General of the People’s
Army
____________________
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................1
THE MYTH ABOUT THE
NEGRO....................................................................................7
SELF-DETERMINATION..............................................................................................10
ARAB-MUSLIM
EXPANSIONISM...................................................................................12
AFRICA
EXPLOITED..................................................................................................14
RUSSIAN
IMPERIALISM.............................................................................................16
ANGLO-SAXON
GENOCIDE........................................................................................18
NEGRO
RENAISSANCE..............................................................................................19
NIGERIAN
CORRUPTION............................................................................................20
RE-DISCOVERING
INDEPENDENCE.............................................................................22
THE
PEOPLE.............................................................................................................23
SHAKING OFF NIGERIANISM.....................................................................................24
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE
REVOLUTION.......................................................................27
THE TASK OF A
LEADER............................................................................................30
SOCIAL
JUSTICE......................................................................................................32
PROPERTY AND THE
COMMUNITY...............................................................................32
AN EGALITARIAN
SOCIETY........................................................................................33
PUTTING THE REVOLUTION INTO
PRACTICE................................................................34
THE
LEGISLATURE....................................................................................................37
POLITICS AND THE
REVOLUTION...............................................................................38
THE
JUDICIARY........................................................................................................39
THE POLICE
FORCE..................................................................................................40
THE ARMED
SERVICES..............................................................................................41
THE PUBLIC
SERVICES.............................................................................................42
TRAINING AND
EDUCATION......................................................................................43
THE RIGHT TO
WORK...............................................................................................45
HEALTH AND
WELFARE.............................................................................................45
CULTURE AND HIGHER
EDUCATION...........................................................................46
SELF-RELIANCE........................................................................................................47
THE QUALITIES OF THE
INDIVIDUAL..........................................................................49
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................51
____________________
INTRODUCTION
FELLOW COUNTRY MEN AND WOMEN,
I salute you. Today, as I look back over our two years as a sovereign and independent nation, I am overwhelmed with the
feeling of pride and satisfaction in our performance and achievement as a people. Our indomitable will, our courage, our endurance of the severest
privations, our resourcefulness and inventiveness in the face of tremendous odds and dangers, have become proverbial in a world so bereft of heroism,
and have become a source of frustration to Nigeria and her foreign masters. For this and for the many miracles of our time, let us give thanks to
Almighty God. I congratulate all Biafrans at home and abroad. I thank you all the part you have played and
have continued to play in this struggle, for your devotion to the high ideals and principles on which this Republic was founded.
I thank you for your absolute commitment to the cause for which our youth are making daily, the supreme sacrifice, and a
cause for which we all have been dispossessed, blockaded, bombarded, starved and massacred. I salute you for your tenacity of purpose and amazing
steadfastness under siege.
I salute the memory of the many patriots who have laid down their lives in defence of our Fatherland. I salute the
memory of all Biafrans - men, women and children - who died victims of the Nigerian crime of genocide. We shall never forget them. Please God, their
sacrifice shall not be in vain. For the dead on the other side of this conflict, may their souls rest in peace. To our friends and well-wishers, to
the growing band of men and women around the world who have, in spite of the vile propaganda mounted against us, identified themselves with the
justice of our cause, in particular to our courageous friends, officers and staff of the Relief Agencies and humanitarian organisations, pilots who
daily offer themselves in sacrifice that our people might be saved; to Governments, in particular Tanzania, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Haiti. I
give my warmest thanks and those of our entire people.
THE STRUGGLE
Fellow country men and women, for nearly two years we have been engaged in a war which threatens our people with total
destruction. Our enemy has been unrelenting in his fury and has fought our defenceless people with a vast array of military hardware of a
sophistication unknown to Africa. For two years we have withstood his assaults with nothing other than our stout hearts and bare hands. We have
frustrated his diabolical intentions and have beaten his wicked mentors in their calculations and innovations. Shamelessly, our enemy has moved from
deadline to deadline, seeking excuses justifying his failures to an ever credulous world. Today, I am happy and proud to report that, all the odds
notwithstanding, the enemy, at great cost in lives and equipment, is nowhere near to his avowed objective.
In the Onitsha sector of the war, our gallant forces have kept the enemy confined in the town which they entered 15
months ago. Despite the fact that this sector has great strategic attraction for the vandal hordes, being a gate-way, as it is, to the now famous
jungle strip of Biafra, and the scene of the bloodiest encounters of this war, it is significant that the enemy has made no gains throughout this long
period.
In the Awka sector of the war, the story remains the same. The enemy is confined only to the highway between Enugu and
Onitsha, not venturing north or south of that road.
