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Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe The right to self-determination is for everypeople. It is inalienable and is guaranteed by the United Nations. No people is exempt from exercising this right. This is why the slogan that proclaims such gibberish as “indivisibility”/“indissolubility”/“indestructibility” of a state, any state, is not really worth the paper it is written on except of course it is an embedded code by a slaughtering horde for the plot of the next genocide or the reinforcement of an ongoing genocide – as indeed the world has witnessed most tragically across several regions in Africa since Nigeria and British ally’s launch of the Igbo genocide on 29 May 1966. A grisly total of 15.1 million Africans have been murdered by a number of African states and their allies (especially from Europe and islamic worlds) in the genocides of the Igbo (29 May 1966-12 January 1970 [phases I-III], and continuing), Rwanda (1994), Zaïre/Democratic Republic of the Congo (variously since 2003) and Darfur/Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan (all in the Sudan – since 2003), and in other wars in west, north, northcentral, east and southern Africa during the epoch.
As everyone probably knows, the states that Europe created in Africa, in the aftermath of its November 1884-February 1885 Berlin conqueror-conference on the latter, cannotprovide the fundamental needs of African peoples. This “Berlin-state”, with its fatuous and ahistorical name – Nigeria, Niger, Guinea, the Sudan, Chad, whatever! –, cannot lead Africans to the reconstructive changes they deeply yearn for after the tragic history of centuries of occupation. Such change was and never is the mission of this state but an instrument to expropriate and despoil Africa by the conquest ad infinitum. Essentially, the “Berlin-state” still serves the interests of its creators and those of the ruthless cabal of African-overseers which polices the dire straits of existence that is the lot of Africans currently. Support for British conquest and occupation of Nigeria indefinitely For the record, it mustn’t be forgotten that the Hausa-Fulani islamist leadership in Nigeria which ritually trumpets the “ind”-threesome slogan (above) to preface its next planned massacre of the Igbo in Nigeria or occupied Biafra, as the Monday 25 April 2016 sadistic savagery unleashed on Uzo-Uwani shows (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/uzo-uwani-herbertekwe-ekwe-in.html), supported continuing British occupation of the conquest-state called Nigeria during the course of 30 momentous years (1930s-October 1960) by opposing the Igbo-led restoration-of-independence movement for the freeing of the constituent African nations and peoples from the British occupation. Britain duly “rewarded” the islamist leadership perpetual control of Nigeria as a prop to transfer the latter’s retrograde view of this conquest-state to some “post”-conquest variation on the theme which, in itself, guarantees British suzerainty over Nigeria indefinitely. This is a cardinal feature that constitutes the tragedy called Nigeria today. Shared historical and geographical articulation As in Berlin, the state is not a gift from the gods. On the contrary, the state is a relationship painstakingly formulated and constructed by groups of human beings on our planet earth to pursue aspirations and interests envisioned by these same human beings within a shared historical and geographical articulation. The African humanity is presently gripped in a grave crisis for survival. Surely, it is aware of this emergency and it is now time that it abandoned the contrived “Berlin-state” in order to survive. This state is a bane of African existence. African nations, namely the Igbo, Ijo, Acholi, Wolof, Yao, Ibibio, Asante, Tonga, Baganda, Mende, Bakongo, Gĩkũyũ, Bambara, Luba, Luo, etc., etc, remain the basis for the regeneration of Africa’s development. These nations are the sites of the continent’s intellectual and other cultural creativity – not Nigeria, Niger, the Sudan, the Congo, the Guinea…
(John Coltrane & Don Cherry, “Focus on sanity” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; Cherry, pocket trumpet; Percy Heath, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 28 June/8 July 1960])
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle between Good and Evil.
(TS Eliot, “Choruses from the Rock”, 1934)
In November
2014, I wrote a speculative commentary entitled “Thinking the unthinkable? Can
Boko Haram attack Igboland?” in which I wondered about the possibilities of a
direct attack on Biafra by this north Nigeria-based terrorist amalgam (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thinking-of-unthinkable-can-boko-haram.html). I
concluded the piece by noting that while Boko Haram possessed the capability to
carry out such an attack (especially considering the expansive links the
organisation has with the Nigeria genocidist military and police) the reason
why such an invasion had not yet occurred was “undoubtedlystrategicrather than
justtactical” (emphasis in the original). Boko Haram has since emerged as the world’s deadliest terrorist
organisation (see Institute for Economics & Peace, “Global Terror Index
2015”, http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2015.pdf, accessed 17 November 2015).
