Tag: Biafra

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How Israel can help stop the genocide of the Igbo in Nigeria

By mid-1945 when the Allied Forces had helped to liberate the last vestiges of the German occupation of Europe and end the atrocious concentration camps and gas chambers in Auschwitz and other locations, more than 6 million European Jews had been murdered in the genocide which became known as the Holocaust or the Shoah. The extent and ramifications of this evil boggled the mind of every decent and civilized person and society around the world. But the deed had been done and the only reasonable option left for our collective humanity was this all-important resolve: “Never Again.” The international community resolved from then onwards that as a collective and as individual nations, societies and peoples around the world, we can all make efforts and contribute all we can to help prevent, stop and punish all crimes against humanity, including genocides anywhere it is taking place in the world. Today 2016, there is an ongoing genocide of Igbo people in Nigeria. And it is the responsibility of all people everywhere to help stop it and punish the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

Since the last 15 years the agitation for the reestablishment of the State of Biafra has gained traction. For most observers who remember the events that led to the declaration of an independent State of Biafra on May 30, 1967, almost fifty years ago, this current agitation does not come to them as a surprise. It has always been expected. Frederick Forsyth, the British author who witnessed the Nigerian genocide of the Igbo in the 1960s made this observation in his 1968 book on the subject; The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend:

“What had started as a belief was transmuted to total conviction; that they could never again live with Nigerians. From this stems the primordial political reality of the present situation. Biafra cannot be killed by anything short of total eradication of the people who make her. For even under total occupation Biafra would sooner with or without Colonel Ojukwu, rise up again.” (Emeka Ojukwu led the Biafran resistance against genocide and the often reminisced Biafran revolution.)

By the time the Igbo Genocide ended in 1970, 3.5 million Biafrans of which 3.1 million were Igbo, had been murdered by Nigerians with help from the Arab League as spearheaded by Egypt which supplied, pro bono the pilots who bombed only civilian targets in Biafra. The British government and USSR (today’s Russia being the successor state) supplied the bomber jets, the speed boats and other arms that enabled the genocidal Nigerian state to carry out an effective blocked of Biafra during the siege. Of the total deaths, more than 2 million died from starvation resulting from the economic blocked.

While the atrocity against the Igbo was going on in the west coast of Africa; in faraway New York in the United States, in the Spring of 1968, a particularly significant lone-conscientious protest of the evil took place. On the first anniversary of the Biafran resistance a young orthodox Jewish student of the Columbia University, Bruce Mayrock after writing hundreds of letters to world leaders to help stop the genocide to no avail, then chose to set himself afire on the premises of the United Nations protesting the genocide of Biafrans. He died a few hours later at the hospital from the wounds he sustained from the fire. The sign he had with him at the UN compound read: “Please help stop the genocide of 9 million Biafrans.” That sign is as current today 2016 as it was half a century ago when Mayrock first displayed it.

With the persistent state murders of Igbo people in Nigeria by government agents, the State of Israel and its citizens and other humanitarian minded people around the world today can still help to stop the continued genocide of the Igbo in Nigeria. As this is being written the government of the State of Israel continues to do business with the genocidal Nigerian state; cooperating closely with Nigeria’s security agencies as well as in other sectors of its economy. The government and policy makers in Israel can help stop the ongoing genocide of the Igbo today by boycotting all dealings with the Nigerian government. For a democratic and progressive state like Israel doing business with a genocidal state like Nigeria is nothing different from the state sponsorship of state terrorism, human rights violation and genocide. On another hand, it can be compared to any responsible or civilized state in the 1930s and early 40s aiding, abating and being complicit with Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany.

An independent State of Biafra became inevitable in mid-1967 because of the ethnic and religious cleansing of the Igbo population in 1966 by the people and government of Nigeria. The massacre in which 100,000 Igbo and other easterners were killed between May 29, 1966 and May 30, 1967, is also known as the 1966 Pogrom. It was a government organized and executed purge of the Nigerian country through massacres, looting and expulsion of its Igbo population. This systematic elimination of a people based on their ethnic and religious classification by a national government was led by the Nigeria military dictator Yakubu Gowon. It was aimed at cleansing the Nigerian society of all traces of Igbo people whom the others had come to hate and loath for being “too enterprising, dominating all aspects of the society and unwilling to adopt the Islamic way of worship.”