In the Okigwe sector, from where the enemy made the thrust that brought him into Umuahia, the situation remains
unchanged, with our troops making the entire enemy route from Okigwe to Umuahia no joy ride. In Umuahia town itself, fighting has continued in the
township.
In the Ikot Ekpene, Azumini and Aba sectors of the war, the vandals, whilst maintaining their positions in Ikot Ekpene
and Aba with our troops surrounding them, have continued to suffer heavy casualties in their attempt to hold firmly on to Azumini.
We now come to the Owerri/Port Harcourt sector. After the clearing of Owerri township and our rapid move towards Port
Harcourt, our gallant forces are holding positions in Eleele town, in the outskirts of Igirita and forward of Omoku.
Across the Niger, the successes of our troops have been maintained despite numerous enemy counter-attacks. Our Navy has
continued to support all operations along the Niger with good results. Our guerrillas have continued their magnificent work of harassing the enemy and
giving him no respite on our soil. I salute them all.
In the air, the Biafran Air Force has made a most dramatic re-entry into the war, and in a brilliant series of raids has
all but paralyzed the Nigerian Air Force. In four days’ operations, eleven operational planes of the enemy were put of action, three control towers
in Port Harcourt, Enugu and Benin were set ablaze, the Airport building in Enugu, and the numerous gun positions were knocked out. The refinery in
Port Harcourt was set on fire. And, more recently, three days ago, the Ughelli Power Station was put out of action. The brilliance of this
performance, the precision of the strike, the genius of target selection, have left Nigeria in a daze and her friends bewildered. Another way of
looking at this is that in four days of operation, the Biafran Air Force has destroyed more military targets than what the Nigerian Air Force has been
able to do for two years.
In cost, probably twice what the Nigerian air raids have cost us
in military equipment and installations. The only superiority left in the record of achievement of the Nigerian Air Force is the number of civilians
and civilian targets their cowardly raids have destroyed. Proud Biafrans, I have kept my promise.
Diplomatically, our friends have increased and have remained
steadfast to our cause; and despite the rantings of our detractors, indications are that their support will continue.
At home, our sufferings have continued. Scarcity and want have
remained our companions. Yet, with fortitude, we seem to have overcome th once imminent danger of mass starvation and can now look forward to a period
after the rains of comparative plenty. Our efforts in the Land Army programme give visible signs all over our land of imminent victory in the war
against want.
Fellow countrymen and women, the signs are auspicious, the future
fills us with less foreboding. I am confident. With the initiative in war now in our own hands, we have turned the last bend in our race to self-realisation
and are now set on the home straight in this our struggle. We must not flag. The tape is in sight. What we need now is a final burst of speed to
breast the tape and secure the victory which will ensure for us, for all time, glory and honour, peace and progress.
Fellow compatriots, today, being our Thanksgiving Day, it is most
appropriate that we pause awhile to take stock, to consider our past, our successes notwithstanding; to consider our future, our aspirations and our
fears. For two long years we have been locked in mortal combat with an enemy unequalled in viciousness; for two long years, defenceless and weak, we
have withstood without respite the concerted assault of a determined foe. We have fought alone, we have fought with honour, we have fought in the
highest traditions of christian civilization. Yet, the very custodians of this civilization and our one-time mentors, are the very self-same monsters
who have vowed to devour us.
Fellow Biafrans, I have for a long time thought about this our
predicament - the attitude of the civilized world to this our conflict. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that our disability is
racial. The root cause of our problem lies in the fact that we are black. If all the things that have happened to us had happened to another people
who are not black, if other people who are not black had reacted in the way our people have reacted these two long years, the world’s response would
surely have been different.
In 1966, some 50,000 of us were slaughtered like cattle in
Nigeria. In the course of this war, well over one million of us have been killed; yet the world is unimpressed and looks on in indifference. Last
year, some blood-thirsty Nigerian troops for sport murdered the entire male population of a village. All the world did was to indulge in an academic
argument whether the number was in hundreds or in thousands. Today, because a handful of white men collaborating with the enemy, fighting side by side
with the enemy, were caught by our gallant troops, the entire world threatens to stop. For 18 white men, Europe is aroused. What have they said about
our millions? 18 white men assisting the crime of genocide! What does Europe say about our murdered innocents? Have we not died enough? How many black
dead make one missing white? Mathematicians, please answer me. Is it infinity?
