The sit-at-home order by the Pro Biafra groups in commemoration of the 50 years anniversary of the declaration of the State of Biafra has come and gone but not after recording a huge success in virtually all the Southeast states and in some parts of South South.
BVI correspondents reported that commercial activities were shut down in major cities in Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Rivers and Imo.
In Awka, all the markets, banks and schools were under lock and key in total compliance with the sit-at-home order. The same was recorded in Onitsha, Nnewi, Ekwulobia and Ihiala.
The Customary Government of IPOB Administrator, Engr Anthony Aniebue, told BVI in Awka that the restoration of Biafra was a matter of time. To him, the people of Biafra had made a statement with one resounding voice.
He said that from now, the Nigerian Government, as well as the international community, would begin to take the Biafra agitation more seriously.
Aniebue confirmed to BVI that the struggle to restore Biafra had entered the final stage with two major ideologies being sponsored by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Barr Emeka Emekesri.
‘The public should now understand the clear roadmap to achieve Biafra now that the world attention has been drawn to Biafra.
‘The first ideological strategy is the pursuit of self-determination by due process of law consisting of legal, political and diplomatic methods. By this methodology, the core Biafran activists are advised to take over the political power in the whole of Biafraland and put Biafran activists in government houses and houses of assembly,’ Aniebue said.
He expressed the hope that with the army of Biafra activists spread across the country, they could use their vote to put any of the Biafran activists in power.
‘They can then pass the Biafran Bills into Law in their houses of assembly and create the Biafran Government by Law at regional level first. This is the first stage of the struggle for independence. The second stage is for the Biafrans to then decide by a referendum whether they will pull out entirely from Nigeria and gain total independence or continue to govern themselves as Biafrans within Nigeria,’ Aniebue said.
BVI understands that at the first and second stages of the strategy, there will be some diplomatic meetings and negotiations with the Nigerian authorities and the powerful countries in the international community for the final pull-out.
This strategy is advocated by Barrister Emeka Emekesiri, the solicitor for the Indigenous People of Biafra and the vision bearer of the legal methodology of self-determination, which he commenced with the case between Biafra and Nigeria in the Federal High Court, Owerri in 2012.
According to Aniebue, the challenge for Biafrans now was to install hard core Biafran activists in power who could use the state power to their advantage and speed up the Biafran project.
Aniebue further gave an insight into the second ideological strategy by Kanu as civil disobedience, protest and rejection of what he called the obnoxious order against the Biafra people still living in Nigeria, which included boycotting elections where necessary, and all within the framework of the law.
‘The proponents of this methodology believe that the Nigerian Constitution is fraudulent and therefore every election under the fraudulent Constitution is a continuation of enslavement in Nigeria. They do not believe in obtaining self-governance as Biafrans within Nigeria first before pulling out from Nigeria entirely,’ he pointed out.
When BVI sought the opinion of the image maker of the Customary Govt of IPOB, Comrade Ndubuisi Anaenugwu, on the next action after the success recorded with the sit-at-home, he said there were three ways of getting independence for a nation, namely: Military, Political and Judicial methods.
According to Anaenugwu, the next action would be to play the politics of Biafra within and outside Nigeria and use Biafran sentiment to put Biafra activists into political power to effect necessary political and economic lobbying.
For Major Gen Onwuegbune (Rtd), Biafrans had fought a war and should now use legal, diplomatic and political strategies to achieve independence. Onwuegbuna advised Biafrans to love themselves and avoid any internal misunderstanding.
However, what has constituted a clog in the wheel of the Biafra struggle is the apparent disinterest by the Igbo elite. But the incarceration and release of Nnamdi Kanu appears to have begun the process of making the elite to take more than a passing interest in the agitation.
The involvement of these elite will, no doubt, give an intellectual bent to the agitation and de-robe it of the negative perception in many quarters that it is championed by the wretched of the Biafran earth.
