When in the 30th day of May, 1967, the General Odumegwu Ojukwu, of blessed memory, the Ezeigbo gburu gburu and the then leader of the Eastern Regional Government of Nigeria declared Biafra as an independent state from the rest of Nigeria, it was dubbed as a secessionist movement. There was however, little or no emphasis by the critics of the war on the fact that the founding of Biafra by Ojukwu was inevitable, as it was forced on him by the massacre of tens of thousands of Igbos in the Muslim-dominated North.
The marginalisation, subjugation and complete isolation and targeted killing of the Igbos in Nigeria has been rampant and long in existence in the Northern part of the country. The governments and the state houses in the entire 12 Northern states have either treated these killings with levity or just simply with ignominy. The actions of the state inevitably suggests that the life of the Igbos in their numbers are only as important as the life of sacrificial lambs which can and must be allowed to be wasted at will, if need be, to appease fellow Northern Muslims.
What has today become far more worrisome is the undeniable fact that the killing of the Igbos in Nigeria have today become wide spread around the country, and has inadvertently or arguably perhaps has become unofficial state policy of the notorious regime of General Muhammadu Buhari. Under this destructive regime, the Igbos are today either maimed, killed or threatened all across the North and also in the South. There have been several of such incidents and killings of the Igbos since 2015 and the Federal, States or security agents have done little or nothing to arrest or prosecute their killers and the perpetrators of various forms of evils against the Igbos.
Mr. John Nwodo, the President General of the Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo social-cultural group had chronicled a few of the killings which up till date the security apparatus have refused, neglected or intentionally failed to apprehend and put the killers to trial. “… since 2015, five Igbo people have been lynched in Abuja. On the 23rd of September 2015, Arinze Chikwelu, from Enugu State, on an errand to buy rechargeable lantern, and on demand for change, was accused to be a thief and was stabbed 47 times and the police has been unable to do anything about this.
“Another was Maduabuchi Ezenwa from Imo State who was lynched following altercation with Hausa trader. Also Ikechukwu Ugwu from Enugu State, after barbing, entered a “Keke,” paid money and asked for change, change was refused, and instead he was accused of being “barawo” and was lynched to death.
“Ndubuisi Obika from Abia state was beheaded in his farm in Abuja and his head was not found until two weeks later.
“Now in May this year, a young man, pressed to urinate, urinated in a gutter closed to a Mosque in an area in Abuja called Gwagwa, he was lynched to death, nobody has been arrested and prosecuted. In October 2016, Sylvester Oziria from Anambra state was killed in Palado, Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa state.
“In Niger State, Emmanuel Chukwumaije from Enugu state was killed in Pandigori in Rafy Local Government Area after being accused of blasphemy, properties, shops and churches belonging to Igbo were burnt. Even when the local government Chairman said the young man was innocent, no compensation has been paid.
“And just last Thursday, a young man called Ikenna Nwabueze, while all this is going on, was killed in Kano, and police has not arrested any suspect. Of course you know about the case of Bridget in Kano in June of last year.”
Not even in the South East are the Igbos spared the gory pains of humiliation and premeditated killings through direct and indirect state sponsored terrorism. Today, Igbos are killed in their numbers even in their home region in the South Easter part of the country, either directly by the official agents of government like the Nigeria police, the army, Department of State Security (DSS) and navy or indirectly through the Fulani herdsmen’s unprovoked attacks.
Writing on the Washington Times last September Bruce Fein wrote on as follows: “The courageous and influential Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB has had his home invaded by the Nigerian military many members of IPOB killed in the process, on the orders of Muhammadu Buhari. Grisly videos and photos taken at scenes of the harrowing crimes are conclusive. What they prove amounts to state terrorism—the systematic employment of violence to intimidate or coerce a civilian population. “
Buhari’s Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai in 2017 declared war on the unarmed and harmless Igbo civilians in the South East in a genocide exercise they dubbed “Operation Python Dance.” More than 500 members of the IPOB and their supporters have been killed by Nigerian security operatives under the directive of the Nigerian government between since the inception the Buhari’s government until date. As independently confirmed by Wikipedia and Transparency International the more about 150 of the Igbos have been massacred by this government because of Biafra, between August 30, 2015 and February 9, 2016 alone.