Nigeria embarked on a crime of genocide against our people by
first mounting a total blockade against Biafra. To cover up their designs and deceive the black world, the white powers supporting Nigeria blame
Biafrans for the continuation of the blockade and for the starvation and suffering which that entails. They uphold Nigerian proposals on relief which
in any case they helped to formulate, as being “conciliatory” or “satisfactory”. Knowing that these proposals would give Nigeria further
military advantage, and compromise the basic cause for which we have struggled for two years, they turn round to condemn us for rejecting them. They
accepted the total blockade against us as a legitimate weapon of war because it suits them and because we are black. Had we been white the inhuman and
cruel blockade would long have been lifted.
The mass deaths of our citizens resulting from starvation and
indiscriminate air raids and large despoliation of towns and villages are a mere continuation of this crime. That Nigeria has received complete
support from Britain should surprise no one. For Britain is a country whose history is replete with instances of genocide.
In my address to you on the occasion of the first anniversary of
our independence, I touched on a number of issues relevant to our struggle and to our hope for a prosperous, just and happy society. I talked to you
of the background to our struggle and on the visions and values which inspired us to found our own State.
THE MYTH ABOUT THE NEGRO
On this occasion of our second anniversary, I shall go further in
the examination of the meaning and import of our revolution by discussing the wider issues involved and the character and structure of the new society
we are determined and committed to build. Our enemies and their foreign sponsors have deliberately sought by false and ill-motivated propaganda to
becloud the real issues which caused and still determine the course and character of our struggle. They have sought in various ways to dismiss our
struggle as a tribal conflict. They have attributed it to the mad adventurism of a fictitious power-seeking clique anxious to carve out an empire to
rule, dominate and exploit. But they have failed. Our cause is transparently just and no amount of propaganda can detract from it.
Our struggle has far-reaching significance. It is the latest
recrudescence in our time of the age-old struggle of the black man for his full stature as man. We are the latest victims of a wicked collusion
between the three traditional scourges of the black man - racism, Arab-Muslim expansionism and white economic imperialism. Playing a subsidiary role
is Bolshevik Russia seeking for a place in the African sun. Our struggle is a total and vehement rejection of all those evils which blighted Nigeria,
evils which were bound to lead to the disintegration of that ill-fated federation. Our struggle is not a mere resistance - that would be purely
negative. It is a positive commitment to build a healthy, dynamic and progressive state, such as would be the pride of black men the world over.
For this reason, our struggle is a movement against racial
prejudice, in particular against that tendency to regard the black man as culturally, morally, spiritually, intellectually, and physically inferior to
the other two major races of the world - the yellow and the white races. This belief in the innate inferiority of the Negro and that his proper place
in the world is that of the servant of the other races, has from early days coloured the attitude of the outside world to Negro problems. It still
does today.
Not so long ago the fashion was to question the humanity of the
Negro. Some white theorists attributed the creation to the Devil, others even identified the Devil as the first Negro. Later they derived the Negro
from the accursed progeny of Ham. Nearer to us still in time, it became a topic for serious debate in learned circles in Europe whether the Negro was
in fact a man; whether he had a soul; and if he had a soul, whether conversion to christianity could make any difference to his spiritual condition
and destination. By the nineteenth century it had been reluctantly conceded that the Negro is in fact human, but a different kind of man, certainly
not the same kind of man as the white. Pseudo-intellectuals went to work to prove that the Negro was a different kind of man from the white. They
uncovered the abundant so-called anthropological evidence from archaelogy which “proved” to them conclusively that the Negro was no more the same
kind of man as the European than a rat was a rabbit.
Our disagreement with the Nigerians arose in part from a conflict
between two diametrically opposed conceptions of the end and purpose of the modern African state. It was, and still is, our firm conviction that a
modern Negro African government worth the trust placed in it by the people, must build a progressive state that ensures the reign of social and
economic justice, and of the rule of law. But the Nigerians, under the leadership of the Hausa-Fulani feudal aristocracy preferred anarchy and
injustice.
When the Nigerians violated our basic human rights and liberties,
we decided reluctantly but bravely to found our own state, to exercise our inalienable right to self-determination as our only remaining hope for
survival as a people. Yet, because we are black, we are denied by the white powers the exercise of this right which they themselves have proclaimed
inalienable. In our struggle we have learnt that the right of self-determination is inalienable, but only to the white man.
