Kanu Explained Reason Why Northerners Suffers Most in the Insurgency

By Princewill Akubumma| Biafra Writers

Sunday, January 17, 2021.

Addressing journalists on a social media interview granted to a renowned journalist, Dele Momodu, on Thursday the 14th of January, 2021, the leader of the Indigenous people of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, pointed out why northern Nigeria was at the center of the hit of the atrocities of the terrorists and bandits ravaging the country. Kanu opined that it is as a consequence of their own actions.

He maintained that it is a natural consequence one expects to receive for harbouring and pampering terrorists. The North is known for playing politics with people’s life. Over the years they have used terrorists to process their political pursuits, and even in the current dispensation, are known to negotiate with them rather than engage them in battle.

Furthering his speech, Kanu asserted that Northern leaders connived with the former president of the United States, Barrack Hussein Obama, to oust President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. This, Kanu explained, was brought to fruition through the use of terrorism and intimidation.

Likening the terrorists to a little python that grows up to devour everyone in its path, Kanu explained that the same people used to intimidate others are now ironically killing those that nurtured them.

Noting that the area affected mostly by banditry and terrorism is Karnem Bornu – a core Hausa, Kanuri and Nupe territory – Kanu stressed that in most cases the people being slaughtered there are predominantly Christian faithfuls.

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Puzzle over Nigeria’s unity as North Central rediscovers identity

 

September 30, 2020 | The Biafra Times

That Nigeria is more divided today than ever before is no longer news. It is already manifesting with the North Central geopolitical zone that appear set to break away and seeking self-actualization from the core north. The North Central had been lackadaisical about its own identity while it tagged along the north as an appendage, as though there was an agreement to continue playing second fiddle.

The zone has always been useful in giving the north needed numerical, bargaining strength when it comes to dividing the spoils of national resource. Now, it seems the north is unraveling, with things falling apart for Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), as prominent leaders from Nigeria’s North Central zone recently decided to take their destiny in their own hands to opt out of the northern grouping.

They cited worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria as major reason. The leaders said the forum would also be deployed to tackle socio-economic marginalization the region suffers. The announcement of the birth of North Central Peoples Forum (NCPF) means that the zone is finally breaking away from the stranglehold of the core north.

In recent times, there have been unspoken feelings of disenchantment by the majority in the zone. Unlike the other five geopolitical zones in the country that enjoy consanguinity, the North Central has been tied to the apron strings of the north to the detriment of its development. While other zones have in place their common socio-political and economic platforms, where they meet to discuss their strength and weaknesses with a view to promoting development, the North Central, on the other hand, has been at the mercy of larger north.

Thus, with a feeling of being taken for a ride for too long, the leaders have finally realised the ACF cannot champion the region’s cause. Forming a platform for such purposes became a necessity for the six states that make up the North Central geopolitical zone.

For the new leaders of NCPF, the zone is like the weeping child of the north and the federation. It has faced the worst security challenges occasioned by unprovoked aggression from herdsmen within and outside the larger north. The devastating result has been the destruction of their farmlands, killings and maiming of their citizens, kidnappings and all forms of criminality. Also, there’s the sudden realisation that the zone is the most under-developed despite its contributions to the development of the country.

Weighed down by these challenges, the North Central would seem to have woken up from its long slumber. It is now searching for its soul and identity and the right leadership to champion its embattled people. Remaining with the core north, in their reckoning, would mean a gradual extermination before they realised it.

However, there seems to be some mix up between the new NCPF and another splinter group in the region, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) that has been in existence for decades. While the NCPF is made up of Kogi, Nassarawa, Niger, Kwara, Plateau, and Benue States, membership of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) seems geographically indeterminate. One of the questions agitating many is, which states qualify to be Middle Belt Forum?

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From tabulated and web sources, locations and regions which have been categorised as constituting the Middle Belt include the conventional North Central states – Kwara, Kogi, Plateau, Niger, Benue, Nasarawa States and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. This is in addition to a number of Christian-dominated sub-regions in some North Eastern and North Western states such as Southern parts of Kaduna Taraba, Kebbi (Zuru), Adamawa (Numan), Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, and Bornu States.

Thus, contrary to popularly held notion and flowing from the above knowledge, the ‘middle-belt’ appears to lack designated physical ‘borders’, being more of a category that is characterised by heterogeneity and diversity of its ‘peoples’ in terms of ethnicity, religion and culture.

What the Middle Belt, however, has in common is the ‘minority’ factor of tribes and religion. And this is unaltered regardless of the significant presence of other majority tribes and religions within these regions such as the Kanuri or Hausa/Fulani and Islam.

However, this would seem a strange way of identifying a people. While the term ‘Middle Belt’ has been in existence and in use since the 1950s pre-independence Nigeria (the defunct United Middle Belt Congress – UMBC, led by Joseph Tarka), the term ‘North Central’ (states) as a region, however, came into existence in the 1990s under the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime.

The question then is: why wasn’t the region accurately named ‘Middle Belt’ region when the six geopolitical zones were delineated? Was it omitted to actualise a ‘one big north’ agenda?

While addressing journalists in Abuja on the matter, the group said in spite of the abundant mineral and human resources in the zone, the North Central was bedevilled by vices like herdsmen’s aggression, kidnapping, banditry and other forms of criminality.

The new North Central group is being led by a former Minister of State for Health, Gabriel Aduku as its interim chairman. A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Jerry Useni, former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, former Military Administrator of Kwara State, Col. David Bamigboye (rtd), and former Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Olusola Akanmode, are also listed as members.

Others are the Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah, former Nigeria Ambassador to South Africa, Ahmed Ibeto, media consultant, Alhaji Tajudeen Kareem, former Deputy Governor of Benue State, Chief Stephen Lawani, and Alhaji Alfa Mohammed.

Useni told journalists that the existence of similar groups in other parts of the country had given rise to group affinity and solidarity among the states in a particular geopolitical zone to canvass things of common interest.

He expressed confidence that the forum would unite the people of Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory in their quest to ensure that peace and stability was established and sustained within the zone.

He added that the forum would pursue rapid industrialisation across all nooks and crannies of the zone.

He also said the group would pursue policies and processes that would ensure that the zone’s massive solid mineral and agricultural endowments were adequately harnessed.

He said, “The forum is also aimed at ensuring cooperation and support for the good policies and administration of the six governors of the zone, irrespective of our political, religious and ethnic differences.

