ARABA, BIAFRA AND 'YOUR LAND OR YOUR BLOOD' Part II

Yet I wonder how those southern leaders who
have sold their glory and heritage for a mess
of pottage and who have opted to collaborate
with our collective enemies and betray their
own people feel about the words of men like
Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Gwarzo?
I wonder whether the small handful of pitiful
yet identifiable key leaders from the south
that joined forces with Buhari, supported him
during last years election and drank deep
from his 'mai chanji magic potion' poisoned
chalice have read what these two evil men
wrote and what those that share their views
and disposition have to say?
And if they did I wonder how they can
possibly justify or rationalise their positions
or their decision to support a Buhari
presidency?
Whether they wish to accept it or not history
will record and posterity will testify to the
fact that these four men handed us all over
to a small cabal of ultra-conservative Fulani
hegemonists and irredentists who not only
have a clear intention to subjugate our
people and Islamise our nation but who also
secretly have as much contempt for them as
they do for us.
I wonder whether they got Adamu
Mohammed's message and whether they
understood what he said? I wonder whether
they can comprehend the import of Aliyu
Gwarzo's words?
I wonder how they sleep at night knowing all
this, seeing what is unfolding in our country
and knowing that they have effectively
contributed to the enslavement of their own
people.
Worst of all is the fact that not one of them
can cultivate the courage or dare to publicly
condemn the likes of Adamu Mohammed or
Aliyu Gwarzo and all that they have said,
believe in and stand for.
As a matter of fact they would rather
condemn and insult those of us that are
prepared to stand up against them and reject
and resist their evil intent. What a shame!
If blame were to he apportioned for all the
rubbish that is going on in our country today
it should start with people like them who
have not only sold their souls to the devil
but who have also led their people into
slavery.
They have lost the privilage to be regarded
as or called leaders because these are fellow
southerners who simply do not care about
the plight of the people of the south.
The Apostle Paul said "Alexander the
Coppersmith did me much evil, may the
Lord repay him according to his works". May
it be the same for those southern leaders
who have betrayed their own people, who
have mortgaged the future of their own
wards and children, who have blighted their
stars and who have destroyed the destiny of
millions.
Given the words and disposition of men like
Mr. Mohammed and Mr. Gwarzo there is
only one fact that bears any relevance when
it comes to the history of our nation and that
fact is that the people of the south and the
Middle Belt made a monumental mistake by
supporting the north and fighting to keep
Nigeria one during our civil war.
That is the long and short of it. We owe the
late Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the
erstwhile Head of State of Biafra and the
entire Igbo race an apology for leaving them
in the lurch and not supporting their cause
and quest for self-determination when it
mattered the most and when they called on
us to do so.
Given the fact that so many from the core
Muslim north hate us with passion and see us
as nothing more than slaves and animals to
be ruled over and butchered at will, I
believe that we need to go back to the
drawing board and divide this country
peacefully before we all end up killing
ourselves.
I do not believe in restructuring because it is
too late for that: I believe in division. I
believe that the two zones in the core north
should leave Nigeria and go their separate
ways whilst the rest of us that constitute the
four remaining zones either stay together as
one country or break into even smaller units
along zonal or ethnic lines.
Self-determination must be the guiding and
overiding principle and referendums must be
conducted in the various zones to detetmine
precisely what the will of the people really
is. That is democracy. That is justice. That is
equity. And only that can bring lasting peace
to our sad, divided and beleagured land.
Those that seek to crucify me for suggesting
that we should chart this new course should
bear in mind the fact that I am not the first
to suggest it and neither will I be the last.
Those that doubt the veracity of this
assertion should consider the following:
In 1953 the north declared their interest to
break off from the rest of Nigeria after they
rejected Chief Anthony Enahoro's motion for
Nigeria's independence from Great Britain
and walked out of Parliament.
They insisted on secession and it took the
intervention of the British authorities to get
them to sheath their swords and agree to
remain in the same country as those they
openly described as "southern devils and
infidels".
Once again in 1966 the north did the same
thing and openly demanded for secession
from the south after they effected their
northern officers revenge coup on July 29th.
On the night of that "revenge coup" they
massacred over 300 Igbo officers in one
night together with the Igbo Head of State
and the Yoruba Military Governor who
refused to leave his side and who insisted on
protecting him.
After what was undoubtedly one of the most
bloody nights in our entire history and after
all the butchery was done, the northern
officers that carried out the coup loudly
declared "araba", which means "let us share
it", "let us tear it apart" or "let us break it
up" in hausa.
It took three days of frantic appeals by the
British High Commissioner and a handful of
American diplomats and southern civil
servants to stop them from leaving.
They eventually agreed to stay but they gave
one condition: that one of their own, a
northern officer by the name of Lt. Col.
Yakubu Jack Gowon, should be the Head of
State of a united Nigeria even though there
were at least three southern officers that
were senior to him in rank that were still left
on the army.