SELF-DETERMINATION
In 1966, 50,000 Biafrans - men, women and children - were
massacred in cold blood in Nigeria. Since July 6, 1967, hundreds of Biafrans have been killed daily by shelling, bombing, strafing and starvation
advised, organised and supervised by Anglo-Saxon Britain. None of these atrocities has raised enough stir in many European capitals. But on the few
occasions when a single white man died in Africa, even where he was a convicted bandit like the notorious case in the Congo, all the diplomatic
chanceries of the world have been astir.; the whole world has been shaken to its very foundations by the din of protest against the alleged atrocity
and by the clamour for vengeance. This was the case when the Nigerian vandals turned their British-supplied rifles on white Red Cross workers in
Okigwe. Recently this has been the case with the reported disappearance of some white oil technicians in the Republic of Benin. But when we are
massacred in thousands, nobody cares, because we are black.
ARAB-MUSLIM EXPANSIONISM
AFRICA EXPLOITED
Our struggle, in an even more fundamental sense, is the
culmination of the confrontation between Negro nationalism and white imperialism. It is a movement designed to ensure the realization of man’s full
stature in Africa.
Fellow countrymen and women, we have seen in proper perspective
the diabolical roles which the British Government and the foreign companies have played and are playing in our war with Nigeria. We now see why in
spite of Britain’s tottering economy Harold Wilson’s Government insists on financing Nigeria’s futile war against us. We see why the Shell-BP
led the Nigerian hordes into Bonny, pays Biafran oil royalties to Nigeria, and provided the Nigerian Army with all the help it needed for its attack
on Port Harcourt. We see why the West African Conference Lines readily and meekly co-operate with Gowon in the imposition of total blockade against
us. We see why the oil and trading companies in Nigeria still finance this war and why they risk the life and limb of their staff in the war zones.
RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM
And now, Bolshevik Russia. Russia is a late arrival in the race
for world empire. Since the end of the Second World War she has fought hard to gain a foothold in Africa recognising, like the other imperialist
powers before her, the strategic importance of Africa in the quest for world domination. She first tried to enter into alliance with African
nationalism. Later finding that African nationalism has been thwarted, at least temporarily, by the collusion between imperialism and the decadent
forces in African society, Russia quickly changed her strategy and identified herself with those very conservative forces which she had earlier
denounced. Here she met with quick success.
It is not Russia’s intention to make Nigeria a better place for
Nigerias or indeed any other part of Africa a better place for Africans. Her interest is strategic. In her challenge to the United States and the
Western World, she needs vantage points in Africa. With her entrenched position in Northern Nigeria, the Central Sudan of the historians and
geographers, Russia is in a position to co-ordinate her strategy for West and North Africa. We are all familiar with the ancient and historic
cultural, linguistic and religious links between North Africa and the Central Sudan. We know that the Hausa language is a lingua franca for over
two-thirds of this area. We know how far afield a wandering Imam preacing Islam and Bolshevism can go. When Russia gives the Nigerians Illyushin jets
to bomb us, the MiGs to strafe and rocket us and AK-47 rifles to mow us down, we should see all this in proper light that Russia, like other
imperialist powers, has no regard for the Negro. To her, what is important is to gain a vantage point in Negro-land from which to challenge American
and Western European world power and influence. The Arabs also in this find further attraction in that it gives to them a back-door entry eventually
into Israel. In this jungle game for world domination and black man’s life, let alone his well-being, counts for nothing.
ANGLO-SAXON GENOCIDE
If the white race has sinned against the world, the Anglo-Saxon
branch of that race has been, and still is, the worst sinner of all. The Anglo-Saxon British committed genocide against the American Indians. They
committed genocide against the Caribbs. They committed genocide against the Australian Blackfellows. They committed genocide against the native
Tasmanians and the Maoris of New Zealand. During the era of the slave trade, they topped the list and led the genocidal attempt against the Negro race
as a whole. Today, they are engaged in committing genocide against us. The unprejudiced observer is forced in consternation to wonder whether genocide
is not a way of life of the Anglo-Saxon British. Luckily, all white people are not like the Anglo-Saxon British.
NEGRO RENAISSANCE
Luckily too, all African states not like Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt
and Sudan, sworn enemies of the Negro, willing tools of white racism, white economic imperialism and Arab-Muslim expansionism. We salute the shining
and enduring examples of Negro renascence throughout the world. To Tanzania, to Gabon, to the Ivory Coast, to Zambia and Haiti, we wish more success
in their soldiering for all that is right, just and honourable.
We have indeed come a long way. We were once Nigerians, today we
are Biafrans. We are Biafrans because on 30th May, 1967, we finally said no to the evils and injustices in which Nigeria was steeped. Nigeria was made
up of peoples and groups with very little in common. As everyone knows, Biafrans were in the fore-front among those who tried to make Nigeria a
nation. It is ironic that some ill-informed and mischievous people today will accuse us of breaking up a united African country. Only those who do not
know the facts or deliberately ignore them can hold such an opinion. We know the facts because we were there and the things that happened, happened to
us.