“We will support and cooperate fully with the Federal Government for full and complete implementation of infrastructure and development projects situated in the zone and the involvement of the people of the zone in the national affairs of the country.

“We will promote, defend and strengthen North Central unity and the interest of its people in the context of one indivisible Nigeria and to contribute to the safeguarding of her territorial integrity. Consequently, every zone now has a common socio-political platform where they meet to discuss their strength and weakness with the view to propounding and promoting progress and development of the zone.”

FOR the newly formed NCPF, however, many contradictions abound. The current ACF chairman and former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, hails from North Central zone.

When contacted on the new body, Ogbeh said his being the leader of ACF was not something he bargained for, stating, “When I was made chairman, I wasn’t even there. They met in Kaduna and decided it; I didn’t even know. On the other hand, there were people within ACF, who wanted to be chairman, but they were not picked. It took me about one month to even accept.

“After leaving office, I have been concentrating on my farm. I said, ‘fine, I accepted.’ Having said that, I had no issues with the emergence of the North Central Peoples Forum. It is not an issue with us in ACF. I mean, this is a democracy and people should be free to associate as convenient and expedient to their needs in a particular area.”

He said the idea of ACF, which is 20 years old, came when they saw decline happening in the North. Ogbeh said ACF came to bring the North together to speak with one voice, to pressurise government and get things done. According to him, the other reason was to keep the North unified so as to minimise the conflict of religion and ethnicity and manage the diversity, saying there are close 300 ethnic groups in the north.

According to him: “In the First Republic, the Sardauna was here; he was not a biased man in the line of religion or politics. I can tell you a story about Cardinal John Onayekan. We were schoolmates at St. Michael Aliade. When school certificate results came out in 1962, we were in form one, he was in form five. He had the best result in West Africa, with nine distinctions.

“Guess who wanted to see him quickly? The Sardauna sent for him and asked him whether he wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge. John said he wanted to be a priest. The Sardauna said, ‘that was okay but if you change your mind you have the scholarship.’

“John said, ‘no he wanted to be a priest.’ Then Ahmadu Bello visited my school in 1963 on his way to the Sardauna’s province. He gave us a gift of two cows and praised our school for having put Northern Nigeria on the educational map of Nigeria.

Ogbeh said when those good men died and the region was split into states and military rule came in, religious sensitivity began to rise and the economy, particularly agriculture, began to decline. He indicated that the native authorities, which played a major role then in developing the region, started declining and dying when civilian rule came.

“The native authorities became totally irrelevant,” Ogbeh said. “As at today, hardship has set in. We were not growing, but we are not paying taxes anymore.

“In those days, once you are of a voting age you have to pay tax. If you don’t pay, they would make you miserable in front of your wife and children. Suddenly, the economy started dying, religious and ethnic sensitivity started growing and you kept hearing of marginalisation.”

He admitted that there were instances where a government comes into power and the major appointments come from one ethnic area, which irritates people, especially sensitive positions. He said if the Northeast elites gather tomorrow and say their region has been bastardised by Boko Haram, that they like as a group to do something about it, “how can we quarrel about that? That is our position; we are not quarrelling.”

He said the North is a very large area that is hopelessly under-developed and facing severe crises, which he had warned about in 2005 at a lecture he gave in Kaduna to the same ACF, when late Chief Awoniyi, Abubakar Rimi, Adamu Ciroma invited him to give a talk.

According to him, “The topic was ‘The North and the future of Nigeria.’ I warned that there was going to be violence and chaos on a scale that had never been seen from looking at the economic and social development of the North. There were those who did not agree with me and there were others who said, ‘well, the North is not like that, we don’t behave that way.’ “But I saw it, because my worry was that for a very long time now since the end of the 1970s, the only industry in the North is either politics, the arms services or the civil service. Gone are the days when we had the industries in Kano and even in places like Benue; the Tilly Gyados of this world; in Jos the Danboyi Zangiel; Bakko Kantagora in Niger State, to mention but a few.”

SENATOR Alex Kadiri, who represented Kogi East Senatorial District under the banner of the All Peoples Party (APP) between 1999 and 2003, expressed caution regarding the formation of any new socio-political grouping in the zone.

According to him, “All the agitators used to be part of ACF. At a point, somebody like Jeremiah Useni became chairman of ACF. What drove them from ACF? They haven’t told us yet. Secondly, at my age if I am joining a group, I look through them. Whether we like it or not, there are people who have current mandates, whether legitimate or illegitimate acquisition of power, but they have mandate. Those of them like that from the Middle Belt, have they taken them into consideration in what they are doing?

“Or would they just exclude them because they are in government? Is Paullen Tallen part of what they are doing? She is a minister from Plateau. Is George Akume part of what they are doing? He is from Benue. Is Lai Mohammed part of what they are doing? Lai Muhammed is from Kwara. Gbemisola Saraki, is she part of what they are doing? Ramatu Tijani, is she part of what they are doing?

“They are not carrying people along and I want them to expand and carry Middle Belters along.

“Thirdly, where is the boundary of Middle Belt, because I know somebody from Borno State, who is very active in this Middle Belt Forum and he is somebody I respect very well and he knows. Dr. Bitrus Pogu is from Borno State and he is an active member of Middle Belt Forum. So, where is the boundary of Middle Belt?

“Finally, the promoters of this enterprise currently seem to be all Christians. Are Middle Belt people all Christians? Or is it another branch of CAN? These are my misgivings about this outfit.”

Another commentator, Mr. Isaac Adaji, said, “Even though we are not political, I want to say that it has come at the right time. We have agitated for this type of self-actualisation as North Central. The formation of this does not mean that we are not relating with other groups.

“It is for us to actually bring ourselves together, have a common voice and because we have a common history, common interest, we have many things we share at the North Central level.

“Not just the resources, our cultural heritage is so much in common that we can flow together. Additionally, we have seen that the development of the North Central has been too slow. It has been at snail’s speed compared to other regions that came together the time North Central came together. Even though we have contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria, development has not really come to us.

“It is always promises upon promises. If North Central is fully developed and all the resources are fully tapped, the country would not go borrowing. There are so many things in North Central, and if Nigeria has harnessed them properly, we won’t go borrowing.  Apart from Ajaokuta, there are other things.”

