Tag: Biafra

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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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Nnmadi Kanu and the Hebrew Warriors of Biafra

Nnmadi Kanu, leader of IPOB who has been imprisoned by Buhari’s Islamist regime in Nigeria has threatened that he would expose secrets that are capable of sinking Nigeria. Kanu is not your ordinary prisoner, he is a man on a mission and he is winning.

What most observers thought would be a show trial has changed the course of Nigeria and possibly the world. Kanu’s reputation as a political and spiritual force has only grown since his imprisonment.  It has become clear that he is no ordinary leader.

Since the Nigerian military defeted a fledgling Biafra in the war between 1967 and 1970, Biafra’s independence was put on the back burner of world consciousness. In recent years the Biafrans, most notably the Igbo have reconnected to their Hebraic traditions in a near miraculous way.

Thousands of Igbo have turned to their ancient customs deeply connected to Jewish rituals to find a source of strength. These Hebraic roots stem from the Igbo’s origins to the northeast and ultimately to the Land of Israel.

Those who know Kanu can say that he has increasingly shifted towards a direct Israelite understanding of the world and has grown closer to a Judaic outlook.  This makes him the most dangerous man in Nigeria, because for Kanu it is about returning the Igbo and all of Biafra back to its original state of being.

When the British came to West Africa they understood they were dealing with a Hebrew tribe.  They encouraged the Hausa to defeat the Igbo and hand them over as slaves to be brought to the New World. Due to ensalvement, oppression, and occupation by the British, Biafra and the Igbo would lose their connection to Israelite customs.

However, with Buhari’s oppression of Biafra and the Igbo growing, Kanu’s return to his Israelite ancestry through a Jewish frame of reference is part of a larger movement back to the truth. The Hebew movement in Biafra can be seen everywhere  From Zionist groups to prayer shawls.  Thousands of Igbo are awakening to the fact that they are descendents of Israelites that traversed sub-saharan Africa over a thousand years ago or more.

In order for their to be a free Biafra it must shed the religion of their colonizers and return completely to their roots. Kanu’s direction can lead to an independent state of Biafra, the first Hebrew state in Africa.

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TRUMP MUST ACT FAST TO PREVENT UNITED STATES‘ CULPABILITY IN THE SECOND GENOCIDE ON BIAFRANS

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) can authoritatively confirm that the outgoing Obama Administration of the United States of America have completed plans to deploy to Biafraland, five hundred (500) units of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) popularly called “Drones” with a view to using them to bomb and massacre Biafrans under the guise of helping the murderous Muhammadu Buhari’s regime to stop pipeline vandalism. The deployment and bombings was supposed to have started about six months ago but was put on hold because of the possible negative impact on the chances of Mrs. Hillary Clinton on the presidential election. A new date of 1st of June 2017 was later agreed as the commencement for the bombing of Biafraland because Mr. Obama was confident that Mrs. Clinton will surely win the election.

Fortunately for the Biafrans, Mrs. Clinton lost the election, and Mr. Donald J. Trump won. As IPOB congratulate Mr. Trump on his well-deserved victory, we call upon him to cancel this scheduled mass-murder of Biafrans. The reason why Mr. Trump must cancel the deployment of Drones that would be used to kill Biafrans is that it goes against the Leahy Law. Just like INTERSOCIETY noted in their press statement, “the Leahy Law is a U.S. human rights law that prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.” It is on record that Muhammadu Buhari has extra-judicially murdered over five thousand innocent and unarmed Nigerians within one year of becoming the president and most of those killed were Biafrans.

Instead of Mr. Trump continuing with Obama’s plan to deploy Drones to exterminate Biafrans, we strongly recommend that the new President insists on Buhari obeying the rule of law and that he should practice true constitutional democracy devoid of ethnoreligious bigotry and genocidal tendencies. Mr. Trump must demand from Mr. Buhari that he respects the inalienable and irreducible rights of Indigenous People to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). Also, Mr. Trump should tell Buhari to ensure that those who perpetrated heinous crimes, and regime atrocities must be brought to book.