After the Igbo and other easterners had been expelled from Nigeria, more than 3 million of them were displaced. They went back to their ancestral homeland, and in an effort to protect and preserve what was left of their battered lives, they chose the path of Self Determination and independence. They unilaterally declared a sovereign independent state which they called Republic of Biafra. Upon this declaration, the Nigerian state wedged a war of aggression against the Biafran state. The Nigerian state had two clearly declared intentions on embarking on that misadventure of aggression. One, they wanted to capture Biafra land for the Islamic caliphate of Sokoto and convert the oil wealth in the Biafran homeland. Secondly, they wanted to exterminate the entire adult population of Biafra and convert Igbo children to Islam.    

It was these and other factors that led states like Tanzania to choose to stand by Biafrans’ decision to choose to die fighting for their freedom. After Biafra was declared independent, the State of Tanzania clearly understood that it was only an independent sovereign state, separate from Nigeria that could help stop the genocide of Biafrans. Tanzania quickly recognized and advocated for Biafra’s right to self-determination and independence. In April of 1968 the Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere declared his country’s support for Igbo survival in these immutable and timeless indisputable words:

 

“Tanzania has recognized the State of Israel and will continue to do so because of its belief that every people must have some place in the world where they are not liable to be rejected by their fellow citizens. But the Biafrans have now suffered the same kind of rejection within their state that the Jews of Germany experienced. Fortunately, they already had a homeland.

“They have retreated to it for their own protection, and for the same reason – after all other efforts had failed – they have declared it to be an independent state. In the light of these circumstances, Tanzania feels obliged to recognize the setback to African unity which has occurred. We therefore recognize the State of Biafra as an independent sovereign entity, and as a member of the community of nations. Only by this act of recognition can we remain true to our conviction that the purpose of society, and of all political organization, is the service of Man.”

With the current political and social events in Nigeria, and with the renewed mass killings of the Igbo by Nigerian state agents, Nyerere’s words could have been spoken in April of 2016. An independent state of Biafra is still as valid in 2016 as it was in 1966. For some Biafrans like Col. Joe Achuzia, Biafra was defeated in 1970 but was not surrendered. Achuzia as part of Biafrans who negotiated peace with the Nigerian authority at the end of the war, insists that Biafrans did not submit to Nigeria any instrument of surrender or any such thing like Biafra’s insignia and symbols. The import of Achuzia’s claims is that what Biafrans negotiated with Nigeria in 1970 was cessation of hostilities or an armistice but not the sovereignty, the right to independence and the right to self-determination of the people of Biafra.

After fifty years and with the continuation of the systematic elimination and marginalization of Igbo people in Nigeria, the time is now ripe for the Biafran people – the Igbo, to reclaim their sovereignty and independence from Nigeria. Therefore, it is necessary to note that in this renewed all-important life and death effort, the Igbo will appreciate the help and support of all well-meaning individuals and states like Israel which had gone through the same genocidal experience such as the Igbo are going through today in Nigeria. The truth is that since on the 29th day of May, 1966 the ceased forever to be Nigerians.

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THE RETIRING & TIRED IGP SOLOMON ARASE AND HIS UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA

On May 31 2016, Mr. Solomon Ehigiator Arase (Police Service Number: AP16474 and born on June 21, 1956), who will retire from the Nigeria Police on the 21st of June 2016, made unfounded allegations against the peace-loving and law-abiding Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
According to the Vanguard Newspaper of May 31, 2016 and credited to this man from Edo state who allegedly have two Masters Degrees including one in Law: “Following the manifestation of the disposition of the armed Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) activists to undertake premeditated attacks on Police officers engage in operations aimed at restoring public order in States in the South-East and South-South geopolitical zone of the country, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Solomon E. Arase, fdc, NPM has directed the Assistant Inspectors General of Police and the Commissioners of Police in the affected area to disarm members of the group operating firearms immediately.”
First, it is appalling that someone with this level of education cannot differentiate between“Indigenous“ and “Independent“ or can he attribute this stupid error to the printer’s devil? It is laughable that this retiring “quota system-based“ IGP is alleging that IPOB members were armed and that we undertook premeditated attacks on Police Officers. I hope Mr. Solomon Arase is aware that there is a case of genocide already hanging on his head at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague—Netherlands and it will worsen his case with this spewing of lies against IPOB. How can the Police disarm people who are not armed in the first place? By the way, did the police disarm Buhari’s killer squads who go by the name Fulani Herdsmen? How come you never issued any press statement when Buhari’s armed gang called Fulani Herdsmen massacred thousands of Biafrans in Agatu, Nimbo, Aba, and other areas in Biafraland?
 This murderous and worst-performing IGP went further to state that: “the targeted attacks on Police personnel, who have been performing their statutory functions in the most professional and civil manner since the latest resurgence disorder, portrays the IPOB activists who are orchestrating the insurrection as having crossed the threshold in their misguided attempt to test the common will of the nation.”
Can this decrepit and tired IGP provide any proof that Biafrans attacked police personnel and at what point in time did this so-called “resurgence disorder“ come into existence? Does this supposedly educated man know the meaning of insurrection or is he throwing out words to see which of them may stick on IPOB? Probably he is trying to make the job easier for Buhari’s Department of State Services (DSS) who have been hopelessly looking for the “smokine gun“ with which they will convince the trial Judge, Hon John Tsoho, that IPOB is a violent organization so that the Judge will uphold charge #2 in the case against the leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
This grossly incompetent and ICC prison-bound IGP also stated thus: “IGP Arase, while condemning the killing by members of IPOB, also directed the arrest of any member of the group found in possession of firearm and bring him/her to deserved justice, while all IPOB activists arrested in connection with the killing of the Policemen should be charged to court for murder.”

