Arewa Youths Beg Osinbajo: Allow Actualization of Biafra Nation

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has been called upon to allow the actualization of the Republic of Biafra in line with the ongoing agitations by IPOB, MASSOB and BIM as well as other Igbo groups.

The appeal was made by a coalition of Northern youth groups in a letter dated June 19, 2017 and addressed to the Acting President.

Recently the coalition issued an ultimatum to the Igbos living in the north to leave the region within three months.

Recall that as a result of the threat and counter threat by the Igbos, Acting President Osinbajo has since commenced series of consultations with political, traditional and opinion leaders from across the country.

But, the northern group in a letter jointly signed by Amba Shettima Yerima, Joshua Viashman, Aminu Adam, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman and Nastura Ashir Sharif, argued that the ongoing consultations would be an exercise in futility.

“Though we do not doubt Your Excellency’s bona fide concerns for the peaceful resolution of the crises, we nevertheless have reservations as to the efficacy of this approach in ensuring lasting solutions,” the letter said.

The group raised the following concerns:
1. Concerned by the fact that the Biafrans have confessed to arming themselves for a violent breakup,  we feel that it is risky for the rest of the country particularly the North to go on pretending that it is safe for us to co-habitate with the Igbos given how deeply they are entrenched in our societies.

2. 
   And since evidently the Igbo have not been sufficiently humbled by their self-imposed bloody civil violence of 1966, we are strongly concerned that nothing short of granting their Biafran dream will suffice.
3. 
   And since the Igbo have virtually infiltrated every nook and cranny of Northern Nigeria where they have been received with open arms as fellow compatriots, we strongly believe that the region is no longer safe and secure in the light of the unfolding threats and the fact that for a long time,  the Igbo have gone to extra ordinary lengths to ensure that in their domain in the South East, Northerners and Westerners are as much as possible disenfranchised from owning any businesses whereas in Kano alone,  they own not less than 100, 000 shops across all the business districts.
4. 
   That since the younger generation of Nigerians makes up for more than 60 percent of the nation’s population, it is our hope that they inherit this country in better shape so that they can build a much better future for themselves and their offspring’s in an atmosphere that is devoid of anarchy, hate, suspicion and negativity that characterize the polarized, and clearly irreconcilable differences forced on us by the Biafran Igbos.
5. 
   To make a bad situation even worse, their leaders have continued to show support for  this treacherous cause and thus giving credence to our concern that what they say against us is what they truly mean and intend – “Kill everyone in the Zoo” (North). Your Excellency, we cannot afford to discard this as mere mischief as the utterances that caused the terrible Rwandan genocide still resonates in our minds.

6. Lastly Sir, it is quite impossible to expect that other nationalities would simply stand by and watch while a certain ethnic group perpetrates all the above heinous misconducts that involve threats, call to violence and extermination, insults and songs of war without responding.

Consequently, the northern group said:
While we unequivocally restate that we are not waging war or calling anyone to violence, we nevertheless are also not willing to continue tolerating the malicious campaign and threats of war that the Igbos have continued to wage against us.

Neither can we afford to continue giving the keys to our cities to a people whose utterances, plans and arrangements are clearly geared towards war and anarchy.

We therefore demand that the only enduring solution to this scourge that is being visited on the nation is complete separation of the states presently agitating for Biafra from the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a peaceful political process by:

1. Taking steps to facilitate the actualization of the Biafran nation in line with the principle of self-determination as an integral part of contemporary customary international law.

2. The principle of self-determination has, since world war II become a part of the United Nations Charter which states in Article 1(2), that one of the purposes of the UN is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.

3. We submit that this protocol envisages that people of any nation have the right to self-determination, and although the Charter did not categorically impose direct legal obligations on member States; it implies that member States allow agitating or minority groups to self-govern as much as possible.

4. This principle of self-determination has since been espoused in two additional treaties: The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 1 of both international documents promote and protect the right of a people to self-determination.

 State parties to these international documents are obliged to uphold the primacy and realization of this right as it cements the international legal philosophy that gives a people the right to self-determination.

5. As the Igbo agitations persist and assume threatening dimensions, we submit that there is need to ensure that they are given the opportunity to exercise the right to self-determination as entrenched under the aforementioned international statutes to which Nigeria is a signatory.

PRAYERS:
1.  Aware that the right of self-determination in international law is the legal right for a “people” that allows them to attain a certain degree of autonomy from a sovereign state through a legitimate political process, we strongly demand for a referendum to take place in a politically sane atmosphere where all parties will have a democratic voice over their future and the future of the nation.
2. The Igbo from all over the country and in the Diaspora should be advised to converge in their region in the South-East for a plebiscite to be organized and conducted by the United Nations and other regional bodies for them to categorically to decide between remaining part of Nigeria or having their separate country.
3.  That government should at the end of the plebiscite implement whatever is agreed and resolved in order to finally put this matter to rest.
4.  Lastly, we pray His Excellency to study the references forwarded with this letter dispassionately and decide who is more in the wrong between those who openly pledge allegiance to a country other than Nigeria backing it up with persistent threats of war and those of us whose allegiance remains with the Nigerian state but simply urge that the secessionists be allowed to actualize their dream peacefully throw universally entrenched democratic options.

CONCLUSION
Your Excellency, we want to reiterate our high respect for your office and acknowledge the efforts you are making to lower tensions. We assure you, as well-brought up northerners, we listen to the advice and cautions of our elders, and in particular, their concerns that we do not create the impression that any Igbo or any Nigerian will be harmed in the North. We assure you that we will defend the rights of every Nigerian to live in peace and have their rights protected.

While we do not see this clamour for Biafra as an issue over which a single drop of blood should be shed,  we at the same time,  insist that the Igbo be allowed to have their Biafra and for them to vacate our land peacefully so that our dear country Nigeria could finally enjoy lasting peace and stability.

END