This is the News Analysis segment of the Voice of Biafra International broadcasts  

For Dec 6th, 2003  

You have heard the news; now, the analysis…  

“My peoples and my nations shall not be sacrificed for the sake of preserving a worthless idea called Nigeria.” So speaketh the Lord. And so it is.  

“The peoples and their nations must live and thrive, though the name and concept of Nigeria die. The peoples and their nations must not and will not be allowed to perish just to save a dying Nigeria.” So says the Lord.  

Fellow Biafrans: Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but the Word of God must be fulfilled. You can count on that!  

Today, we take you straight to Biafraland where Ohaneze has taken one GOLDEN STEP forwards by electing Biafran Brave-heart and Colonel, Joe Achuzie, as their Secretary-General. Colonel Achuzie represents what many Biafrans of today either are afraid to show, or have lost contact with: courage, bravery, steadfastness, scruples, incorruptibility, hardwork, honesty and diligence, and uncompromising. These are the same traits we exhibited so well, traits which allowed us to salvage the survival of our nation and people during the Biafran War, of which while the battle was lost, we succeeded in saving our people, enough to rise again today. We are fully confident that the Colonel will not just grace us with, and remind us of, these Biafran characteristics, but will in fact inspire,  encourage, enable, catalyze  and empower us to return to who and what we really are—Biafrans.  

We are surely going to need the Colonel to help us with this example, starting right there with Ohaneze, where other steps taken on this same occasion have dubious and downright negative implications for our people. The most definite of such backward steps is the selection of Iwuanyanwu as the Chair of the Constitutional Committee of Ohaneze. Isn't this unimaginable? Was it not the same Iwuanyanwu who just betrayed his people not quite 1 year ago, and went on to brag about it? In case you have forgotten, and we certainly hope nobody has forgotten, Iwuanyanwu was the Chair of the Ohaneze’s political committee which was charged with nominating and electing an Igbo Presidential Candidate in the 2003 now-fraudulent elections. While still in that position, Iwuanyanwu was bought by Obasanjo; Iwuanyanwu then turned around and bought over many of our people—people humiliated and depraved by poverty and hunger—to vote for Obasanjo. Iwuanyanwu campaigned for Obasanjo, and was part of the Obasanjo-PDP humiliation of not only Igbo candidates, but also Igbo people and the Igbo nation, including Ohaneze itself. To cap it all, even after our people overwhelmingly voted for APGA and Ojukwu, Iwuanyanwu was an active part of the election-rigging machine that suppressed any challenge of the criminal fraudsters, Obasanjo and PDP, with the result that today, we have the likes of Ngige, Kalu, Udenwa, and Wabara, foisted over us. After the dust settled for Ohaneze, what does Ohaneze do now? Ohaneze decides to make Iwuanyanwu the Chair of Ohaneze's Constitutional Committee! 

We can only assume that Obasanjo himself will just write the Ohaneze constitution and hand it to Iwuanyanwu, to have it passed and ratified by Ohaneze, and then have it forced on all Ndigbo-Biafrans. What informed Ohaneze to do this? We can’t find the adjectives to describe this unthinkable lapse on the part of Ohaneze, but we shall give Ohaneze an opportunity to remedy this situation. As for Iwuanyanwu, if he had any decency left, he would have not accepted this position—unless he is of course continuing with his Judas’ tradition, in which case, he is laughing at us and shaking his head in disbelief regarding the insanity of this action of Ohaneze’s.  

As if this is not bad enough, consider the speech of the newly-selected President-General of Ohaneze. Professor Irukwu. Every other word in the newspaper report on his speech was about Nigeriawhat he (and presumably Ohaneze) would do for Nigeria. To project his vision and mission, according to his own words, Ohaneze is just another "one-Nigeria organization" based in Igboland-Biafraland. Professsssorrr! Ohanezzzzzeeee!! Ndigboooo!  Umu Biafraaaaa!!! When shall we learn?  

Fellow Biafrans, please help us remind Professor Irukwu that Ohaneze is an Igbo-Biafran organization, for the socio-cultural betterment of Ndigbo-Biafrans. Please help us point out to the Professor that he and Ohaneze hitherto fore have not done anything for Ndigbo (need we remind them of how they totally bungled the 2003 Igbo Presidency plan?). How is it that Professor Irukwu is more interested in doing for Nigeria what he has not even done for Ndigbo? Does not charity begin at home?  

