Nigeria: Of Igbos and the Illusory Biafran Dream

7 September 2017
opinion

One was a military officer and the governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. He commanded both military and political leadership of the region. He started what has now turned into an unrelenting mania amongst those from the Eastern region - the clamour for the utopian state of Biafra. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu went to war to actualise Biafra and lost out badly. Some will argue to this day that he did not need Biafra to resolve the prevailing problems of those days. Something, however, was not in doubt, in pursuit of Biafra, ostensibly to liberate his people from the suffocating hegemony almost bothering on fratricide on the part of the Northern oligarchy, Odumegwu Ojukwu saw an opportunity to actualise a power ambition. The consequences of the disastrous Biafran experiment are yet to fade from conscious memory.

The other is nothing but an upstart, a son of an Eze from Isiama Afara in Abia State. Here was a boy who abandoned his studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to proceed to the United Kingdom where he eventually graduated from Guildhall University (London Metropolitan University, LMU). Nnamdi has no political background, experience or structure to command. Neither has he any military command as back-up. Yet, he talks with reckless abandon, boasting that Nigeria has never seen anything like him. He preaches hate and sows the seeds of ethnic discord, rancour and acrimony. Here was a jobless Nigerian youngster in the UK employed by Ralph Uwazuruike to man the Radio Biafra arm of MASSOB in England. Being an opportunist, Nnamdi saw an avenue to carve a niche for himself. He thought of nothing better than to stir the sentiments of Ojukwu's abandoned dream. Knowing fully well that his people, the Igbo people, are in dire need of ego massaging, he employed the smart use of Biafra rhetoric coupled with fiery propaganda of hate to mobilise gullible people. Here we are now, with the stupid, unfocussed and once again, bitter demand for Biafra.

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