There is no doubt that no one in Nigeria, in one way or the other, who haven't heard of the agitations of the great Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or some may call them Biafra republic; even the wanabees in the kindergarten, especially the kids studying in the South-east to be exact and precise, all because they are into the system that tells them what they want to achieve: they are fighting to achieve their secessionist aims and objectives.

The Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafra-Nigeria War) was fought between the government of Nigeria headed by Gen (then Lt Col) Yakubu Gowon and the secessionist state of Biafra led by Lt Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, from July 6, 1967 to January 15, 1970. Biafra represented nationalist (response to mass killings of the Igbo in the North and parts of the West) aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated Federal Government (after breaching Aburi Accord). The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britain’s formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963.

Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included ethno-religious violence and anti-Igbo pogroms in Northern Nigeria, a military coup, a counter-coup and persecution (Pogrom) of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta also played a strategic role.

“Within a year, the Federal Government troops surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The (economic) blockade imposed as a deliberate policy during the ensuing stalemate led to mass starvation. During the two and half years of the war, there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died of starvation.” (Source: Wikipedia.org.)

In mid-1968, images of malnourished and starving Biafran children saturated the mass media of Western countries. The plight of the starving Biafrans became a “cause célèbre,” which means a controversial issue that attracts a great deal of public attention; which in the course of the whole agitations sparked debates all over the street corners of the world, if it will come to light or stay in the eternal dark to never see the light.

In foreign countries, enabling a significant rise in the funding and prominence of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were the main supporters of the Nigerian government, while (concerned individuals from) France, Israel and some other countries supported Biafra. But today, in this 21st century, the most obvious countries supporting their cause are secretly supporting and funding them and a lot of the Igbo brothers in the Diaspora.

As soon as Nnamdi Kanu rose up to the occasion to think he is doing the right thing by fighting for the rights of millions of Igbo to stand independently as a country and exit Nigeria just about the same way Great Britain is still fighting to exit from the European Union (EU), which might be achievable in the short or long run. These pressing issues of their fight and being tagged secessionist; the word separatist, was labelled on Biafra by the Federal Government of Nigeria since 1967 before Odumegwu Ojukwu died.

The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is far away in Europe, precisely in Israel, giving the commands from there and a lot of innocent lives and souls have been lost since his emergence; and still the agitations never stopped just because some certain sets of people are fighting for the cause (glaring injustice) they think they believe in.

Let’s take a quick look at the (alleged) arsonists burning down Federal Government’s assets, all in the name of Biafra. Regardless of how it's been going down, an independent state can also be achieved without a war. And this is where the international bodies can step in and present the acts of peace and conflict resolution to achieve the objective of the Indigenous People of Biafra and the referendum can be duly signed at the United Nations Headquarters.

The bloodshed has been continuous and there is not a day (??) since the beginning of the year 2021 that goes by without burning down a government building and several bodies counted. There was an attack recently on the (country home) property of the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, which the majority suspected IPOB, but no one knows the exact hoodlums that carried out such operations because millions of properties (??) were lost and, as a result, the Inspector-General of Police has deployed more police personnel to that part of the South-east.

The most recent headline is that Federal Government presumed that a certain social media app is what the agitators used most essentially in carrying out attacks and their “ruthless” agitations, according to the words of the Federal Government; a ban was completely placed on the app with the directives from the NCC to stop all access from all telecommunications company.

But some stubborn, relentless Nigerians (including Gov el-Rufai and RCCG GO Adeboye) have quickly found an alternative by using VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access the micro-blogging website. A war has basically been declared by the Federal Government, and the IPOB secessionists have responded with words of wars; we hope not to experience any form of civil war again repeated, just like it began in 1967, because of this cause which cost the lives of millions of Nigerians and that was why @Jack of Twitter deleted the tweeted post of President Muhammadu Buhari, because the war incitement that the tweet contained on civil war, which broke the rules and regulations of the micro-blogging website on violence; which is not also condoned in majority of various social media applications.

•Mike-Nifty, public affairs analyst, can be reached on nifty.mics@yahoo.com

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