Why The Captivity of Three Jewish Filmmakers In Nigeria Maybe Connected To The Redemption

A few years ago I attended a high level meeting of pro Igbo Jewish activists, Rabbinic leaders, and political connectors in Jerusalem to discuss how real the Igbo claim of Israelite heritage and if so what was there to do about it.

No real press was allowed at the meeting and in many ways, although we reached some fascinating conclusions and a desire to help – nothing came of it.

There are approximately 30 million Igbo in southeastern Nigeria. Most identify with some sort of Hebraic connection, however those who follow mainstream halachic Judaism are few yet growing. A larger percentage – perhaps the majority, follow a Seventh Day Adventist approach to Christianity, which leans far more to a Hebrew Roots style of worship that appears on the outside to be very Jewish, despite a clinging to a different “messiah.”

The real connection the Igbo have to Israel is not with modern Judaism, but rather a form of actualized Israelite customs that our own sojourning relegated to memory. The bandwidth of laws that are similar to what we see in the Bible as well as familiar ones like Brit Milah, basic Kashrut, and Shabbat is astounding. Whether these came out from a need to connect to the Judaism they saw in the Bible centuries ago, or are an accurate expression of Israelite connection doesn’t matter – the Igbo not only believe, but have a deep culture of practice of the traditions called Omenana – “What you do in the Land.”

With this backdrop, Rudy Rochman, a pro Israel and indigenous rights activist as well as two others went to Africa to film emerging African Jewish communities, eventually finding themselves in Nigeria with the Igbo. Unfortunately for them, the Nigerian DSS associated their work with the free Biafra movement (a loose confederation of pro Biafran separatists sometimes connected to the Igbo).

Despite differences, Nigeria increasingly sees the Igbo movement for greater Hebraic awareness and the Biafran independence movement as growing more and more interconnected. Nigerian President Buhari, is a known radical Muslim who hates the Igbo. Unknown to them, the three Jewish filmmakers essentially walked into a far more complicated and dangerous situation than they assumed existed. Unfortunately they are still being held weeks later.

Despite the frustration and the danger Rudy, David, and Noam are in, their captivity may be part of something larger, a trigger for a wider redemptive awareness. While it is true, we as Israel don’t have the vessels or ability to sift through the myriad claims of connection from around the world, our awareness of a far larger purpose to our homecoming is necessary.

The Jewish return to the Land of Israel is a mere first step to a global redemption. It is not surprising since we liberated the Biblical Heartland and Jerusalem in 1967 that a tremendous awakening is now underway around the world. This awakening may not mesh with our assumption of what the Lost Tribes or the next stage of Redemption would be like, but that is only because our awakening is one of acceptance to something far greater than our exilic imagination permitted.

From the Pashtun in Afghanistan to the Igbo in Nigeria or the individual Christians who for whatever reason desire to return to the path of the Torah to the Bnei Menashe of East India, there is a sense that something profound is unfolding. Our assumption has been that in order to reach Redemption we in Israel only need to strengthen in following G-D’s will as found in the Torah and conquer the Land of Israel. What happens if the there is a another layer?

We know that the Redemption at the End of Days will be global – like a pebble dropped into a pond, the resulting splash has a center point, but radiates outward. This is what we are seeing now amongst the Igbo, the Abudaya in Uganda, and the Lemba in Zimbabwe. Are they Israelites? Not clear and nor does it matter – their attachment to the One G-D of Israel is what may tip the balance between darkness and light.

Perhaps Rudy and his friends are just some naive Jewish filmmakers or perhaps their captivity is a message for all of us that we have a responsibility to not only set them free, but to actually take the Igbo far more seriously than we currently do thus helping to release them from captivity as well. The Redemption just might depend on it.

Learn about Rudy’s Film here.

Why An Independent Igbo-Israelite State Is Necessary In West Africa

The Igbo nation has a vibrant and resourceful population of 50 million. Within this teeming population there is a sufficiently developed bank of human resources capital living in a physical geographical space known as Igbo land. Igbo people have an unmistakable unique identity, a well-developed set of national cultural values and clearly defined and distinct world views. On the whole the Igbo nation has everything it takes to exist and manage their affairs independently of other people. So, the Igbo are prepared to take their own fate in their hands and will not for any reason continue to play any second fiddle or remain subservient to any other group of people. Therefore, Igbo people are out to do everything in their power to achieve Igbo self-determination and political independence from Nigeria.

On the 29th of May 1966 the Igbo renounced their Nigerian citizenship forever. Starting from that fateful day the Igbo determined to reclaim and reassume their national sovereignty and political independence outside Nigeria. That day marked the beginning of the Nigerian state’s pogrom of the Igbo and other ethnic nationalities from the former Eastern Region. The aim and scope of the pogrom was the total extermination of all Igbo from Nigeria. This made the Igbo along with these other affected peoples and Igbo neighbors to secede from Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra. On the 30th of May 1967 the Biafrans unilaterally declared the independence of their region from Nigeria. After the declaration of independence the Nigerian state declared war on the new country on 6th July 1967. The war between the two states lasted till the 15th of January 1970. In the end Biafra was defeated. The Igbo got reabsorbed into Nigeria. But many systemic policies were put in place by the Nigerian state to marginalize and further punish the Igbo for attempting to secede.

After the war in spite of the many oppressive state policies, threats, intimidations and actual killings of the Igbo, they still refused to be deterred and continued clandestinely the struggle for a total and absolute secession and independence of Igbo land from Nigeria. But unlike the 1967 to 1970 struggle for Biafra independence, the new and ongoing struggle to free Igbo from Nigeria is exclusively an Igbo initiative and project which does not involve any of their neighboring ethnic nationalities or their lands. The extent of this Igbo state covers all and only Igbo lands as they were before the advent of the European colonialists who amalgamated the different ethnic nationalities with divergent and irreconcilable cultures, worldviews and lands into a dysfunctional unitary Nigerian country. In this new struggle for Igbo independence, the special circumstances that necessitated the joint multi ethnic independent project in the past are not present. Therefore, this new Igbo state is not Biafra and cannot justifiably be called Biafra because it has no resemblance to the former joint multi-ethnic struggle for an independent state in the 1960s.   

This new agitation for Igbo independence that began in 1970 soon after the Biafra War is fundamentally different from the 1967 to 1970 Biafra war for independence. The 1960s struggle is what I generally refer to as Ojukwu’s Biafra. In this new struggle it is simply and unambiguously the struggle for the creation of a modern and exclusive Igbo-only independent state. This fundamental difference between the old and the new struggles cannot be overemphasized and no one needs to misunderstand it.

This difference should be understood in the light that it is typically said that every generation fights their own battle in their own unique way based on their unique circumstances. What drove the former and what is driving the present movements are basically different. In the 1960s starting from May 29, 1966 the systemic countrywide mass killing of the Igbo and the destruction of their properties began and it was geared towards cleansing out the ethnic Igbo from the Nigerian space. This was what produced the declaration of Biafra independence.

Starting from 29th May 1966 these government backed killings of the Igbo continued throughout Nigeria for one year despite all efforts by the Igbo to reconcile and make peace with Nigeria. After one year of unabated killings and destruction of Igbo properties and, with the death toll of over 100,000 Igbo and the other Easterners who were the victims jointly decided to secede from Nigeria. So, they unilaterally declared independence from Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra. For them Biafra was their best move to protect and preserve the lives and properties of all those within the boundaries of the new state. To prove their determined resolve to defend themselves and their land they fought a bitter war for about three years which ended up costing the Igbo a total of 3.1 million lives in addition to the 400,000 deaths of the other Biafrans.

Contrasting the 1960s Secession Effort with 2020 Effort

The 1960s effort to free Igbo from Nigeria was mostly necessitated by Nigeria’s pogrom against the Igbo and the other easterners. This is not exactly the same with today’s Igbo’s decision to leave Nigeria. In this 2020 and as it has been since the end of the war in 1970 Igbo are not fighting to free themselves from Nigeria entirely because of the ongoing injustices and killings against them. Since the end of the war the Igbo have endured in Nigeria many oppressive marginalizing polices and systemic denial of opportunities and without doubt, these unjust and wicked treatments have been bad enough. But today’s Igbo decision to leave Nigeria is based on the simple reason that they do not wish to remain Nigerians anymore. They would instead be Igbo. As a people they would rather exist and live under their own Igbo identity and manage their own affairs within an independent Igbo nation state outside Nigeria.

As we already noted, Ojukwu’s Biafra was created along the boundary lines of the defunct Eastern Region which he presided over as the governor prior to Biafra declaration of independence. The irony of it is that Eastern Region of Nigeria split up Igbo population in two with one on the east and the other half on west banks of the Niger River. This split the Igbo resulted in the Western not being included in Ojukwu’s Biafra map. That exclusion of course is unacceptable to the Igbo. The Eastern Region was created that way by the British colonialists. They were obviously insensitive to the ugly divisive consequences of splitting up brothers so long as it suited their business convenience and interests. The boundaries of the Eastern Region were established to serve the business and economic interests of the foreign colonialists rather than to work in the political and economic interests of the indigenous peoples.

