The Biafran resurgence appears to be a ghost that has refused to quit the Nigeria milieu.
Why is this so? Why has the ghost of Biafra continued to haunt Nigeria
several years after the civil war? There are divergent opinion and
postulations on the possible reasons.
Why is this so? Why has the ghost of
Biafra continued to haunt Nigeria several years after the civil war?
There are divergent opinion and postulations on the possible reasons.
This author has taken pains to analyse
the historical dialectics of cases in similitude to the Biafrans
conundrum in other parts of the world.
He has studied the cases of former
Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East Timor, South Sudan,
Eritrea, Canada, Spain and even Britain.
Though not an expert in international
law and relations, this author has also taken pains to study and ponder
the position of international law on the issue of self-determination.
Why is it that a people amalgamated one
hundred and something years ago (though tongue and tribes differ) still
nurse centrifugal disposition.
What factors can make a heterogeneous
polity like ours to knit towards common ideals despite the
heterogeneity. Why does it appear that we learn t nothing from the
brutal war of the middle 60s?
The truth is that the Nigerian society exhibits tendencies and traits that encourage dissonance, dissidence and dissent.
The seeming and perennial injustice,
treacherous leadership, insincerity from high places, inhumanity and
blatant impunity evokes centrifugal tendencies and rebellion in the
polity.
Even before the Biafran war of the 60s,
there were rebellion in Tiv land, Yoruba and Niger Delta region. Even
the Talakawas of the Arewa region also rebelled against the tyranny of
the feudalists of the North.
The injustice and impunity which was
inherited from the pre-colonial feudalistic tendencies of the North and
the insensitivity prone tendencies of several Southern societies endured
in the post-colonial era.
The British despite its exploitative
posture in the colonial times still managed to tame those pre-colonial
atavistic tendencies until it (Britain) receded from Nigeria at
Independence
After independence, the good, bad and
ugly tendencies of the diverse people of Nigeria manifested again and
were unable to be managed until the outbreak of the Biafran war.
But Nigeria is not the only diverse and
heterogeneous nation in the world. Many of such nations despite their
diversity have made their polity the citadel of peace and prosperity.
Why is our own different?
Why do our rulers relish impunity and corruption?
Why do they pitch one group against another?
Why do they create conditions that lead to insurrection?
As long as the Nigerian society is
unfair and unjust to her citizens and as long as the ruling class is
selfish, corrupt and dishonest, so long will centrifugal forces continue
to rear their heads in our polity
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