NIGERIAN CORRUPTION
Then worst of all came the genocide in which over 50,000 of our
kith and kin were slaughtered in cold blood all over Nigeria, and nobody asked questions, nobody showed regret, nobody showed remorse. Thus, Nigeria
had become a jungle with no safety, no justice and no hope for our people. We decided then to found a new place, a human habitation away from the
Nigerian jungle. That was the origin of our Revolution.
RE-DISCOVERING INDEPENDENCE
From the moment we assumed the illustrious name of the ancient
kingdom of Biafra, we were re-discovering the original independence of a great African people. We accepted by this revolutionary act the glory, as
well as the sacrifice of true independence and freedom. We knew that we had challenged the many forces and interests which had conspired to keep
Africa and the Black Race in subjection forever. We knew they were going to be ruthless and implacable in defence of their age-old imposition on us
and exploitation of our people. But we were prepared and remain prepared to pay any price for our freedom and dignity.
For two years now we have fought a difficult war in defence of our Fatherland. From the beginning we have never been in
doubt about our ultimate victory. But, seeing the odds ranged against us, the world did not believe that we had any chance of success whatever the
merit of our case. Perhaps our determination and persistence are making the world think again. Biafra today is no longer a lost cause. For us,
Biafra’s eventual triumph has never been in doubt: Biafra has always been the shining light at the end of our dark tunnel. In the two years of our
grim struggle, we have learned important lessons about ourselves, about our society and about the world. In some ways this struggle has been a journey
in self-discovery and self-realisation.
Fellow countrymen, are we going to say no to Nigerianism and then let a few unpatriotic people among us soil our
Revolution with the stain of Nigeria? Are we going to watch the very disease which caused the demise of Nigeria take root in our new Biafra? Are we
prepared to embark on another revolution perhaps more bloody to put right the inevitable disaster? I ask you, my countrymen, can we afford another
spell of strife when this one is over to correct social inequalities in our Fatherland? I say NO. A thousand times no. The ordinary Biafran says no.
When I speak of the ordinary Biafran I speak of the People. The Biafran Revolution is the People’s Revolution. Who are the People? you ask. The
farmer, the trader, the clerk, the business man, the housewife, the student, the civil servant, the soldier, you and I are the people. Is there anyone
here who is not of the people? Is there anyone here afraid of the People - anyone suspicious of the People? Is there anyone despising the People? Such
a man has no place in our Revolution. If he is a leader, he has no right to leadership because all power, all sovereignty, belongs to the People. In
Biafra the People are supreme; the People are master; the leader is servant. You see, you make a mistake when you greet me with shouts of “Power,
Power”. I am not power - you are. My name is Emeka. I am your servant, that is all.
SHAKING OFF NIGERIANISM
# The Biafran Revolution stands firmly against Genocide - against any
attempt to destroy a people, its security, its right to life, property and progress. Any attempt to deprive a community of its identity is abhorrent
to the Biafran people. Having ourselves suffered genocide, we are all the more determined to take a clear stand now and at all times against this
crime.
# The new Biafran Social Order places a high premium on Patriotism - Love and Devotion to the Fatherland. Every
true Biafran must love Biafra; must have faith in Biafra and its people, and must strive for its greater unity. He must find his salvation here in
Biafra. He must be prepared to work for Biafra, to stand up for Biafra and, if necessary, to die for Biafra. He must be prepared to defend the
sovereignty of Biafra wherever and by whomsoever it is challenged. Biafran patriots do all this already, and Biafra expects all her sons and daughters
of today and tomorrow, to emulate their noble example. Diplomats who treat insults to the Fatherland and the Leadership of our struggle with levity
are not patriotic. That young man who sneaks about the village, avoiding service in his country’s Armed Forces is unpatriotic; that young,
able-bodied school teacher who prefers to distribute relief when he should be fighting his country’s war, is not only unpatriotic but is doing a
woman’s work. Those who help these loafers to dodge their civic duties should henceforth re-examine themselves.
# Every true Biafran must know and demand his civic rights. Furthermore, he must recognize the rights of other
Biafrans and be prepared to defend them when necessary. So often people complain that they have been ill-treated by the Police or some other public
servant. But the truth very often is that we allow ourselves to be bullied because we are not man enough to demand and stand up for our rights, and
that fellow citizens around do not assist us when we demand our rights.
