"Biafra is a part of the tragic history of Nigeria and it shall remain as part of our history forever. However, the idea of Biafra died on 15 January 1970 and was finally buried in 1979, when the person who attempted to de-Nigerianised the Igbo through the declaration of Republic of Biafra in 1967, declared himself a Nigerian."--Salimonu Kadiri
From the perspective both of history and political complexities involved in nation building, I think this is a disappointing summation, especially from the erudite and historically sensitive Oga Kadiri. It is the kind of ostrich melodrama that will never achieve unity for us in Nigeria. When I read this statement, I shivered for fear. The idea of Biafra dead and buried? What? Initially, I thought I read "Biafra died...and was finally buried...". With that, we will just be restating a historical fact. In fact, that is the direction that Oga Kadiri's opening statement would seem to lead. But I had to double check the second statement. For Oga Kadiri, it wasn't Biafra--a specific region of Nigeria which attempted a secession that resulted in the civil war and was defeated--that died. Rather, it was the idea of Biafra that died and had since been buried.
What is Oga Kadiri's conception of the idea of Biafra?
From whay he wrote, the historical trajectory of the "reintegration" of Ojukwu, it seems to me that Oga Kadiri actually meant Biafra as a near national entity whose life was snuffed out before its first enabling breath, and its instigators were thereby forced to return to the national space they initially rejected. This is a national space of abject political immorality and underdevelopment. It is a national space that has consistently failed to answer the social question of how to make life better for its citizens.
But then, the idea of Biafra is more than Biafra itself. As an idea, Biafra is a metaphor for the abiding failure of the Nigerian state to evolve into nationhood deriving from the harnessed loyalities and willing cooperation of the ethnic constituents (never mind the illusion of the national anthem--"one nation bound in freedom"). I am shocked that Oga Kadiri will even dare hold up the fact that certain ethnic personalities have been holding big positions in the Nigerian state as an evidence of integration.
When the pogrom of the pre-war period happened and the Nigerian government was powerless to stop it, the Igbos have a cogent enough reason to demand secession. Countless other "Nigerians" have died since the Boko haram insurgency began. The Nigerian state has consistently failed in living up to its original responsibility of providing security for its citizens. Now if the state fails as such, and its sovereign imperative requires it to suppress all agitations for betterment, what should the constituents do? Adaka Boro/Saro Wiwa and the Niger Delta agitation was brutally suppressed; Biafra lost the secession bid. But we are still not far from those moral and national issues that led to those agitations in the first place. National integration goes far beyond the sometimes stupid dynamics of federal character principle which rotate offices around geo-ethnic/political zones.
This is the idea of Biafra within the Nigerian state. As long as we continue playing the ostrich as if the idea doesn't exist (like we did at the national conference when the question of our coexistence became a non-issue), to that extent will "Nigeria" as a viable nation remain a pipedream devoid of any moral force. The national space that Ojukwu, Boro and Saro Wiwa and others have been challenging remains what it is--a space of disjointed and disparate ethnic nationals forced into continued mechanical unity by the violence of coercion. Nothing more. Such a national space lacks any just and moral force to compel obedience and loyalty in conscience.
That for me is the idea of Biafra. And it is far from being dead. It lurks in all the disaffection we hold against the Nigerian state.
Adeshina Afolayaan
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
| From:"Salimonu Kadiri" <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Date:Thu, 23 Jul, 2015 at 7:34 pm
Subject:RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
Biafra is a part of the tragic history of Nigeria and it shall remain as part of our history forever. However, the idea of Biafra died on 15 January 1970 and was finally buried in 1979, when the person who attempted to de-Nigerianised the Igbo through the declaration of Republic of Biafra in 1967, declared himself a Nigerian. When the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), as it was then known, called for nomination papers to elective posts in 1979, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was then living in exile in the Ivory Coast, submitted his nomination papers to FEDECO on Form E.C. 4D in which he declared that he was a CITIZEN OF NIGERIA and therefore qualified for election to the Nigerian House of Representatives on the platform of Great Nigeria Peoples' Party, in Nnewi Federal Constituency, Anambra. FEDECO rejected Ojukwu's nomination on the ground that he was dismissed with ignominy from the Nigerian Army and in accordance with the provision of section 73 subsection (1) (9) (ii) of the Electoral Decree which disqualifies from contesting elections, any public officer (including military personnel) who had been dismissed from office on any ground. His lawyer, Ebele Nwoke, challenged FEDECO's decision at Enugu High Court in vain. Mr Ume Ezeoke, who was Nigerian Peoples' Party (NPP) candidate was elected to represent Constituency No. FC024/AN, Nnewi where Ojukwu had intended to contest for election. Five Political Parties that contested the 1979 Federal Elections were: Great Nigeria Peoples' Party (GNPP), National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Nigerian Peoples' Party (NPP), People's Redemption Party (PRP) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). As we all know, The Presidential election was won by NPN which made Shu Shagari the President while ALEX EKWUEME was his vice. Through an arrangement between Nnamdi Azikiwe's NPP and Shagari's NPN, UME EZEOKE BECAME SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. Worth to observe is that OJUKWU THE SECESSIONIST LEADER RE-NIGERIANISED HIMSELF, NNAMDI AZIKIWE, WHO WROTE BIAFRA'S NATIONAL ANTHEM, ' LAND OF THE RISING SUN' WAS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN THE NIGERIAN FEDERAL ELECTION; ALEX EKWUEME, A FORMER BIAFRAN BECAME THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA; AND UME EZEOKE, A FORMER BIAFRAN, BECAME SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA. Those were the last nails in the coffin of Biafra and its RIP ceremonies. In the 2007 Federal Elections, Ojukwu was a Presidential Candidate on the platform of APGA but he only got 155, 947 votes in a country he had wanted to disintegrate. His case is that of the snail that used its mouth to abuse the deity and turned around to lick the ground with the same mouth. For those who are still ranting about Biafra, they should understand that cutting down the stem of a tree on which they sit would only result in their falling down with the tree still standing.
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:05:30 +0100 To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com And there are folks in Italy, Germany, UK, Argentina, Chile, Belgium who still romanticize Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy! Such moments in human history persist for one reason or the other...what we must do is fight and work to build lasting and just peace and break the cycles of historical grievances and injustice. That is the more significant progressive challenge , mission and mandate. It will apply to Biafra, Odi, parts of the old Western Nigeria, the Middle Belt , Christian communities in Northern Nigeria, and North Eastern Nigeria! Tade Aina writing from his visit home in Abuja.
Sent from my iPad The same reason some cranks still fly the confederate flag in the south of USA. Cheers. IBK On 22 Jul 2015 00:23, "'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" < usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote: | Oga Chidi, On this one, I fully agree with you: Why has the Biafrian Question refused to die in spite of the attempt by the Nigerian state to violently pull it under the national carpet? All modern states police their territories and put down all manner of antagonisms to their authority. Yet, rumbles of Biafria is still volatile forty five years after the war ended.
Why? Of course, the Nigerian state, as is, will not attempt to find an answer to that pointed question. And that stiff neck national obstinacy is what will always ensure that our unyielding diversity will always confound the puny efforts at unity.
|
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-- 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. | |
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