How many of Buhari’s Fulani Herdsmen who massacred men, women, and children in Biafraland have the police arrested? So are you always blind to the fact that the so-called Fulani herdsmen are moving freely with AK-47 assault rifles? Why are you not arresting them or are they a special breed of Nigerians who are above the law? Why are you turning around this case of murder against your policemen to make it look like it was the unarmed Biafrans that were doing the killings? Are you making this press statement to cover your tracks and that of Col. Issah Abdullahi? It will interest Mr. Solomon Arase to know that the Head of Directorate of State of IPOB discussed the upcoming May 30th Heroes‘ Remembrance Day with the Commissioner of Police (CP) in Anambra, Hosea Karma, and then followed it up with a letter which is attached to this press release. It is a shame that Solomon Arase is displaying crass incompetence and ignorance by lying through his teeth with concoctions that IPOB members were armed and that they attacked Nigerian policemen. Perhaps he would have saved himself this embarrassment by conducting thorough investigation and checking with the CP in Anambra state. Now the entire world has seen through his lies and he is complicating and deepening his indictment, conviction, and sentencing at the ICC with these latest lies from the pit of hell.
Mr. Solomon Ehigiator Arase, you are aware of the menace of Boko Haram, the serial killings of Biafrans by Buhari’s killer squad known as Fulani Herdsmen, and the extra-judicial killings of Biafrans by Nigerian security outfits, yet  you have failed to issue a single press statement on them. But you shamefully issued tissues of lies which you called press statement even after your policemen and Nigerian soldiers killed unarmed Biafrans some of them in their sleep inside a church as they prepare to remember their fallen heroes and some of these fallen heroes were similarly killed by Buhari in 1968 at Owerri.
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Biafra, Israel, and the Hypocricy of the West

Reports continue to race in about scores of wounded and dead Biafrans. With the violence initiated by gangs backed by the Nigerian government, one tries to grapple with the sheer trantsparent morality of both the White House and the State Department. Obama’s foreign policy has always been an enigma and yet the Biafra is the most baffling of all. The American government continues to back a divisive Islamist over the law abiding people in Biafra.  Yet it should not come as a surprise to those that have watched the US government’s treatment of Israel that, America relishes in playing both sides against one another.  After all conflict is good for business, America’s arms business.

In the case of Biafra, which is home to a growing Jewish population as well as a Hebraic form of Christianity, the pretenses of balancing the conflict have gone completely out the window. The question is not is Biafra different, but why is it being treated different?

 

Echoes of the Slave Trade

Within Biafra, the Igbo are the most populous.  They also happened to have made up the majority of the slave population ripped from West Africa and transferred to the Americas.  The presence and perseverance of the Igbo in a similar fashion to the Jewish Nation is a reminder of just how eternal spirit and hope are.  The West hates to be reminded of its hypocrisy.  Biafra is a constant reminder that in truth the West stands for little.  

The pronouncements of rights and freedoms are just that, clever talking points given to stake the moral high ground while painting others as deficient in the realm of ethics. Yet one must be blind not to see the ridiculousness of it all. The West was the largest perpetrator of the destruction of the African continent, including Israel which rests on its North Eastern tip than any other group of Nations.  Starting with the crushing of the Judean Revolt all the way to destructive policies of post colonial Africa, the West has wiped out whole cultures and memories causing everlasting trauma.

Biafra reminds us who the real enemy is.  The Hausa to the North, much like the Arabs that surround Israel are pawns, enabled by those Arabist bureaucrats at the State Department as well as the neo-colonial policies of Europe. Biafra and more specifically, the Igbo reveals how hollow Obama’s and the Lefts pseudo empathy of African suffering really is. By picking Islam over traditional indigenous cultures,  they have shredded Pan Africanism the same way they have called into question Israel’s very connection to its Land.

