Biafra agitation as a symptom

The high level of compliance to last Tuesday’s sit-at-home order to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Biafra and honour the memory of the millions who lost their lives in the consequent 30-month civil war continues to baffle many, especially those who have always questioned the ability of the Igbo to form a united front.
Reports have it that the order recorded about 90 percent compliance in major cities in the South-East and some level of compliance in several other places where the Igbo reside. Businesses, markets and schools in Enugu, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra and parts of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and so on closed down on May 30, 2017, exactly 50 years after Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the then military governor of Eastern Nigeria, declared that part of the country an independent state of the name of the Republic of Biafra. Igbo people in the Diaspora also marked the day mostly in solemn procession.
Pictures of closed-down shops, empty market stalls, deserted expressways and public places, among others – depicting the high level of compliance to the order issued by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) – flooded the internet and social media space even as Biafra continued to trend online, with a report claiming it was the most-searched word on Google. On Wednesday, it was a major headline, complete with pictures, leading virtually all newspapers across the country.
A fillip to Biafra agitation
Riding on the crest of that successful outing, many people of South-East origin have begun to see the actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra as an imminent reality even as those opposed to it pooh-pooh the idea.
Nzuko Umunna, an Igbo socio-cultural group, while expressing satisfaction with the way Igbo people worldwide conducted themselves on that day and the way IPOB, MASSOB and other groups mobilized themselves and others, it said the level of compliance with the sit-at-home directive had shattered a lot of myths and fallacies about Igbo and their unity.
“As an Igbo socio-cultural group, we were highly delighted at the level of compliance with the sit-at-home directive despite not being enforced in any way except through moral suasion. IPOB, MASSOB, BIM and such other groups must be commended for this rare feat,” the group said.
On his part, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu said Igbo compliance with the sit-at-home order was an indication that the “unique formula adopted to restore Biafra is working”.
“With near total compliance with this sit-at-home order I issued when I was still in Kuje Prison Abuja, it has proven to me beyond every conceivable doubt that Biafra restoration is a priority to all and sundry and I promise never to let Biafra down even upon the pain of death because you never let me down. We must join hands together, with all genuine and sincere individuals and groups, to restore Biafra with truth and honesty,” Kanu said.
“By the grace of Almighty God Chukwu Okike Abiama, IPOB under our divine leadership will restore Biafra in no distant future,” he added.
Symptoms of deeper malaise
In a 2015 article ‘MASSOB, IPOB and the neo-Biafra movement’, the present writer had opined that the Biafra agitation of recent years – whether by Ralph Uwazuruike’s Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) or Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) – is a glaring sign of a nation not built, just like any other ethnically-inspired movement in the country, be it the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), O’odua People’s Congress (OPC), or by whatever name it goes.
“It all goes back to what Agwu Okpanku postulated in a 1975 article in the Enugu Sunday Renaissance: ‘Biafra as an active physical rebellion is dead; it died in 1970. But there is always Biafra. In other words, any group of Nigerians, whether ethnically or in terms of their social class or their profession or their geographical origin, would revolt if they felt mistreated by this country’.”
Indeed, many observers have corroborated this view, pointing out that the ongoing Biafra agitation is fuelled primarily by mass discontent and elite hypocrisy.
Commenting on last Tuesday’s successful lockdown of the South-East, Junaid Mohammed, Second Republic lawmaker, traced its success to what he described as the hypocrisy of the Nigerian elite class and the tribal tendencies of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, said on Wednesday that the successful it was indicative of a massive discontent with the Nigerian federation, adding that the issues raised by the lockdown must be addressed in order not to foreclose a negotiated settlement of the Nigeria question.
On his part, Yerima Shettima, national president, Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, said the lockdown showed the need to address the national question, adding that the “elite have hijacked this country”.
“There is nothing new about what they have done, they did not compel anybody to sit at home but people voluntarily sat at home. Their action is a form of sensitization that the national question must be addressed,” said Shettima.
Economics of sit-at-home order
Some reports quote business analysts as saying that Nigeria lost the sum of N6.2 billion on May 30, the day the entire South-East was on lockdown.
The N6.2 billion is based on national data that Nigeria loses about N46 billion on each holiday it observes, the reports say, quoting business analysts who claim the actual losses may be far more than estimated.
Another report, however, estimated that the economy may have lost as much as N1.5 trillion.
“If I may guess, Igbo sitting at home today means that about N1.5 trillion may not exchange hands today and that is a huge loss to the economy. Don’t forget, we are just coming from a long stretch of holiday since Friday to yesterday, Monday, which was Democracy Day, and today again no business. It’s a huge loss to an economy that is expected to recover fast from recession,” it quoted a staff of the one of the new generation banks in Owerri to have said.
But Uchenna Madu, chief coordinator of the action committee on the programme comprising MASSOB and IPOB, said those reeling out statistics on the losses caused by the action did not get the feelings of the people that the struggle was aimed at bettering their lives.
“Those giving out statistics on the costs of the programme are not the ones that the success of our demands will favour, hence their subtle move to paint a picture of business transactions suffering huge losses to cause division. But so long as the message has been delivered to those who should hear it, we are satisfied,” he said.
Madu confirmed that apart from few banks and government offices that opened briefly for business in states outside the South-East, all other institutions including schools and all markets and shops were closed.
Urgent need for restructuring
Before now, there have been several calls for restructuring of the Nigerian federation. Pundits now say last Tuesday’s outing demonstrates that Nigeria must restructure now.
“It is interesting the total shutdown happened the day the Attorney-General of the Federation was bragging that restructuring would not happen. It is a clear sign that the government is blind to the realities in the land,” said Yinka Odumakin, national publicity secretary of Afenifere.
Enyinnaya Abaribe, chairman, South-East Senate Caucus, said the success of the lockdown was an indication that the time for negotiation and restructuring of the country cannot be further wished away.
“It is an indication that a large number or percentage of our people from the South-East actually feel marginalised and rejected by the larger Nigerian entity and the import of it for Nigeria is that there is need to be an engagement sooner rather than later for us to form a better union in Nigeria,” he said.
Leo Ogor, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, said the development in the South-East meant that Nigeria, as presently configured, cannot be sustained without restructuring.
“It shows clearly that there is a major unity among the Igbo. And I think this issue should not be treated with the same levity it had been handled in the past,” he said.
The onus is on the Federal Government to listen to the voice of reason. A stitch in time, they say, save nine.

CHUKS OLUIGBO