"You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate" ( What's Going On
Preliminaries:
Haven't we learned anything from the Biafra War? Ojukwu? Achebe? Ben Okri?Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?
In the world context we could review the panorama of Liberation movements and the circumstances which gave birth to their existence, and, when passing judgment, bear in mind that one man's freedom fighter is in the eyes of the other side nothing less than a terrorist.
We need to look no further than this primer: C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins
Of course, the imperialist and other ill-willed revisionists purvey other views about the slave rebellion which morphed into the Haitian Revolution
In the Nigerian context in which some of the Adepojus would like to situate IPOB's chief of staff Nnamdi Kanu we could take a good look at his various predecessors who were on the same quest - first and foremost in my history book, Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and his stunning achievement, the Sokoto Caliphate - and we are to suppose that if Nnamdi Kanu had been of the same creed and bent as Dan Fodio, and not a self-defined, self-loving Jew - like Ukraine's Zelensky - then in his earlier call to arms, Jihad would have been the most resounding word in his militant vocabulary, the term used in his rallying call to arms
That, plus the term that was coined long after Dan Fodio and the Fulani jihads in West Africa, namely the imperative of "by any means necessary!" with such a wide range of possibilities or as Mutabaruka sang,
" By de ballot or de bullet
By de Bible or de gun
Any which way freedom mus' come"
That's why some people were born in Freetown and some jive ass monkey can't lecture or talk down to such a one about the importance of that precious word; Freedom
So, in the Nigerian context, the question is, are the Igbos in Nigeria being marginalised, oppressed and downtrodden?
An honest answer, please!
Secondly, what should be the borders of Biafra?
Back in the day :
"Men are scum" is another emotional blackmail. Men should ignore it and should never try to prove that they are not.-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, IIM Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Founder/Publisher of, www.publicinformationprojects.org)
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