Has the Sun set in Biafra? -By Ezinwanne Onwuka

In his victory message to the nation on 15 January 1970, General Yakubu Gowon categorically stated, ‘The “Rising Sun of Biafra” is set for ever. It will be a great disservice for anyone to continue to use the word “Biafra” to refer to any part of the East Central State of Nigeria.’ His speech, The Dawn of National Reconciliation, was given on the day the 30-month civil war ended, and his aforementioned remarks was premised on the fact that Biafra raising the white flag means the total annihilation of the Biafran struggle.

To Gowon’s chagrin, 52 years after, the grim struggle for the Republic of Biafra still lingers, even while there is no prospect of recreating it; apparently because the issues that led late Major General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu to declare the short-lived independent and sovereign state of Biafra on 29 May 1967 cannot be said to have abated, rather the issues have patently become worse.

Though Gowon had declared that the outcome of the war was that of ‘no victor, no vanquished’, the reality on ground indicates that the Igbos have always been regarded and treated as a conquered nation. In aspects of the Nigerian polity, particularly politics, the Igbos have been openly marginalised, rubbishing the ‘no victor, no vanquished’ declaration.

In his speech, Gowon noted that the ‘objectives in fighting the war to crush Ojukwu’s rebellion’ was ‘to preserve the territorial integrity and unity of Nigeria.’ However, Nigerian politics for the greater proportion of it’s post-war history seems to have widened the rupture in national unity. This continued marginalisation of the Igbos is the reason for the emergence of Biafran groups and movements such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) among others, demanding for the re-establishment of an independent Biafran state as a panacea to the alienation of the Igbos in the Nigerian state.

Threatened by the agitations of a post-war Igbo generation who do not accept the obvious marginalisation of the Igbos in Nigeria, the Nigerian government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari abducted the leader of the IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya in late June 2021, and illegally transported him to the nation’s capital, Abuja, for an indefinite solitary detention on charges of treason. President Buhari’s hatred for the Igbos became glaring when he described the IPOB, and by extension the Igbos, as a ‘dot in a circle’, and his recent appeal to the country’s international allies to declare the group, IPOB, as a terrorist organisation.

These efforts to silence the agitators notwithstanding, the Igbo nationalism—just like any other nationalism—anchored on a shared vision among the Igbos that they are better off as an independent state than being an integral part of the Nigerian state, has remained unabated.

However, the rallying cry of the Igbos for the actualisation of the sovereign state of Biafra seems to have died down. In the last six months, there has been an unusual quietness on the eastern front. There are no more rabbles about Biafra in the streets. From all indications, the attention has shifted from Nnamdi Kanu who is in detention to Mr Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party ahead of the 2023 general elections. The former is now remembered only on the day of his court appearances.

Following, the declaration of his interest to run for presidency, Peter Obi has amassed huge followers, especially from the southeast. He is adjudged to be the most credible of the four frontline presidential candidates. The others being Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party.

No doubt, the mass support for Peter Obi is justified: an Igbo presidency would make the Igbos feel a sense of belonging and allay their fears of being marginalised. Nevertheless, while Peter Obi’s move to join the 2023 presidential race is audacious—he appears to be the only politician from the Igbo extraction that still has his integrity intact—the fact that he is concerned about taking Nigeria from ‘a consuming nation to a productive nation’ reveals his disinterestedness in the Biafran struggle, his belief in ‘One Nigeria’, and his commitment to restoring the glory of the ‘zoo’.

It is therefore hard to reconcile the agitation for secession and the unflinching support for Igbo presidency by the south-easterners. An Igbo presidency would imply that the ‘Rising sun of Biafra is set for ever’, just like Gowon stated, or wouldn’t it?

Ezinwanne can be reached via ezinwanne.dominion@gmail.com