The Biafran Quest Under Attack: Why IPOB Must Guard Her Unity

   The Biafran Quest Under Attack: Why IPOB Must Guard Her Unity

For the umpteenth time, the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) is a self determination movement of the people of Biafra. It is a movement seeking the restoration of the autonomy that the people of Biafra had for 3 years. There was a country called Biafra between 1967 — 1970. 

For context, Nigeria was a country made up of four autonomous regions — Western, Eastern, Mid-western and Northern regions. As the colonial emperor, Britain, interfered with the political process, a military coup that led to a pogrom occurred. The killing of people from the Eastern region was outrageous, warranting that as an aftermath of a violation of a peace accord in Aburi, Ghana by the Gowon led Nigerian government, a Republic of Biafra was declared as a last survival resort.

However, the strategic and geopolitical position of the nascent country as a deposit of trillions of cubic feet of oil and gas and other essential minerals immediately condemned her as an enemy of the economically interested world powers led by the United States of America, acting through a proxy —the United Kingdom. These conglomerate of hostile nations feared the ingenuity and infrastructural development such unhindered access to mammoth raw material, an already thriving Eastern Nigeria would produce. So they covertly and overtly waged a war of annihilation.

Over 50 years after the genocidal war has seemingly come to a ceasefire, the descendants of the survivors are asking for a referendum to decide their fate in Nigeria and bring the war to an agreeable end. The Indigenous People of Biafra represents the people making the demand.

IPOB was founded on a core value called nonviolence. Her leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, created an administrative department called the Directorate of State (DOS) to run the day to day activity of the organization through a Command and Control principle.

The members of IPOB are under oath to obey the leadership, regardless of whether or not they personally agree with the order. Doing otherwise would strategically undermine cohesion and breed disloyalty. It is commonsensical that an organization as IPOB is not for expression of personal feelings or pursuit of individual glory. It is a collective that seeks the overall good of a whole. It is based off an underlying understanding that a whole (community) is greater than a unit (one). The ultimate goal, however, is for the community to be united: to become one.

Recently, some persons either mischievously or ignorantly have been promoting a divisive, deceptive and misleading rhetoric. They appear clearly ambitious, even sponsored. From their body language, it is clear that they feel that somehow, because Mazi Nnamdi Kanu mentioned their names as good writers before his kidnapping ordeal, they love Mazi Nnamdi Kanu more than anyone else. They want IPOB to be another community meeting where everyone can shout and act without decorum. 

The cowardly argument they are making that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is under torture in solitary confinement in Nigerian DSS dungeon, is under imminent and present danger from an organization he leads and not from the criminal Nigerian government persecuting him is laughable but also indicative of whose narrative they are pushing. It is exactly what Nigerian mainstream media is promoting: disloyalty, disregard and distraction to IPOB’s Command and Control.

Instead of focusing energy to attacking the criminal Nigerian government, they are willingly serving as a tool of distraction. Sowing doubts in the minds of Biafrans and publicly defying the IPOB leadership —the DOS. The aim is to intentionally mislead the gullible public  and to help Nigerian government create a parallel DOS; a DOS that will follow a predetermined script. They intend to achieve this by creating an artificial crisis and a show-off gig by power grabbers. But, it is shameful as it is dead on arrival.

That said, it is imperative on all members of IPOB at all levels to jealously guard the unity of purpose that exist in the movement. This unity and passion which the enemies have fought vigorously to fracture but it survived at all times, must continually be protected, because the fight is not over. 

Family Writers Press International