Notable among the Igbo killings in their home land by the Nigerian security forces have been carried out during very peaceful protests by that took place in some cities in the South East. On the 2nd day of December 2, 2015 in the city of Onitsha not less than 11 Igbos lost their lives in the hands of the men and officers of the Nigerian Police and Army. Also, in Aba on February 9, 2016, six members of IPOB were killed by Nigerian security forces and about 20 others arrested. Further, the Nigerian soldiers clandestinely killed and burned the corpses of Biafran activists in a separate incident in Aba on the same day.
In addition to the killings, Igbo nationalities and members of IPOB who are at the forefront of the agitations for Biafra have been subjected to abuse, intimidation and harassment by Nigerian security operatives. On December 23, 2015, many Igbos returning home for Christmas celebrations from the western part of the country were detained and molested on the Onitsha Niger River Bridge for several hours by soldiers conducting stop and search operations. The gridlock occasioned by this lasted for up to twelve hours with many commuters spending the night on both ends of the bridge
The world must also know that additionally to the attacks, harassments and killings of the Igbos by the Nigerian security operatives, the Fulani herdsmen have also severally unleashed mayhem on the Igbos even in their homes in the South East. The Fulani Herdsmen is an organised and well known notorious gang known as Myitta-Allah and currently led by one Alhaji Ado Amudu. This terrorist group have sacked and terrorised many communities in the South East, killing and raping innocent and defenceless Igbo men and women in their homes and in the farms.
As at date the criminals and merchants of death have killed Igbos in their numbers, while feeding farm produce belonging to helpless Igbos to their cows. In a single incident in Ukpabi-Nimbo, in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State hell was let loose when the dare-devil herdsmen, numbering over 500, unleashed terror on hapless natives, killing 46 and burning the Christ Holy Catholic Church, Odozi-Obodo. 11 houses were razed while 14 victims were lying critically ill at Royal Cross Hospital, Nsukka, Nsukka District General Hospital and Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka. Recently this herdsmen invaded Enyanwu Igwe village on Monday, killing four persons and destroyed economic trees and other properties worth millions of naira.
All these atrocities are perpetuated under the watchful eyes and overt and/or tacit approval of Muhammadu Buhari and his Fulani hegemony who are systematically actualising their Fulani supremacy agenda. The Buhari government have overseen the extra judicial killing and imprisonment of hundreds of innocent men and women whose only “sin” is simply been Igbo and Christians. Hundreds of Igbo civilians have died and more have been injured or terrorized by the orders of Buhari through his military, police, Department of State Security (DSS) and navy, as well as the Fulani herders.
The Igbos have since realised the impossibility of their survival under un-restructured Nigeria as a single country where inequity and injustice have hampered and stifled the ingenuity and creativity of the “Jews of Africa”. In view of this reality the Igbos have since made on a run for their freedom from Nigeria. In the most recent times the clarion call for the Great Biafran Republic is been championed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Members of this group are today hunted, hounded, illegally arrested without trial, detained arbitrarily and even extra-judicially killed by the Buhari administration.
The Nigerian government does not want freedom to the Igbo nation. They neither want an independent Biafra nor a restructured Nigeria that will unlock development for the industrious people of the Igbo nation. It is on record that this strange and obnoxious Nigerian government is today tacitly supporting the curtailing of freedom of movement of the Igbos even across Nigeria. Just barely a year now, Muhammadu Buhari’s government implicitly endorsed a Hausa-Fulani “eviction order” handed over to the Igbos living in the North of Nigeria, ordering them to move out of the North or face another genocide of the same nature that precipitated the Nigerian civil war.
It was a direct and open threat to forcefully expel more than 11 million hardworking Igbos in the twelve states in northern Nigerian on or before the 1st day of October, 2017 or face the immediate inversion of their homes and violent plunder of their properties and businesses, and off course the ultimate loss of their lives and those of their families like in 1966. Consequently, for fear impending harm and in the absence of reliable government protection, most Igbos were forced out of their livelihood and from a place they have called home most of their lives.
