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HomeOpinionPUTTING THE REFERENDUM HANDLE ON THE BIAFRA IMBROGLIO - Tony Nnadi 26/06/17.

PUTTING THE REFERENDUM HANDLE ON THE BIAFRA IMBROGLIO – Tony Nnadi 26/06/17.

Going by the contents of the recent letter from the so-called “Arewa Youths” to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the LNC notes with measured, cautious satisfaction that the Nigerian Question as now posed from Eastern Nigeria by way of the “Biafra” Agitation, is crystallizing to a Referendum Consensus even from the North.

Can anyone here recall my March 6, 2017 Internal Memo to NU titled “EYES ON THE BALL, FOLKS” in which I urged an immediate demand by the Igbo Leadership Collective upon the Nigerian State and the International Community, that the Igbo/Eastern Nigeria/Biafra Question be referred to a general Referendum of the Peoples of Eastern Nigeria, following the success of the February 28 Kuje and Abuja outings of NU?

( May I request Admin to call up and repost same for the benefit of those who were not here with us in March)

That proposition which was meant to harvest the positive leverage brought to the hitherto lame Igbo bargaining position at the Negotiation table of Nigeria, was pointedly ignored by both NU and the rest of the Igbo Leadership Collective to which that Memo was escalated.

Those in the Leadership Corp of Eastern Nigeria who now scratch their heads on what to do with the bourgeoning “Biafra”  commotion in the East will find that March 6, 2017 Memo most instructive as a guide on what to do even belatedly, as in NOW with the ballooning outcomes of the Biafra Agitation exertions by a younger generation totally fed up with wickedness of Nigeria and who are prepared to die rather than live in servitude.

Their methods may be objectionable to many including myself, but their Goal/Objective to extricate Eastern Nigeria from the bondage of One-Nigeria remains unimpeachable.

In deciding what to do with that Agitation which has assumed a life of its own, for good or for ill, far beyond the individuals who drive it, one would suggest that our thoughts be guided more by the overall goal of the Agitation, in juxtaposition with the misery index of Eastern Nigeria, imposed by the diktat of malevolent forces, albeit in the name of the “Federation of Nigeria” which collapsed since 1966.

I do not at all discountenance the grave, germane concerns raised by some of our people who see the dangers portended by the totally uncharted Biafra-or-Death, Conquer-and-Occupy mantra and disposition of the IPOB segment of the Biafra Agitation. I however challenge those raising those concerns to also factor in, examine and interrogate the contents of the recent adoption of the LNC Referendum Template by both MASSOB and IPOB.

Since after Aburi of January 1967, and the Biafra War that followed 1967-1970, there has hardly been any better leverage the East could find in the demand for the Restructuring of Nigeria back to being a Federation, than the ongoing Biafra Agitation and so logic would dictate that the most productive investment of the huge political capital already accumulated by the Biafra Agitation, would be Collective demand by the Eastern Nigeria Leadership Collective, for the Biafra Question to be referred to a general Referendum of the Peoples of the East, forthwith.

For everyday that path of action is postponed by the Eastern Nigeria Leadership Collective, rare the opportunities to put a firm, manageable handle to the entire Biafra imbroglio are being wasted even as the default option of cataclysm closes in on all.

The LNC is doing it’s best to provide the interface that would constitute this All-important handle to a fast degenerating situation, especially against the background of the recent adoption of its (LNC) Referendum Template by both MASSOB and IPOB.

Those from the East, who sit on their hands and chant “Restructuring”, “Restructuring” but refuse to step forward in the daunting task of galvanizing the requisite dynamics towards enacting the changes they profess that the ineluctable default from the self-driving self-enforcing situation which the Biafra Agitation has is that Nigeria will suddenly snap.

It is not enough to demonize and castigate Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and the rest of the Biafra whirlwind of footsoldiers. The duty of an Intelligentsia worth that appellation, is to craft a delivery framework to the aspirations of the people it thinks for.

The May 30 Biafra Day Shutdown of Eastern Nigeria is a sufficient to indication of what the aspiration of the Eastern Masses is at this time, all pretences and sophistry put aside. 

The 21st Century global mechanism for resolving the questions raised by the aspiration for Self-Determination is Referendum, in place of the outdated mechanism of War.

It is the failure to embrace this nonviolent, orderly alternative, that translates into a baying and a preference for War. 

Things are fast approaching the threshold of marching orders from all sides and time runs critically short on the Referendum Consensus Option, supported by the aforesaid Letter from the Arewa Youths Coalition to the, Acting President.

Will it be wrong to conclude now that the only opposition to a Referendum  for Eastern Nigeria is the Elite/Intelligentsia Corp of Eastern Nigeria ?.

If that is not the case, then that call for a Referendum in resolving the Igbo.Eastern Nigeria/Biafra Question in Nigeria must go forth from the Eastern Nigeria Leadership Collective.

Anything less is translates to an action in support of the pernicious but unsustainable Status Quo defined by the Caliphate-imposed Master-Servant Constitution of Nigeria, 1999

 

Tony Nnadi

LNC

26/06/17

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