Failedral Mis-government and its Foolish Operation Python Dance in the South-East —by Olukosi Ibitoye

There is no smoke without fire. From history we have learnt that the call for secession is not an independent variable. There are many factors that can be responsible for this call. In the most common cases, horizontal inequality, relative deprivation, gross marginalization, minority suppression and social injustice, have aided and strengthened this call. Biafra, a conglomeration of ethic Igbo, sharing the Nigerian space with other ethnic groups is not different.

It is not completely true that the Biafra have been marginalized. The complete story of marginalization cuts across the non-elite in Nigeria of which 90 percent of Biafrans is a victim. As a matter of fact, there are only two tribes or ethnic groups in Nigeria. Viz; The Rich and The Poor. The rich are sparsely represented in every tribe while the poor are also densely represented in every tribe that constitutes Nigeria. It is the rich elite, domicile in all the Nigerian tribes that are responsible for the deliberate marginalization of the masses. (By this I am not referring to the rich who worked hard and neither soiled their hands to earn their money). They often mask themselves as politicians, public servants, and business friends of the government. They are loyal to their bank account, friends and families, they are passionless about the development of Nigeria, they are committed to the perpetual continuum of neo-colonialism.  

Unfortunately, it is only the impoverished Biafrans that are conscious of leaving the failed and never going to work Nigerian system. Why are other marginalized and destitute groups not agitating for secession? Why are other tribes still loyal to the “e go better” delusion? Let’s call a spade a spade, the Federal government have failed the Nigerians they swore to protect. They are now “failedral” mis-government. Of the truth, should the government of this nation since her inception from 1960, have steered the wheel of leadership to the right direction, the loud cry for the secession coming from the East and silently from other regions wouldn’t have been.

Secession is not a crime. It is not a communicable disease that the failderal mis-government should securitize, neither is it an unnatural component of social formation. Rather, seccession is the only and natural way to self-actualization. Every nation has the right to self-determination as codified in the United Nations Atlantic Charter of 1945. Biafra and the Igbo are not excluded from this right. They have the right to choose whether they want to continue to endure the jack boot of their unholy marriage with Nigeria foisted upon them by Lord Lugard in 1914.  

 

Instead of the failedral mis-government to address the root cause of the biafrans, they foolishly deployed soldiers to kill them and cowed them to submission. This will never solve the problem. Rather an open cheque of secession has been given to the Biafran agitators. The impunity and human rights violation committed by the Nigerian soldiers has given another legal ground to legitimize the Biafran cause. The bloodletting and the crime against humanity committed by the Nigerian state against the people of Biafra she took an oath to protect will attract the attention of the international community and well up an empathy of solidarity for Biafran.   

As matter of fact, the legal adviser of the president has failed woefully. Why can’t the President’s legal adviser show him that operation python is unconstitutional? The constitutional duty of the military is to protect the territorial integrity of the country against external aggression and internal insurrection. If the government because of politics brings in the khaki boys to intimidate a throng of harmless biafran agitators whom are only exercising their right to self-determination, they should prepare for the long term consequence of emboldening potential coup plotters. You cannot give a lion meat and never expect it to be a cannibal.  

Though, the government may quiet them to submission now, another biafran group will rise up and agitate for secession in the future. Unless the mis-government sit down with stakeholders across the country to address the root cause of Biafra’s agitation for secession and other potentially incubated agitators, there will be many vanguards of tribal nationalism.

Olukosi Ibitoye