After considering the circumstances surrounding the creation of the former Eastern Region along whose boundaries were based Ojukwu’s Biafra, the Igbo totally rejected to adopt the defunct Biafra’s map for the new Igbo country. Among the obvious reasons the Igbo give for rejecting the old Biafra map is that the borders were established by the same foreigners who created Nigeria. Over the years most analysts of the reasons for Nigeria’s failure as a nation have come to the consensus that the Nigerian experiment failed principally because the foreigners who created the Nigerian state failed to take into consideration the irreconcilable differences that exist among the various ethnic peoples and cultures who were forced to live together as citizens of the same country. Unfortunately it is very clear that the same factors that orchestrated Nigeria’s failure are present within the borders of the defunct Biafra. Ojukwu’s Biafra boundaries split Igbo people and their land and this is unacceptable and will not apply to the new Igbo state.

Igbo and Biafra are not One and the Same

Prior to 1967 Igbo people were never known as Biafrans. At no other time in history except for the brief period of two and half years (May 30, 1967 to January 15, 1970) were Igbo people ever identified as Biafrans. Yet, since the past five decades after the war there has been this prevalent misconception which has left some people confused. Since after the war, some people have tended to use Igbo and Biafra identities interchangeably when referencing the Igbo. This is wrong. The truth is that Igbo people along with other ethnic nationalities used the name Biafra and its identity to fight a war known as Biafra War from 1967 to 1970. Biafra War was fought by the Igbo and others from the former Eastern Region as a joint effort to free their people and lands and gain independence from Nigeria. Unfortunately, the Biafran project failed as the war ended in the defeat of Biafra.

At the war’s end Igbo people then reverted to their original Igbo national identity and ceased being Biafrans. But out of ignorance despite the passage of many years some people continue to send out mixed messages to observers about who the Igbo are and what their collective national goal is. For the sake of clarity it is important that we emphasis here that Igbo people are no longer Biafrans but Igbo and their goal is to establish an independent modern Igbo nation state outside Nigeria.

Frustratingly however, one can still find a pocket of ignorant individuals who in spite of this clear and unclouded known difference between Igbo and Biafran identities still use the words Igbo and Biafra as if they were interchangeable or are one and the same thing. They are not. Igbo is a nation or the national identity of the ethnic Igbo people. The land they occupy is called Igbo land, the people are known and called Igbo, the culture they practice is Igbo culture and their language is Igbo.

The Igbo are a national people that fit perfectly the current United Nations categorization and definition of who national peoples are. And it is based on that definition that they declared in their charter that any such group of people are legitimately and legally entitled to actively seek for their self-determination and can aspire to be independent of all others and exist and thrive on their own terms as a unique cultural and national group or state.

Most importantly, we need to state here that since the end of the war no one has been given any Igbo mandate to re-impose the Biafran identity on the Igbo nation; the people and their land. In 1967 the Igbo and their neighbors adopted Biafra as a collective identity on an ad hoc and temporary basis. They adopted the Biafran banner and identity to defend themselves against a common enemy. Beyond 1970 no one is authorized to continue to refer to Igbo as Biafrans or their land as Biafra land. It is important to clearly state that Igbo’s abandonment of the Biafran identity after 1970 does not mean that the Igbo at any time abandoned their quest for self-determination and independence from Nigeria. The Igbo are still seeking to restore and reestablish their sovereign and political independence under Igbo banner and identity instead of under the Biafran banner and identity.

Biafra is also a Foreign Nomenclature

One significant reason that some people who support the dissolution of the Nigerian union give is that the name Nigeria is foreign to the local people. They assert that Nigeria as a country was put together and christened Nigeria by foreigners. Yet these same people who oppose the use of Nigeria’s nomenclature are still infatuated and hooked on Biafra as the name for their proposed fantasy country. Such people overlook the fact that Biafra too is as foreign as any foreign names can be. Some of them have argued and defended the name Biafra by imputing strange and ridiculous local or Igbo meanings to the word in order to convince people that it is indigenous. Some of the people can speculate and argue as much as they like but that does not change the fact that the name Biafra has a European origin. The bight was christened so by the Portuguese pioneer explorers who were the first to visit the West African coastal waters before the other Europeans.

The first Europeans who came in contact with the coast dwellers of the Atlantic in West Africa were from Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries. Initially the interactions between the Europeans and the natives were solely commercial. So, to aid them in their navigation and trade routes the Europeans made the map of the territory for their convenience and gave it the name Biafra that it bore except that the Nigerian government changed it to Bight of Benin after the war in their bid to spite the former Biafrans.

Justifying the Igbo Independence Project

Igbo as a people are unique and clearly identifiable with their own unique set of culture, language, a set of unified customs and norms and a specific physical geographical space. They therefore, can justifiably seek to determine themselves or who they are. They do not need to offer any other qualifications or reasons as basis for them to seek to be independent and autonomously manage their own affairs without any input or interference from any other people. But because it is true, the Igbo can still make references to the issues of unjust systemic mistreatments, marginalization, killings and other such injustices to which they are subjected in Nigeria. But those do not form the most important argument that the Igbo present for their independence. Those unjust conditions and mistreatments can change but the Igbo persona and identity does not change. So, the Igbo are campaigning for their self-determination and independence based on who they are and not based on the adverse things that are happening to them in Nigeria. The Igbo project to free themselves from Nigeria and become independent is grounded on the people’s collective wish to be free and live autonomously based on who they are. It is the people’s deliberate conscious effort that does not depend on the vagaries of fortune or the flimsy and fleeting circumstances of human whims or even the caprices of nature. The decision is immutable and continues to endure until the goal is achieved.

Easily and without doubt the singular most important argument that any group of people can present for wanting to be free and independent from others is their desire to preserve their identity and their way of life as a people. And this is what the Igbo are working to achieve. We are well aware that it may be harder to sustain for a long time when arguing for freedom merely based on temporary unjust and unfavorable conditions the people are subjected to. Such argument might be countered easily by some clever and cunny individuals who deal well in sophistry, half-truths and less than honest rhetoric. Such individuals might come up with the insincere argument that others within the same space are going through the same pain and injustice and as such the Igbo have no sufficient excuse to opt out. Additionally, if Igbo’s argument is based mainly or solely on such ephemeral issues a day might come when any astute politician could emerge in Nigeria and decide to take on those challenges and injustices that Igbo are complaining about. Such effort maybe pretentious or genuine, it doesn’t matter but it might help to weaken Igbo argument and make it harder to win the argument for Igbo separation and independence. On the contrary, the Igbo will always have a valid argument if their need for independence is always based on the idea of their desire to preserve their Igbo unique and separate identity. Fundamentally the Igbo can and do have the right to seek independence and self-determination just for the sake of it and without giving any other reason other than that they are Igbo and a part of humanity.

Igbo Nation State is not Biafra State

For those who are clamoring for a new fantastic state of Biafra on the basis that Nigeria is a foreign creation and therefore a fictitiously forced-on identity should also not overlook the fact that the same applies to Biafra. Some people argue, and rightly so that Nigeria was created for the natives, without their consent, by the British colonialists and, for this reason it is unacceptable to the people who are going through the pain of the consequences of that miscreation. Others also believe that Nigeria failed mostly because different peoples with different and conflicting cultures, languages and world views were forced to share the same Nigerian citizenship. They assert that ever from inception these incongruent ethnic and national interests have continued to clash against each other. Undoubtedly, it is true because these factors are responsible for the dysfunctional state of things in Nigeria and its ultimate failure. Yet it boggles the imagination to see some of these same people fail to understand that in the Biafra they are fighting to reestablish lies the same Nigerian failure-factors. Such individuals continue to ignore the fact that the so-called defunct Eastern Region on whose map the old Biafra was based was also the creation of the same British colonialists. If they have rejected Nigeria as they rightly should then they should also reject the old Eastern Region. It was created by the same British colonialists. What is more is that the same factors of diversities of peoples, cultures,  languages and interests that brought about Nigeria’s failure, are clearly present in the so-called old and proposed new Biafra. If Nigeria failed on the basis of the enumerated reasons what then is the guarantee that this new utopian Biafra will not fail.

An Igbo State by the Igbo and for the Igbo

There is nothing that is stopping the present generation of Igbo from founding a new modern Igbo nation (country or state) for the Igbo and by the Igbo without any foreign input. We believe that there is no excuse for this generation of Igbo to lazily choose to fashion this new country along the lines of an existing foreign concept and cartography. This generation of Igbo must reject the temptation of choosing the easy way out or traveling the path of least resistance all because they don’t want to put in some extra work and “think outside the box” of an existing foreign concept. In this new independence project all things must be made new. The Igbo must draw a fresh new map of Igbo country by Igbo and for the Igbo. They should roll up their sleeves and actually go to work to produce an authentic Igbo map that will serve this generation and many more to come.

