, media reports in Nigeria were insinuating that ex-militants, especially Government Ekpemokpolo, known popularly as Tompolo, were responsible for the attacks. But Tompolo, and some other militants, had to grant media interviews to insist that they were not responsible. They rather pointed accusing fingers on two possible quarters where the attacks could be coming from – the Nigerian government and the ruling party, APC.

For the government, militants were reported to have said that it was government’s attempt to influence oil prices worldwide that led to its destroying its own facilities. The militants who espoused this theory claim the government wanted to create panic buying in the international community, which would cause crude oil prices to be hiked.

Secondly, militants like Tompolo accuse APC members, who defected to the APC from the PDP, but wanted them (militants) to join them in APC of being responsible. Tompolo and his colleagues claimed the bombings were being done to bring them in direct collision with government, and by implication the Nigerian military.

Indeed, it may not be easy to ascertain whether Tompolo, and those who held the belief were right, but it can be stated that they wer certainly right in their claims that an attempt was being made to militarize their land. Already, there are reports of the military – both Army and Navy personnel – swarming the entire locations with multiple gunboats

The military are being accused of molesting and dehumanizing the people; even arresting and torturing fishermen by branding them militants. Nigerian authorities at a time threatened to apprehend community leaders in any area where further sabotage of economic infrastructures would be recorded. But the threat have left a sour taste in the mouth of many Biafrans who queried why no such threat have been given in the North, where Boko Haram has committed all manner of atrocities.

Among the sentiments being expressed by the people of Niger Delta in particular and Biafrans in general, is anger against the divide-and-conquer tactics of the North and Southwest against them, as well as the exploitation of their land. Among many expressing this anger were those discovered what they called Buhari government’s sinister plan with the bombings. They claimed the bombings were being concentrated in on area of Delta State, to provoke a renewed Ijaw/Itshekiri conflict – another divide-and-conquer gambit.

Biafran people have their say

A great number of Biafrans have reacted in different ways to Biafra Family Writers’ (BFW) enquiries on the latest development Many were bitter with the Fulani and Yoruba peoples for what they called their age-long their wickedness, subjugation and exploitation of Biafran peoples through the help of the British government.

“They will come here and set us up to fight and neutralize ourselves while the bleed us dry” lamented Yinkori Ebi, an IPOB member from Ekeremor, Iga, in Bayelsa State. He told BFW that he has never heard the Yoruba emphasize the difference between the peoples of the Southwest region like the Igba people; the Ijebu people, the Ife and Modakeke people; or even the Ondo, the Aworis, and the Badagri people. He also said same thing of the Northerners, who would always talk about the North as if they were homogenous peoples.

He blamed the Biafran peoples who he said, “will always listen to them when they talk about Ijaw, Itshekiri, Ibibio, Igbo, and all others, as different peoples, and why we must not work together”.

Ikechukwu Ugwoha, former IPOB coordinator of Abia State, told BFW that the exploitation of Biafraland by the North and Southwest peoples was real and huge, and that the time has come for those they branded Southeast and Niger Delta to work together and fight their common enemies. “Honestly, it is time we begin to move together to thwart their evil plans, because they will always work against us. It benefits them when we continue to quarrel” he said.

For Jerry Omieda Tinkora, who hails from Bomadi in Momadi Iga and claims to be a hardcore Biafran, “This time we must stand together because we have many things in common than they want us to see. Now we must focus on Biafra! That is our only saving grace.”

By Tim Tochukwu