This Christmas season, for example, Ndigbo-Biafrans returning to Igboland-Biafraland will face untold hardship and hazards as they try to get through deathtraps called roads in Igboland-Biafraland. Perhaps, some of you listening to this broadcast may even become victims yourselves. If you make it to Igboland-Biafraland in one piece, you will find depravity, poverty, untold hardship and suffering. The youth are unemployed and not in school. The pensioners have not been paid—and will never be paid. The workers have not been paid either. There will be no running water; there will be no steady power supply.  Even the telephone system will not work. Those of you returning from other parts of Nigeria will not fail to take note of the fact that conditions in all those other parts are 2000% better than in Igboland-Biafraland. If you are flying in from overseas, you must first land in Abuja or Kano or Kaduna or Lagos, occasionally in Port Harcourt, but never in any city of the core Igboland. In spite of all this, Professor Irukwu and Ohaneze(?) have nothing better to do for Ndigbo, such that the first words out his mouth is about helping Nigeria or building up Nigeria? What a pity!  

Fellow Biafrans, we must apologize to you an to our youth for this turn of events. We want you and them to know that it was not always like this with the Igbo nor with the Biafrans. We also want to assure you and them that it won’t be like this for much longer, because as soon as we have Biafra, this indescribable and unbearable condition will cease. Even before then, we believe that true Biafrans such as as Colonel Achuzie will turn things around with Ohaneze and for the rest of Biafrans.  

When a segment of Biafran youths sent us the questions and comments below, we could only but weep. Questions and comments such as:

“... if BIAFRA [is] actualize[d] what would be the benefit of the youths and the entire citizens of BIAFRA ?..."

"... Are we not going to surfer as if we are still in NIGERIA ?..."

"... We hope that BIAFRAN government will be better than NIGERIAN government in term of solving the problems of the citizens.?...”  

really brought tears to our eyes, and now, considering Irukwu’s vision of what Ohaneze is going to do in Igboland-Biafraland, we can see why our youth are confused, confounded, dazed, and bewildered with disappointment at the hypocrisy, weakness and feigned ignorance of those who should know betterour so-called leaders.  

And it does not just stop with Professor Irukwu. According to one newspaper account, “...while on a visit to the ancient city [Kano] to rejoice with Muslim brothers during the Sallah festivity” the known efulefu Orji Uzor Kalu recently “...warned that the Igbo may ditch PDP to actualise their age-long dream of producing the president in 2007...”  Well, well, well! Isn’t this the sort of hypocrisy we are speaking about? Orji Uzor Kalu had sold out Ndigbo-Biafrans with his staunch support for Obasanjo after doing an about face. Then, he has declared that he is a PDP party slave, doing what is in the best interest of PDP rather than what is in the best interest of Igbo / Biafran people. Today, while wining and dining with “his Muslim brothers” in the North, he is talking about delivering Igbo votes, but not to the Northerner, Babangida in 2007? We ask: what about right now and right in Igboland? Aren’t there enough problems to solve in our own land today without fleeing to the future, 2007? Why is Orji Uzor Kalu using Ndigbo as a pun in his selfish games and political ambition? There he is with his "friends" in Kano, enjoying good roads and electricity and water supply; while we are over here suffering deprivation today in our own land, and he is bargaining our votes away to the Northerners for 2007 elections already? Tufiakwa! Little wonder our youth are befuddled.  

If you think that that’s all, think again. Our youth have a good reason to ask if things will be the same in Biafra as in Nigeria . We now bring you Wabara. Igbo people in Lagos recently honored him and expressed support for him and his work thus far, of which our thinking here is that all that is really misplaced. Nevertheless, Wabara could use that support to a good end by developing some backbone and doing the duties of the post which he, in the first place, rigged himself into. Thus far, all he has been is a weakling, an Obasanjo’s puppy. Now that Ndigbo are blindly supporting him (and we think that this is wrong), he can stand on his own two hind legs, instead of fearing that what happened to previous Igbo Senate Presidents in Obasanjo's governments would also happen to him. We do not need to remind you all that Obasanjo wanted their heads anytime they became independent, instead of serving Obasanjo’s needs. Today, Wabara only does want Obasanjo commands him to do. Thus, he could not—would not--rally the Senate to defend the clear and obvious interest of the peoples against Obasanjo’s insensitive and ill-thought out fuel price hikes. The defense of the peoples living in Nigeria was left to the non-political Nigeria Labor Congress and Oshiomwole. Wabara did not show outrage when members of the National Assembly including himself were banned from criticizing Obasanjo’s poor policies. Do you know that Wabara dissolved the Senate Committees dealing with Revenue Allocation because the committees were in favor of giving more money to the States, and Obasanjo is vehemently against that, and rather than do the democratic thing, Obasanjo has intimidated Wabara into dismissing those committees? When Wabara cannot take a stand with the peoples living in Nigeria, and is instead more afraid of Obasanjo, how effective can he be, and why should Ndigbo support him blindly? Wabara is another Igbo-Obasanjo’s puppy.  He is not good for any people--neither Nigerian nor Igbo-Biafran people!

