BIAFRA: 49 YEARS OF BLOOD AND KILLING

The smouldering agitation of self determination by some groups and individuals in the south-east Geo political zone of Nigeria as expressed in the rebirth of biafra has of recent assumed varying definitions and stakes.

From a shrill level of stillness after a rejuvenated crescendo some 16 odd years ago, the recent arrest of nnamdi kanu,, an arrowhead in the struggle and director of the pirate radio biafra on October 19, 2015, has given more impetus to the struggle.

The upsurge in the restiveness since may 29 this year when the new regime of president Muhammad Buhari was sworn in was ignited by perceived lopsidedness in the initial key appointments he made, and declarations he made in far away united states of America that those who did not vote for him in the elections should not expect to profit where they did not sow.

The statement took the heartlands of the south-east by storm and was interpreted as a veiled reference to them who through their votes thumbed a resounding no to his presidential quest over the years. In the new offensive, about 71 deaths have been recorded and scores detained by agents of the government.

Indeed, the national director of information of the movement for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra, MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu recently alleged extra judicial killings of some of their detained members in Ebonyi state.the high casualty figures of the agitators who adopted passive resistance over the years have implanted a consciousness of recklessness and deeper significance of their struggle and its meaning to them.

They are telling the rest of the world In parables and acts that their lives are less important than the meaning of their lives. They are so seized with the symbolic fervor and intoxicated with their xenophobic dream that they are willing to view themselves as a sacrifice to history. For 49 years, blood has been spilled over this.

An estimated three million people perished in the fratricidal, civil war that lasted 30 months between May 30,1967 and January 12, 1970. Since then more than 2,338 people have lost their lives in various Biafra related uprisings. In 2014, in what clearly look like a suicide mission, some activists of the biafran Zionist movement, BZM attempted to seize a government owned radio station in Enugu and the government house Enugu, killing a policeman in the process. They were rounded up and put in detention since then.

What is Biafra? 

There are several postulations as to the origin of the word ‘bight’ as in bight of Biafra.one accounts it as a cartographic indication for the word “exit”. It explains that it is a body of water that serves as a particular exit from the international shipping lanes to a brighter station a long curve in a coastline. A bay is formed by this curve.

Passenger voyages were the only means of international travel for most of human history and they were done through one of these bights to international trans Atlantic water lanes. Another meaning of Biafra relates to “Bia”, the igbo word for “come”. The word, according to encyclopedia Britannica likely derives from Biafar or Biafada of the tenda ethnic group who reside mainly in guinea Bissau.