Biafran Agitator: Have You Counted The Cost?

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”-Luke 14:28

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it?”-Luke 14:28

Do I support the break-up of Nigeria? My answer is capital NO! But there are pertinent questions that the Biafran agitators on the streets of South-East and parts of South-South and on the social media have not answered. I will pose them thus:

If President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly are to invite you to Abuja, next week to defend your Biafran agitation and they demand for the map of your Biafra, which map would you present to them? Is it the map of 1967 Biafra or that of 2015 Biafra? Have you consulted the inhabitants of the territories outside Igboland in the map of Biafra that you would present to the federal government? This issue is very important because most elite of the South-South don’t want anything to do with Biafra. You can also get that feeling from their reaction on the social media, where they refer to the Biafran question as ‘’the Igbo thing”, which is not their thing!

Without South-South support have you realised that the Biafra that would be left would be largely a landlocked country? How would goods and services be imported and exported from Biafra with uncooperative South-South Nigeria?

Who would pay for immovable properties owned by Biafrans in Nigeria, after breakup? Would it be 20 British pounds for every Biafran property left behind or do you think that after Biafra was created Biafrans would be welcomed to continue to enjoy the benefits of their properties in Nigeria without consequences? How would you overcome this problem? Would the Igbo property owners in Diaspora freely give up their properties as sacrifice for the Biafra?

Perhaps the Biafran agitators did not know that 80 per cent of the hotels in Abuja are owned by people from the core Igbo states that would be considered Biafrans by the agitators? Some of these hotels are of world standard and comparable with the best hotels around the world. When Malam Nasir el-Rufai was the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, he told the world that 75 per cent of developed properties in Abuja was owned by Igbos, but what el-Rufai fail to tell the world was that the lands were never originally allocated to the Igbos, but they managed to buy it at outrageous prices from original non-Igbo allottees. Even after el-Rufai’s massive demolitions which invariably affected the ‘’75 percent’’ more, the Igbos still account for majority of developed properties in Abuja. So these assets would be given up for the Biafra being constructed by some UK residents?

Aside Abuja, it is also obvious that in most cities in Nigeria, outside the indigenous population, the next group in terms of property development are the Igbos. Are the agitators on the streets of Enugu, Aba, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Asaba etc, aware of this and what are they doing about it?

I have other questions, let me stop here for now, even as I join the rest of the world in advising President Muhammadu Buhari to charge Nnamdi Kanu to court in line with democratic principles instead of detaining him for this long without trial. Lest we forget, in 2005, the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) was charged for treason by Obasanjo’s administration. He was released by Yar’Adua administration in 2007. Asari Dokubo was also charged for treason in 2005, he was also released by Yar’Adua in 2007. Is Buhari waiting for another administration to release Nnamdi Kanu, the same way Obasanjo left Asari-Dokubo and Uwazuruike for Yar’Adua? Can these peaceful crowds we are seeing continue to be peaceful and endure four years of Nnamdi Kanu in detention till 2019?

As for the Biafran agitators: are you agitating with your heart or your head?