Sheripha Lawal
The ugly scare left by the civil war on the minds of Nigerians and souls remain visible.
The defective healing process of the wound on Nigerian psyche from the war has resulted in extensive gulf between the two people of defunct Biafra and Nigeria.
Attempt to secede by Col Odumegwu Ojukwu on account of acute marginalisation amongst other grievances led to the war that lasted between 1967 and 1970.
According to Atofarati (2003), under normal circumstances, the amalgamation ought to have brought the various people together and provided a firm basis for the arduous task of establishing closer cultural, social, religious and linguistic ties vital for true unity among the people.
We are in a country where everything is right and wrong at the same time. The Igbos are braising up for yet another civil war, it is clear that we have missed it somewhere along the line in Nigeria. It is the case that even after the death of the famous leader, who single handedly led the past civil war, Col Ojukwu, it’s not the end of Biafra as a whole.
In 2012, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), political self-determination organisation led by Nnamdi Kanu, a United Kingdom-based activist, has renewed the Biafran dream and it is needless to say that they grow stronger in their bid of self determination.
The group has maintained that it has right to self-determination according to the United Nation charter and African Union charter on human and people’s right, which clearly states that “Indigenous people have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
This Nigeria, as a state signed and domesticated into local laws, her purpose is to liberate the people of Biafra forced into unholy unionism with the Nigeria state.
“The reality today of amalgamation is that both in legal and political contexts, it has expired since 2014, unless the people concerned now voluntarily agree to its terms or modify them.
Upon the above facts, IPOB is acting upon its right. The groups have recently been calling for referendum for the people of Biafra and have threatened to boycott Nigeria elections in all Biafran territories until referendum is conducted.
However, it must be noted that the led grievance of IPOB is how the Biafra war ended, how no victor, no vanquish was manipulated into victory for Nigeria against the Biafran people.
There is the need to begin to trace our steps back having in mind that Nigeria is not the only state that has experience civil war. Canada, Austria, Australia, America, Brazil, China, Congo, Ethiopia, amongst all others have experienced civil war and are doing better now.
The question is what did Nigeria do wrongly?