The Song Biafra: A Dirge Sung by a Sect on a Solemn Procession

Expert Author Moses Felix


Sing me a new song, I am now the new piper, for unlike an old wine, the staleness of your song-Biafra-is a stale in itself. The song that buzzes around the labyrinthine ears of the country, Nigeria, recently is the song sung largely by a group of people of the Igbo extraction of the country agitating vehemently for self-actualization. Today, Biafra is a dirge sung by a sect on a solemn procession onward a pathway to bloodbath. Biafra is the strut and prate of a bellicose rabble-rouser; the rather-too-empty rodomontade of a loser posing as a supreme leader of disgruntled masses; the courtesy made to proud ignorance; the irrational kissing of the foot of a growling hero by a morose groveler; all these represent the irony of the song called Biafra. It has become too old that it has lost its relevance in time and space.

The bees in their hives buzz better in that they match their buzzing activities with their stings to cause severe pains on a perceived enemy. They understand the power of unity. The Igbos are the 'most disunited ethnic group' of the world, although they are industrious. Treat them as you would faeces, they would turn a desert into an orchard of roses. Show them where to keep their feet and they shall turn it into a gold mine. However, they lack unity of purpose and have no understanding of the politics of the masses. The irony of the song Biafra is rooted in the cry for secession tethered by a leviathan, Nigeria, to harshness of sorrowful marginalization, and fed fat by discordant squall of a people devoid of unity. May it suffice to say that Nigeria cannot afford to part with her integrity, her precincts which also include those inhabited by the Igbos. Agitators of Biafra had included five oil-rich states-Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross Rivers, and Akwa Ibom-on their map. However, this inclusion has in recent times been rejected and harshly censured by various governors and key political actors of the said states.

Apparently, there is a political code which maintains that no man or woman from the Igbo race should govern the nation called Nigeria since the civil war ended in 1970. The war had ended with sham mantra of unity-no victor, no vanquished-when the chief secessionist and Biafran warlord had absconded in the face of fierce shelling of his people. In a bid to further restrain the activities of secessionists in the country and to return the country to civilian rule by October 1, 1979, the Supreme Military Council under the rulership of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed constituted a fifty-man committee, headed by Roitimi Williams, to draft a constitution that exalts a most powerful central government. Needless to say that this move has resulted to a more dreary situation as many political actors of different regions of the country are now asking for restructuring of the country. The fear others have in the country is that a president from the Igbo race is tantamount to secession. Political marginalization of the Igbos became the order of the day; tax incentives are the rights of other major tribes of the country. Whereas an Igbo man struggles to optimize his economic status, other major tribes enjoy government support through loans and grants. Moreover, education in the Igboland is minimally based on scholarship.

Amid the fear of outsiders and its resultant social ostracism, the Igbos still face a more severe war within. One may ask, why can they not establish their businesses in their homeland? There is a cause. An Igbo man who goes to the city to make money comes back home to 'brotherly enemies' who will eventually annihilate him. They fight over land especially, and other contestable positions in general. A clear example is the presidential election contested in 1999, where the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) had to field a candidate from the southern part of Nigeria, the slot was to be contested between the Igbos and the Yorubas at the time, the Yorubas presented one man, Olusegun Obasanjo, whereas the Igbos presented a bevy of politicians to contest with Obasanjo at the primary election. Recently, a U.S soldier was murdered in his hometown after he had returned to Nigeria to be re-united with his family. He was shot dead. Sources argued that he was leading a flamboyant life to his detriment, therefore he was killed. If you travel to the hinterlands and even the major cities of the south-eastern part of the country, obituaries have become the faces of the wall. Igbos killing Igbos, either by metaphysical powers or by food poisoning. How can an investor invest where there is no security of lives and property? How can people who claim to be marginalized ever have a voice when they themselves do not speak with one voice? How can people who hold themselves in low esteem ever speak of leading a people of different tribes and languages. He remains a fool whose foolishness is unknown to him, and according to Boileau-Despreaux Nicholas," A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him". I am of the Igbo extraction; I am not abashed. I have refused to be that fool to be fooled by another fool. But, if the Igbos must fight for due relevance in political space, then they must shun intra-tribal distrust, intra-tribal killings (either by witchcraft or otherwise), avarice and tribal discord. They must imbibe the principles of leadership; they must have a political arrowhead and rally round the arrowhead to achieve a collective goal. Throng is power.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Moses_Felix/1442342

Let no man disturb others about the cry for Biafra.

Moses Empty Head Felix, a basic level content miller who could only get 2 dumb articles published on the low rated EzineArticles in 5 years, is here revelling on mental masturbation about Ndigbo and Biafra.

Shame will shut up the mouth of each of you foul mouthed slowpkes pretty soon.

I don't join issues with demented entities. I consider you a social media misfit seeking sham recognition.

paschu:
Moses Empty Head Felix, a basic level content miller who could only get 2 dumb articles published on the low rated EzineArticles in 5 years, is here revelling on mental masturbation about Ndigbo and Biafra.

Shame will shut up the mouth of each of you foul mouthed slowpkes pretty soon.

I don't join issues with demented entities. I consider you a social media misfit seeking sham recognition.