And the gall of it all is that Wabara would preach to Ndigbo at the same Lagos event, that their problems are:

1)      Lack of education. Well! The Igbo states alone have more eligible, more capable and more willing applicants for higher education each year than perhaps all the Northern States combined. The problem is that the teachers are not paid; the institutions are not maintained by the federal government; the States have no money to help, and Wabara is colluding with Obasanjo today to deny the States a fairer fiscal allocation which might have helped the States to meet just such a burden. Lastly, do you know what the Federal Minister of Labor told one of last year’s graduating classes? Less than 10% of them would ever find a job in Nigeriaif that. So, wake up, Wabara. Get your facts and analysis right!

2)      “…the last thing we [Ndigbo] want to do is to be seen to be untrustworthy and as such become targets of aggression in moments of stress..." Mr. Wabara, this is the most infuriating thing for you to say about Ndigbo. Why do you not admit that whereas the Igbo trust all other nationalities in Nigeria relatively well enough to actually go to their lands and set up shop and businesses and residence there, these other nationalities have not reciprocated? This is in spite of the fact that no month passes by without incidents of Ndigbo being victimized in these lands, and without incidents of their property being destroyed, with the flimsiest of excuses? Why can’t you say the truth, which is that other nationalities hate our Igbo-ness / Biafra-ness, so that it does not really matter what we do, they will never lose their suspicion of us, their hatred for us, their loathe, their envy and jealousy of us? Why can you not bring yourself to say the truth, which is that nothing the Igbo have done so far (including appeasement, begging, groveling, acquiescence, even selling out their own) has earned them any more trust than before; and that Nigeria can never trust Ndigbo, no matter what?  

3)      “...the need to channel our creative energies towards the production of goods and services, not just towards trading…” What hypocrisy! Wabara: in which region in Nigeria are the roads impassable? In which region is power supply non-existent or so epileptic as to be worthless? Which region has the worst telephone service? Which region has no International airport, although its nationals do the most international traveling? It is not just that the Federal government of Nigeria has failed to equitably develop and maintain the infrastructure for services in Igboland-Biafraland, but actually, the federal government has an active policy of suppression of such infrastructure, in our land. You, Mr. Wabara, are very much part of this evil policy; and now you come to lecture us?  

4)      Wabara talks about Unity for Ndigbo when just earlier this year, while we campaigned for unity and solidarity of Ndigbo-Biafrans under APGA and Ojukwu, Wabara and other efulefu’s broke rank and went with Obasanjo and PDP. Shame!!!  

Fellow Biafrans, our Youth: if Ohaneze listens to the Igbo-Biafran people, we expect that come January 2004 at the formal inauguration of the new Ohaneze officers, the vision and mission of Ohaneze will turn towards what is good for Igbo / Biafra. Rather than the officials working for Nigeria, they shall be working with MASSOB and other Biafran nationalistic groups. If Ohaneze listens to the Igbo-Biafran people, we expect that Iwuanyanwu shall not be allowed to chair the most important and most sensitive committee of Ohaneze—its constitutional committee. Our task is to get Ohaneze to listen to us—we the people. From the likes of Wabara and Orji Uzor Kalu, we expect nothing except their continuing roles as errand boys for Obasanjo, and their continued hypocritical activities.  

At the end of this long day, we shall have Biafra . Because it is in God’s plan. It is God’s good pleasure that we have Biafra and be Biafrans. That is the only true destiny of Igbo / Biafrans; our destiny is not with or in Nigeria—it is Biafra, forever Biafra!

That’s the news analysis for the week. Thank you.

 

God bless and keep Biafra , and you, until our next broadcast. Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) broadcast continues (http://www.biafraland.com/vobi.htm)

Voice of Biafra International (VOBI)
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