# In the New Biafran Social Order sovereignty and power belong to the People. Those who exercise power do so on
behalf of the people. Those who govern must not tyrannize over the people. They carry a sacred trust of the people and must use their authority
strictly in accordance with the will of the people. The true test of success in public life is that the People - who are the real masters - are
contented and happy. The rulers must satisfy the People at all times.
But it is no use saying that power belongs to the People unless we are prepared to make it work in practice. Even in the
old political days, the oppressors of the People were among those who shouted loudest that power belonged to the People. The Biafran Revolution will
constantly and honestly seek methods of making this concept a fact rather than a pious fiction.
THE TASK OF A LEADER
He should never strive towards the perpetuation of his office or devise means to cling to office beyond the clear mandate of the People. He should resist the temptation to erect memorials to himself in his life-time, to have his head embossed on the coin, name streets and institutions after himself, or convert government into a family business. A leader who serves his people well will be enshrined in their hearts and minds. This is all the reward he can expect in his life-time. He will be to the People the symbol of excellence, the quintessence of the Revolution. He will be BIAFRAN.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
In the New Biafra, all property belongs to the Community. Every individual must consider all he has, whether in talent
or material wealth, as belonging to the community for which he holds it in trust. This principle does not mean the abolition of personal property but
it implies that the State, acting on behalf of the community, can intervene in the disposition of property to the greater advantage of all.
Over-acquisitiveness or the inordinate desire to amass wealth is a factor liable to threaten social stability, especially in an under-developed
society in which there are not enough material goods to go round.
This creates lop-sided development, breeds antagonisms between the haves and the have-nots and undermines the peace and
unity of the people.
While the Biafran Revolution will foster private economic enterprise and initiative, it should remain constantly alive
to the dangers of some citizens accumulating large private fortunes. Property-grabbing, if unchecked by the State, will set the pattern of behaviour
for the whole society which begins to attach undue value to money and property. Thus a wealthy man, even if he is known to be a crook, is accorded
greater respect than an honest citizen who is not so well off. A society where this happens is doomed to rot and decay. Moreover, the danger is always
there of a small group of powerful property-owners using their influence to deflect the State from performing its duties to the citizens as a whole
and thereby destroying the democratic basis of society. This happens in many countries and it is one of the duties of our Revolution to prevent its
occurrence in Biafra.
Finally, the Biafran Revolution will create possibilities for citizens with talent in business, administration,
management and technology to fulfil themselves and receive due appreciation and reward in the service of the State, as has indeed happened in our
total mobilization to prosecute the present war.
Our New Society is open and progressive. The people of Biafra have always striven to achieve a workable balance between
the claims of tradition and the demand for change and betterment. We are adaptable because as a people we are convinced that in the world “no
condition is permanent”. And we believe that human effort and will are necessary to bring about changes and improvements in the condition of the
individual and of society. The Biafran would thus make the effort to improve his lot and the material well-being of his community. He has the will to
transform his society into a modern progressive community. In this process of rapid transformation he will retain and cherish the best elements of his
culture, drawing sustenance as well as moral and psychological stability from them. But being a Biafran he will never be afraid to adapt what needs to
be adapted or change what has to be changed.
Looking at the institutions of our society, the very vehicles for carrying out our Revolutionary principles, what do you
find? We find old, jaded and rusty machines creaking along most inefficiently and delaying the People’s progress and the progress of the Revolution.
The problem of our institutions is partly that they were designed by other people, in other times and for other purposes. Their most fundamental
weakness is that they came into being during the colonial period when the relationship between the colonial administrators and the people was that of
master and servant. Our public servants, as heirs of the colonial masters, are apt to treat the People today with arrogance and condescension. In the
New Biafran Social Order, we say that power belongs to the People, but this central principle tends to elude many of the public servants who continue
to behave in a manner which shows that they consider themselves masters - the People their servants. The message of the Revolution has tended to fly
over their heads. Let them beware, the Revolution, gathering momentum like a flood, washes clear all impediments on its way.
For example, the Legislature, which should be the primary instrument for effecting the will of the People, was too often
in the past used to frustrate the People. As I have said over and over again, power derives from the People. Ideally, all the People should be
involved in the actual process of law-making. As a matter of fact, in our traditional society all adults who had attained the age of reason were
directly involved in discussion, debate and decision-making on all things affecting the whole people. That was the original government by consensus.