In particular, we re-echo the words of INTERSOCIETY which state as follows: “Total policy reversal on the part of the Buhari Administration; particularly in the areas of regime image and communications (i.e. moving away from regime falsehood, deceit and propaganda); trade and investment; human rights, rule of law, good governance, security and criminal justice administration. Such policy reversal must include unconditional release of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and all other political detainees as well as de-criminalization and de-stigmatization of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Islamic Movement of Nigeria and their lawful activities. It must also include bringing to domestic or international justice those involved in various regime atrocities such as killing of over 800 unarmed and innocent members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and over 250 unarmed and innocent members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and other Pro-Biafra campaigners as well as over 300 wounded Pro-Biafra campaigners and hundreds of members of IMN also wounded by the Nigerian Army. High profile regime atrocities’ perpetrators like Lt Gen Turkur Buratai, Retired IGP Solomon Arase and their then sub-commanders must particularly be brought to justice.”

To recap, IPOB hereby urge President-elect, Mr. Donald. J Trump, to distance himself and his Administration from the planned deployment of five hundred Drones to Biafraland which would be used to commit genocide. Rather, Mr. Trump should work assiduously towards the restoration of the nation of Biafra.

Finally, we state without equivocation that the restoration of the nation of Biafra shall have three irreversible impacts on the United States of America and these are:

  1. Reduction of unemployment rate in the USA by a minimum of 2% for the next ten years because of massive rehabilitation projects that will take place in Biafra which requires American expertise,
  2. Isolation of terrorist operations to the Northern region of Nigeria because Biafra is a terrorist-free nation,
  3. The safest place for any American outside of their homeland USA will be in Biafra.

President-elect Donald Trump and the entire United States citizens shall have everything to gain from a free and independent nation of Biafra.

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Donald Trump, Israel, and the Potential for a Free Biafra

Most Africa observers believe Donald Trump will ignore the continent or at the most put the relationships Presidents Obama and Bush had built there on the back burner. While it’s true Trump does not see Africa as the central plank to his foreign policy, his black and white views of the world in regards to radical Islam may prove to be a perfect lens on how he will deal with the African continent.

Right now, the main way the USA fights radical Islam on the African continent is through Africom. Africom, is one of six of the US Defence Department’s “geographic combatant commands and is responsible to the Secretary of Defense for military relations with African nations.” Given the fact that Africom works with a number undesirable leaders, the main one being President Buhari of Nigeria, Trump may decide to tweak these relationships due to leaders like Buhari who are compromised by radical Islamic ties.

Israel as a Key Player

As Israel makes serious inroads into both West and East Africa in regards to trade and security, they are the ideal partner in building a force for tackling radical Islam.  Israel already has deep security relationships with Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan as well as Ghana and now Togo.  With these deepening ties, the Trump administration would be wise to connect Africom to Israel’s presence in these areas.

Biafra Will Be The Test for Trump

If Trump is serious about fighting radical Islam then the first thing he needs to do in Africa is to break direct relations with the Buhari government in Nigeria.  Buhari is a known smypathizer of radical Islam and supports the spread of Sharia Law south of the Sahara. Furthermore, Biafra, the region made up of a unique Judeo-Christian culture dominated by the Igbo tribe was forcibly fused together by the British with the Yaruba and the Muslim Hausa in the North to form Nigeria in 1914.

Map of Biafra

Biafra has been continuously oppressed by their Muslim rulers for not following Sharia.  Buhari utilized his friendship with Obama to gain powerful weapons and instead of using them to destroy ISIS affiliated groups he has turned his guns on the south through proxies like the Muslim Fulani herdsman.  Thousands of Igbo have been put into jail, including IPOB leader Nnmadi Kanu for treason.

Trump can roll back radical Islam by using Israeli networking, relationships, and weapons to help liberate Biafra from radical Islam and create the first Judeo-Christian republic in West Africa.

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Nigeria’s Radical Islamic President is Suppressing Biafran Zionists and Pro-Secessionists

At the end of the Biafran War many experts came to the conclusion that genocide had been committed against the Igbo by the Nigerian government. In an effort to suppress the scandal, the Nigerian government with some help from Great Britain worked frantically to cover up the news about the atrocities. For almost fifty years that effort paid off. The crime of Biafran Genocide was carefully hidden away from the public.
 
