“The elites must provide direction on how Biafra must be remembered.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
On Monday, June 17th, 2024, some innocent people in Nnobi and Nnewi in Anambra state, lost their lives to the activities of armed gangs under the aegis of “unknown gunmen.” This Monday’s episode was only one of the series in the speedy deterioration of Southeast security since 2021. The week before, some soldiers, needless to add of Abia origin, were murdered in Abia State by the gang. Similar agony was extended to parts of Enugu same last week, in what is now a regular occurrence in the Southeast.
IPOB’s ESN was formed in December 2020 to deal decisively with militant herdsmen of Fulani extraction for among many other things, the invasion of farmlands and acts of violence against the people in the Southeast. Coincidentally, since then, the Southeast has moved from the most peaceful zone in Nigeria, to the most delicate. The identity of the attacker(s) has remained elusive with names like unknown gunmen or UGM, “kidnappers,” among others. Since this crisis began in 2021 with attacks on security formations across the Southeast while some people cheered them apparently believing that they were fighting for them; it has now turned into a monster that is fully at war within. Though from the beginning, the endpoint of such calculated attacks on security formations or such operations of armed non-state actors was always unambiguous. At least, it is not in doubt that the worst form of organized government is better than the best of non-state actors usurping governmental powers.
The root cause of this crisis is the Biafran question which is yet to be resolved. The Southeast elites have mostly remained disoriented in their response. At one point, there seemed to be a general feeling that somehow, Nigeria had to pay for the injustices it meted out to Igbos shortly before, during, and after the civil war, between 1967 and 1970. Somehow, they realize the danger in toying with the idea of arms struggle of any kind, but quickly are overwhelmed and end up keeping mute. This silence at least, pays the political elites for support and electoral victory. A part of this emotional attachment is what some parties have enjoyed in parts of the zone. Many previous Southeast’s political leaders have profited from this mass euphoria, making it more difficult to confront. There is a mixed emotion that the mention of Biafra evokes; it is always a delicate topic. But that is because the Southeast elites have not taken a position to moderate the Biafra conversation. What it means in line with today’s reality and how the zone can assert itself as well as how the Biafra Day or dead Biafran soldiers, can be best honoured. Otherwise, there is no other reason why some armed gangs on self-defeatist missions should be associated with the noble idea of Biafra. The forcefully imposed sit-at-home on Mondays or other days, as well as the attendant casualties, remain largely the consequences of the silence of the Southeast elites.
At another level, the Nigerian ruling elites are also complicit in their deliberate silence over the Nigeria-Biafra war, as a fact of the country’s historical experience. There is nothing disingenuous in the history of a people. It is in the past, and for the present, it is a template for learning, to avoid repeating mistakes. So, there is no harm in mainstreaming the events of the war. In Rwanda for instance, the bitter racial war between the Tutsis and the Hutus culminating in a worldwide recognized genocide is an annual event in Rwanda known as “kwibuka.” There is nothing wrong in commemorating an unpleasant past because it is the exact history that must guide every generation on the right path.
If there had been any kind of elite consensus on Biafra, the Southeast political elites would have shaped the Biafra question to fit into the realities of today’s Nigeria; while upholding the Biafra ideals to become an oasis of progress and safety for the people of the zone. In the absence of this, all manner of groups and persons have emerged to misguide the masses, setting the zone on fire. This pattern has remained the same for almost three decades.
In 2021, I had this conversation with an Igbo lawyer over the trajectory of the then-rising radical Biafra activism. My worry was the imminent overriding impact of such posturing on the Southeast and the people of the zone. But, he felt that arms struggle, violence or forced loyalty to indiscriminate orders from all manners of ‘Biafra activists’ was the hard way and the only way. Today, that lawyer has left the Southeast where he lived to seek refuge in Abuja. Only recently, he confessed to me that his relocation was majorly influenced by insecurity in the Southeast. Unfortunately, many hardliners still think literally that the hard way in this Biafra question is the only way and that no price is too much for it. More regrettable is the fact that these are the sorts of ideas that have continued to escalate the already bad situation. Many have continued to show their loyalty to this dangerous and self-destructive route from overseas or from cities outside the Southeast. This might suggest that it is still not clear if the full consequences of the crisis have been brought to the fore, giving an insight into the chaotic disorientation that dots Biafra’s agitation today.
But, the elites, especially the Southeast elites, must urgently provide leadership on this Biafran question once and for all. To end all the troubles that this has brought to the surface, the agony, desperation, bewilderment, and possible desolation of the zone, the elites must provide direction on how Biafra must be remembered. What Biafra means for the Southeast in 2024 and how the zone must maintain its focus on self-development and absolute safety for its entire people.
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