Source: Guardian

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Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah

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Regional Policing: Nigeria Heading the Way of Yugoslavia, Southeast Least Prepared

February 6, 2020

Princewill Akubumma | For Biafra Writers

Yugoslavia, before its disintegration, practiced a mixture of socialism and federalism. Of all the nations lumped together in that one state, the Serbs – just like the Nigerian Fulanis – dominated every sector of the government and the army. They oppressed other regions and tried to keep them from seceding. Yet a time came when Slovenia and Croatia, having had enough, opted out.

The Serbs, dominant of the state, tried to stop them, but the seceding duo pushed on with referendum after which arms struggle became inevitable. Blood was shed, souls were lost, yet both Slovenia and Croatia achieved independence, leading to a total disintegration of Yugoslavia and the emergence of eight separate states.

A cross-examination of the situation in the Nigerian state today will show that the Zoo mistaken for a country is headed the way of Yugoslavia. The incessant killings by the Islamic foot soldiers in the guise of Fulani herdsmen, the unprecedented procurement of arms by Miyetti Alla, the Fulanization of the army and every other government sector, are all a replica of the Serbian attitude which plunged Yugoslavia into a disaster from which it never recovered.

READ ALSO: Call for Buhari to Resign, Abaribe Spoke the Mind of the People

The western part of the country – the Yoruba – has already floated its own security arm – the Amotekun. There’s no gainsaying that Amotekun is a reaction to the insecurity in the country created by the dominant and subjugating Fulani Islamic fundamentalists. Amotekun is a Yoruba army in disguise. The west knows what is to come and unlike the insensitive subservient lots in the East masquerading as Igbo leaders, they don’t want to be taken aback.

The failed British experiment called Nigeria is made up of three regions – North, East and West. The North is the aggressor, the West by way of floating Amotekun seems prepared, but the East? Just like the people of Bosnia in disintegrated Yugoslavia, the East, rather than equip self against the coming tempest, deludes self with political correctness and phantom peace.

READ ALSO: Nigeria made Africa a Pawn in the World

The East either purges self of the docile pathogens or suffers the fate of Bosnia – the worst affected region of the Yugoslavian conflict. The line of division between the riverine area and the hinterland as drawn by the Nigerian government in connivance with the British must be quickly erased and the people united to form a common front capable of rebuffing the northern aggression. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.

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Kidnappings, Large-Scale Killings Hit Christians in Kaduna State, Nigeria

File photo

January 17, 2020 | The Biafra Times

JOS, Nigeria  – More than 200 Muslim Fulani herdsmen have attacked predominantly Christian villages in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria since Jan. 6, killing at least 35 people and kidnapping 58 others, including a mother and her 6-month-old baby, sources said.

Armed with AK-47s, the herdsmen on motorcycles rampaged through 10 predominantly Christian villages in Chikun and Brinin Gwari counties, Christian leaders said. Traumatized people displaced by the violence, dispossessed of their farmlands and homeless, later received calls demanding thousands of dollars in ransom for the release of their relatives, they said.

“The herdsmen, or ‘bandits’ as they now call them, began their attacks on our communities on Monday, Jan. 6, killing, maiming and kidnapping members of our families without restraint by security agencies or the military,” pastor Habila Madama, a Christian leader in the affected areas, told Morning Star News. “The herdsmen have destroyed our farmlands and left us with nothing. These Muslim Fulani herdsmen will usually come with their cattle, forcefully take over our farms, and destroy crops ready for harvests.”

He appealed to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and the Kaduna state government to take steps to end the violence.

“As it is now, we don’t know where to go, what to feed on, or where do we get clothes to wear, especially for our children – and worst of all, where to lay our heads,” Pastor Madama said.

The assailants have called relatives of the 58 kidnapped people demanding 10 million naira (US$27,440) in ransom, said Jonathan Asake, president of the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU) at a press conference at a refugee camp at Ungwar Beji, in Gonin Gora area of Chikun County.

READ ALSO: Operation Amotekun: What Igbo Leaders Should Learn

“About 35 people have been killed by the herdsmen, while about 58 persons have also been abducted,” Asake said, noting that there are missing people still unaccounted for. “As you can see from the way these people are, they are seriously traumatized and need immediate assistance to be able to hold on. We have been told that the bandits have destroyed all the farm products of the victims and also destroyed their houses, leaving them with nothing to call their own.”

Asake said he has been told that about 8,000 people displaced by the attacks have arrived in Buruku with nothing in their possession, and that 200 people with no food, bedding or clothing had gathered at the Ungwar Beji camp.

“Worst of all, most of the children are sick,” he said. “This calls for concern on all people of good will to come to their aid in any kind in order to give them hope of survival before steps could be taken on the area of their education.”

6-Month-Old Kidnapped

On Jan. 6 in Kasso, Chikun County, the terrorists killed Eli Sule, a 35-year-old father of five children, and kidnapped a nursing mother, Ladi Yusuf, according to a press statement on Saturday (Jan. 11) from Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the SOKAPU.

“Ladi Yusuf, a nursing mother, was abducted with her 6-month-old baby,” Binniyat said. “This morning [Jan. 11], Yusuf Sule received a call from the kidnappers. They used the phone of his kidnapped brother, Bulus Sule, and called him. The kidnappers are asking for the ransom of 5 million naira.

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“The brother told him that they are not in a good condition, and that the 6-month-old baby is critically sick because of the kind of condition they are being held captive in. Yusuf and the community have no means of raising that money after the bandits looted the little they had gathered, including two motorcycles Yusuf Sule owned.”

Binniyat said Danjuma Bulus, a 30-year-old father of four children, and Istifanus Auta, a 31-year-old father of three, were also killed in the attack. Bulus Sule was kidnapped along with his wife, Rebecca Sule, he said, and Yusuf Sule’s son, Irmiya Yusuf, was being treated at a medical clinic for gunshot wounds.

In Chikun County, the villages of Kuduru, Tawali, Unguwan Madaki and Katarma were attacked for five days by more than 200 herdsmen riding motorcycles and armed with AK-47s, Binniyat said.

“Information available to us has it that in Tawali village, six persons were kidnapped, and nothing has been heard of them ever since,” he said. “The ECWA [Evangelical Church of West Africa] church in the village was not spared as it was burnt down completely. Also, a young lad, by name Ezra Bala, 16, who is a student of Government College, Kwoi, was shot dead in Kuduru village during the attack.”

The gunmen on Jan. 8 attacked the Good Shepherd Major Catholic Seminary in Buwaya, kidnapping four seminarians, he said. In an attack on Badna, Guruku Ward of Chikun County, 40 people were kidnapped, including a Baptist pastor, Samaila Yusuf, he said. Assailants also looted Rumana Gbagyi and Rumana Hausa villages, carting away livestock and other valuables, he said.