In some quarters some presumptuous and misguided Igbo nurse the ridiculous dream of one day inventing what they refer to as a “United States of Biafra.” They believe that the Igbo will sometime in the future after independence go into a confederating alliance with the other neighboring ethnic nationalities through some kind of a memorandum of understanding. It is as clear as daylight and, no one needs any soothsayer to see that this is presumptuously reckless as it will only become a hopeless “Disunited States of Biafra,” an epitome of a house of cards. Except by name such creation will not be anything quite different from the extant Nigeria. What is amazing though is that one would have thought that after the disastrous experience of the united Nigerian nightmare that some advocates for this new Biafra would have learned some lessons. It is expected that by now a long time has passed, enough for such reckless dreamers to reflect and avoid everything with the shape and appearances of Nigeria in Igbo quest for independence.

The Igbo do not have to copy what other people have done elsewhere in order to be accepted in the comity of nations. Therefore, it’s not going to be because there is the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain so, the Igbo must create a “United States of Biafra” just to prove anything. U. K.’s lesson should be enough to warn those who harbor such impractical fantasy to desist from committing such foolish and sentimental mistakes. In case of Britain, after 300 years of being together the union is crumbling, as everyone can see. The various components of the realm are opting out. Igbo therefore at this point must not fall into a similar mistake. In their effort to found a new modern Igbo state they can take a lesson from the British experience and choose to get it right from the beginning. Every Igbo everywhere can and must choose to reject the fictitious Biafran identity in favor of their Igbo identity.

Sentiments and Compromises do not build great and lasting structures

There is no any successful and progressive state that is founded and built up on sentiments. A successful Igbo state is only that which is founded and built on Igbo ideas, cultural values and worldviews and not that which is sustained by borrowed or compromised ideas and cultural values. Igbo’s collective goal at this point should be to found a functional and successful society rather than trying too hard to appear “woke” and look pretty as a fanciful “multicultural” borderless and dysfunctional society.

In the many years of my search I am yet to come across any convincing argument on how the Igbo persona will diminish if they choose to found and run an exclusive Igbo-only country. Of course such Igbo-ideology or Igbo-worldview-based country will not in any way be closed to other people who are willing to come and get assimilated and become Igbo citizens through a standard formal procedure. In the meanwhile some of us have wondered without end what it is that drives some Igbo to sometimes readily and willingly jettison their Igboness or at best compromise and dilute it at the drop of a hat. The question is; what is there for anyone to be ashamed of in a unique Igbo identity. Why should anyone have to compromise their Igboness in order to prove to others that the Igbo are also a part of this universe and should rightfully hold their own uniqueness in it. At this point, the importance of self-acceptance and pride in who the Igbo are cannot be over emphasized. There can never come a time when it will become a virtue to debase oneself in order to prove to the other people any point.

It will be an unforgivable collective amnesia if Igbo people can find it easy to forget the fact which is still very fresh in the people’s mind how self-hurting compromises contributed so much in causing the failure of Azikiwe’s Nigeria. Someone had once said that compromises make for good umbrellas but not good as roofs. In the light of this discussion, nothing can be truer. The Igbo should learn to always think in long terms when Igbo national interests are the concern. An Igbo should always ask how will the decision I make or the thing that I do affect Igbo individuals or Igbo collective in the next twenty or fifty years.

Attaching Igbo’s destiny to those of others will always spell disaster. The Igbo must learn how to believe in themselves and find peace in themselves, enough to always rely in their collective inner strength. When entering into any alliance either as individuals or as Igbo collective all Igbo persons must always consider what will be the effects of those agreements in the lives of the living and unborn generations of Igbo. No Igbo should ever decide or act in a way that will knowingly hurt Igbo interests or individuals. Every Igbo is his brother’s keeper, onye ahana nwanne ya. The Igbo do not have to sell themselves cheap, throw away their identity and tell the others that there is nothing else to the Igbo. No, there is. There is “this” Igbo uniqueness. This Igbo uniqueness is not in any way better than those of others. But it is theirs; and all Igbo must endeavor to cherish and guard this Igboness from dishonor either from within or from without.

Some of us may have come across those who argue for a compromised Igbo state on the premise that the Igbo and some of their neighboring ethnic nationalities are closely connected because they have lived in close proximity for so long and for that reason they have a few things in common. They talk about intermarriages and even in some cases they cite instances of common ancestral connections. That point of course is an emotional argument suffused with sentiments. Remember we had argued earlier that sentiments are not sufficient when the goal is to accomplish any meaningful thing in real life social engineering. In real life situations, no matter how closely related we are, a time will come when for the sake of adventure and expansion of human horizon, all responsible parents must cut loose the tie and free their lovely children to go their separate ways. It is nothing different from the birthing process of a child. No mother leaves the umbilical cord attached to the child after birthing in order to prove that the child was born by them. Unfortunately this appears to be what the purveyors of the neighbor-connectedness argument are trying to do. They pretend to forget that even children who were born by the same parents eventually move away to found their unique, independent and separate family staid (obi.) And once these separations and independence begin to take place, it is only a matter of time that all the traces of close consanguinity begin to fade away and prove harder to establish. Yet, and very fortunately so, no matter how faded this relatedness becomes there will never come a time when that inter connectedness of all humanity will be lost entirely. The true story of our collective humanity has always shown that no matter how long or how far apart we drift from each other that unbreakable brotherly link that connects humans in one big family of our common humanity and brotherhood will still endure. Yet, in spite of this human connectedness and, for the sake of variety and the constant need to continually open up new frontiers for humanity, we cannot stop this inevitable human separating experience.

HEBREW WARRIOR General Joseph Achuzie of Biafra Dies at 89

The struggle for an Igbo led free Biafra was led in its early days by many dedicated leaders. One of these leaders the Biafran hero General Joseph Achuzie  has passed to the next world at the age of 89.

He was a courageous and fearless defender of justice and the persecuted. Achuzie was a hero who stood along with his fellow patriots to defend our people and homeland when the Nigerian government in collaboration with the British government dedicated themselves to the total annihilation of the Igbo and the other ethnic nationalities of Biafra, which led to the unconscionable annexation of our home land.

At that most critical moment in our history men and women like Achuzie rallied together and by sheer courage and bravery they fought back and prevented a preconceived total and systemic genocide of our people. A genocide aimed at wiping out the Israelite presence in West Africa. Of all those people who fought to stop the most outrageous and unspeakable evil committed against a people since history on the African continent General Achuzie stood out.

Biafrans of this generation and subsequent ones owe our survival to the courage and sacrifices of such men and women like Achuzie. If an independent Hebrew State of Biafra led by the Igbo people has any hope of transpiring it will need peope like Achuzie her were selfess and courageous and believed in the divine destiny of the Igbo people and their Israelite heritage stemming from the tribe of Gad.

Naa n’udo General, our hero, rest on in the noble company of our reposed ancestors.

“Nigeria the Jericho, Nnamdi the Joshua .”

Can one Leader over one tribe the IGBOS , (Biafrans ) referred to as ” The forgotten Jews, bring them through the red sea of Nigeria to inherit their promised  land (Biafraland) in the Jerico Nigeria ?
I recently interviewed one Mazi Chika Edoziem he is Head of Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra  and this is what he had to say starting with my Question to
him …..

1. QUESTION:

Since the September 14 military invasion of the home of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, nothing much has been heard about IPOB. Is the organization fear-stricken? Has it recoiled into it’s shell? Is it the end of the agitation? What has actually happening?

ANSWER:

I beg to differ because since that murderous invasion of the home of our leader, we have continued to rally, we successfully boycotted the Anambra State elections, we protested at the deceptive Ohaneze Ndigbo jamboree in Lagos, we opened a high tech international headquarters in Germany, we demonstrated in the open in Onitsha and Aba, we have continued to open new family meetings all over Biafraland, we continue to engage local and international partners, so in reality nothing has changed. Most people unfortunately equate the potency of IPOB with the manifest presence of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu but the fact is that he prepared us to function, even in his absence. If there is anything that will convince the doubters that we are as strong as ever, it is the very advanced stage our preparations for our 2018 referendum has reached. It is very unfortunate that Ohaneze Ndigbo leadership and South East governors eager to justify their collusion with the cold blooded  murder of their own people have trumped up the narrative that IPOB has been weakened. It is blatant falsehood that bears no resemblance to reality. Ask the average person on the streets of Biafraland and they will tell you they stand with IPOB. Our activities are more spiritual than physical, that is why they cannot understand how best to tackle our agitation. We don’t know where and how some commentators got the information or impression that IPOB has retreated. You can’t label an unarmed group a terrorist organisation with constant military attacks and active connivance of those you are fighting and working to save like Ohaneze Ndigbo and Igbo Governors then expect our trajectory not to be altered. We gave order for our people to boycott Anambra elections which was complied with. Akwa Ibom and Enugu State elections were successfully boycotted too before that. We stopped the poisonous Army vaccine program also. If not for INEC falsified figures, Anambra State elections would have been declared null and void as less than 1% of total registered voters took part in the whole exercise. We IPOB can do many things but we don’t have the power to stop INEC from hyper inflating their figures to 17%.

2. MY QUESTION:

There is still much suspense in the public in the public domain over the disappearance of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. What is the feeling in IPOB circles and what are you doing to resolve this seeming mystery?