However, today 2016 the agitation for the restoration of the defunct Biafran state is in the news again. This is coming nearly half a century after the country’s demise in 1970. After suffering a pogrom in which more than 100,000 of their people were killed by Nigerian civilians and various security forces of the Nigerian government, Igbo people with other southeasterners who also were affected in the killings declared an independent Biafran state in mid-1967. Immediately following the secession the Nigerian state levied a genocidal war of aggression that lasted two and half years against Biafra. With the help of Great Britain, USSR (Russia) and Islamic Arab states; all those countries supplied arms to Nigeria and the war resulted in the genocide of Igbo people.
 
The war was prosecuted with the declared intention of wiping out the Igbo from the face of the Earth. By the time the war was over a quarter of Igbo population, that is 3 million of them were further exterminated. About 2 million of the casualties died from starvation resulting from the Nigerian government official policy of “hunger as a legitimate weapon of war.” Almost fifty years after that horrific genocide which tends to have been largely forgotten by much of the world community, a new generation of Igbo people who are majorly Animists and Christians are reviving the call to free themselves and territory from the largely Islamic state of Nigeria.
 
A close look at most of the people who are championing the new struggle to separate Biafra from Nigeria reveals that they either did not witness the Biafran War or they were mere children during the war. For this reason some people have asked the question; why are people in this age bracket bent on defiantly reviving such a horrific episode and experience in their history half a century on. Some people have argued that it has something to do with the fact that the Nigerian government banned the teaching of history in Nigerian schools soon after the Biafran War. People were prohibited from mentioning the name, “Biafra” for many decades afterwards. The government wanted to hide the genocide permanently from public consciousness. As a result, subsequent generations which did not witness the war are unable to appreciate fully the devastating impacts of the war on their parents’ generation. But since the years following the war even the generations of Igbo people who did not witness it are being punished and marginalized by the Nigerian state. And this is part of what is fueling the independence protests.
 
Remembering how horrible the war was, people like the current Muslim President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari who incidentally fought on the Nigerian side to defeat Biafra have asked the new agitators for a revived independent state of Biafra to forget it. Of course he did not find it necessary to express any remorse about the Igbo Genocide which he helped to orchestrate. He instead believes that the people will just forget just because he asked them to forget the heinous crime that was committed against them. Insensitively, the president went on to argue that the agitators are doing this because they did not experience or witness the war. This has made many observers to interpret Buhari’s highhanded response by killing the peaceful nonviolent agitators as his way of trying to teach the “inexperienced” agitators a lesson. In the past one and half years Buhari has rolled out, on many occasions, the full strength of his country’s military force to violently suppress the peaceful nonviolent Biafran independence movement.
 
The human rights organization; Amnesty International reports that since the advent of Buhari administration in 2015 till now – the tail end of 2016, Nigerian government has killed more than 300 Biafrans and wounded many more while they held peaceful protests for Biafra’s independence. Amnesty International says that many of those pro-Biafra protesters were shot and killed in their sleep and others while they gathered in churches to pray. Many of the protesters were shot and killed from behind while they tried to escape.
 
The fact is that the peaceful protests for the separation of Igbo territory (Biafra) from Nigeria has been going on since the year 2000. The group known as Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) had spearheaded these protests. Various Nigerian administrations before the advent of the present one in 2015 had used mostly the incarceration of the leaders of the movement in trying to deal with and suppress it. MASSOB’s former leader Ralph Uwazurike suffered many jail times in Nigerian prisons. Sometimes the MASSOB leader was detained for many years at a time. Apart from many of the agitators who are being killed extra-judicially by government forces there are some notable individuals who are being held in various Nigerian prisons just because they are agitating for Biafra’s independence. Some were snatched off the streets into prisons for merely wearing vests with Biafran insignia or just being in possession of Biafran flags. There are such people like Benjamin Onwuka the leader of Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM,) Chidiebere Onwudiwe whose home was invaded by Nigerian security agents in the middle of the night. He was taken away from his house at 2 AM and has not been heard from again since the last one year. Then there is Nnamudi Kanu who runs an online radio called Radio Biafra London (RBL.) These individuals except for Onwudiwe whose fate is yet to be known, can be described as almost lucky because Buhari’s government has not yet executed them and their cases have been celebrated because of the relatively wide media publicity they have attracted.
 