In Guruku Ward, Bademi community was ransacked and looted as the assailants killed Idi Halidu and kidnapped two other people, Binniyat said. In Unguwan Buji, they killed a person identified as Sani Buji, he said.

“In a display of brazen impunity, they kidnapped 15 people and vanished into the bushes with them,” he said. “In nearby Maloma community, the invaders robbed and ransacked the village and burnt a large quantity of rice and other grains before disappearing into the unknown. All these happened in a span of four days without any response from any security agency.”

The attacks that began Jan. 6 marked a new high in casualties following earlier attacks, rights leaders said. On Dec. 16, in Chidunu village near Maraban Rido in Chikun County, the attackers killed 40-year-old Raphael Ayuba, who was married with five children, Binniyat said. Also killed were Habila Auta, 40, who left behind a wife and two children, and Buhari Abubakar, a 41-year-old father of four.

“From available information, the armed men went from house to house killing and maiming these hapless victims with no help coming from anywhere,” Binniyat said. “The spate of killings, kidnapping, arson, looting, raping and amounts paid in ransoms to these terrorists by our communities is traumatizing and impoverishing our people on a daily basis, making them susceptible to hunger and disease.”

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The Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) estimates that Christians have paid about 400 million naira (nearly US$1.1 million) to kidnappers as of Jan. 11, Binniyat said.

“We are shocked with the way that the federal government and the government of Kaduna state seem to be overwhelmed by these cruel crimes. These defenseless victims and the affected communities are left to their own fate, in the hands of these bloodthirsty militiamen,” he said. “It is sad that the same communities who are victims of these mass murders, kidnappings, arsons, lootings, rapings and other mindless evils are forced to pay their assailants huge sums to gain their freedom or that of their loved ones.”

The attackers use the ransom money to purchase more arms and enlarge their operations against the next community, he said.

“We fear that with the unchecked boldness that these heinous crimes against humanity are spreading, there is a systematic plan to wipe out our communities and take over our lands,” Binniyat said.

Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.

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Nigeria: The New War Against Africa’s Christians

Fulani raiders ‘are Islamic extremists of a new stripe, more or less linked with Boko Haram,’ but present throughout Nigeria.

December 22, 2019 | The Biafra Times

By Bernard-Henri Lévy - Wall Street Journal

Lagos, Nigeria

A slow-motion war is underway in Africa’s most populous country. It’s a massacre of Christians, massive in scale and horrific in brutality. And the world has hardly noticed.

A Nigerian Pentecostal Christian, director of a nongovernmental organization that works for mutual understanding between Nigeria’s Christians and Muslims, alerted me to it. “Have you heard of the Fulani?” he asked at our first meeting, in Paris, speaking the flawless, melodious English of the Nigerian elite. The Fulani are an ethnic group, generally described as shepherds from mostly Muslim Northern Nigeria, forced by climate change to move with their herds toward the more temperate Christian South. They number 14 million to 15 million in a nation of 191 million.

Among them is a violent element. “They are Islamic extremists of a new stripe,” the NGO director said, “more or less linked with Boko Haram,” the sect that became infamous for the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Christian girls in the state of Borno. “I beg you,” he said, “come and see for yourself.” Knowing of Boko Haram but nothing of the Fulani, I accept.

The 2019 Global Terrorism Index estimates that Fulani extremists have become deadlier than Boko Haram and accounted for the majority of the country’s 2,040 documented terrorist fatalities in 2018. To learn more about them, I travel to Godogodo, in the center of the country, where I meet a beautiful woman named Jumai Victor, 28. On July 15, she says, Fulani extremists stormed into her village on long-saddle motorcycles, three to a bike, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” They torched houses and killed her four children before her eyes.

When her turn came and they noticed she was pregnant, a discussion ensued. Some didn’t want to see her belly slit, so they compromised by cutting up and amputating her left arm with a machete. She speaks quickly and emotionlessly, staring into space as if she lost her face along with her arm. The village chief, translating for her, chokes up. Tears stream down his cheeks when she finishes her account.

I venture north to Adnan, where Lyndia David, 34, tells her story of survival. On the morning of March 15, rumors reached her village that Fulani raiders were nearby. She was dressing for church as her husband prepared to join a group of men who’d stand watch. He urged her to take refuge at her sister’s home in another village.

Her first night there, sentinels woke her with a whistle. She left the house to find flames spreading around her. Fulani surrounded her. Then she heard a voice: “Come this way, you can get through!” She did, and her putative savior leapt out of the underbrush, cut three fingers off her right hand, carved the nape of her neck with his machete, shot her, doused her body with gasoline, and lit it. She somehow survived. A few weeks later she returned to her village and learned that the raiders had leveled it the same night. Her husband was among the 72 they murdered.

READ ALSO: Religious freedom: Nigeria added to watchlist of country of particular concern by US State Department

The Christian Middle Belt is a land of blooming prairies that once delighted English colonizers. On the outskirts of Jos, capital of Plateau state, I visit the ruins of a burned-down church. I spot another, intact. A man emerges to yell at me in English that I don’t belong there. Stalling, I learn that he is Turkish, a member of a “religious mutual assistance group” that is opening madrassas for the daughters of Fulani.

That day I crisscross the Middle Belt. Roads are crumbled, bridges collapsed; destroyed houses cast broken shadows over tree stumps and trails of black ash and blood. Maize rots in the abandoned fields. The local Christians have been killed or are too terrorized to come out and harvest it. In the distance are clusters of white smudges—the Fulani herds grazing on the lush grass. When we approach, the armed shepherds wave us off.

The Anglican bishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi, has had his livestock stolen three times. During the third raid he was dragged into his room, a gun to his head. He dropped to his knees and prayed at the top of his voice until the thrumming of a helicopter drove his assailants off.

Bishop Kwashi describes the Fulani extremists’ pattern: They usually arrive at night. They are barefoot, so you can’t hear them coming unless they’re on motorcycle. Sometimes a dog sounds the alert, sometimes a sentinel. Then a terrifying stampede, whirling clouds of dust, cries of encouragement from the invaders. Before villagers can take shelter or flee, the invaders are upon them in their houses, swinging machetes, burning, pillaging, raping. They don’t kill everyone. At some point they stop, recite a verse from the Quran, round up the livestock and retreat. They need survivors to spread fear from village to village, to bear witness that the Fulani raiders fear nothing but Allah and are capable of anything.