ANSWER:

It is common knowledge and an open fact that before Nigerian Army invaded our leaders compound on 14th September this year he was moving from place to place holding rallies and meetings without fear or favour. He single handedly through the grace of God, brought South East and South South together for the first time in 50 years. We know that Aso Rock  ordered the Nigerian Army led by Buratai with the approval of the 5 South East governors with Nnia Nwodo the president General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, to kill Nnamdi Kanu and his family in his home on the 14th of September 2017. The video footage and still photographs are in the public domain for those too blinded by hypocrisy to see what truly transpired. Every right thinking and conscientious person is missing the absence of our leader especially the rank and file membership. The disappearance of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, presumably killed by the Nigerian Army, is a huge blow but not a terminal setback for our movement. What it did is to galvanize and enthuse we die-hard Biafrans even more to accomplish the liberation of our land which was what he lived for. Whoever ordered the deadly invasion of his home or kidnapped him will eventually answer to the people because dead or alive Nnamdi Kanu must be produced by this Buhari government.

3. MY QUESTION:

With the disappearance of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the agitation for Biafra seems to have lost steam. What has accounted for this?

ANSWER:

Actually the disappearance of our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has had the opposite effect to what our enemies intended. It made us to become more determined and focused contrary to media speculations and insinuations of the chattering classes. Quite rightly we feel angry and enraged that our leader was the victim of assassination plot and conspiracy by those he was fighting to liberate from slavery. We never knew the extent envy and jealousy could have driven Ohaneze Ndigbo leadership and South East governors until pictures emerged of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu receiving items looted from Kanu’s compound in Government House Umuahia in the company of the Inspector General of Police and other representatives of security services. The pictures are now with the prosecutors in the Hague and will be made available to the public in the coming weeks. Rather than losing steam, the collusion of Ohaneze Ndigbo and Igbo governors with Aso Rock to invade the home of our leader and kill him have made our agitation to grow from strength to strength. No doubt we miss his awe inspiring words of encouragement delivered with fearless. IPOB is the largest single mass movement on earth, therefore the decision to restore Biafra sovereignty is an indestructible  sacred oath forged in blood which cannot loose steam because of the disappearance of our leader, no matter how important his physical presence is to the movement. He succeeded in planting the unquenchable spirit of Biafra into the life of millions all over the world. Let me ask you this question, since the invasion of our leader’s home have you not been seeing series of peaceful protests and rallies going on around the world including IPOB show of force in Anambra State on 16th November 2017 with another IPOB protest in Aba after Anambra State governorship election? IPOB family members worldwide are formidable, relentless, resolute and determined to restore Biafra. No man born of woman can stop the emergence of Biafra as an independent political entity under God. No amount of unprovoked unlawful killings by the Northern Muslim dominated Nigerian Army or betrayal by the likes of Ohaneze Ndigbo and South East governors can stop us.

4. MY QUESTION:

What manner of support/cooperation has IPOB received from her international allies, particularly in the wake of the Operation Python Dance II crackdown, proscription and branding of IPOB as a terrorist organization.

ANSWER:  

Our contact and reach is extensive all over the world. Don’t forget that we have presence in over 100 countries and territories around the world. We are the singular largest political mass movement in the world.  There is no leadership of a country or career diplomat anywhere in the world that doesn’t know about IPOB and what our leaders stands for. In Argentine universities, IPOB and the ideology of Nnamdi Kanu are subjects of academic study. While we are not at liberty to divulge sensitive details about our operations and diplomatic alliances, the location of our global headquarters coupled with rejection of the terrorist tag by USA, EU and Britain speaks volumes. IPOB is a well refined freedom fighting organisation. We have professionals, academics, artisans and highly skilled strategists  all over the world that knows how to get things done. The diplomatic isolation we suffered during the darkest days of the war will not happen again, neither will we pushed to war ill equipped and ill prepared.  Honestly, the cooperation we are getting is encouraging.

5. MY QUESTION:

Has IPOB taken stock of its losses, human and material, during the Operation Python Dance II in the South East.

ANSWER:

Yes we have. The pain and hurt we feel inside our hearts is like catalyst that fuel our rage against this oppressive state of Nigeria and her corrupt leadership. We are guided by the sacrifices of those we lost and the ones in detention, so we owe it their memory as a duty to restore Biafra in their honour. Since the inception of our noble quest to liberate our land,  we have suffered untold and unquantifiable human and material hardship but in the end our freedom will be a befitting reward. We cannot fail to mention those that fell at Uga Junction near Head Bridge Onitsha on 31st August 2015, 2nd and 17th December 2015 at the same  Head Bridge Onitsha. Those murdered in cold blood on February 9, 2016 at National High School Aba. The massacre at Nkpor on 29th and 30th of May 2016 of those that came to remember our war heroes. We also remember those who lost their lives on 20th January 2017 during our solidarity rally in support of the  swearing in of Donald J. Trump then newly elected President of America. At that peaceful rally in Igweocha Rivers State, the Nigerian Government and her security operatives especially the Army and Police shot and killed 21 innocent civilians in cold blood. Most recently the invasion of our leader’s compound that consumed the lives of 28 civilians. We remember that were tortured and killed in Aba during Operation Python Dance. We will continue to hold Buhari, Buratai, Nnia Nwodo, Ohaneze Ndigbo and 5 South East governors responsible for the death of our people.

6. MY QUESTION:

Is IPOB seeking redress in any form?

ANSWER:

Those complicit in the death of innocent IPOB family members will never be forgiven. Ikpeazu, Obiano, Umahi and Nnia Nwodo must be made to face the consequences of their treachery at the appropriate time. It is one thing to collude with our oppressors to keep us down as slaves which is a forgivable crime, the idea of inviting them to come to our land and kill us as these people mentioned above did is unforgivable before God and man.  They will face the full might of the law in civilised countries where the rule of law applies. We have filed processes in US courts and ICC in the Hague. Our team of international lawyers led by the renowned prosecutor Bruce Fein is working tirelessly hard to ensure justice is served. The best redress we can ever have apart from making sure Nwodo, South East governors, Buhari and Buratai are jailed for their crimes against humanity is to free Biafra from Nigeria. In this regard, our upcoming referendum is vitally important.

7. MY QUESTION:

IPOB was seen as using Anambra guber poll as a bait to secure referendum on Biafra. The election held and no date for referendum was given. Don’t you think that many may no longer take you group serious?

ANSWER: 

How can you come to such conclusion given the facts on the ground? IPOB successful boycott of Anambra Governorship election is part of our standing commitment never to participate in any electoral exercise organised by INEC.  We ordered for boycott of Anambra election on November 18 which our people heeded with less than 1% of total registered voter participation. The fact that INEC chose to massage the figures on the orders of Aso Rock does not alter the fact that the elections were successfully boycotted. For a country that throughout its history has been steeped in fraud, lies and deception, fair play will never rank as one of their key attributes. Were you expecting INEC to say that less than 1% voted so that credit will go to IPOB for successfully stopping the elections? Of course not. But we are satisfied that our approach is working. How can anybody say that people no longer take us seriously when the same people send their soldiers to shoot us anytime we peacefully gather together. If people no longer listen to us how come we stopped military compulsory vaccination program? Even Northerner listened to us and refused their soldiers to vaccinate their children. All over Nigeria people followed the instructions of IPOB and withdrew their children from school. It was when we gave the all clear that our children were allowed to return to school. We successfully boycotted LGA election in Enugu State on November 2, 2017. The same boycott strategy was deployed to render the Akwa Ibom Local Government Election meaningless. If you want to see or know what IPOB can do ask the proprietors of GT Bank.  How can it be said that IPOB retreated into its she’ll when IPOB has ensured that all known traitors and saboteurs in Biafraland have been identified and are fast losing their relevance before the people. Nobody is taking what these saboteurs are saying very serious again. Our relentlessness made it possible for Nnia Nwodo to confess that he is a saboteur. Have you forgotten that we exposed the hypocrisy of Ohaneze Ndigbo led by Chief Nnia Nwodo at their Lagos jamboree conference late last year.

8.MY QUESTION:

Seriously speaking, do you think that IPOB will succeed without the support of political, religious and community leaders, the intelligentsia and civil society groups from the South East.

ANSWER:

We have already succeeded because the same people you alluded to, or at least the seriously minded of them, are with us. There is no right thinking Biafran that is not in support of IPOB. Those who are opposed to what we are doing like Nnia Nwodo and South East governors are only doing so to please those that put them in power. Don’t forget that the Nwodo family owe their rise in politics to Hausa Fulani patronage. Therefore they will always serve their master. The governors on the other hand know that if the don’t tow the line of their Northern masters, they will be removed from office through the courts or worse. No other organisation can boast of the level intellectual resource at the disposal of IPOB.
We successfully opened our new world headquarters on 7th and 8th December last year in Langerfield Germany where all the relevant information and correspondence pertaining to IPOB can be sent to or obtained. It is a miracle from God Almighty Chukwu Okike Abiama and testament to our resolve and determination that IPOB is still as strong as ever despite the opposition of corrupt leadership and morally bankrupt politicians across Biafraland.