The conditions were accepted, Gowon became
Head of State, the north agreed to stay and
Nigeria remained one. Yet the sadly the
story did not end there and neither was its
end a happy one.
Evidently the cold-blooded murder of three
hundred Igbo soldiers was not enough to
satisfy their blood lust.
The north still insisted on having its revenge
and its pound of flesh for the Igbo coup that
took place on January 15th 1966 in which
many northern political and military leaders
together with a handful of their political and
military allies from the west were killed.
Consequently three months after Gowon took
power mass murder and genocide was
unleashed against the Igbo population that
resided in the core north and over 100,000
innocent Igbo civilians, including women and
children, were slaughtered in the sanctity of
their homes in just a matter of weeks.
Nothing had ever been seen like that before
on the African continent. It was brutal,
barbaric and horrendous. Innocent civilians,
including pregnant women and little babies,
were hacked to pieces in shops, hospitals,
buses, cars and in their own homes whilst
the authorities, and indeed the entire world,
stood by silently and did nothing to help
them.
This led to a massive exodus of Igbos from
the north back to the east and to the
declaration of the sovereign State of Biafra
(which means "come and join us").
The result of that declaration was the
commencement of the most brutal, savage
and bloody civil war that the African
continent has ever experienced in which no
less than three million Igbos, including at
least one million young children, were killed
all in the name of "keeping Nigeria one".
That war lasted for three gruelling years:
from 1967 until 1970.
Yet since 1967 when oil was discovered in
commercial quantities in a place called
Oloibiri in what is now known as the Niger
Delta area of southern Nigeria, the north
have NEVER called for "araba" or the
breaking up of Nigeria again.
Instead they have bullied, intimidated,
cheated, killed, maimed and slaughtered
others just to keep Nigeria one simply
because they are addicted to southern oil.
Without the revenues that come from that
oil the core north would be probably the
poorest, most barren and most desolate
region in the whole of Africa. In view of this
it is understandable that we have not heard
"araba" from.any core northerner again.
They now view anyone that calls for the
break up of Nigeria with murderous intent
and extreme hatred and they label them as
dangerous subversives and uninformed
miscreants.
They have labelled them.as irresponsible
criminals, they have denied them the right
to detetmine their own destiny and future
and they have resolved to compel them.to
remain in Nigeria by the force of arms.
The north appear to have forgotten that they
themselves called for secession in 1953 and
1966 and at that time no-one threatened,
killed or insulted them for doing so. And
neither did anyone try to enslave them or
keep them in by the force of arms.
The bottom line is as follows: as long as
people like Mr. Adamu Mohammed and Mr.
Aliyu Gwarzo exist and as long as they say
and do the sort of things that they say and
do the people of the south will rule out the
possibility of secession.
We will not sit back idly and silently watch
our people being marginalised, islamised,
conquered, butchered and enslaved.
We cannot be expected to continue to take
the tyranny, violence, subjugation and
gratuitous insults that are meted out to us
on a daily basis by core Muslim northerners
who believe that they were born to rule. We
will resist it and we will oppose it in every
lawful manner and with evetything that we
have got.
In the final analysis if we are attacked and
butchered for saying "enough is enough" and
for attempting to exercise our right of self-
determination, and if the state refuses to
protect us, we will have no hesitation in
defending ourselves and protecting our
people.
The days of keeping Nigeria one by threats,
violence and the force of arms and of sealing
and cementing our so-called unity by the
shedding of southern and Middle Belt blood
are long over. We will not take it anymore.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the patriots,
founding fathers and heroes of the United
States of America, during their bitter struggle
for independence from the English over two
hundred years ago, said the following: "when
tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes a
duty".
Another of those founding fathers, a noble
and righteous man by the name of Patrick
Henry, proclaimed the following words
before England's King George 111:
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what
course others may take; but as for me, give
me liberty or give me death!"
Another by the name of George Washington
proclaimed "in God we trust" as he entered
the field of battle and often said "you cannot
rule without God and the Holy Bible".
Again Thomas Jefferson said "the tree of
liberty is watered by the blood of patriots
and tyrants". There are lessons to be learnt
here for us all.
Whether the core Muslim north likes it or
not our very own southern "tree of liberty"
shall be watered as well and in the end we
shall be free.
That same Living God whose name George
Washington always invoked before going into
battle is with us today and He shall see us
through. He shall grant us the strength and
power to endure.
He will not forsake us and, at the appointed
time, He will grant us victory over our
tormentors.
I say this because His name is Faithful and
faithful He is. He never changes and He
never forsakes His own and that is why they
call Him the Ancient of Days.
He never loses and that is why they call Him
the Man.of War and the Lord God of Hosts.
He is our strength and our shield, our glory
and the lifter of our heads.
In Him alone we trust and He will never
allow the counsel of ungodly and wicked men
like Adamu Mohammed and Aliyu Gwarzo to
stand.
We harbour no fears because their end, and
the end of all those that they represent, has
already been determined and our freedom is
guaranteed. It is just a matter of time.