The heads of 17 Christian communities have come to the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, to meet me in a nondescript compound. Some have traveled for days in packed buses or minivans. Each arrives accompanied by a victim or two.

READ ALSO: Arewa Youth Consultative Forum seek inclusion of referendum in constitutional amendment

Here they are, an exhausted yet earnestly hopeful group of some 40 women and men, keenly aware of the moment’s gravity. One carries a USB key, another a handwritten account, a third a folder full of photos, captioned and dated. I accept these records, overwhelmed by the weight of the bearers’ hope that the world will recognize the horrors they experienced.

Taking the floor in turn, the survivors confirm the modus operandi Bishop Kwashi described, each adding an awful detail. The mutilated cadavers of women. A mute man commanded to deny his faith, then cut up with a machete until he screams. A girl strangled with the chain of her crucifix.

Westerners here depict the Fulani extremists as an extended, rampant Boko Haram. An American humanitarian says the Fulani recruit volunteers to serve internships in Borno State, where Boko Haram is active. Another says Boko Haram “instructors” have been spotted in Bauchi, another northeastern state, where they are teaching elite Fulani militants to handle more-sophisticated weapons that will replace their machetes. Yet whereas Boko Haram are confined to perhaps 5% of Nigerian territory, the Fulani terrorists operate across the country.

Villagers west of Jos show the weapons they use to defend themselves: bows, slings, daggers, sticks, leather whips, spears. Even these meager arms have to be concealed. When the army comes through after the attacks, soldiers tell the villagers their paltry weapons are illegal and confiscate them.

READ ALSO: Police Terror: IPOB Still Awaiting Evidence against its Lawyer, Barrister Ejiofor

Several times I note the proximity of a military base that might have been expected to protect civilians. But the soldiers didn’t come; or, if they did, it was only after the battle; or they claimed not to have received the texted SOS calls in time, or not to have had orders to respond, or to have been delayed on an impassable road.

“What do you expect?” our driver asks as we take off in a convoy for his burned-down church. “The army is in league with the Fulani. They go hand in hand.” After one attack, “we even found a dog tag and a uniform.”

“It’s hardly surprising,” says Dalyop Salomon Mwantiri, one of the few lawyers in the region who dare to represent victims. “The general staff of the Nigerian army is a Fulani. The whole bureaucracy is Fulani.”

So is President Muhammadu Buhari. In April 2016 Mr. Buhari ordered security forces to “secure all communities under attack by herdsmen.” In July 2019 a spokesman for the president said in a statement: “No one has the right to ask anyone or group to depart from any part of the country, whether North, South, East or West.”

Most Christians I meet express disgust at the vague language suggesting culpability on both sides. Their stories tend to validate claims of the government’s complicity. In Riyom district, three displaced Nigerians and a soldier were gunned down this June as they attempted to return home. The villagers know the assailants. Police identified them. Everyone knows they took refuge in a nearby village. But there they are under the protection of the ardos, a local emir. No arrests occurred.

Village chief Sunday Abdu recounts another example, a 2017 attack on Nkiedonwhro. This time the military came to warn villagers of a threat. They ordered the women and children to take shelter in a school. But after the civilians complied, a soldier fired a shot in the air. A second shot sounded in the distance, seemingly in response. Minutes later, after the soldiers had departed, the assailants appeared, went directly to the classroom, and fired into the cowering group, killing 27.

I also meet some Fulani—the first time by chance. Traveling by road near a river bed, we come on a checkpoint consisting of a rope stretched across the road, a hut and two armed men. “No passage,” says one, wearing a jacket on which are sewn badges in Arabic and Turkish. “This is Fulani land, the holy land of Usman dan Fodio, our king—and you whites can’t come in.” The conquests of dan Fodio (1754-1817) led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate over the Fula and Hausa lands.

MORE IN THE NEWS: Biafra: The Undertones of War on Biafrans

The second encounter is on the outskirts of Abuja. Driving toward the countryside, we reach a village unlike the others we’ve seen in the Christian zone. There’s a ditch, and behind it a hedge of bushes and pilings. The place seems closed off from the world. From huts emerge a swarm of children and their mothers, the women covered from head to foot.

It’s a village of Fulani nomads who carried out a tiny, localized Fulanization after the Christians cleared out. “What are you doing here?” demands an adolescent boy wearing a T-shirt adorned with a swastika. “Are you taking advantage of the fact that it’s Friday, and we’re in the mosque, to come spy on our women? The Quran forbids that!” When I ask if wearing a swastika isn’t also contrary to the Quran, he looks puzzled, then launches into a feverish tirade. He says he knows he’s wearing “a German insignia,” but he believes that “all men are brothers,” except for the “bad souls” who “hate Muslims.”

Later I encounter Fulani near Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, which is in the south on the Gulf of Guinea. North of the city is an open-air market where Fulani sell their livestock. I am with three young Christians, survivors of a Middle Belt massacre who live in a camp for displaced persons. They pretend to be cousins buying an animal for a family feast. As they negotiate over a white-horned pygmy goat, I look for Fulani willing to talk.

READ ALSO: IPOB sends goodwill message to Biafrans and friends of Biafra, warns corrupt politicians

Most have come from Jigawa state, on the border with Niger, crossing the country south in trucks to bring their stock here. Although I learn little about their trip, they eagerly express their joy in being here, on the border of this contemptible promised land, where they expect to “dip the Quran in the sea.”

There are “too many Christians in Lagos,” says Abadallah, who looks to be in his 40s. “The Christians are dogs and children of dogs. You say Christians. To us they are traitors. They adopted the religion of the whites. There is no place here for friends of the whites, who are impure.” A postcard vendor joins the group and offers me portraits of Osama bin Laden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He agrees the Christians will eventually leave and Nigeria will be “free.”

Some professional disinformers will try to reduce the violence here to one of the “interethnic wars” that inflame Africa. They’ll likely find, here and there, acts of reprisal against the Fula and Hausa. But as my trip concludes, I have the terrible feeling of being carried back to Rwanda in the 1990s, to Darfur and South Sudan in the 2000s.

Will the West let history repeat itself in Nigeria? Will we wait, as usual, until the disaster is done before taking notice? Will we stand by as international Islamic extremism opens a new front across this vast land, where the children of Abraham have coexisted for so long?

Mr. Lévy is author of “The Empire and the Five Kings: America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World” (Henry Holt, 2019). This article was translated from French by Steven B. Kennedy.