9. My QUESTION:

What is your message to Ndigbo.

ANSWER:

Biafra is not about Igbo speaking people alone, our national coordinator is an Ijaw, his deputy is Ibibio. My message to Biafrans at home and abroad, particularly those who are still to join the struggle for Biafra freedom, is for them to do so now before it’s too late. They must disregard the antics of our detractors and saboteurs who will do anything to keep us divided thereby allowing the Arewa caliphate to keep treating us as their conquered slaves.

In closing this year may be the greatest year for the Igbo (Biafran) people,  It looks like Nnamdi Kanu  has set his people in the right  direction .

Thank you for your time , it’s an honor to speak to you , Mazi Chika Edoziem

Why is the US Selling Fighter Jets to Nigeria’s Islamist Leader?

Sahara Reporters wrote the following on August 3rd:

“The US State Department has approved the sale of 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos to Nigeria.” Sahara Reporters further stated that “The [State] Department notified the US Congress, which has 30 days to approve the deal, of the $593 million foreign military sales on 2 August” and that “the package includes the aircraft, weapons, training, spare parts and facilities to support the program.”

The Buhari regime is known for deep ties to Islamic militants based in Northern Nigeria.  Since taking over Nigeria with the support of the Obama administration, Buhari has set out to Islamify the country while spreading hate to the Biafra region to the Southeast, especially against Igbo tribe there.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) appealed to the US Congress not to approve the deal.  The organization who represents millions of Igbo and Biafrans in Southeast Nigeria said the following:

“We want to remind the world that within three weeks of becoming the president of Nigeria on May 29, 2015, Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari bombed Biafraland using a low-precision and less sophisticated attack aircraft with bombs that have Napalm as the warheads. In that genocidal act which occurred from June 17 to June 19, 2015, scores of Biafrans were roasted while others had their bodies mangled by the torrents of these bombs with Napalm warheads. With the A-29, there is no doubt that Muhammadu Buhari and his genocidal government will wipe out the entire people of Biafra with ease in a matter of a few sorties. The DOS wishes to remind the US Congress that Nigeria is not among the ‘Fast Track’ countries but a country indicted continually on human rights abuses.”

With the above in mind, it appears strange that Rex Tillerson would want to contiue the policy of his predecessor in arming Islamists, especially those with close ties to Iran.

wrote the following over a year ago:

“Either the Obama administration is ignorant of Buhari’s human rights abuses against the Igbo in Biafra or they are complicit. Buhari has often used Boko Haram as a foil to generate arms and sympathy from the West.

The United States has begun to strengthen ties with Buhari ever since he attained power in Africa’s most populous country.  The previous President, Goodluck Jonathan was a friend of Israel and yet spurned the Obama administration. With Buhari now as President the tables have turned.  Nigeria is now ruled by a former military leader and an avowed Islamist. “

The Trump administration, with its various upheavels over the last few months does not seem aware of the disaster looming from this sale.  Not only will Igbo’s who are 30 to 40 million strong be targeted, the idea that Buhari will use these planes to fight Boko Haram is just absurd. Buhari wil continue to use “the need to fight Bop Haram” as the reason for the West to supply him with arms while ethnically cleansing the majority non-Muslims of the South.

The Igbo South is Key to Israel’s Ring of Defense in Africa

If Buhari would succeed in subjugating the Igbo majority areas of Southeast Nigeria, Israel’s strategy of building a bulwark against radical Islamic regimes would be broken in half. To Nigeria’s West is Ghana, Togo, Benin, who have all begun to grow close to Israel. to Nigeria’s South East, Cameroon, another friendly country.  By forcing the Igbo into a secondary status, Buhari would effectively disconnect the Christians of the Gold Coast from their brethren to the East.

Buhari sitting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Source – Khamenei)

The further Nigeria slides into forced Islamism, the harder it will be to pull it out when the time comes. Many observers are even questioning the need to hold the artifical former British colony together as it combines the Islamist North with the Christian Southwest, and the Judeo-Christian Southeast.

The British Want the Oil Near Igboland

The real reason for arming Buhari appears to be oil related.  The British in particular have a staked interest and have since the formed Nigeria in 1914 to forcibly subjugate the Igbos and related tribes in Biafra in order to gain a stranglehold over their natural resources.

Like other former colonies, the British backed the Islamic Hausa in the North to control what is an identifiably culturally unique area in Igboland also known as Biafra.  This worked until 1967, when Biafra attempted to gain independence. After a three year war and a British blockade on humanitarian supplies caused over 3 million Igbos to die the war ended.

The British policy of pushing Islamic regimes to hold back indigenous peopes in order to exploit the area’s natural resources appears to be continuing, except this time the State Department appears to be complicit. Either this is purposeful in helping the British control the oil reserves of the Ogbo dominated Biafra region or Rex Tillerson and the others at the State Department truly buy into Buhari’s rhetoric.

Either way, the sale represents a slipery slope which calls into question the veracity of America’s fight against radical Islam.

Igbo Position on Nigerian Restructuring

The need to restructure the Nigerian state has gained a populist currency in the past few years. Especially, since the beginning of this year, 2017 it has become a consensus call coming from almost all the ethnic, political and geographical sections that make up the corporate Nigerian state. Recently the champions of this call for a new and different Nigeria have gained an overwhelming numerical strength. Therefore their voices are increasingly getting stronger, louder and urgent. The fear and seemingly mysterious fog that earlier surrounded this now deafening call for change and the enthronement of a new order seems to have suddenly cleared up. And now with a clearer picture the argument to restructure Nigeria becomes more compelling and can simply not be ignored or wished away any longer by those who traditionally oppose it.

As the days go by the rank of those in opposition of a restructured Nigeria continues to decline and pale in the face of so many incontestable and overpowering evidences in support. It has now become clear that the current Nigerian state does not and cannot work as it is presently structured. Therefore, the majority of the country’s stakeholders have finally accepted that the existing Nigerian state structure is not viable and cannot be sustained any much longer. Many genuine patriotic Nigerians are seeking for real solutions and a considerable majority tends to believe that what is needed is a Nigerian country that works on a structure where the diverse ethnical, political, religious and social units are forming a confederating union.

Nigeria currently exists on a structure that is centrally controlled or administered – a federal government. It has been like this since the military intervention in the government of the country in January, 1966. In order to effectively control the political turmoil and mayhem taking place in the Western Region of the country and forestall the unconscionable corruptive and overarching manipulations of the federal power by the politicians who wielded its reigns, the army which took power through a military coup d’état adopted the federal government structure effective immediately. During the past 50 years, practical experiences and ensuing events have shown clearly that this centralized control of natural resources and political power is not working for the country: Hence the need for something new, something different.

That something new is the now much talked about restructured Nigeria. An important highlight of this now popular and highly recommended restructuring is the fact that the advocates want much of the powers for the day to day running of the grassroots components of Nigeria to be vested in the local governments of the different contiguous regions. Restructure advocates want the federal government to be stripped of the control of much of the powers which it hitherto has. Some of those powers which are presently exclusively and entirely reposed on the federal government are natural resources control, education, law enforcement, etc. The advocates of restructure contend that they want especially the control of natural resources, law enforcement and education to be decentralized and devolved to the regional centers. Most importantly, the advocates argue that this envisaged new arrangement will enable the different regional power centers to develop and grow each at their own pace, without unduly interfering with or holding up their neighbors. It is expected that with this new arrangement the central government can exclusively control the collective national military, external affairs, some aspects of the judiciary and other matters as are determined to represent a federal Nigerian image and interests.

Basically, what most of the advocates of restructure have in mind is that they still want to preserve Nigeria as a unit – one Nigeria must exist no matter what. Perhaps, they are convinced that because the different incongruous ethnical, cultural and religious groups of peoples within the fictitious geographical enclave have stayed together long enough and successfully established amongst themselves some inseparable familial bonds. As a result, the love of country and fellow citizens has become deeply ingrained in the peoples. In their mind; by some magic the forced Nigerian marriage has finally turned into love and bliss affair and, no one should put asunder the sacred bond of one Nigeria which was joined together by foreigners – the officiating colonial British priests.

It is not difficult to see that the advocates for this new structure believe fervently that the fire of Nigeria’s national brotherly love now burns so wonderfully bright. That the peoples of this dreamed of nirvana new one Nigeria can actually build a communal fire in a faraway imaginary center and still get warmed up in their various separate semi-autonomous regions so long as they all go by the name “Nigeria.” These Nigerian patriots like some sinister manipulative spouse abusers are trying hard to impress on the different ethnical, religious and cultural Nigerian partners that they will be nothing and cannot exist without attaching themselves to the “one Nigerian” fiction. In this way the manipulating restructure advocates believe they have sufficiently convinced the irreconcilable peoples and that they now believe that they cannot exist on their own if they did not append themselves to the one Nigerian elixir.