But there are many unsung pro-Biafra agitator-victims who are not as lucky. They are currently suffering various kinds of persecutions in many detention centers around the world. Some of these less known victims are being prosecuted in different courts of law in many places around the world simply because they demonstrated publicly for the independence of Biafra. These people are being deprived of their freedom or are being subjected to other forms of hardships and inhumane treatments because of their involvement in Biafran freedom activism.
 
Over the years many critics have complained that the Nigerian government has used some unorthodox diplomatic manipulations to influence how some foreign government agencies carry out their duties in its effort to suppress Biafra’s independence and hide the Biafran Genocide. Since the time of Biafra War till now, Nigeria has deployed its diplomatic tentacles across the world to make sure that those who agitate for Biafra anywhere are suppressed. We will cite two little known examples of those who are going through persecutions in so-called civilized societies like European countries of Norway and England.
 
Lotachukwu Okorie used to serve as MASSOB’s District Officer in southeast Nigeria before he emigrated to Norway, fleeing from persecution by Nigerian government authorities. On getting to Norway, a civilized society, he believed that his problems were over and his human rights would be protected. Unfortunately, he discovered that they had only just begun. In what looked like a remotely influenced operation the Norwegian government detained Okorie and charged him with illegal immigration crime. He was then detained for one year and six months without any conclusive decision on his case. According to Norwegian laws he overstayed in jail the period he was legally supposed to. Just before he was arrested, Okorie was so frustrated by the various dehumanizing treatments he was receiving from Norwegian security agents that he was driven to attempt suicide with a kitchen knife.
 
Another case which is fast becoming a source of embarrassment to the British government is that of Yahgozie Immanu-el victim of political persecution by British authorities that apparently are trying hard to please Nigerian government which it is believed are tele-guiding and influencing the current ordeals of Yahgozie. It appears that the British government is willing to compromise their country’s very reputable centuries-old national respect for the fundamental human and civil rights of all people simply to please the Nigerian government. Yahgozie is an independent journalist as well as a pro-Biafra activist who is based in London. He got arrested by the British police while he covered the recent official visit to Britain by the Nigerian President Buhari. He was subsequently taken to court on frivolous and trumped up charges that he was trying to attack President Buhari’s motorcade. Some eyewitnesses of the incident are still unable to understand how the actions of someone who only had a microphone and was trying to cover the unfolding events could have been interpreted as an intention to attack President Buhari. Yahgozie’s case comes up again in the City of London Magistrates Court later in this month of November. Many people think that the case is actually turning into an embarrassment to the human rights image of the British government.  
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South Sudan’s Independence and the Irony of Defeat in Victory

For more than 25 years the people of South Sudan fought their powerful common enemy to a standstill. The enslaving Arab Islamist forces of north Sudan were matched fire for fire until the northerners acknowledged that the southerners who are Animists and Christians have rights to live free and on their own cultural and religious terms. The southerners fought valiantly as men, they fought as one people; they fought long and won their freedom from the oppressors on July 9, 2011.
 
Vicariously, those of us who are fighting to free Biafra from the vicious grip of the Islamic state of Nigeria participated in the South Sudanese victory like it was our own. Yes, in more ways than not, the Sudanese victory tends to foretell how the eventual Igbo freedom from Nigeria will look like. Why the Biafrans saw in the South Sudanese victory their own is because in Nigeria Igbo people are also faced with the same Arab-Islamist forces of Hausa, Fulani and Yoruba oligarchies which are bent on the total extermination of the Igbo. So, since the South Sudanese withstood similar enslaving forces and defeated them, the victory has remained an evergreen source of inspiration for the Igbo in Nigeria.  
 
While they fought in the trenches, on the hills and in all the many battlefields; the South Sudanese leaders had some squabbles and disagreements. But they always found ways to settle their differences and disputes and sustained the fight against the enslavers. At the end of the battle they won a country but now this is 2016, they need to win a nation.
 