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Arewa Youth Consultative Forum seek inclusion of referendum in constitutional amendment

December 22, 2019 | The Biafra Times


The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) says the inclusion of referendum clause in the constitutional amendment will pave the way for the restructuring of the country.

The National Assembly has been urged by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) to include the referendum clause in the constitutional amendment to pave the way for the restructuring of the country.

Alhaji Shettima Yerima, the national chairman of the group, disagreed with the position of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration that only the National Assembly can restructure the country, The Nation reports.

Yerima explained that the only duty of the National Assembly is to include the provision of referendum in the constitution to allow the nation to carry out a nation-wide vote on restructuring reports from the 2014 conference or the report of any other conference as may be decided by Nigerians.

Lawyer defends CJN's call for constitutional amendment to accommodate Sharia law He criticised Nigerian past and present leaders for not including the referendum clause in the country’s several constitutions.

He said referendum would have guaranteed member-ethnic nations’ right of self-determination as contained in the United Nations’ Charter.

Yerima noted that the country would have been saved the violent effects of agitations by militant ethnic groups in the country and other secessionist groups if the referendum clause had been in the constitution.

He said the situation under the present political structure cannot change the high level of poverty ravaging the vast majority of Nigerians and the low level of development across the country.

READ ALSO: Religious freedom: Nigeria added to watchlist of country of particular concern by US State Department

READ ALSO: If IPOB decides to take up arms Nigeria will not last six months - Chief Onyike

The AYCF chairman pointed out that no amount of constitutional amendment by the National Assembly or bail-out to the states from the federal government would bring any significant improvement in the life of the people or improve infrastructural development unless the country carried out a fundamental restructuring.

In another news report, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has demanded explanation from Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the alleged arrest and humiliation of northerners resident in Lagos state.

In a statement made available to Legit.ng on Monday, December 9, and signed by its president, Yerima Shettima, the group also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call the governor to order.

The group accused the state of hounding the northerners, mostly commercial motorcyclists, with the state's task force, who go to the homes of the residents at odd hours to effect arrest.

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US group releases report on Boko Haram, persecutions of Christians, multiple checkpoints in S'East, others

L-R International Human Rights Lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, US Congressman Chris Smith
and Amnesty International staff Adotei Akwei in a Human Rights Day photo at Capital Hill (December 10, 2019)

December 11, 2019 | The Biafra Times

A US bases group has released a report of its latest findings in Nigeria.

The report made available by the US Nigeria Law group indicted the Federal Government over its silence on the persecution of Christians and multiple security checkpoints in the South East region of the country which have become oil well for security agencies who have resorted mainly to extortion of the hapless citizens.

The report read thus;

USNLG: Annual Human Rights Report on Nigeria: PART 1: GEN. BUHARI BUILDS A WALL

Last week, we concluded a fact finding mission to Nigeria and are releasing this report in commemoration of International Human Rights Day today.

PART A - ATROCITIES OF NON-STATE ACTORS

RESURGENCE OF TERRORIST TARGETING OF CHRISTIANS AND HOSTAGE-TAKING OF AID-WORKERS

During our visit to Nigeria, Boko Haram announced its abduction of several Nigerian Security agents and “eight Christians” in a renewed genocidal campaign of religious persecution.

This is a resurgence of it’s rogue roadblocks that claimed the lives of over 170 people in 2013 as terrorists dressed as soldiers checked IDs and beheaded Christians in a chainsaw massacre.

Also during our mission, a lecturer Dr Bitrus Zakka who teaches Christian Religious Knowledge was abducted at a checkpoint upon the discovery of a bible in his luggage. Educators are also targets of the terrorists. It is unclear if Dr Zakka is amongst the captives reported by the terrorists.

Boko Haram also claimed the capture of two “Christian” aid workers for the Red Cross.

Bearing in mind the execution of their Red Cross co-worker Hauwa  Liman last year and aid workers Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham this year, the recorded number of aid worker fatalities in Nigeria over the past decade is now in excess of 40. This averages one per quarter for 10 consecutive years!

This does not include UNICEF midwife Alice Ngaddah and 16 year old Christian heroine Schoolgirl Leah Sharibu held hostage for 649/659 days respectively and the

recent hostages from Action Against Hunger.

We note once more our prior alert that Boko Haram has again relaunched clear targeted attacks on the basis of religious identity. This is all the more worrisome given their impersonation of military personnel more so during the high risk Christmas season.

2. UPSURGE IN KIDNAP FOR RANSOM

Last Easter, the spouse of a relative of this researcher was abducted for ransom in northern Nigeria by Herdsmen.

Last month the husband of a relative of this researcher was also abducted in southern Nigeria by criminals. The statistical odds that this would occur to one individual within a six-month timeframe is highly indicative of the geometric rise in these sorts of crimes. Incidentally a justice of the court of appeal was also abducted. All instances cited above resulted in releases however British aid worker, Faye Mooney was killed in northern Nigeria also in a botched kidnapping.

Apart from the multi-state Herdsmen syndicates, kidnapping has become an opportunistic crime around the country in what can only be described as a resurgence of “localized slave trading.

3. SEPARATIST VIOLENCE

Members of the Separatist Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) group reportedly burnt to death two police officers in Nigeria’s southeast while we were in country. Although the group had not engaged in terrorist activity before it was outlawed for terrorism, this rare violent incident reportedly resulted in reprisals for the killing of half a dozen of its members.

4. HERDSMEN ATTACKS 

While there were no major massacres while in country, continuing low grade altercations occurred with Herdsmen grazing on farms or even simply burning farmers’ crops.                                     

PART B - ACTIONS OF STATE

5. COURT INVASION

While in Nigeria, the regime’s secret police released activists Sowore and Bakare from 125 days of detention but brazenly invaded a courtroom to rearrest them the next day in violation of the law, desecration of the court and disregard for court orders. The DSS had unlawfully invaded the Legislature last year and its boss was fired by Nigeria’s VP Osinbajo who was acting President at the time. However, the unlawful invasion of the court by the DSS has received no reaction from President Buhari besides justification.

6. LETHAL MILITARY FORCE IN NE

There are credible reports of indiscriminate air bombings that claimed the lives of innocent civilians gathering firewood in Northeast Nigeria. In addition, at least one known victim of a helicopter firing on defenseless voters during the “elections” in Kogi is battling for her life in hospital. The use of lethal air munitions on defenseless citizens on the ground has become a recurring phenomenon since the mass casualty attacks on a Rann IDP Camp.