The ethnic Igbo people of eastern Nigeria are a part of this present Nigerian union. When the time comes, Igbo people are also expected to form a part of this proposed restructured one Nigeria. But for some obvious and fundamental reasons the Igbo cannot possibly be a part of this planned new Nigeria, no matter how attractive. On the 29th of May 1966 the Igbo renounced forever their Nigerian citizenship. On that date Nigeria as a state and its other citizens began to ethnically cleanse Nigeria of its Igbo inhabitants. Subsequently, the outrageous hate induced Nigerian mass murder and expulsion of the Igbo from the country was advanced further. After the Igbo had been successfully expelled from Nigeria, the Nigerian state and all its citizens embarked on a premeditated genocidal war campaign against the escaped Igbo nation. Nigeria’s declared intention at the outset of the war was to wipe out the Igbo as a people from the Earth. Nigeria actively pursued that goal by mustering a viscous merciless host of men and machines and attacked the Igbo in their ancestral homeland where they ran to take refuge. Consequently, a quarter of Igbo population was murdered by the Nigerian state. Of the 3.5 million easterners or former Biafrans murdered by Nigeria, 3.1 of them were Igbo people.

Fifty years since this grievous atrocity, the Nigerian state and all its other citizens have consistently refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. Instead Nigeria and Nigerians have remorselessly maintained that the heinous genocide of the Igbo should not be counted as crime. Thus emboldened, since the past fifty years Nigeria has pursued systematic state policies that are geared toward the persecution, the marginalization and exclusion of the ethnic Igbo from the Nigerian social, political and economic affairs. The ultimate aim of everything of course is to finally exterminate the Igbo. Truly, the unrepentant Nigerian program of the genocide of the Igbo remains an enduring project.

For these and other reasons, the Igbo have resolved that they will not have any part in the proposed restructured new country of Nigeria. The Igbo have unambiguously stated that they are not interested in going into any union with any other national group in Nigeria. Therefore, while the Igbo wish Nigeria and Nigerians well in their quest to finding a workable solution to their national problem, the Igbo have unequivocally opted for a separate Igbo identity and the separation of their territory from the Nigerian state.

ISRAELITES IN AFRICA: All Hail Biafra

The above heading is also the title of a song originally composed by Charles O. Okereke. The lyrics of this song which quickly turned into a classic in a few short years were originally conceived in 1970. Okereke 14 at the time was just a child – a Biafran child, that is. As Biafra’s defeat was announced over the radio waves, the words of the song tumbled into his young mind. Ironically, the prophetic declarations started with insistent urgency in Okereke’s head on the very day that Biafra’s recapitulation was announced; January 12, 1970.
 
Nearly fifty years after, Okereke still remembers the place and moment when the words started rushing through his mind in quick succession. He was lying down with his face on the ground, taking cover from the persistent shelling and bombardment of Biafra interiors by Nigerian government forces. Then the voice of the Biafran General Philip Effiong came on the radio telling Biafrans to cease fire and suspend the battle of resistance which began in May, 1967. Biafra was now defeated on the battlefield. But in the people Biafra lives on, undefeated.
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Biafra War was an unjust genocidal war executed by the government and people of Nigeria against Igbo people in particular who later became known as Biafrans along with some other non-Igbo southeasterners. In total, 3.5 million Biafrans were killed by Nigerian state and its other citizens. Of this figure 3.1 million were Igbo. The number of the murdered Igbo represents a quarter of Igbo population at the time. Ever since, there has been a consensus by all experts that the Biafran War was genocidal because the original intention of the Nigerian government and its people was to wipe out the entire Igbo population from the Earth.
 
The Igbo resisted the attempt and successfully averted that sinister plan. But that the Igbo successfully prevented the total annihilation of their population does not change the fact that a genocidal plan was made and an actual attempt was carried out to execute that plan in reality. That in the end only a partial percentage of the people’s population was exterminated does not vitiate the genocidal fact of the Biafran War. The standard definition of genocide acknowledges that an act qualifies as genocide if elements of planning and an actual attempt to execute the plan are present in the circumstances that lead to the death of a large number of one or more of the 4 recognized genocide groups. Such groups can be ethnical, national, religious or racial. Going by this, there is genocide if there is a deliberate intention and act to systematically wipe out either in whole or in part a targeted group.
 
Nigerian state planned and physically carried out an actual act aimed at exterminating the Igbo nation in its entirety from the Earth. However in the end, Nigeria succeeded in exterminating a quarter of Igbo population. Nevertheless, there was genocide in Biafra.
 
In Biafra Igbo people were nearly exterminated. That was the dark, ugly part of the Igbo Genocide. But Igbo story did not end there. In the midst of death and decay; a new life form that cannot easily be killed sprouted; love and creativity blossomed abundantly among Igbo survivors. Misery, suffering, starvation and the searing heat of hatred and war produced in the young and old of Igbo Genocide survivors the genius fecund which often is brought out from the inner recesses of an endangered people through such extreme hardship. The multitude of prodigious artistic creations (literary and visual) that followed the Biafran War was undoubtedly the silver lining in the horizon of this Igbo’s darkest hour.
 
Charles O. Okereke’s All Hail Biafra and several others came out of this crucible of death and darkness blazing forth with shining hope and futuristic certitude. Especially, when one listens to the marching or martial version of the song, the mood and lyrics contradict the anticipation. As the song begins to play, the invincible and unyielding spirit of the Igbo, the Biafrans comes out clear. The song is triumphal, full of hope and belief. This distinctive feature of All Hail Biafra: Cry of a Biafran Childis in direct contrast to the mood and circumstance in which the song was born. As a song written on the day that Biafran defeat was announced it would have fittingly reflected the mournful mood which the defeat brought on the people who gave the Biafran fight the best that they got.
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In reality, All Hail Biafra should have been a dirge lamenting a people’s lost paradise, defeated dream and dashed hope of a people who had struggled so hard to secure a future where their generations would live in unfettered liberty and life in its fullness. No, instead it is a song of triumph, even celebratory: “We have vanquished our enemies . . . We have emerged triumphant, from all our enemies/Through the crucible unscathed, we passed victorious/Our trumpets pealing . . .”
 
All Hail Biafra
               1.
All hail Biafra
Land of the rising sun, we love and cherish
We have vanquished our enemies, all hail Biafra
God Bless Biafra, in Him we trust
Shout it sing it, all hail Biafra                                    
                    2.
God bless Biafra
We have emerged triumphant, from all our foes
Through the crucible unscathed, we passed victorious
Our trumpets pealing, the glorious song
Play it, sing it, all hail Biafra  
                3.
Oh hail Biafra
We shall always remember, all that perished,
In the struggle for our freedom, all hail our heroes
Our prayers shall bemoan, both day and night
Say them always, all hail Biafra
 
(This reproduction is with the express permission of the original author Charles O. Okereke who is also the copyright owner of the song.)
 
Harcourt Whyte still occupies the very prestigious and enviable position of being the greatest modern Igbo music composer of all genres. Most of his compositions are in Igbo and they are in major part church hymnals. Harcourt was an Igbo Methodist spiritual who like Charles Wesley, the cofounder of the Methodist faith, wrote most of the hymns of that Church in English. Harcourt’s liturgical compositions are deeply philosophical and admonitory. On Igbo cosmological music firmament, whether sacred or mundane, Harcourt Whyte’s star still shines the brightest. His physical body was afflicted with the scourge of leprosy but his mind soared and excelled in the purest of spheres. He worked from the famous Leprosy Colony in Uzuakoli. But by the beginning of the genocidal Biafran War, Whyte had already established his yet unchallenged place in history.
 
It is true that before the war there were scattered bright twinkling stars on Igbo creative firmament. But the war would release a burst of multiple inventive and ingenious stars blazing with dazzling colors eclipsing the hate and blood the enemy unleashed across the canvass of the Igbo world. So, the periods during and after the war were particularly good for the creative Igbo cultural milieu. They are periods that especially enriched the Igbo cultural, social and scientific life like no other periods. Charles Okereke and many others like him are the products of these eras.
 
Geniuses often run in pairs or multiples and they have a way of finding each other. Soon after the war Harcourt Whyte and Nnamdi Olebara would find each other. Olebara as well as being a music composer is clearly the greatest Igbo poet, both of the Biafran War era or of any other time. (Some of his poems have been translated into English for the benefit of non-Igbo speakers by Chinweizu.) After the war, Whyte with Olebara popularized a unique and attention-demanding musical genre. This duo’s musicology would soon become accepted and has since been adopted and expanded by many others, notably by musicians like Patty Obasi. (Obasi would later do some collaborative works with Olebara along this line.) This particular musical devise is both entertaining and didactic. It tends to criticize social vices and pass commentary on burning social and political issues. Sometimes the criticisms and commentaries work. When the production is successful the songs help to influence and revolutionalize people’s attitude and social behavior. In this area Patty Obasi remains unequalled. His Nwa Mami Iwota phenomenal production remains evergreen and continues to reverberate down through time.
 
This music genre is noted by the way some lines of poetry are interjected at the end of a song’s stanza. The poignant poetry lines serve to further expound and underscore some points in the just performed stanza. The effect is something like highlighting notable lines or passages in a book which one is reading. This musical method works as bold scores, projecting and emphasizing in bright colors in the listener’s mind some pertinent areas of the song.    
 