Biafra, more than anything exposes the lie that Obama and the West actually care.  They don’t, unless it is about money.

The parallel struggles of Biafra and Israel are a reminder that good people need to stand up. Yet, the situation is also a wake up call to Israel, that now is the time to become the leader it is destined to and take a central role in protecting and freeing Biafra. Doing so will send a message to the World, that morality is something worth fighting for.

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With Civil Disobedience and Direct Action Biafra Will Be Achieved

As our readers know, the editorial staff of Israel Rising feels strongly about Biafran independence.  Besides being the moral and ethical movement to support, Biafrans are made up of Igbo, Ibibos, and other tribes most of whom clearly share Israelite descent.  Due to this fact, Israel Rising believes it is to the benefit of all of our readers to be connected to their struggle.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) can categorically and experientially conclude that Biafra can be achieved by civil disobedience and direct action contrary to statements made by some saboteurs and Hausa-Fulani slaves from Igbo-speaking area of Biafraland. That Barack Obama is the president of the USA today is directly attributable to the civil disobedience of the days of Malcom-X and Martin Luther King Jr. For 27 years, the blacks in South Africa never stopped carrying out civil disobedience until Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The Arab Spring started with civil disobedience and the outcome is there for all to see. It is therefore preposterous and smirks of political illiteracy for some compromised people to make mockery of the well-organized and peaceful civil disobedience by IPOB that has the twin objectives of pressurizing government to release their illegally detained leader and for the restoration of the nation of Biafra. One of these saboteurs and political neophytes cum Hausa-Fulani slaves is a man called Chekwas Okorie.

Chekwas Okorie has now distinguished himself as the latest and greatest saboteur of the restoration of the nation of Biafra. Chekwas Okorie is from Alayi-Bende in Abia state and he is the son of Late Chief Edward Okorie (a.k.a. Okorie Emeri) who was a fine gentleman but unfortunately gave birth to one of the greatest saboteurs of our time. Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari wanted to have a negotiation meeting with the objective of finding a way out of the impasse occasioned by widespread demonstrations by the Indigenous People of Biafra. The IPOB leader nominated Chekwas Okorie to go and meet with Buhari on the assumption that Chekwas Okorie is a man of integrity and a Biafran to the core. Chekwas Okorie met with Buhari twice but never came back to Nnamdi Kanu to debrief him. Instead, Chekwas Okorie used the opportunity of meeting Buhari to cut personal deals for himself. Chekwas Okorie should return all the money he collected from Buhari.

To cover up his track, Chekwas Okorie granted interview to Vanguard Newspaper reporter, Francis Igata, where he displayed his crass ignorance of Nigerian politics as well as mocked the victims of Buhari’s genocidal killings in Biafraland. By making mockery of those while praying inside the football field of a secondary school were gunned down by Buhari’s killer squads, Chekwas Okorie has insulted the memory of the dead Biafrans including those who died in the war of genocide of 1967—1970. By mocking the dead bodies of innocent Biafrans such as Miss Nkiruka Ikeanyionwu, Chekwas Okorie will never be forgiven by Biafrans and all lovers of freedom.

From his conducts and recent utterances, and just like his fellow sexually confused Igbo politicians who prostitute themselves to Hausa-Fulani men in return for political favors, Chekwas Okorie is a clear and present danger to the Biafra restoration process. He has now joined the hall of infamy of Biafran saboteurs along with such names as Rochas Okorocha, Sylvester Ude a.k.a. Debe Ojukwu, Dozie Ikedife, Gary Enwo-Igariwe, Monday Ubani, Joe (Judas) Igbokwe, and all members and officials of Ohanaeze Ndi-Oshi na Ndi-Ama otherwise known as Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Even his postulated political tactics and strategy is replete with ignorance and idiocy. Perhaps, Chekwas Okorie needs to be reminded that a part of the Nigerian electoral law requires 25% votes to be captured in two-third of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for someone to be declared the winner of a presidential election. Maybe he doesn’t know that Nigeria has a winner-takes-it-all political environment and that if you don’t have the presidency, you are not going to make any impact. So how does he think that an Igbo party which covers only five states will achieve this electoral victory requirement? It was politically naïve people like Chekwas Okorie that ill-advised Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu to join Hausa-Fulani party (NPN) which led to his humiliating defeat in 1983.