That was possible when the community was small and compact. With the emergence of the nation-state which is larger and heterogenous, this ideal
procedure became impracticable. Therefore, the process of delegation of power was evolved to meet a practical need. But this does not invalidate the
original principle that power belongs to the People. A man who is delegated by the People to represent their interests, therefore, is acting on behalf
of the People and ceases to act for them the moment they withdraw their mandate. Like the ideal leader, the People’s representative should get out
when the People tell him to get out. He must constantly reassure the People that he is acting in their best interest.
In the New Biafra, the Legislature must be constituted to reflect the spirit and the Principles of the Revolution.
Legislators must understand that responsibility goes with power. Those who wield power must appreciate the
responsibility attached to that power. The legislator is a servant of the People given special powers to enable him discharge special
responsibilities. Power is not given to him to turn him into a big man, to enable him sit inside huge American cars and build himself palaces. The
conscientious legislator who strives to carry out his responsibility will find no time to pursue his own lucrative interests. He will find no time for
membership of boards of corporations and directorships of public and private companies, or for doing deals with foreign business interests.
Since our Revolution has its foundation in the Rule of Law, the Judiciary becomes a most important arm of the State. It
is the instrument for the protection and defence of our people’s liberties, for interpreting the will of our Revolution and for promoting the values
of the New Order. It will be necessary, in the first place, to review our body of laws and bring it into line with the values and concepts of the New
Order. It will be essential to stream-line this machinery so as to facilitate its processes and make legal redress available to all citizens. Every
Biafran should find it possible and easy to have recourse to law courts when his rights or liberties are interfered with or threatened. In this he
should be able to count on the support of his fellow citizens.
In the past, justice and its processes were often very remote from the life of the ordinary citizen. The ways of justice
were beyond his understanding. And yet justice was meant to exist for his benefit. In revolutionary Biafra, the citizen should understand what law and
justice are about. Our Revolution, therefore, aims at involving the citizen in the process of justice so that he will participate actively in the
protection of his life and liberties and in the defence of the integrity, stability, and moral health of the nation.
Like the Judiciary, the Police Force is a very important institution, very important because it is given the special
responsibility of maintaining law and order and guarding the security of the People and the nation. Like other institutions of our society, the Police
Force needs to be reformed so that it can better fulfil its function in the Revolution. Its members must absorb the ideals of the New Biafran Social
Order. The Police have often been criticised by the public. They have been accused of corruption, bribery and inefficiency. We say that some of these
evils and weaknesses can be traced to the fact that the Police Force, like many other institutions of our society, had a colonial beginning and was
vitiated in Nigeria. Today we are involved in a task of building a New Society with new values and new outlooks. Our Police Force must be part of this
New Order. It must promote the ideals of the New Order - ideals of change and progress. The conduct of its members must, in the spirit of the
Revolution, be scrupulously honest. The Biafran Police must be a People’s Police, that is to say, a champion of the People’s rights. The Policeman
is not there simply to arrest criminals. He is also there to help people avoid going wrong. He must never exploit the People’s ignorance of their
civic rights. On the contrary, it is his duty, where such ignorance exists, to teach the citizen his rights. Above all, he must be a dedicated patriot
fanatically devoted to prosecuting the safety and security of the State. Fortunately, we know there are members of our Police Force who are imbued
with these ideals. It is on them that the Force will be rebuilt.
The Biafran Armed Forces hold a key position in the Biafran Revolution. They have been rightly in the front-line defence
of the Biafran nation and the People in the past two years. They have performed this task creditably, for which the Nation is indebted to them. But
like the others, our military institutions carry the stamp of their Colonial and Nigerian origin. For our Revolution, the Biafran Armed Forces must be
transformed into a true People’s Army.
They must rid themselves of the starchiness and rigid class distinctions which are the hall-mark of an establishment
army; they should always ensure that their members never maltreat fellow citizens; that they never loot or “liberate” the People’s property;
that they treat Biafran womanhood with respect and decorum; and that they pay fair price for whatever they buy and return whatever they borrow from
the People.
THE PUBLIC SERVICES
However, we recognize that some devoted public servants may be inefficient simply because they have not received the
right and adequate training for what they are required to do. In this respect, our Revolution will do one of two things. Either move them to a job
they can do, or provide the right training-on-the-job if this is likely to produce worthwhile results.
It is quite clear that to attain the goals of the Biafran Revolution will require extensive political and civic
education of our People. To this effect, we will, in near future, set up a National Orientation College (N.O.C) which will undertake the needful
function of formally inculcating the Biafran ideology and the Principles of the Revolution. We will also pursue this vital task of education through
seminars, mass rallies, formal and informal address by the leaders and standard-bearers of the Revolution. All Biafrans who are going to play a role
in the promotion of the Revolution, especially those who are going to operate the institutions of the New Society, must first of all expose themselves
to the ideology of the Revolution.