Golden yellow make up one of the dominant colors on the front jacket of All Hail Biafra CD. The hazy gold, the dark earth and silhouetted vegetation in the background give the CD its somber dusky hue and mood. An evening? Yes. But it is an evening with its yellow-white sun still dominating the horizon, pouring into the distant foreground its molten liquid of mellow light and warmth. A white bird (a dove?) is in flight across the face of the luminous setting sun. The front jacket also has the torso pictures of Charles Okereke the Biafran child as well as Charles Okereke, the Nigerian man. The child except for the chalky facial shades; is rendered in black silhouette. The man’s picture is in colors. He is dressed in printed and embroidered wide turtle neck kaftan with a matching short-round hat.
 
On the reverse side of the CD is a yellow background enclosed in squared gold edges. Map of Africa fills up the middle with the list of the CD songs superimposed across the map. There are eleven songs, including Charles Okereke’s award winning composition: God Bless Africa. This flip side contains the musician’s name and information on how to obtain copies of the CD. It says that the CD is available both in Nigeria and the United States. It is actually available anywhere else through Amazon or the reader can google the title to get more information on how to order.
 
The popularity of All Hail Biafra is enduring and is such that many people mistake it to be the Biafran National Anthem. Some people can swear that All Hail Biafra is the Biafran Anthem but it is not. The Biafran National Anthem; Land of the Rising Sunwas originally written by Nnamdi Azikiwe and set into music in the pattern of Sibelius’s Finlandia. Okereke wrote and produced his All Hail Biafra entirely on a different unique tune. The music and its rendition are well-produced.
 
A few people have sometimes speculated on the possibility of a new independent Biafra adopting the song as its new national anthem. This writer sees that happening as a remote necessity. When a new Biafra or Igbo state becomes free from the Nigerian bondage, the old anthem may still remain valid. Or if there should arise a need for a new anthem for the new republic, the government and people may have to compose a new and different national song. The new national song will be composed to reflect the up-to-date history of the people, the prevailing realities as well as anticipate the individual and collective hope of the then free people.
 
In the end however, it will not matter what the new free Igbo country will decide to do about its national anthem. All Hail Biafra will still remain an important Biafran national patriotic song. Okereke’s All Hail Biafra has carved out an enviable place for itself in the pantheon of notable Biafran artistic creations. All Hail Biafra is a great music. An important feature that distinguishes great music from the mediocre is that great music has clear philosophical theme or themes. The listening audience should be able to either relate with the themes in their individual or collective experience. Or at least the audience should be able conceive in their mind a comprehensive picture of the idea the artist is trying to convey as the storyline musically unfolds. Additionally, it is expected that whatever theme a good song is pursuing should be well-developed and stretched beyond the single-phrase or single-stanza excited children’s sing song. Sadly, up till now the Igbo music horizon has been dominated by such folksy lackluster cacophonous noise where the music makers monotonously repeat over and over an emotive one-line wonder.
 
As a result, over so many years the Igbo music scene has remained famished. Except for the few greats whom we have already mentioned, modern Igbo music arena has been barren of real good music and dedicated musicians. Even more troubling is the fact that some of the few well-made music are not easily accepted into the mainstream. So, in the absence of the Igbo projecting and promoting its bests, modern Igbo music scene remains saturated with the second rate and the absurd. The ear of Igbo listening audience is assaulted with the thematically barren or poorly developed themed songs. Take for example the so-called highlife music genre. Highlife as championed by such musicians like Osita Osadebe are disappointing and less satisfying because what would otherwise have been, with a little more work, excellent music, is turned into mere improvised excitement and almost no music.  

Are the British Trying to Assassinate Biafra’s Hebrew-Israelite Leader?

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) can authouritatively state that the British Government has revised its original plan of using non-traceable poison to assassinate Nnamdi Kanu, to a new plan of direct assassination using Boko Haram terrorists who are in custody in Kuje prison. The assassination will be carried out in the form of a stage-managed prison escape of detained Boko Haram terrorists. The new plan is to bring other members of Boko Haram living in Northern Nigeria to storm the Kuje prison and instigate a prison jailbreak which will result in the exchange of gunfire between them and security agencies during which Nnamdi Kanu will be purportedly caught in the crossfire. We repeat with all finality that the British Government is the mastermind of this plan.

Our highly reliable and impeccable intelligence source revealed that the British Government was rattled by the revelations we made through our press release of January 6, 2017, where we exposed their original plan to stealthily administer a non-traceable poison on Nnamdi Kanu and this was supposed to happen before the swearing-in of President Donald Trump of USA. Our embedded intelligence source tipped off the leadership hierarchy of IPOB of this new plan and the tip-off was corroborated by the smokescreen terrorist attack alert announced by Muhammadu Buhari’s information minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed.

On the 10th of February 2017, an online newspaper, Saharareporters, quoted Lai Mohammed as saying that ”the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group and an affiliate of BokoHaram, is planning to attack banks, arms depot and prisons across the country with bombs and high-calibre weapons.“ Mr. Lai also stated that ”further intelligence monitoring has revealed that members of the Muslim Brotherhood are planning to forcefully free their members who are in detention in Kogi, Abuja and Kaduna, including one Bilyaminu, an IED expert for the group who is now at Kuje prison.”

From this “tongue-in-cheek“ revelations coming out of the lying mouth of Lai Mohammed, it is obvious that this is a well-choreographed plan to assassinate the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and pass it on to the jail-break attempts of detained Boko Haram terrorists. This heinous crime of trying to snuff the life out of the IPOB leader is because Muhammadu Buhari, his murderous State Security Services (SSS), and the incompetent Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako have all realized that they shall lose the court case they initiated against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Buhari and crew have tried every trick in their empty brains but have continuously met with total failure because the hands of Nnamdi Kanu are clean. We must remind the world that at every stage of their actions, Buhari and crew have always consulted with and taken counsel, strategies, and advice from the British Government. Having failed on all counts especially with the exposure from our press statement of January 6, 2017, the British Government has now advised Buhari to activate this latest plan of using Boko Haram terrorists to do the dirty job for them. But the interesting thing here is that this same Nnamdi Kanu is a British citizen and is supposed to be protected by the British Government.

Then why does the British Government want their citizen dead? Has it got to do with the stealing of Biafran resources by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy and stashing away the money in British banks which Nnamdi Kanu has mentioned severally on Radio Biafra? Or is it the fear of revelations of atrocities committed by the British Government between 1967 and 1970 which Nnamdi promised to do? Perhaps it may be that with Nnamdi Kanu still alive and eventually released by his kidnapper, Muhammadu Buhari, he will campaign for the stoppage of stolen money from Biafraland which flows daily into British economy and which sustains their NHS and other government agencies.

Once again, we alert the world that the British Government is doing everything and anything to kill Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. With this latest plan, we are putting it on record that the life of Nnamdi Kanu is on a cliffhanger and the British Government is behind every move to assassinate him. We call upon conscientious people and leaders all over the world to advise the British Government to withdraw from their evil plan of trying to kill Nnamdi Kanu.

Finally, we affirm our determination to restore the nation of Biafra. Therefore, the British Government and their Nigerian collaborators will never stop us. The nation of Biafra is our God-given inheritance, and nobody or government will stop us from taking back our nation, not even the British Government and their continuous attempts to assassinate Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

Connecting the Dots Between the Jews and Igbo

Historians have more often than not tried to convince us of the similarity between the Igboman and the Jews.This is traceable to some remote historical similarities yet unproved scientifically.

There are nevertheless, irresistible similarities accounted in the bible in terms of social and cultural similarities traceable to the Igboman and Jewish counterpart. Part of the similarities are the problem of Diaspora or living outside one’s home land, either by exile or deliberate migration in search of livelihood and its consequences

There is also the enterprising capability found in both .these similarities the Igbos supposedly have with Jews, marginally biblical, should also pose a fundamental challenge to him in his Nigerian circumstances.

The experience of settling outside their native homeland was no doubt a common feature of the Jewish people.This experience was usually linked with religious cum-socio-political antecedents and some negative consequences. Explaining the term Diaspora, John Lawrence McKenzie (October 9, 1910 – March 2, 1991), in his book titled “Two-Edged Sword,”the most significant Catholic interpretation of the Old Testament ever written in English, says: This word became a technical term for Jewish communities settled outside Palestine during the last century BC and the 1st century AD.

The settlement of Hebrews outside Palestine began with the deportation of Israelites by the Assyrians and Babylonian kings in 8th , 7th, and 6th centuries BC.

As a contagiously religious people and Gods elect, the Jews were at times allowed to be deported or exiled to other nations by God as a punitive measure for their disloyalty to the divine  covenant. At other times, as a desperately enterprising people with high instinct for survival,they moved out on their own in search of economic leverage as we see them in Egypt in this account of the bible:

“There was famine in every country but throughout Egypt there was food.But when all Egypt too began to feel the famine and the people appealed to pharaoh for food who told all Egyptians: Go to Joseph and do what ever he tells you.Jacob seeing that there were supplies to be had in Egypt said to his sons,’’ I hear he said that there are supplies in Egypt,go down and procure some for us there so that we may survive and not die’’.So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to Egypt to procure grains in Egypt (Gen.41:54-56.42:1-3).”

