Monsters that oppose restructuring and beasts that threaten war -By Femi Fani-Kayode

Femi Fani-Kayode

“Treat the surrendering Biafrans well or risk their children rising again” – Col. Phillip Effiong, Vice President of Biafra, 1970.

These profound words from a wise and deeply courageous man have proved to be prophetic.

The truth is that those that resist the idea of restructuring and that say no to the conducting of a referendum on self-determination by the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria are arch-conservatives that seek to preserve what the French call the “ancien regime”.

They are people that have fed fat on Nigeria and the very idea of dismantling and reforming our constitutional structure, redefining our nation and allowing the will of the people to be done terrifies them beyond belief because they stand to lose everything.

They remind me of the dark and relentless forces that once opposed the break-up of the Soviet Union. They remind me of the sinister and savage forces that once supported apartheid and opposed black majority rule in South Africa.

They remind me of the Royalist forces in pre-Cromwellian England who opposed parliamentary democracy and who believed in the absolute power and divine right of kings.

They are ignorant, self-serving, reactionary, godless and cruel people that are still living in an inglorious, inequitable and unconscionable past. Worst still, they are suffering from chronic delusions and they are out of touch with reality.

They are modern-day slave masters who seek to preserve and protect a cruel, moribund, retrograde, unjust and failed system which serves their interest alone and which cages and destroys the future and destiny of our people.

They use childish tales about the horrors of war to deter us from insisting on our rights and fighting for our freedom.

They insist that we must accept the fact that we are slaves and second class citizens, Nigeria was bequeathed to them and their misguided and servile friends and allies by our erstwhile and ever so reactionary British colonial masters.

They use the security agencies, the Armed Forces, the traditional rulers, the media, the ruling class, the political elite and all the other tools of oppression to intimidate and demonise us, paint us black, stand in our way and drown our voices but in the end they will fail and we shall prevail.

The insightful Mr. Phil Smart wrote that “the ultimate test of a democrat are his views on self-determination”. He is right. Mr. Jude Nwadavid asked, “Can someone explain how asking for self-determination translates into asking for war and bloodshed?”

He asked, “Could it be that a man asking for divorce from an unfaithful wife is actually asking for war from the in-laws and other relations?”

These are pertinent and appropriate questions from a keen and erudite mind which those that threaten war and spit hell-fire and brimstone each time they hear the words “restructuring” and “self-determination” need to answer.

Finally Mr. Ibrahim Bunu from Southern Kaduna, who is a leading member of the Christian Arise Network, and one of the rising stars of Middle Belt politics, asked, “If the North says they want to secede, would those that oppose Biafra reason the way they are reasoning? If they did not oppose sharia law, why bother about Biafra?”

The truth is that there can be no peace without freedom and justice and the prayer is, “May the Lord trouble those that seek to trouble us”.

The prayer is, May He cage the monsters that oppose restructuring and may He disarm and remove the teeth and strength of the beasts that threaten war.

Regardless of their insults and threats, we shall march on and secure our collective freedom. The numerous ethnic groups that make up Nigeria deserve no less.

It is a march of courage, righteousness, equal rights and justice to which a million voices sing.

The forces of darkness and the internal colonial masters cannot stop a moving train: they shall bow to the will of the people and the counsel of the Living God.

Nigeria is an evil, boiling cauldron of suffering that is filled with body parts and entrails and that has destroyed the dreams and consumed the lives of millions of innocent and precious souls over the years.

Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Aviation