Unfortunately, by 2013 the people lost their hard won country to personal interests and power flexing of their leaders. The leaders’ individual interests and show of power plunged the entire country into a civil war which has raged on to their shame and the disappointment of their admirers. These leaders need to put aside for one moment their pursuit for personal prestige and show some example of caring and benevolent leadership styles. Urgently, they must find solutions now; find ways to end childish things and begin the onerous and matured business of governing and managing a country and the welfares of its people.
 
Earlier on, at the southern tip of the continent, South Africans who had also fought long and arduous against those who oppressed them through Apartheid system, celebrated their freedom in 1994. Some of the leaders of the fight were imprisoned for more than 25 years. But their fight for equality had lasted for about a century. In the end the South Africans also won freedom and the right to be equal participants in the affairs of their country. But perhaps that is where the similarities of the two fights end. Today, and unfortunately so, the leaders of South Sudan are turning their laudable and prideful victory into a tragedy and nightmare. The attitude of the South Sudanese leaders toward leadership and power is largely to be blamed.
 
In South Africa there were Nelson Mandela and others like him who to a greater extent understood the nature and concept of victory and power – altruistic, magnanimous, camaraderie; transient and flitting. While in South Sudan there are Salva Kiir, Riek Machar and others who believe that victory is personal, individualistic and an end in itself. And that power should be held onto permanently and used vindictively to witch-hunt opposition while the opposition egoistically asserts that it is not weak, after all. That it also has influence. But the truth is that good leaders, whether in opposition or not cannot be vindictive and sour or constantly trying to prove some points.
 
The big guys of South Sudan are shamelessly flexing unattractive and unimpressive muscles, trying to prove personal superiority while their lowly citizens to whom the victory and power truly belong continue to suffer in pain and devastating impoverishment. In the mind of these leaders, they have come to erroneously think that because they were opportune to be present at the moment of the people’s victory therefore they have become some divine beings who are now infallible and indispensable. This attitude shamefully violates the memory and honor of those heroes who also fought and died before July 9, 2011. Sometimes one wonders if these leaders have ever considered that old saying of leaving the stage while the ovation is still loud.
 
Down through time, history has not lacked noble and honorable achievers and victors who left exemplary records which those that care can imitate. In the following story we learn that sometimes, because of the feelings of others that good leaders learn to let go of personal pleasures and comfort, even when they can afford them. In other words, true leaders cannot always take it just because they can. The biblical David was a military commander of ancient Israeli army who is still recognized as a successful leader of his people because he understood how to handle victory and power without being sucked into the twilight zone of those two impostors. It is reported that at one point during the heat of a battle, when an enemy force occupied Bethlehem his hometown, David thirsted for water from a well in Bethlehem. When he made his wish known, three of his officers volunteered and risked everything by cutting through the ranks of the enemy to fetch the water from the well. On their return, David would not drink the water but poured it out as libation, saying that there was no way he could drink it because the water equated with the blood of these men who risked their lives in order to satisfy his personal fancies.
 
As the leader, nothing prevented David from drinking the water but he resisted greed and insensitivity and instead poured the water away. We can play the story forward and contrast it with the attitude of the present South Sudan generals who it seems would rather impoverish and drink the blood of their fellow country men, women and children merely to hold on to power and prove how right and indispensable they have become.
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The Monster is in us

 
My poet friend Jonathan Wilson said that as a little boy he looked for the monster under his bed. But now as an adult he suddenly discovered that the monster was himself. These South Sudanese generals fought so gallantly to win their many battles only to be defeated by mere selfish pursuit of personal glory and the unwillingness to let go and concede personal fancies in the interest of peace in the country for which they have already sacrificed so much. The present arch rivals President Salva Kiir and his former Vice-President Riek Machar fought side by side in the military until the enemy was defeated and the people of South Sudan became free and independent. Now, they are finding it impossible to defeat the enemy in their individual selves. Good leaders aim to leave behind legacies which acceptably, are more difficult to do than winning battles. In trying to win wars the aim is to defeat the enemy, while in building legacies true leaders must defeat their selves. At first it was believed that the problem of the South Sudanese people was the hegemony and evil devises of the Islamic Arabs in the north. Sadly, due to the selfish interests of their leaders, the people seem to be doing a rethink.
 
