Beyond Detention Of Radio Biafra Director

I do not support Biafra. If a vote is called today over Biafra I will vote for ONE NIGERIA. I do not believe in atomization of Nigeria as presently constituted by creating smaller countries out of it. I believe in the economy of scale which Nigeria’s huge population provides.

The same economy of scale with effective combination of private and sectors have catapulted China to the second largest economy in the world, while India with a population of 1.2billion, second to China is the 4^th largest economy in the world. ONE NIGERIA is Africa’s largest population and economy and its wealth if distributed fairly and with fear of God would eliminate cries of marginalization and threats to break away from its hegemonic corruption, nepotism and religious bigotry that have threatened its unity.

 Having said that it would be delusional to criminalize demand for independence from present day Nigeria by any group of indigenous people that existed before Nigeria was created by the British. If Nigerians could demand for independence from Britain in 1960, what is so special about this British created ‘geographical expression’ called originally, ‘Niger Area’ (Nigeria) that no group has the right to seek independence from it if it has deliberately treated such group or groups as second-class citizens or barely tolerated them? One of the interesting items in the manifesto of the United Progressive Party (UPP) which caught my attention during the 2015 elections is a provision by the party that if it was elected it would work for a law that would make it possible for any part of Nigeria that so wish to secede from Nigeria. The national chairman of UPP Chief Chekwas Okorie told me then that such a provision was enshrined in Ethiopian constitution, yet most Ethiopians have continued to remain in one country. According to Okorie such provision is the deterrent that makes whoever holds levers of power to treat all parts of the country fairly knowing the consequences of treating them otherwise.

That said, I do not think that it is a crime to demand for freedom. Every reasonable person wants freedom and opportunity for self-actualization and where these rights are not possible he has the right to demand for them through reforms, constitutional amendments or even secession through the due process as attempted by some groups in Scotland to break away from UK which failed at the ballot box in 2014.

Therefore detaining Biafran agitators like Nnamdi Kalu, Director of pirate radio, Radio Biafra may not be the solution to the ‘Biafra question.’

Nigerian leaders in Abuja, would do better to find out why Nigeria has alienated these young Nigerians that they are ready to stake all for Biafra.

It is such process of bridging the alienation gap that forced the British government to make effort to deradicalise Muslim youths in their country instead of hounding them in prison in the name of fighting terrorism. Nigerian government needs to engage the Biafran agitators, who are mostly youths that never experienced the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970).