The full realisation of the Biafran ideology and the promise of the Biafran Revolution will have the important effect of
drawing the People of Biafra into close unity with the Biafran State. The Biafran State and the Biafran People thus become one. The People jealously
defend and protect the integrity of the State. The State guarantees the People certain basic rights and welfare. In this third year of our
independence, we re-state those basic rights and welfare obligations which the revolutionary State of Biafra guarantees to the People.
Our revolutionary Biafran State will guarantee a rational system of remuneration of labour. Merit and output shall be
the criteria for reward in labour. “To each according to his ability, to each ability according to its product” shall be our motto in Biafra.
Our Revolution guarantees security for workers who have been incapacitated by physical injury, old age or disease. It
will be the duty of the Biafran State to raise the standard of living of the Biafran People, to provide them with improved living conditions and to
afford them modern amenities that enhance their human dignity and self-esteem. We recognize at all times the great contributions made by the farmers,
the craftsmen and other toilers of the Revolution to our national progress. It will be a cardinal point of our economic policy to keep their welfare
constantly in view. The Biafran Revolution will promulgate a Workers’ Charter which will codify and establish workers’ rights.
The maintenance of the health and physical well-being of the Biafran citizen must be the concern and the responsibility
of the State. The revolutionary Biafran State will at all times strive to provide medical service for all its citizens in accordance with the
resources available to it; it will wage a continuous struggle against epidemic and endemic diseases; and will promote among the People knowledge of
hygienic living. It will develop social and preventive medicine, set up sanatoriums for incurable and infectious diseases and mental cases, and a
net-work of maternity homes for ante- and post-natal care of Biafran mothers. Furthermore, Biafra will set great store by the purity of the air which
its People breathe. We have a right to live in a clean, pollution-free atmosphere.
Our Revolution recognises the vital importance of the mental and emotional needs of the Biafran People. To this end, the
Biafran State will pay great attention to Religion, Education, Culture and the Arts. We shall aim at elevating our cultural institutions and promoting
educational reforms which will foster a sense of national and racial pride among our People and discourage ideas which inspire a feeling of
inferiority and dependence on foreigners and foreign interests. We must produce the kind of manpower that will nurture the Biafran Revolution. It will
be the prime duty of the revolutionary Biafran State to eradicate illiteracy from our society, to guarantee free education to all Biafran children to
a stage limited only by existing resources. Our nation will encourage the training of scientists, technicians and skilled workers needed for quick
industrialisation and the modernisation of our agriculture. We will ensure the development of higher education and technological training for our
People, encourage our intellectuals, writers, artists and scientists to research, create and invent in the service of the State and the People. We
must prepare our People to contribute significantly to knowledge and world culture.
SELF-RELIANCE
Another economic goal of the Biafran Revolution is self-sufficiency in food production. Our experience during the
present war has emphasized to us the importance of this. The work of the Biafra Land Army has also shown us the tremendous possibilities that exist
for a major agrarian revolution. The Biafran Revolution will intervene actively to end the exploitation of the countryside by the town - a baneful
process which is often easily lost sight of. The Biafran Revolution will encourage farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen to form co-operatives and
communes, and will make them take pride in their work by according them the recognition and prestige they deserve. The programme for industrial
progress in revolutionary Biafra will achieve balanced development between industry and agriculture, between regions or provinces within Biafra,
between town and country and finally between Biafra and other African countries who desire to do business with us.
Again and again, in stating the Principles of our Revolution, we have spoken of the People. We have spoken of the
primacy of the People, of the belief that power belongs to the People; that the Revolution is the servant of the People. We make no apologies for
speaking so constantly about the People, because we believe in the People; we have faith in the People. They are the bastion of the Nation, the makers
of its culture and history.
THE QUALITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL
# He is patriotic, loyal to his State, his Government and its leadership; he must no do anything which undermines
the security of his State or gives advantage to the enemies of his country. He must no indulge in such evil practices as tribalism and nepotism which
weaken the loyalty of their victims to the state. He should be prepared, if need be, to give up his life in defence of the Nation.
# He must be his brother’s keeper; he must help all Biafrans in difficulty, whether or not they are related to
him by blood; he must avoid, at all costs, doing anything which is capable of bringing distress and hardship to other Biafrans. A man who hoards money
or goods is not his brother’s keeper because e brings distress and hardship to his fellow citizens.