The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Wednesday, said it welcomed the statement attributed to President Muhammadu Buhari, declaring that any Nigerian is free to leave the country if they have another one, but says no to the conditions he gave for such exit.
Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB IPOB in a statement entitled, “IPOB welcomes Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration on the impending disintegration of Nigeria, but says no to conditions” signed by its spokespersons Mr. Emma Nmezu, a lawyer and Dr. Clifford Iroanya, said that it was delighted with the comment of Mr. President who seems to have bowed to international pressure to consider the inevitable disintegration of Nigeria. IPOB statement read:
“We the IPOB are delighted with the comments attributed to retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who seems to have bowed to international pressure to consider the inevitable disintegration of Nigeria, though with conditions we find inconsistent with common sense and logic.” “According to Buhari, “any Nigerian is free to leave the country if they have another one.” Buhari also stated that “If anybody has a country to go to, let him go, we will stay here and salvage our country.”
“It is crystal clear that Buhari has seen the futility of fighting against a determined people who are bent on restoring their God-given nation which was unjustly robbed them by slave merchants later turned colonialists. “From all indications, Buhari must have consulted with his colonial backers and religious hardliners in Saudi Arabia who perhaps have taken the time to school him on the sanctity of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, UNDRIP, the inviolability and irreducibility of the rights of Indigenous People to self-determination.
“However, we observed that hidden in the statements of Buhari are two evil agendas, first evil agenda is that Buhari made this statement in a meeting he had with Biafrans from the riverine or southern part of Biafra which the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy nicknamed South-South or Niger-Delta. “The underlying objective in Buhari’s statement is to create the impression that the South-South is not part of Biafraland, hence the upland areas of Biafra, Igbo can leave Nigeria while the riverine areas Ibibio, Efik, Izon, Itshekiri, Urhobo, Isoko will remain part of Nigeria.
“The plan is to trap the riverine areas of Biafraland in Nigeria to enable Buhari and his Hausa-Fulani oligarchy continue the shameless exploitation and stealing of Biafra’s natural resources which they have always used and will continue to use to develop the Arewa region of Nigeria.
“The only surprise is that Buhari and his handlers did not include the rich Orient oil fields of Anambra River Basin, the high yield Shell operated Egbema oil fields in Imo State, the abundant gas reserves at Ohaji also in Imo State and the Shell operated Ukwa deep oil well in Abia State in their so-called South-South/Niger Delta.”
According to IPOB, “successive governments of Nigeria have continued to deceive the gullible public that the reason we IPOB are agitating for Biafra is because of oil in the Niger Delta region, without making obvious the fact that oil was first found in commercial quantity in Imo State before Oloibiri in Bayelsa State. “Sadly many people are still ignorant of the fact that active oil and gas extraction is happening today in Anambra, Imo, Abia and Igbo parts of Rivers State. It is pertinent we make clear to all and sundry that while oil may motivate the Arewa North to seek One Nigeria because they cannot live without it, due to obvious reasons and nature, in Biafraland and in the new Biafra we shall place 100% emphasis on human capital development not on natural occurring minerals.
“For a country to pin the hopes of its entire economic policy and well being on a finite natural resource is indicative of the level of intellectual backwardness of the self arrogating “elites” that run the economy of the colonial creation known as Nigeria.
We the Indigenous People of Biafra believe that the greatest natural resource a people can be endowed with is their brain not what is under the ground. “We must stress for purposes of sound knowledge that there is no known geographical cardinal point in any geography text book or academic literature or any part of this world called “South-South” except in Nigeria. “This unique un-academic introduction of a new cardinal point called “South-South” was created by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy to serve their divide and rule interests. With this dichotomy they intend to continue to own virtually all the oil blocks in Biafraland including those at Anambra, Imo, Abia and Igbo parts of Rivers State.
“But the same Hausa-Fulani natural born rulers of Nigeria refused to create corresponding cardinal points of “North-North” and “West-West.” Sensible people must ask themselves why this is the case. “The Hausa-Fulani ruling class carefully created this unique cardinal point of “South-South” to drive an everlasting wedge between the upland and riverine areas of Biafraland.
Furthermore, the “South-South” is not contained in any part of the Constitution of Nigeria nor is it any of the Acts of Parliament or Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The second evil agenda is that by making such statements before these respected leaders from the riverine area of Biafraland, he is creating the false impression that he has obtained the consent of the people of Southern Biafra to build the Nigeria of his dreams, and in so doing is giving a misleading signal that Biafrans from the riverine areas have bought into his deceptive and foundationally disastrous “One Nigeria” project. “By gathering a few Biafrans from the riverine areas and saying that “those who don’t want to be part of Nigeria should leave,” Buhari hopes to convince the world that those Biafrans he was addressing at Aso Rock believe in the “oneness” of the British colony Nigeria he is assiduously pursuing.
“We the IPOB at this point would wish to categorically inform Mr. President that since we already have our blessed nation Biafra created by the Most High God not man; we do not need the temporary country created by a white man Luggard for his amusement and economic exploitation.
“We wish to further inform Mr. President that IPOB do not desire to regress from the status of a nation state to that of a country artificially created by the British with divergent and irreconcilable value systems. Even today nations that make up Britain like Scotland and Wales are agitating as we Biafrans are, to establish their own nation state outside Britain, so why should Nigeria that is created by a white British man be immune to similar demands being made by Biafrans.”
VANGUARD
