In recent times, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have been at the forefront of agitation for the creation of the sovereign state of Biafra. The group is calling for a referendum, stating that they will continue to agitate until the Nigerian government fixes a date for a referendum for the people of the Southeast geo-political zone to determine their stay in Nigeria.
The group's complaints stem from the gross marginalization of the people of the present-day southeast geo-political zone of Nigeria, who constitute the bulk of the defunct Republic of Biafra.
IPOB agitation seems to be gaining ground
each day, only a person unmindful of the political situation in the country
will pretend not to witness the unfolding political situation. No doubt,
Nigeria’s unity as it stands today has a question mark. A united people forge a
common ground, it propels the advancement of a nation, a currency that binds a
nation irrespective of the religious, social, or political leanings.
What IPOB is agitating for is not new in
Nigeria. The movement came with its right-wing ideology on how to actualise the
sovereign state of Biafra, which has awakened the Biafran consciousness in the
average Igbo person. Many people of Igbo extraction, who never gave thought to
Biafra, now see themselves as more Biafrans than Nigerians. The country has
a history of political agitation that has threatened and still threatens the unity of
Nigeria.
Before the Nigerian Civil War, Isaac Adaka
Boro, led a twelve-day war at emancipating his fellow Ijaw ethnic nationality
from what he called the marginalization of his people, though, rarely mentioned as the first person to set the tone for agitation of a people or
region. Isaac Boro challenged the exploitation and deprivation of the
region as the resources were being channeled to develop other regions of the
country.
Isaac Boro led the Niger Delta Volunteer
Force (NDVF) on February 23, 1966, in what is known as the ‘Kaiama Declaration’
to liberate the Ijaw Nation from the Socio-economic oppression of the Nigerian
State and the Eastern Regional Government of Nigeria, the secessionist
movement declared the Niger Delta Republic. He was jailed for treason by
Aguiyi Ironsi military regime, later released by Gen. Yakubu Gowon's administration, and used to fight against the breakaway Republic of Biafra.
It was on this point that other Niger Delta
militants and other agitators, like Asari Dokubo, led the Niger Delta People’s
Volunteer Force which would become one of the most prominent armed groups
operating in the Niger Delta region and others who subsequently fought for the
region to enjoy a meager benefit of the proceeds of oil which is derived from
the region.
Late Ken Saro-Wiwa president, of the Movement
for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), led a campaign against
environmental degradation of the land and waterways of Ogoniland by the
operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch
Shell company, met his death in the cause.
The 18 months Nigerian Civil War was the
fallout from the Aburi Accord non-implementation between the Nigerian State and
then Eastern Regional Government. Primarily, among other things the Accord
agreed upon a loose confederation of regions; the status quo of the system of government
before the civil war. This allowed every region to develop at its pace, but
the Central Government reneged on their return from Aburi, Ghana, thus Nigerian
Civil War ensued.
Odua People’s congress (OPC) was formed in
1994, as an organisation to actualize the annulled mandate of Moshood Abiola, a
Yoruba who won the annulled presidential election of June 12, 1993. Today, the
group is not perceived as a militant group but was established to fight to
redeem and advance the status of the Yoruba race in the face of winding brazen
oppression and subjugation of the annulled presidential
election.
Fifteen years ago, the Movement for the
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), a secessionist
movement awakened and championed the Biafra consciousness in Nigeria and in
Diaspora. Now, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist organization is
calling for a referendum, stating that they will continue to agitate until a
referendum is held.
IPOB with its right-wing ideology has taken
the country by storm. The group activities now overshadow that of MASSOB, in
what it calls the gross Igbo marginalization in the enterprise called Nigeria.
In no time of the country's history since the post-civil war has Nigeria’s
unity been questioned since the emergence of IPOB.
The crux of every sectional agitation points
to political negligence. The collective or intentional will of a group or
section to suppress or marginalize others is a deliberate policy that truncates
true federalism, particularly as it affects democracy. Federalism is a system
of shared responsibility for governance between central and peripheral
governments.
In true federalism, the states are not merely
regional representatives of the federal government but are granted independent
powers and responsibilities. By constitutional arrangement, this arrangement
not only allows state governments to respond directly to the interests of their
local populations’ thereby encouraging political and economic freedom but also
serves to check the power of the federal government.
In 2013, then Lagos State governor and
present Federal Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Raji Fashola called for
the devolution of more powers to the states as a free federating unit and the
entrenchment of true fiscal federalism, even as he said the federal government
policies were responsible for socio-economic maladies the country suffers, a
position that his party and most Nigerians supported. Given that this was said
when his party was in the opposition, and now that the tide of leadership has
turned in favour of his party, no party members now sing the song of true
federalism.
The deplorable state of federal roads in this part of the country is a growing concern. The absence of federal government presence in the Southeast
among other well-established negligence clearly points to why many people support
groups like MASSOB and IPOB.
The 2014 National Constitutional Conference
report, one of the boldest attempts in recent times in appraising the
operational structure and system on which the country is run, is yet to be
implemented. The report faced opposition from some people who felt they
would lose their grip on power.
True implementation of
true federalism is what the country needs to remain united. It is time for the
federal government to look
into the various agitations. Not everyone may agree with IPOB and MASSOB's stand
but looking into the cause behind their agitations would discourage
secessionist movements and encourage the country’s unity, which most people from the Southeast subscribe to - United Nigeria.
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