In what ever circumstances and for what ever reasons, the Jews found themselves settled outside their land the inescapable consequences were obvious and the experience were horrifying and excruciating to the necking point.These too are the experience of Igbo people of Nigeria today.

Before the civil war , God positioned General Chukwu Emeka Odumegwu Ojuwgu as the military governor of Eastern region, to protect the God elect people of Biafra from the wicked advancing troops whose aim was complete annihilation of Ndigbo, Like at the red sea, just one and last flying ogbunigwe at Abagana miracle saved Biafra from the last and biggest onslaught of the Advancing Murtala Mohamed troop who was bent on the final massacre of Ndigbo, 2OO utility vehicles were blown up with thousands of men and ammunition , Murtala escaped the incident with wound and went to live in uk till the war ended..

There are Many Igbo families living outside igboland whose children cannot speak igbo language but can speak English, house, Yoruba, Efik French, etc fluently. Most of these our children have no sense of our culture and no idea of home land the have blended into the society they find themselves.

I once mate a young man in Cotonou, republic of Benin whom I took for a son of the soil only for me to hear that his last name is kalu, when I asked him, he told me in French that his mother told him that his father is Igbo and I asked where Igbo is? He told me that it is across sme border. It is a common and universal acknowledgement that the Igboman is generally the most traveled, outgoing, enterprising person in Africa.

Though this is inherent in them like their Jewish counter parts but this migration has increased in an arithmetic progression since after the civil war as a consequence of the punishment placed on them for the war, which has left them dangerously destitute, marginalized, deprived, fear stricken, humiliated, with no choice but to seek for survival in any corner of the world that can shield him and family from another kwashiorkor.

Speaking also of their enterprising spirit side by side with the unique marginalization and oppression meted to igbos by the nation that has left the older generation with post traumatic syndrome

The late respected social critic , Gani Fahwehinmi in 2000 Independence Day anniversary stated that the Igbos are the only community that can squeeze water out of stone.

I want to categorically state here that heavy investment outside her territory is where the Igboman has short himself on the foot compared with the Jewish community in Diaspora who is cautioned with a sworn nostalgia to still cherish their homeland and not to forget it while the physical separation and suffering lasts. So he swears ;

“If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.(wither)’’What a great sense of patriotism and homeward and native feeling for one’s soil.What a love for a nation.”

Here is the fundamental difference between the Igboman and the Jews in terms of the positive thoughts of not forgetting his homeland.

The immediate past Nigerian President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on 17 March 2014 in Abuja, Nigeria, inaugurated the 2014 national conference, most Igbo representatives whom i refer to here as ”house slaves” went to the conference in high spirit and one common agenda”Resource control.” When their Northern counterparts who are more versed in politics  reminded them, they are also in agreement with the resource control agenda provided they understand that the entire properties in Abuja and its surrounding lands belong to the North and will form part of their resources since its situated in the Northern territory.

From that moment , the ”house slaves” went into their shells and never mentioned resource control till today, yes the Igboman own 90% properties in Abuja, while his local government has nothing , even a commercial shop in case what happened in 1966 rears its ugly head.

The tortoise asked his children ,”how many ugly incidents in your life should teach your a lesson?” I ask Igbo Elites who are busy investing in Lagos and Abuja ”Ihe oga eme unu ugbolo ole ka unu muta ihe.”

This is why we postulated our basic problem has been identified hence we appeal to our brothers and those who take advantage of short coming imposed on us by the system to come to terms and know that ‘’divided we fall, united we stand as a rock’’

From the end of the civil war till date , the Igbos have been systematically denied the privilege or right to federal infrastructural presence, besides the indigenization degree which was promulgated to change economic power from the igboman to the Yoruba and their Northern ally. The shattered Igbo returnees were handed only 20 pounds note to start life while the rest of the country was busy buying up all the major industries in lagos and the North.

Not even a functioning federal industry could be found in igboland except the prisons, even the industries that were functional before the war has been systematically allowed to die, example of which are the Nkalagu cement industry and the expanding coal mining industry. 

There are 2 major oil fields in igbo heartland,owned by the Canadian oil giants, Addax Petroleum with 29 pump stations at  at Izombe and 25 pump stations at Ozubolu oil fields .All the directors and senior staff of this company are either Yoruba or Hausa.The Igbos who invested in properties in the south south were given the shock of their lives in the name of abandoned property chaired by the one time senate president, in 1970 when they went back to port Harcourt after the civil war to claim their left overs.

The suffering and suffocation of the igboman in search of economic leverage has left him a constant floating, a constant liquid of pilgrim.This has left in him a complex psychology of living in duality of culture and personality and in complete oblivion of his natural home and its development.

Every Igbo youth at home today is here temporarily, waiting for his brother/uncle in Cotonou, Garbon, Northern Nigeria , lagos ,Abuja Europe and America to take him over for greener pastures .

Since after the civil war, we the people of Mbaise have lost over 100 youths in boat disasters in an attempt to travel to Gabon/Cameroon because they don’t have any choice due to lack of  opportunities for them at home. Even those whose parents want to squeeze their meager income to train in the tertiary institutions, there is serious apartheid in admission procedures in Nigeria with cut-off mark allocated higher for Eastern students while the Northern students gain admission with lower cut-off points.

On graduation, they are sent to the hostile North for one year compulsory youths service corps (NYSC), during which time some of them get murdered in hostilities from the Boko haram Islamic sect and where they survive the Boko haram war, they are faced with toiling the major streets of Abuja and Lagos looking for employment. Sometimes parents have to sell their land to raise bribe up to 200,000 naira to place their wards in federal government opportunity like the police, customs, army, navy federal road safety commission, etc.

The problem the teaming Igbo population face in the project called Nigeria has reached a problematic point of no return that Igbo leaders of thought  must come out now to bring change, yes change for a better home land called Biafra.

While in exile, the Jews were fortified and sustained by a resolute psychological myth founded on racial cum religious patriotism and sense of pride in their personal supremacy. They were filled with sense of self-esteem, self immortalization and the subordination of their individual interest and whims to the exaltation of their race. This became the secret of their sustenance and their collective survival.

It is therefore time for all Igbos to come together with our South South brothers who have always been with us in the struggle for independent state of  Biafra to sing the home bound song, to eschew the burden of self imposed marginalization and march forward as a bunch. 

The elites  should put behind, their selfish quest for wealth and find a way to bring all factions in pursuit of Biafra’s self determination under one umbrella with different and well defined functions.

Our people living not only in the North but in the west African sub-region should be encouraged to de-rig and invest towards home .Our rich men should be made to understand the huge advantage of transferring their investments from the North, Abuja and Lagos towards  Biafraland.

Finally, this germane call for closing ranks between the elites and the youthful Biafran agitators is ripe now that the bold young man who has become the face of the Biafran struggle worldwide is under secret Kangaroo trial and our foe are saying, Igbos are not united enough to come to his rescue.Is that true? Are we finished in the entity called Nigeria? Ka Chineke Gozie Okwua.

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Will a Buhari Visit to Occupied Biafra Spark an Uprising?

President Muhammadu Buhari is slated to visit occupied Biafra in the South-East of Nigeria on Thursday for the South-East Economic and Security Summit being held in Enugu.  Given the summit’s location in Igbo majority Biafra, the visit comes at a time of tension between Biafrans and the Buhari led Nigerian government as IPOB leader Nnmadi Kanu is being held and tried in court on trumped up charges of treason.

IPOB spokemen Emma Nmezu (a lawyer) and Dr. Clifford Iroanya warned against receiving Buhari, known for his ties to radical Islam and anti Igbo sentiment.

“We warn that any governor or Igbo politician that receives Buhari in Enugu will have himself or herself to blame. We make it public that should there be a breakdown of law and order in Enugu on the 22nd of December, greedy Igbo politicians will have themselves to blame. Any Igbo governor or politician that is found among those hobnobbing with Buhari becomes an enemy of the people and shall pay dearly for it.”

Biafra is a staunchly Judeo-Christian republic forcibly made part of Nigeria in 1914 by British colonialists.  They fought a war of independence from 1966 to 1970 losing 3 million people to the predominantly Islamic government of Nigeria.  At the time, the British backed the Nigerian government, enforcing a blockade against humanitarian aid as well as weapon transfers. Israel was one of the few countries who flew aid to the Biafrans and supported their cause.

IPOB (The Indigenous People of Biafra) is led by imprisoned activist Nnmadi Kanu who is not only an outspoken critic of Buhari, but is backer of Israel and Zionism.  Biafrans, being predominantly Igbo are believed to have Jewish roots and staunchly identify with the Zionist movement and Israel.

Buhari’s visit to Biafra may do more to spark an uprising than anything up to date as it will unify the Biafran street and the various opposition groups in the South-East.

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