This threat was eventually not carried out, but this was largely because of some political realignment and calculations by the Fulani hegemony. It became increasingly apparent that the fallout of the imbroglio may not be in the best political interest of the North. It was loudly discoursed in some quarters how such attack on the Igbos will further boost the IPOB struggle for independent Biafra both locally and among members of the committee of nations. So, eventually, the Muslim-Fulani elements in the 11 Northern states prevailed on their cronies, jihadists, marauders and various agents of destruction to shit their swords, at least for now. As a clear evidence of state sponsored terrorism, none of the criminal elements involved in the threat even though were ever arrested or questioned by the authorities.
However, since the inception of this Buhari regime the Igbos and Nigerian Christians both in the North and South of Nigeria have suffered and continued to suffer irreparable loss from the catastrophes of the Hausa-Fulani terrorists who have brought deaths and destruction at their door steps. While the state sponsored terrorists like the Fulani-Herdsmen go about the business of killing Nigerians and destroying lives and properties, destroying thousands of churches and religious schools and displacing millions of Christian Biafrans, freely and unmolested by the authorities, the Nigeria police and military have channelled state resources into molesting peaceful and law abiding members of the IPOB organisation.
In the light of the above incontrovertible facts and figures, it is unarguable that the Buhari regime is currently orchestrating genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention against the Igbo nation in Nigeria. This is about a third of the Nigeria’s 190 million population, whose only crime is their ethnicity and unwavering devotion to Christianity. Buhari’s genocide marks the culmination of a long train of Biafran subjugation by radical Hausa-Fulani oligarchs. I therefore make bold to proceed to prick the conscience of the international community through the United Nations Organisation (UN).
The UN should invoke the spirit and letters of Article 6 and Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. By so doing, should immediately activate the process of expelling Nigeria as a member of the international body as well imposing an arms embargo on Nigeria. The devastations and killing of the Muslim Rohingya of Burma are atrocities of similar magnitude as what is happening to the Igbos in Nigeria. The U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, should also pay similar attention to the case of the Igbos Nigeria.
The life of properties of the Igbos have no protection from the government of Nigeria, who in fact is the chief persecutor of the people. The UN owe a duty to the people of the Igbo nation. This duty includes the immediate investigation by the International Criminal Court of Justice and possible arrest and trial of Muhammadu Buhari and his Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Kpotun Idris and Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai for their complicity and direct involvement in grievous human rights violation and massacre of the Igbos.
The international community can no longer pretend as if Nigeria’s problem is domestic. No, it is not. Genocide is crime against humanity and it is an affront to the objective and in fact the very essence of the United Nations. In addition to many other objectives, the UN was founded to maintain peace and security of life, developing friendly relations among countries based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights of people, to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. The UN can no longer sleep on her responsibilities while the present Nigerian government continues to drink the blood of the Igbos.
The experiment of 1914 by the United Kingdom is the seed of today’s exterminating fate foisted on the Igbos. In the words of Colin Freeman, a writer with The Telegraph, a British newspaper, “Britain, which had drawn Nigeria’s borders arbitrarily, had little patience with locals trying to reshape colonial frontiers. London backed Nigeria’s army in strangling Biafra at birth, supplying weapons and turning a blind eye to a military blockade that resulted in the starvation of about a million people.” The UK has a moral duty to make a strong case at the UN Security Council to right the wrong of 1914 in Nigeria and the reprehensible role in the Nigerian civil war.
I therefore call on all conscientious and civilized men and women, lovers of freedom, the international community, especially USA, China, EU, Britain, Russia and France, to intervene to stop this horrendous ethnic cleansing of the Igbo nation going on in Nigeria, for the sake of humanity. The scale of killings going on is a tragedy of immense proportions and until the world brings this to a halt, injustice will continue to reign supreme in Nigeria. Nigeria should be heavily sanctioned by the UN as a body and individually by members of the committee of nations until the right of the Biafran people to self-determination is secured through a free and fair referendum under the supervision of the United Nations.
By Barr. Williams Ukonu, Nigerian based lawyer and human rights activist, with offices in Lagos, Imo State and Abuja. He wrote in from London.
