Thread by @HisKnowledgeabl

BIAFRA (MAY 30, 1967- MAY 30, 2020): 53 YEARS AFTER, SO FAR, HOW WELL?

Today, May 30, 2020, is 53 years that Gen. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, after very wide consultations across the Old Eastern Region, including today's S-South, declared a young Republic, BIAFRA.

2/ In my earthly sojourn, thus, far, I've met and conferenced with global citizens of no less that 40 countries- United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Serbia, Ireland, China, Jamaica, South Korea, North Korea, Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, India...

3/ I've also met and conferenced with global citizens from Nepal, Guyana, Republic of Antigua & Barbuda, Mali, Ghana, Cameroon, Egypt, Italy, Sudan, Indonesia, Haiti, Ethiopia, Liberia, Slovakia, Sierra Leone, Benin Republic, Togo, Guinea, Zambia, South Africa, among others.

4/ These deep conversations with many a global citizens, in no small measures, shaped my world view about life, particularly when issues of EGALITARIANISM, JUSTICE & GOOD GOVERNANCE are brought to the front burners of public discourses.

5/ One of such conferences, was in 2016, with a Serbian, on a 3hour road trip, from London Victoria to Poole, UK.

Seated next to me on the journey, discovering I was Igbo, he engaged me, recalling with nolstagia how he contributed his college pocket money to dying Biafran kids.

6/ Queried why as College student at the time (1967-1970), he contributed his pocket money to send to far-away Biafra, the septugenarian revealed that photos & videos of dying kids, youths, women & men emerging from ALA IGBO, hit Serbian newspapers & television networks.

7/ Before he alighted at Bournemouth, while I was headed for Poole, he asked: "How are your people (Biafrans) doing in Nigeria, today?" I told him that since the Biafran/Nigerian Civil War (Jul 6, 1967-Jan 15, 1970) ended,
NDIGBO (Biafrans) have rebuilt ALA IGBO, TREMENDOUSLY.

8/ This is even as I categorically told him that unfortunately, 46years after the end of the war declared NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISHED, the Social Injustices, Oppression, Mass Killings & Misgovernance that led to the war, subsist till date (2016). Four years after, same stories.

9/ Ugly Issues That Led The Civil War

Among other things, they included:

1. Mutual suspicion between Igbos & Northernerns pre-dating independence.

2. 1945 & 1953 premeditated pogroms on Igbos in Jos & Kano in opposition to Igbos' role in struggle for Nigeria's independence.

10/ 3. January 15, 1966 coup tagged Igbo Coup, against corruption, anarchy in the Western Region- Operation Wetie (soak him with petrol & set him ablaze), etc.

4. Aguiyi Ironsi's failure to punish coup plotters & promulgation of Decree No. 34, which gave birth to Unitary Govt.

11/ 5. July 29, Northern Counter Coup spearheaded by Theophilus Danjuma, et al.

6. Anti-Igbo pogrom in the North from May 21, 1966, reaching its peak Sept 29, 1966. Between 8,000 & 30,000 Igbos were estimated killed. A further 1 million Igbos fled Northern Region to the East.

12/ 7. Counter killings of some northerners in Port Harcourt, etc.

8. Yakubu Gowon's emergence as HoS instead of Most Senior military officer, Brig-Gen. Babafemi Ogundipe. He feared for his life, as northern soldiers were unwilling to take orders from a Christian southerner.

13/ 9. Ojukwu's angst against insurbordination in military that forced Ogundipe to United Kingdom, and Yakubu Gowon's emergence as Head of State on August 1, 1966.

10. Gowon's non compliance to the letters of the Aburi Accord reached with Ojukwu, in Aburi, Ghana, Jan 4-5, 1967.

14/ The abovementioned events, not excluding nepotism, lack of meritocracy in the military and civil service, as well as international influence from Great Britain, sparked the 30 months fratricidal civil war in Nigeria, with the Gowon-led Nigerian govt firing the first salvo.

15/ Pertinent Question?

January 15, 2020, made it exactly 50 years that a civil war was fought in Nigeria. Today, May 30, 2020, made it exactly 53 years that a budding Republic named BIAFRA, was birthed in the African continent.

After over five decades, SO FAR, HOW WELL?

16/ Sadly, after five decades, ugly issues that sparked the Biafra/Nigeria Civil War still rear their ugly heads in today's Nigeria.

Social Injustices, Mass Killings, Ethnic Cleasings, Genocide Corruption, Nepotism, Mutual Suspicion among the ethnic nationalities have worsened.

17/ No matter how Nigeria's dishonest elites from across the ethnic nationalities try to bury the name BIAFRA, like JIGGER it has continued to perch the toes of Nigeria, causing inflammable tetanus, forcing Nigeria to crawl
not run.

Nigeria is more divided that ever before.

18/ WAY OUT

From 1953 to the last in 2014 under former President @GEJonathan, successive leaderships in Nigeria have continued to convene & convoke National Constitutional Conferences, National Conferences, Political & Academic Conferences. After these talk-shops, zilch.

19/ Nigeria is about the only country, the world over, that fought a civil war, without learning NO LESSONS.

Before it is too late, like the U.S., @nassnigeria, @NigeriaGov, @NGFSecretariat, State lawmakers should #RestructureNigeriaNow to allow for a LOOSED FEDERATION.

20/ Nigeria's founding fathers foresaw today's Nigeria, thus, why they opted for a LOOSED FEDERATION, at Independence, on October 1, 1960.

Read the minds of Tafawa Balewa (1948); Nnamdi Azikiwe & Ahmadu Bello, in the First Republic (October 1, 1960- January 15, 1966)👇

21/ Here, I've bared my mind on how to #RestructureNigeriaNow. I've also advised our own @MaziNnamdiKanu, on how to restrategise & get a REFERENDUM CLAUSE in Nigeria's 1999 Constitution.

Once again, I enjoin NDIGBO to THINK HOME, thus, morphing ALA IGBO into the JAPAN OF AFRICA.

22/ To the GREAT HONOUR of BIAFRAN HEROES & HEROINES who've lost their lives in the struggle for an EMANCIPATED ALA IGBO, I recall the national anthem of BIAFRA- "Land of the Rising Sun."

The tune was adopted from Finland's Johan Julius Christian Sibelius' "FINLANDIA."

#Shalom

Namaste @threadreaderapp, please, unroll.