Biafra: Agitation And "Divide-And-Rule" Tactics Of The Hausa-Fulani & Yoruba

Biafran Patriot posing with the Biafran & UN Flags

For weeks now, the issue of Biafra agitation has been at the front burner in the polity. Every vendor’s stand has been turned into a theatre of arguments by persons who spend hours analysing the fresh Biafra movement being championed by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). Almost every known and unknown columnist has written in support or against Biafra’s resuscitation and detention of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

I embarked on this intellectual exercise to express my thoughts about Biafra agitation and where the struggle is heading, especially where spin doctors who are known agents of divide-and-rule have gone back to their age-long tactics. The major target of these divide-and-rule elements which tend to cry more than the bereaved is to Igbonise the struggle of Biafra restoration by using the instrumentality of the media to tag Biafra agitation Igbo “affair”. The irony of the debate is that majority of those divide-and-rule advocates are non-Biafrans. I think the future or restoration of Biafra should strictly be left for peoples of region to decide.

I would like to expose some of the antics of these divide-and-rule agents, who are only out to create division amongst us. The following thought-provoking questions would help in highlighting my submission: Why is it that the Hausa/ Fulani which comprise major ethnic groups in Northern Nigeria are always seen as one indivisible people, rather than Hausa and Fulani? Why do we have South-South as a geo-political zone carved out of old Eastern region, but nothing like North-North in Northern Nigeria? How did the creators of this South-South mantra invent the word that is not in line with known cardinal points in geography? Why is there Niger-Delta in the South but nothing like North-Sahara in the North? Why is there only one Northern Governors Forum, but South-East, South-West and South-South Governors Forum in the South?
Why do we have Northern Elders Forum(NEF) but hardly Southern Elders Forum?Someone should put on his thinking cap by now.

Yoruba as one of the major tribes in Nigeria has roots in North-Central states of Kwara and Kogi—which are outside Yoruba-dominated region of South-West. Yet, the Yoruba in Kogi and Kwara are seen as full-fledged Yoruba-speaking people with their customs and traditions. There is nothing like Kogi and Kwara Yoruba.

In line of this thought process, why would divide-and-rule propagandists keep referring to the Igbo in Delta and Rivers states as Delta or Rivers Igbo with sole purpose of creating division between them and their brothers and sisters in the South-East?

The unfortunate angle in this scenario is that so many of our brothers and sisters born after the civil war bought into this gimmick unknowingly until now. The emergence of Radio Biafra has help to deconstruct this mountain of falsehood and deflate the balloon of fallacies bandied by divide-and-rule campaigners who now termed undiluted and unalloyed truth emanating from Radio Biafra as “hate speeches”, what an irony!

I have asked these questions several times without getting reasonable answers: why do we have BBC Hausa Service broadcasting in the Northern Nigeria and there is no BBC Yoruba Service and Igbo Service or Ijaw Service broadcasting in the West or East? Who is afraid of Radio Biafra? Could the difference between BBC Hausa Service and Radio Biafra be that one is propagating divide-and-rule antics cum born-to-rule ideology, while later is championing restoration of rights of Indigenous people of Biafra via self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Chatter? Where were those anti-Radio Biafra elements when Radio ‘Chanji’ setup by the APC apologists in the North before the presidential election with sole aim of inciting Northerners against President Jonathan?

Former President Jonathan lost the last presidential election as a hero but the campaign that preceded the election unified the entire old Eastern region for once since after the Nigeria-Biafran war.
It is on record that Igbo sacrificed a lot to ensure re-election for Jonathan during the campaign not because of government survive but as result of the umbilical cord intertwining them with other ethnic nationalities of old Eastern region.

For our brothers and sisters in the so-called South South; Who murdered Ken Saro Wiwa; who killed Isaac Adaka Boro; Who ordered the invasion and massacre of thousands of innocent people of Odi in Bayelsa State?

The time has come for all lovers of freedom and prosperity in old Eastern should to stand up and be counted. There is a time when silence is no longer golden.

By Nwobodo Chidiebere

Source: Daily Times