7. POLICE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS IN SE

There were also reports of the killing of at least six members of IPOB in southeastern Nigeria. Postings to the southeast are reportedly at a premium as policemen prefer to be at the numerous lucrative checkpoints that extort motorists. There were reports of a driver killed for not giving a 50 naira bribe (seven cents). A Nigerian American journalist visiting reported that his taxi was stopped by a policeman who demanded money from him (the journalist) and not the driver. Uber drivers complained that they had to remove their Uber stickers due to targeting and harassment by policemen.

8. JUDICIAL MANIPULATION

There were further signs of the manipulation of the judiciary in the handling of election appeals challenging Gen. Buhari’s dubious elections.                         

I. Contrary to long-standing procedure, the Supreme Court did not constitute a panel of the most senior justices to hear the case.                 

II. A senior justice with familial ties to the opposition party was not allowed to sit on the case while another justice with ties to the ruling party was allowed to.                                       

III. A senior justice who had given a dissenting judgment contradicting the bizarre Osun case where the governorship was spuriously awarded to the ruling party was also not on the panel.     

IV. A justice who was approached by a government minister to award governorship of a state to the ruling party but refused and was then arrested by the government was on the panel.                               

V. The new CJN who was foisted on the judiciary after the unlawful ouster of Chief Justice Onnoghen was also on the panel.         

VI. The court dismissed the election challenge without hearing it.

9. The state of Gombe in northern Nigeria is the latest to fail to confirm a female Christian, Justice Beatrice Iliya, as Chief Judge of the State pursuant to the constitution. Like Justice Elizabeth Karatu of Kebbi State, earlier this year, she has been replaced by a junior male Muslim judge of debatable pedigree after having acted as Chief Judge. This is the third high profile female Christian Judge to face obstacles to confirmation in northern Nigeria. Justice Patricia Mahmoud was similarly denied Chief Judgeship in Kano State on account of her Christian Faith. The case of Justice Beatrice Iliya is not yet final but the unfortunate precedent by Gen. Buhari’s illegal removal of Nigeria’s first southern Chief Justice in 30 years and his replacement with a northern Muslim does not inspire confidence. There is palpable public concern at a systematic northernization and Islamization of government at both federal and state levels. While the expired tenures of numerous northern Muslim officials have been illegally extended, those of southerners are abruptly cut short or not renewed.

10. CENSORSHIP and REPRESSION - the Nigerian Government is institutionalizing repression as statecraft. A wall has been built around the Unity Fountain in Abuja that had become a recognized staging ground for protests. Parliamentarians from the US and Europe are amongst foreign dignitaries who had addressed activists such as Bring Back Our Girls Group there. After over a year of the stationing of police to harass protesters, a wall has been built to further shut down civic dissent and citizen activism.                           Where other leaders build walls to protect their citizens, Gen. Buhari has built a wall to prevent his citizens.   The building of the wall is symbolic of repression under the Buhari regime which has now outdone his prior military junta for its crass demolition and denudation of Democracy. Like his first coming 36 years ago, Buhari’s second coming is also synonymous with the destruction of democracy in Nigeria again.

A Hate Speech Bill in the parliament appears to be a reiteration of his draconian Decree 4 of 1984 which even then did not prescribe capital punishment for outlawed speech.

To be continued.


EMMANUEL OGEBE
US NIGERIA LAW GROUP

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Brutal violence in northern Nigeria forces thousands into Niger

30 September 2019  | The Biafra Times

• This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

More than 40,000 people have now been forced to cross from northwest Nigeria into Niger as a result of an upsurge in violent attacks on civilians over the last ten months.

The escalating violence in the Nigerian states of Sokoto, Zamfara, and Katsina – violence by groups other than Boko Haram – has led to a new humanitarian emergency in Niger’s border regions. Nigerian refugees continue to arrive in more than 50 villages in the departments of Guidan Roumji, Guidan Sori and Tiberi. On September 11 alone, more than 2,500 people fled when civilians were targeted by armed groups on the Nigerian side. As the security situation continues to deteriorate in Sokoto State, we are expecting more refugees to arrive in Niger.

People are seeking safety from indiscriminate attacks unleashed by organized armed groups on men, women and children alike. There have been frequent reports of kidnappings, torture, extortion, murder, sexual violence and destruction of houses and property.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with local authorities and its humanitarian partners to assist refugees, many of whom are arriving traumatized and with few belongings.

Fleeing villagers report the attackers to be well-equipped and well organized, and that some refugees have been chased over the border into Niger. Some village chiefs in Niger are also reported to have been targeted and killed by the armed groups.

Refugees, many of them women and children, are arriving with gruesome details of extreme violence. A 14-year-old refugee told UNHCR staff that attackers killed more than 50 people in her village, including her family members. Her father and two young sisters, aged three and four, were shot dead, while her five-year-old brother was killed with a machete. Attackers stole all her family’s belongings.

The attackers, who take some people hostage, let others go free to warn the rest of the community of the consequences if they do not pay ransoms and if they do not flee their homes.

UNHCR is rushing assistance to the area and registering the new arrivals with six mobile units in the border regions. We have opened a new field office and deployed emergency staff and resources to respond to the humanitarian needs. A 747 cargo plane carrying 98 metric tonnes of relief items from UNHCR, landed in Niamey on Monday (September 23). Items were being distributed to the refugees and host communities welcoming them into their villages.

Most refugees are in villages close to the border which are prone to incursions from armed groups. UNHCR is working with local authorities to relocate refugees to ten villages identified as being in safer locations.

But more resources are urgently needed to support refugees and their hosts. An inter-agency refugee response plan launched this week seeks US$ 35.5 million until the end of this year. So far we have 6 percent of the required funding.

For more information on this topic, please contact:

In Niamey, Laurence Bron, [email protected], + 227 80 09 71 63In Niamey, Benoit Moreno, [email protected], + 227 92 19 24 17In Geneva, Babar Baloch, [email protected], +41 79 513 9549

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Biafra: Grave consequences await those hatching devilish plans to attack Biafrans and their business interest in other parts of Nigeria - IPOB warns

IPOB PRESS RELEASE | The Biafra Times

25/02/2019

We the global family of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and it's leadership condemn in its entirety certain utterances and anti-Igbo sentiment emanating from certain quarters in Yoruba west and Fulani controlled north. The brazen attempt to threaten, intimidate and stop Igbo Biafrans from voting for their candidate of choice is unacceptable to any right thinking person and is confirmation, if any is needed, that Biafrans of whatever persuation, is not wanted in Nigeria. This is a state of affairs we are not prepared to tolerate. Those hatching devilish plans to attack Biafrans and their business interest in other parts of Nigeria must understand the grave consequences their actions portend.

