Beyond Banning Of Radio Biafra

Ojukwu

One of the trending news in Nigeria last week was that the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has succeeded in jamming the transmission of Radio Biafra. Even before that could sink in, the Directorate State Service (DSS) was also reported to have apprehended some of the operators of the station.

Some cynics amusingly said that if DSS had worked so fast on the Boko Haram sponsors with the speed it apprehended the alleged operators of Radio Biafra; the country would not have been in the present security mess.

That is by the way.  Let me admit that I have never listened to Radio Biafra. I have never made effort to listen to it. My attention was drawn to it, when the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Media, Malam Garba Shehu, denied reports the radio attributed to the president, which Shehu said was false.

To me, whatever the allegation that Radio Biafra made against the president must have been weighty to warrant presidential reaction or rebuttal. But I do know that at the heat of the 2015 presidential campaign, Buhari was alleged to have said that the reason the Igbos don’t support him was because of the civil war. Buhari was said to be reacting to a question by the BBC Hausa Service. Some citizen journalists (online media) even alleged that Buhari in the interview said that if the scenario of the civil war present itself again “ I will kill more Igbos”. I do not believe that Buhari said this. He could not have said that at the heat of campaign when he needed the Igbo votes too. I see the reports as more political than factual.

However, having said, as stated earlier that I have never listened to Radio Biafra, I cannot claim ignorance of the agitations for the actualisation of the state of Biafra, that has been given impetus by the leader of the Movement For The Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) led by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.

Uwazuruike’s group’s campaign was based largely on the alienation of the Igbos in the mainstream of Nigeria’s leadership since the end of the civil war. A war in which the defunct Biafrans wanted to secede from Nigeria, but was forced back by a combination of Nigerian forces aided by the world powers, including the defunct Soviet Union (now Russia), and United States with its Western allies.

Even though the war ended on the premise of “no victor, no vanquished” the reality on the ground since 1970 (when the war ended) is that there were indeed ‘victors’ and the ‘vanquished’ despite all the pretensions to the contrary.

It is easy for other Nigerians to pretend that Igbos love to leave their homes to other states because they are business minded and loves adventure. This elementary analysis of the Igbo condition has even assumed a life of its own that some Igbos believe the story.

The real reason Igbo young men and women flood towns and cities in Nigeria in search of proverbial greener pasture is squarely the result of marginalisation of the race. The South East of Nigeria, which constitute the epicentre of the Biafran campaign lacked federal presence in infrastructure and allocation of growth pole centres that attracts employment and development.

The South East zone is one of the oil producing zones of Nigeria, yet when federal government decided to build refineries it deliberately bypassed the zone. A refinery in Imo State, an oil producing state, could have created millions of jobs in the zone and prevent angry Igbo young men from putting their certificate aside and hustling as vendors of all manners of goods under the rain and sun in major cities outside the zone.

Several federal government institutions have their headquarters in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Zaria, Minna etc with none existing in the South East. These institutions have at least Level 0-7 cadre of staff that must be recruited from the host state. This level of employment can rescue thousands of unemployed amongst the host states and also prevent several others from seeking employment outside their state.

Let us take National Examination Council (NECO) with its headquarters at Minna, Niger State. The bulk of its workers are likely to be Nigerlites because Level 0-7 staffs are supposed to be recruited from the state. Of course those Nigerlites with requisite higher qualifications also stand better chance of recruitment to higher cadre in the institution or NECO. The bulk of the contractors are also likely to be local. Not to talk of multiplier effects that the institution brings in terms of demand for housing and other services that grow the economy of the host state.

Most South East states lack such federal presence. Add to that the worst roads in Nigeria, you can begin to understand why the Igbo young men are always on the move. What do you want some people to think when 45 years after the civil war, the zone that is the most business minded in the country does not have international airport, yet federal government sited international airports in zones where such airports are not sustainable?

 It is these angry young men who are observing the advantages other young men elsewhere in the country are enjoying which they are deliberately denied that are listening and internalising the message from MASSOB and Radio Biafra. Many of them holding Masters Degree and very savvy, yet those with lesser qualifications are preferred by those who heads federal bureaucracy in terms of employment.

 Federal government should be more concerned about making these disenchanted young men feel that they are truly needed in Nigeria. Unless that is done, federal government would be chasing shadow hounding operators of Radio Biafra.

Already the recent appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari, in which no Igbo was found worthy to occupy any position is enough to generate all manners of conspiracy theories that Radio Biafra can spread and gain more converts.