From 1970 till date, Igbo politicians have consistently betrayed those from Igbo-speaking areas of Biafraland and have been in the forefront of frustrating the quest for the restoration of the nation of Biafra. Biafrans are therefore, placing Igbo politicians on notice that we will no longer tolerate the sell-out of our people on the platter of the disgusting lucre from the decrepit Nigerian politics. Enough is enough to these Igbo saboteurs who see Biafra and IPOB as a means of personal aggrandizements and cutting of deals with the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy. The monetization of Igbos in Nigerian politics must come to an end. Under the stewardship of political contractors like Chekwas Okorie, they presided over the balkanization of Igboland such that a part of Ika called Igbanke was carved into Edo state. Even Egbema land was divided into two with a part in Imo state and the other part in Rivers state fondly known as part of the unconstitutional South-South and as a result of this, the former IGP of Police Mike Okiro is today regarded as someone from South-South. These Igbo political jobbers and lameducks have not made any conscious efforts to even unite the Igbo-speaking areas of Biafraland. If not for IPOB under the leadership of Nnamdi Kanu, most Biafrans would not have known that Idoma and Igala lands are part of Biafra. Igbo politicians like Chekwas Okorie suffer from the three diseases of a typical Igbo man which are greed, envy and jealousy. Hence their envy against the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, over his monumental and exceptional achievements and charismatic cum servant leadership qualities. For Chekwas Okorie, he has met his denouement and at the appropriate time, he shall be called to account for his mockery of the dead Biafran heroes. Chekwas Okorie has betrayed the trust and confidence reposed in him by the leader of IPOB and he will never be forgiven. Chekwas Okorie will soon find out that it does not pay to be a Biafran saboteur.

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Is Buhari Accidentally Leading Nigeria to a Breakup?

Retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari has done more than anybody in the history of Nigeria to divide and dismember the British-created Nigeria. Buhari has significantly catalyzed and fast-forwarded the restoration of the nation of Biafra. Without the efforts of Buhari, the crescendo reached today on the return of the nation of Biafra would not have been possible. From bombing of Cross River and Akwa Ibom States with the banned NAPALM bombs, through the genocidal killings of Biafrans from August 2015 to February 2016, and to the utter disregard of court orders, Buhari has steadily and consistently worked in the favor of the re-emergence of Biafra. The irrelevance to which former President Goodluck Jonathan consigned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was reversed by Buhari, all to the advantage of Biafrans.
There are several factors that propelled Buhari to quicken the restoration of Biafra. Among these are the blood-thirsty nature of Buhari and the neo-Hitler attitudes of this despot. Another big factor is the misinformation he received from his incompetent Department of State Services (DSS) who deceived him into believing that incarcerating the leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, will work in his favor. There is also his belief in using weapons and brute force to solve simple political problems. Today, it is evident that if anybody is in danger in the entire Nigeria, it is attributable to Buhari. This man is an incarnate of Mohamed Siad Barre of Somalia and the outcome is the ongoing dismemberment of Nigeria and the quickened restoration of the nation of Biafra.
Just like his role model Mohamed Siad Barre, Buhari has indulged in crimes against humanity and in selective cum partisan indictments. For instance, he ordered the unlawful arrest, detention and public intimidation of Femi Fani-Kayode for standing up for the truth when most Yoruba so-called elites are terrified to speak. The condemnable barbaric slaughter of hundreds of innocent Shiite Muslims in Zaria and unwarranted illegal detention of their leader Zakzaky are all contributing to the calamitous collapse of the Lugard-created Nigeria. Why Fani-Kayode is being detained for alleged fraud while Chibuike Amechi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu are allowed to walk freely is beyond human comprehension.
Why arrest Fani-Kayode, a Yoruba man, when a Hausa-Fulani man called Ibrahim Lamorde, a former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss that stole Four Trillion Naira is free to enjoy his loot? Why arrest Fani-Kayode for corruption when Halliburton scandal involving mainly Hausa-Fulani people is yet to be investigated?
From his terrible public utterances, to his divisive and sectional government policies, through his placement of only Hausa-Fulani people in his “kitchen cabinet“, to killing of Biafrans and Shiite Muslims, Buhari has worked tirelessly for the balkanization of Nigeria. The Indigenous People of Biafra are happy for this leadership style of Buhari. We pray that he continues unceasingly. Even the illegal incarceration and unconstitutional prosecution of the leader of IPOB have worked maximally to the favour of Biafrans. We urge Buhari to continue and not to stop because we want to see the independent nation of Biafra come very soon and Buhari is speedily bringing it to fruition.