To many observers, that victory over the bigoted fanatical forces of Islamic Arab feudalism will not be complete until the leaders are able to defeat their personal demon. But they still have the time and opportunity to save themselves, the country and the people in it. These leaders must come to the realization that power as everything else is only a means and not an end in itself. All powers and attained positions are transient and temporal and should be treated as such.
 
Nevertheless, we are not pretending to believe that sentiments and emotions may be all there are in making these men to do the right thing. Sometimes there may be need for something extra. So, while we are appealing to the conscience of these men, to reconsider and solve this problem in the same way they had solved other disagreements they had when they fought for their liberation, we are not ruling out the need for genuine external assistance in helping solve this problem. The international community should find a way to use sanctions and other forms of economic and political pressures to force these men to do the right thing.
 
Part of what I consider to be the right approach in solving the problem is to avoid an obtuse and blanket kind of condemnations and approvals. Let the guilty be blamed and those who out of a sincere and honest heart have done the right thing should be praised and encouraged. It will be more beneficial, especially in the interest of posterity for those who do intervene in this matter to be specific when dealing with all aspects of the issue. There is the need for a comprehensive and holistic approach in trying to solve South Sudan. As an example, in my opinion, I think that the time has come for the review of the country’s political and social structure. The prevailing National Constitution was drawn under the circumstances of strife and war with an external force. As a matter of necessity, since the country as an independent state is now under a civilian regime, it may be a good idea to produce another constitution which takes cognizance of present realities.
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How the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Cashed in on the Political Capital of Global Jihad

Some of Nigeria’s analysts see Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as the “accepted” “saintly tough-guy” Nigerian corruption killer in a different light from the general make-believe one. These analysts attribute Buhari’s final success after many failed attempts to become Nigeria’s democratically-elected president to some external influences. They claim that some powerful international figures have often meddled in Nigeria’s internal affairs to affect the outcome of events in the country. And Buhari’s recent victory at the polls was not an exception.

One remarkable example that these critics cite is the especially patronizing speech by the American President Barack Obama just before the 2015 Nigerian presidential election which brought Buhari to power. In his speech Obama urged Nigerians to maintain a united country no matter the outcome of the election. Many saw the speech in which the president used an old Biafran-Nigerian wartime “genocidal slogan:” “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done” as an outward expression of clandestine political machinations which in the end installed a preferred candidate in Nigeria’s supreme leadership saddle.

In the opinion of many observers, Buhari is an Islamic extremist who believes that he; “will continue to show openly and inside me [him] the total commitment to the sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria,” and “God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the country.” Those are Buhari’s own words. For having the foisted posture of the “saintly tough-ruler” as well as an Islamic fundamentalist, Buhari fitted well the ideal consensus candidate of Nigeria’s Islamic north. He was chosen because he was believed to be a capable and willing candidate who would boldly implement the so-called north’s long term ambitious Islamic agenda for Nigeria – extending the global Islamic caliphate project to cover the entire country, including Christians’ and other religions’ areas. Nigeria for many reasons has long been considered important in this local and global Islamic caliphate agenda. It is said that the ultimate goal of this agenda for countries in Africa’s south of the Sahara is to eventually overrun and conquer them for Islam like those in the northern half of the continent. The advocates and financial sponsors of this agenda see the conquer and subjugation of the entire Nigerian geography as being strategic because by virtue of its position and clout the country will serve as a launch pad whose reaches cover the entire target-region.

The Nigerian jihad as part of the greater global Islamic agenda

In Nigeria today there are two manifest champions of this “global caliphate” agenda. They are members of the deadly Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram who have very strong connections with the most powerful people in Nigerian political, military and business establishments. The second group is also an equally well-connected Islamic terrorist group modeled after the fearsome Sudanese Janjaweed. Its members are mostly Fulani, members of the ethnic group (the group sometimes referred to as Nigeria’s “born-to-rule” over others) from which the current Nigerian president comes. They are generally known as the Fulani Cattle Herders (FCH.) Like Boko Haram, Fulani Cattle Herders are also generously financed by the northern elite and ruling oligarch class.