This latest action against Biafrans living in Northern and Western parts of Nigeria is not in tandem with the spirit of their so-called one Nigeria as they pretentiously mouth on a daily basis. We must put it to the knowledge of every Nigerian who wish to know, that Biafrans will not allow a repeat of 1966 when Igbo families were massacred in their hundreds of thousands across Nigeria. Those behind this latest plot must not underestimate our preparedness.

It is unbelievable that some Yoruba leaders and their Fulani counterpart would summon the courage to ask Igbo/Biafran people not to vote for the candidate of their choice because they are not indigenes. Some went as far as saying Igbos should go back to Igboland if they want to vote for any person other than APC candidate. Our people living in Northern and Western parts of Nigeria must be prepared and never entertain any fear particularly those in Lagos and Kano States because any attempt to commence another round of ethnic cleansing of Igbos in the north or west, will be reciprocated in the east.

Those acclaimed APC/OPC thugs on the payroll of Bola Ahmed Tinubu that had the temerity of threatening Igbos and other Biafrans living in their areas must know they are doing that to their own detriment because Biafrans are ready to face them should the need arise.

Our movement and struggle for Biafra freedom through peaceful means must not be misconstrued by anybody or tribe in Nigeria to mean weakness. Biafrans living in any part of Nigeria, outside Biafraland must gradually prepare for total relocation of their businesses and families from Northern and Western Nigeria particularly Lagos and Kano States, because they have perfected plans to forcibly eject them from those states. We are also informing our people in the west that IPOB intelligence unit have discovered secret plans to first attack Igbos living in other parts Yoruba land before they do so in Lagos. This wave of attack is imminent.

This planned attack in the west could be a ploy by the Fulani cabal to instigate ethnic conflict between the east and west should Jubril lose the election.

We wonder why some Yoruba politicians would allow themselves to be used by Fulani dominated government of Nigeria to attack or stop Igbo people in Lagos and other parts of Yoruba land.

Igbo strongholds in Lagos have been under serious attack and humiliation by All Progressives Congress APC's thugs since election day. With every event and incident, the stance of IPOB is being justified on a daily basis. Those that doubted us in the beginning, can now see that the only solution left is the restoration of the sovereignty of Biafra.

COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

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Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
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Biafra: Before The North Issues Another Quit Notice Over IPOB’s Election Boycott, Bring Back Our Children

By Eluwa Chidiebere Chinazu | For Biafra Writers

November 6, 2018

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Biafran people has spoken and the enemy understood him well. Albeit, some people might take his words to be a mere "lip speech," it doesn't matter since every fool must learn in one way or the other.

Remember, this work is never meant to apportion blame to anybody but devised to enable those who cannot read the science of time to come to the understanding of what time is saying at this point in our lives so as to make haste while the sun shines. From the view of the writer, l can see freedom conceived for the Biafrans and this time, it will come to light. I see freedom in the belly of the yellow sun protruding. The evil night is about to end.

It is high time Biafrans understood how the northern psyche works. Whenever they see Biafrans united, they became rattled and upset. To ease their anger, they slaughter any Biafran they see. The "Quit Notice" issued on Biafrans to vacate the North was as a result of the 2016 Heroes' Day sit-at-home exercise which was inarguably 100% successful in Biafraland.

Read Also: Buhari’s identity: ‘American experts will join me in exposing Jubril’ – Nnamdi Kanu

Pan-Igbo organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo under the leadership of John Nnia Nwodo promised the northern oligarchy the head of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu because they felt threatened by his insurmountable and unquenchable agitation for a free sovereign Biafran state and to avert the looming horror that was perceived at the height of the quit notice. But as it stands now, Ohanaeze has nothing left to promise or part with if their northern masters should come calling again. The forthcoming 2019 elections is almost here and the Biafrans are set to boycott it. This time around, there shall be no notice before the bloodbath. The truth must be spoken no matter what – Biafrans living in Northern Nigeria should bring back our children this December before the hot period of the election.

The uncomfortable truth before us all is that the gory events of 1660s is glowering at us. And if we don't learn from past events of the pogroms of 1960s, it shall be repeated yet again. As Chinua Achebe would narrate the events of 1960s as follows;
"The northerners turned on Igbo (Biafrans) civilians living in the North and unleashed waves of brutal massacres that Colin Legun of The Observer (UK) was the first to describe as a pogrom. Thirty thousand civilian men, women and children were slaughtered, hundreds of thousands were wounded, maimed and violated, their homes and property looted and burned- and no one asked any questions. A Sierra Leonean living in Northern Nigeria at that time wrote home in horror: 'The killing of the Igbos has become a state industry in Nigeria'."

Achebe in his further expression of surprise over the carriage of the Nigerian government controlled by the Northerners said, "What terrified me about the massacres in Nigeria was that: If it was only a question of rioting in the streets and so on, that would be bad enough, but it could be explained. It happens everywhere in the world. But in this particular case a detailed plan for mass killing was implemented by the government – the army, the police, the very people who were there to protect lives and property."

Read Also: Before You Argue Blindly Over Kanu's Comment On Judaism, Read This

From the above citation, a salient conclusion could be explored – the federal government ordered the army and the police to kill the Biafrans living in the north and west.

Also, Oyeweso (1992) noted that the advice by Chukwuemeka Ojukwu to the fleeing Easterners to return to the North for the sake of national unity was a decision Ojukwu later regretted as thousands who heeded his advice went back to the North and were slaughtered during the Northern Pogrom.

As Emefiena Ezeani pointed out in his book titled: ‘In Biafra Africa Died,’ "The refugees (the fleeing Biafrans from the North) told stories of horror; how they were hunted from one place to another, the raping of their daughters and wives in their presence, how fathers and husbands were chopped to death in the presence of their children and wives, how pregnant women were disemboweled and unborn babies killed."

I am not giving anybody any order but our children are precious. We can't afford to have them killed again in the name of maintaining national unity. A stitch in time saves nine. This piece of work should be seen as an advice not an order. Use this December to safely bring back our children.

The Biafra Times
Edited By Chukwuemeka Chimerue
Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
Contact us: [email protected]