Return of the Biafran Tide

 

BIAFRA is not an enclave, a bight, a peo­ple, a tribe, or an institution. It is not quite easy to define which is why it is difficult to control, or push, or hide, to say nothing of killing. It cannot be conquered or defeated or extinguished. My candid observation is that it is like a tide. It comes sometimes with a clamor, sometimes, it comes in si­lence. But when it comes, it poses a chal­lenge for both sides.
The current arrival of the tide was quiet. Almost everyone ignored it. Most were in­different. We’ve seen many tides before. They never amounted to much. Then, someone said there was a Radio Biafra, a pirate radio station pretending to speak for Biafra and Biafrans. Like most people, this writer waved it off and never had the inclination, having lost radio listening hab­it decades ago. My last radio set was left in the village when I discovered that a set of batteries perished inside it, damaging the battery compartment and the springs that held the batteries.
When the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) began to campaign against Radio Biafra, I was aghast. Why do you want to make a hero out of a pi­rate radio that no one listens to? No one ever did a comprehensive review of the station’s programs, if it had any. Soon enough the station was “captured” and put off the air or so it was announced. This was to be expected. It was kind of an anti-climax and I imagined that would be quiet thereafter.
Then, I heard of a protest, a pro-Bi­afra protest for the seizure of the radio. Which meant that there were people who actually listened to Radio Biafra. Then the man who was said to be the motivator, producer, director, the heart and soul of the radio station, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, was also taken into custody. Having captured the radio and its broadcaster, the next logical thing was to put the man and his co-conspirators on trial.
When this was not done, I thought Mr. Kanu had been cautioned and dis­charged. Then, there were more protests that Mr. Kanu was still being held, and appeals by the “Indigenous People of Bi­afra” went out to the world. You wouldn’t blame them.
This week was 20 years Mr. Ken Saro- Wiwa was ‘murdered’ on the order of a kangaroo court set up to try him for a murder he was no where near where it was committed. ‘Like play, like play,’ Mr. Saro-Wiwa was arrested. A special tribunal was set up which wasted no time in condemning him to death by hanging, an execution which was carried out al­most before the ink was dried on the pa­per on which that travesty of a judgment was written.

  

So, I don’t blame Nnamdi Kanu’s lis­teners, friends, and well-wishers who have kept protesting his continued de­tention. My fear is that the Ogonis also protested Mr. Saro-Wiwa’s incarceration, to no avail. The hope is that Mr. Kanu’s case would be different, although there is no basis for that optimism, given the silence and the dark signals emanating from all the power centers, including those who keep reminding the Biafrans of Biafra.

Biafra survives because it is an idea based on the laws of nature which impels any liv­ing organism to strive for self-survival. I think this is the only way one can explain the now and again return of the tide of Bi­afra. It survives because there is a Biafra perpetuation syndrome which plagues the Nigerian nation. Unless the Biafra perpetu­ation syndrome is cured, the Biafra tide will continue to return. And when it returns, it comes to haunt Nigeria in a manner that nothing else does.

The Biafra tide whenever it returns takes you all the way back to January 1966 when a group of misguided murderous soldiers unleashed irrational violence on some emi­nent Nigerians. After the deed was done, rather than hunt down the murderers, it was found quite convenient to condemn an en­tire region for the crimes of a few. That was the origin of Biafra. Almost all the young men and women protesting in the name of Biafra today were not born in 1966. So, why do they need to protest? The answer must be given by the young people themselves. But a bulk of them is of Igbo origin. The impor­tant fact about that is that the Igbo are not given to protesting.

The young men and women look around them and see nothing but injustice all around them. Then they put this side by side with the experience of their parents which, at first, they had thought unbelievable. They put two plus two together.

The Guardian reported one million marchers in Aba. If that figure is right, then it is foolhardy for anyone in Aso Villa to pre­tend that this is a freak protest, even if it is. Nnamdi Kanu should be taken to the courts and arraigned. He has caused no violence; he has threatened no one, and, like my peo­ple say, it is cheaper to sacrifice a day-old chick early in lieu of having to provide an elephant later.

Biafra will not go away. Holding Nnamdi Kanu won’t just help in any form. Unless, of course, the Buhari administration wants to begin the assembly of political prisoners. Kanu would be an excellent start.
Falae’s Kidnappers

Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) drew public atten­tion to the fact that after the hullabaloo over the kidnapping of Chief Olu Falae by Fulani herdsmen, two sets of accused persons were shown the public. One set was paraded by the Nigeria Police Force.

A different set was paraded by the State Security Service (SSS). Mr. Falae, the vic­tim, is available as a witness. The two sets of accused persons have confessed according to both the Police and the SSS. |Weeks after these arrests, why has there been no trial of the kidnappers?

Falana in his statement said he was drawing attention to this unusual situation because it has been used once as a subterfuge to let free and cover up a murder case in the past.

Why is there some confusion about which organization should lead in the investigation of crimes? While it is imperative that the agen­cies and departments work hand-in-hand why is there no clear definition as to which should handle prosecution? Or is Falana’s suspicion of a subterfuge becoming a reality?