IBK, one does have grounds to really question your claim to legal education. Where exactly in international law is it agreed, and by what protocol, that "conquest is a valid basis of assimilation and nation building"? If that were so, what was the basis for the formation of the League of Nations, and its successor the United Nations? Perhaps there was no good curriculum in International Law in the place you went for legal studies, or perhaps whoever taught you International Law was mediocre, or perhaps still you either were not paying attention to what you were studying, or you did not understand it at all; whatever it may be, this spurious claim outs you. All one needs to actually know for a fact that no international law exists on that basis, and that the entire frame of the Atlantic charter in 1945 establishes clear protocols on this question is a good senior class in government. As a matter of fact, Dr. Max Nduaguibe, my Senior government teacher in the 5th form at Umuahia would put you on an extended weekend on study hall if you uttered that stuff in his class! Goodness! And here you come on this forum with all kinds of outlandish statements. First on Vincent, who has deeper moral and intellectual fibre than you, and second on the subject of Biafra and international law. The OAU charter that agreed to respect the colonial boundaries, also years later modified itself to accept the international charter on self-determination. You are apparently unaware of this, and much of the debate took place as a result of the experience of the Biafran war. But on that question of conquest, let me assure you, that we read history differently. The Igbo fought the British for thirty years through 5 main campaigns, from 1900 - 1930 (see Don Ohadike, Ekechi, Onwuejiogu, Leith-Ross etc. for further readings) until they began to reassess their options and reposition themselves which began slowly from 1925. They actually did not feel themselves conquered by the British and were rather amused by them. On the other hand, it took the same British just three months to wipe out Atahiru and his Army in Sokoto with mercenary soldiers mostly from the Ashanti campaigns. After the one-hundred years of the Yoruba civil wars, exhausted and at the throes of a massive republican revolution, the Yoruba kings themselves basically wrote directly to the British to come and colonize the Yoruba.
I draw these three examples only to emphasize the following points: you may feel conquered, but no one conquers the Igbo. Igbo is like water that seeps through a wicker basket. That's how they describe themselves. You first have to understand the Igbo theory of war and warfare, and its norms of peace. Because peace is the foundation of Igbo religion, Igbo cultural psychology accords it the highest place in relation to man. The Igbo keep the peace on the condition of justice, fairness and equity for all (the keep the "ofo" to remind them of this truth). However, once the Igbo feel themselves violated and threatened, and it takes a long time to get the Igbo to agree to a single, common purpose, they fight suicidally. That's actually the point Achebe tries to make with Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart. And I have not seen the Igbo agree to much until this second Biafra movement. The point is that the current generation of the Igbo feel that the peace of 1970 which their fathers embraced has been violated by Nigeria with it's treatment of the Igbo specifically since 1970, but with more brazenness from January 1, 1984. For ten years after the war, the Igbo were prepared to re-embrace Nigeria, and did embrace the nation. But from 1984, they watched with slow and rising anger, the strategic dismantling of Igbo and their rights in Nigeria; the profound sense of discrimination, and alienation; the fierce hatred and insensitivity that most of Nigeria continues to express and direct against the Igbo, the evidence of which is so vivid in your writing, Agbetuyi's, Fakindeles, etc. The Igbo feel that they do not have anything in common with you. They want out of the "Nigerian contraption" because they think that Nigeria is a millstone on their neck. It is exhausting. It represses their creative impulse. It has wasted many geniuses. They want to build and guide their own missiles. They want to join the race to stopping global hunger and not be part of those who receive food aid, or who can only vaccinate their children with vaccines donated by someone; they want to use the gas beneath their feet to power their industries and their homes; they want to dredge and regenerate their stilting five river channels of the Niger delta - Orashi, Imo, Njaba, Nworie, Omambala, and the Qua-Ibo river complex and recombinate them for new ecological life and sustenance after the damages and poisoning of oil exploration. They want to unleash the creative reserve of their young scientists and engineers who are now only left to waste without purpose. The Igbo account for over 57% of unemployed graduates trained as scientists, engineers, teachers, architects, technicians, etc. who do not see any promise left in their continued citizenship in Nigeria. These are the people who want out, because they think that they can create a new, prosperous, civilized, and modern nation based on the "Ofo" principle, and anchored on their egalitarian and republican culture uncorrupted by the feudal and monarchical spirit - which they rightly perceive as the basis of the corrupt elitism that has systematically hobbled Nigeria. They may be right. They may be wrong. But they feel it. Anyway, it has taken these Igbo forty years, and even though increasingly fewer people like me among the Igbo think that Nigeria is still possible under a different set of conditions, this new generation of the Igbo born after the war have come to see Nigeria as it is, as a threat to their existence, and agree that as far as they are concerned, Nigeria has ended for them. They don't belong there. They have no more loyalty to it. They will subvert it by all means necessary. These are not people who own property in the North and the West. Therefore, they have no stakes and no interest in so-called "Igbo property" in those areas. If it is lost, it is lost, because, well, no condition is permanent. These are the discontented and the disposed. And they are highly educated (Nnamdi Kanu for instance, born in 1970, went to the Government College, Umuahia. Spent two years at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and left as result of the strikes in the universities to the UK, where he completed his education). What remains for them is the sharing of the meat of the elephant. And that's where the fight will come. Be certain that it will come, and this time you must be prepared to kill all of them, once you have raised your cudgel, unless thoughtful and less sanguine people among us find a means of securing peace which can only come with a restoration of the conditions of justice and equity, and the creation of a true republic. Outside of this, the Igbo will bring down Nigeria as a historical mandate to act against injustice. You may write all these hogwash on this forum. But keep your eyes on the street. There are many moving parts you do not see. Many of us are waiting for October and thereafter. And as the poet would say, we are all tuned for a feast of seven spirits.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > on behalf of Ibukunolu. A. Babajide <ibk2005@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2017 1:55 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of BiafraCAO,
Yes! In international law conquest is a valid basis for assimilation and nation building! The BRITISH conquered all the areas that has comprised Nigeria and for over 100 years moulded it between 1861 and 1960 into what we call Nigeria today! The OAU in 1963 agreed to respect existing colonial boundaries! Any attempt to reconfigure the current boundaries is attended by war and bloodshed! Show me one peaceful reconfiguration and I will show you 10 bloody ones!
Those who are enlightened should hear and educate the ignorant ones in our midst.
Cheers!
IBK
Sent from my iPhone--Again it will not be unlawful if such homeland is NOT to be carved out of an existing nation.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com>Date: 24/06/2017 17:01 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com >Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Toyin,--
What if Nigeria is restructured and working well and I still want a homeland of whatever name for my people and I go about persuading them to join me in the quest, offering no other reasons other than that it's our inalienable right, would the quest be unlawful?
CAO.
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment