By Mazi Onyebuchi Eze
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Worldwide under the Supreme Command of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (De Great) has been drawn to an information from a reliable source which had it that Nigeria government through her Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote a diplomatic letter to Turkish government warning her to stay away from Biafra restoration issue or risk a breakdown of her diplomatic relations with Nigeria. It could be recalled that the Turkish government under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited IPOB Highest Command, represented by IPOB Turkey National Chapter, for a discussion over how the government and good people of Turkey could help facilitate a peaceful BiafraExit out of Nigeria federation. According to the content of the said letter, Nigeria government demonstrated high degree of ignorance in international law of Self-determination by describing Biafra restoration quest as an ‘internal affairs’ of Nigeria.
It is upon this ground that I saw it necessary to make Nigeria government to understand that the struggle, requisition and cry for Biafra restoration has gone beyond a phenomenon to be described as an internal affairs of Nigeria, so that Aso Rock will save herself from the show of shame and ignorance in the letter sent to Ankara. Biafra issue would have ended as Nigeria internal affairs should Nigeria government have been smarter early enough to:
(1) Have not arrested Nnamdi Kanu, other IPOB leaders, thousands of IPOB activists presently held in detention in various Prisons across Nigeria.
(2) Have not killed thousands of IPOB activists and other Biafrans at peaceful rallies, peaceful protests and evangelism at Onitsha, Aba, Igweocha (PH), Asaba, Nkpor and Enugu and bury most of them in mass grave inside borrowed pits in Aba and Onitsha barracks as published by Amnesty International.
(3) have invited Nnamdi Kanu, the Supreme leader of IPOB to a dialogue table for discussions which if he defiantly refuse to honour, Nigeria government should quickly swing into action in pacifying Biafrans from all corners such as economic fronts, political fronts, infrastructural fronts, appointments and grant of a regional autonomy to challenge the stand of Nnamdi Kanu and his follower’s position on marginalization of Biafrans in Nigeria.
(4) Have organised a UN, AU, ECOWAS and Common Wealth monitored referendum for Biafrans to freely decide their political status through ballot box just as it happened in Scotland in 2014 and Britain in 2016.
By taking these steps, Biafran issue would have ended up purely as internal affairs of Nigeria. International Community and foreign nations like Turkey and other nations which are already standing with Nnamdi Kanu and Biafra, would not have had any business looking into the matter of Biafra agitation. It is unfortunate that Nigeria govt is still seeing internal affairs or sovereignty of Nigeria from outdated perspective or misconstruing the sovereignty as making Nigeria an enclave of injustice.
I hereby make bold to tell Nigeria govt that Nigeria lost her grip on her sovereignty and control on her internal affairs over the issue of Biafra agitation when went outside the law by keeping Nnamdi Kanu in detention for nearly two calendar years now and senselessly killing thousands of Biafrans for calling for Biafra restoration, instead of being smart in organizing a referendum for Biafrans to test their resolve as stipulated by both local and international laws. Any time a country tries to keep an unwilling indigenous people by force in an artificial entity like Nigeria, the reverberation of their quest for true political freedom in the global atmosphere must attract the attention of foreign nations, governments, organizations and institutions and that will to that effect override the right to sovereignty and internal affairs of the given nation.
The question of internal affairs raised by Nigeria government before Turkish government on the issue of their support for Biafra is a product of ignorance to international laws, conventions and protocols governing Self-determination and unquenchable alarm raised due to injustice from a people in a given nation. Considering these public enlightenments for the principal officers of Nigeria government, I view the outburst of Nigeria against Turkey as a mere way of Nigeria govt trying to add a whole Turkey and President Erdogan to the list of nations they have intimidated. I now wonder how Nigeria should ever think that it will intimidate a mighty and well organized nation like Turkey.
It is therefore time for over nations to queue behind Turkey and say “NO” to injustice against the people of Biafra by convincing Nigeria government to organize a referendum for Biafrans. Unity by force against Biafrans is tantamount to slavery.
By Mazi Onyebuchi Eze
For Family Writers