In the last few decades Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries like Iran, Turkey and Nigeria have dreamed of and fanatically pursued the archaic fantasy of an eventual Islam-subjugated world. These countries have expended in the process, a chunk of their petrodollar and other national incomes in pursuing the agenda. Some observers think that they have been successful in more ways than most people will care to admit. It is believed that among other achievements, that perhaps their greatest is being able to successfully infiltrate the Western news media establishment. Through this subversive penetration of the mainstream news and information dissemination process of Western societies, the jihadists have over the years, exerted pervasive subtle but unmistakable influence on the editorial opinions of media outlets in the West. Some analysts think that the prevalent editorial stance of most mainstream Western media where each tries to outdo the other on who would best be described as the most “politically correct,” “tolerant” and “civilized liberal,” can hardly be explained otherwise.

The infiltration seems to be so thorough and complete that today no matter how realistic and objective a critic is, there will always be a way to accuse him or her of being “politically incorrect,” suffering from “islamophobia” and expressing a “dangerous far right extremist views.” Today anyone can easily bet their most valued possessions to predict that the editorial opinions of Western media will always sing in unison the well-rehearsed chorus that “not all Muslims are terrorists” therefore the critic who deviates from the accepted “liberal” and fear-induced “civilized tolerance” is condemned and labeled; “unsophisticated,” “bigoted,” “crude” and “uninformed racist.” The new Western standard is simple; even after the attacker had called the authorities on the phone to announce their reason for the attack, Western authorities in the name of “not being at war with Islam,” should spend an endless period of time investigating to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

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The ultimate goals of all terroristic or Islamic jihad campaigns are to receive attention, elicit fear and intimidate or cow the target-victims (the infidels.) Those goals have substantially been achieved in many places around the world, Nigeria inclusive. The ongoing global jihad has not only successfully used fear and intimidation to cow much of the international community, it has also compelled everybody to “tolerate and endure happily” the prevailing globe-wide displays of barbaric Islamic violent extremism. So, the fear campaigns have successfully cleared the way for the emergence into powerful offices, such extremist bigots like Buhari in dysfunctional societies like the Nigerian country. As a result, people in the mold of Nigeria’s present leader, rather than being censored are patronized by such world leaders like United Nations’ Ban Ki-moon with such unrealistic words like: “You are highly respected by world leaders, including myself. Your persona has given your country a positive image.” Yet the so-called Nigeria’s “positive image” is nothing more than the continued descent to the lowest levels of religious intolerance and flagrant abuses of the human rights of peaceful citizens. The brutal killings of hundreds of non-violent Biafran separatist protesters by government security forces are too recent to be swept under the carpet by the patrons of these extremist elements.

While campaigning for and on assumption of office, Buhari did not need to present any complex political agenda. Having proved himself as an Islamic fundamentalist, he could cash in on the well-established global jihad’s political capital of the “global caliphate.” Nevertheless, Buhari who became the posterchild of Nigeria’s “saint-and-tough-guy” messiah, winning became a do-or-die obsession. At 70 plus years, he became desperate as he felt that time was running out on him. In his own words; “baboons and dogs would be soaked in blood” should he fail again to win the election to become Nigeria’s next president in 2015.

Buhari and his handlers managed to convince the uninformed public that he was the “poor” candidate who never stole money since his more than forty years in public office (but there are abundant public records to the contrary) who is suited to kill the monster of Nigerian corruption. Yet this wretched candidate was able to easily afford the $10 million consultancy fee of the American political strategist David Axelrod of the Obama phenomenon. So, an indigent Buhari who would kill the Nigerian corruption saw nothing wrong in paying a “modest” $10 million to a foreign political consulting firm for a local election in a country where the people live on less than $2 a day.

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Decolonizing Israel and Other Indigenous Peoples

This last week I hopped on to the Lowell Yosef Galin Show for a short interview and discussion in connection this very magazine and its role in presenting an alternative approach to geopolitics and Israel’s connection to other indigenous peoples around the world.

We discuss:

  • Israel as an indigenous people
  • Other indigenous people we should partner with
  • Western and Arab colonialism
  • Vision of Israel Rising

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