It appears the Muhammadu Buhari islamist regime
in Abuja may have reassessed the strategic considerations raised in that
commentary and authorised a Boko Haram strike in Biafra to go ahead regardless
of the consequences. The Nigerian terrorist attack on the Biafran province of
Uzo-Uwani last Monday, 25 April 2016, was carried out by Boko Haram, not Fulani “herdspeople” or, more
appropriately, Fulani militants, surely
the Haram’s cousins, who are one of the globe’s five most deadly terrorist
groups (see IEP’s study already cited). On the contrary, the Fulani “herdspeople”
and their cows in Uzo-Uwani had been withdrawn the previous day (Sunday the
24th) and headed back north to their homeland to pave the way for the Boko
Haram invasion.
Two hundred (200) Biafran children, women and men asleep were murdered by the
terrorists in this premeditated military-style assault, begun shortly after 4am,
fully armed with AK47 rifles, grenades, generously stacked ammunition and
explosives – attacking homes, churches, schools, shops, markets…
The islamist terrorists attacked Uzo-Uwani with
the same motivation, precision and virulence that an ISIS (less deadly record than Boko Haram [again, see IEP’s study]) terrorist unit would
effect whilst attacking the Charlie Hebdo editorial board meeting in Paris,
France, or attacking a Jewish supermarket in Paris or a rock concert in Paris
or attacking an airport terminal in Brussels, Belgium, or attacking a metro
train in Brussels or attacking a Tunis (Tunisia) hotel full of mostly British tourists…
These latter attacks solicited appropriated responses (particularly invoking natural
law, right of self-defence) from the targeted publics and the blood-soaked regime
in Abuja can be in no doubt that the Igbo are fully conversant with their
rights and responsibilities. Ironically, the two key foreign states that
imposed islamist Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s head of regime in March 2015,
Britain and the United States, have the scourge of islamist terrorism as the
current principal threat to their respective national security as the islamist
genocidist regime in Abuja constitutes an existential threat to Igbo people. Just
as Britain and the United States vow to defeat islamist terrorism, Biafra will
defeat islamist genocidist jihadism.
Savagery I have not been able to publish here any of the
raft of still pictures/videos of the Uzo-Uwani massacre that have been posted
on the internet because of the sheer horror of the carnage. It is indeed
indescribable savagery … revoltingly unspeakable sadistic savagery … The islamist
terrorists were transported to Uzo-Uwani in buses from their bases in the Benue
valley in eastcentral Nigeria, 100-150 miles away north of Biafra, and had
crossed the innumerable military/police checkpoints that envelope all land
route approaches to occupied-Biafra from Nigeria (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/in-wake-of-murder-of-three-possibly.html). In other words,
checkpoints’ genocidist troopers flagged through the terrorists to their
gruesome southbound-mission to Uzo-Uwani at dawn on Monday and later flagged the
murderers through northbound back to their Benue bases soon after mission-accomplishment,
four hours later… In the final scene of this carefully choreographed clockwork orgy
of bloodbath, overseeing/coordinating genocidist troopers positioned in the
region then moved into Uzo-Uwani soon after Boko Haram’s withdrawal at
mid-morning from its murder scene, and began to “patrol” the district.
Eve
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the
launch of phase-I of the Igbo genocide (29 May 2016) by Nigeria and Britain,
the islamist regime in Nigeria has now added “Fulani-‘herdspeople’-and-their
cows” as a crucial component to its death strategy in its campaign to annihilate
Igbo people. A cardinal feature of the strategy is to swap or switch around
murderers from the Boko Haram and Fulani militant adjunct forces at its
disposal under the overarching command of “regular” genocidist military and
police who, in addition, remain free to murder Biafran freedom movement demonstrators
as has been the case since November 2015 (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/onitsha-nigeria-4-th-march2016.html).
Uzo-Uwani duly inaugurated this new strategy
compendium. With the Boko Haram bestialising murder of 200 Igbo ensconced in
their beds and the vandalising destruction of the people’s property and spiritual
and sociocultural institutions, all within a timeframe of just four hours, the islamist
regime must feel highly elated at this initial grisly outcome. But the attack
and outcome are intrinsically cowardly and scream of desperation. Muhammadu
Buhari and all those in this strategy of death must now know that they cannot
destroy Igbo resistance to this longest genocide in recent human history: 3.1
million and more and more over the past 50 years, Igbo have survived and will build an advanced state in this
southwestcentral Africa that will reinforce the crucible of the enormous human
capacity to triumph against evil.
Immediate
As the Igbo formulate appropriate programmes to
ensure self-defence for the people, especially for those who live in the border
regions, there are other urgent steps that they must embark upon, right away,
in response to this “Fulani-‘herdspeople’-and-their-cows” strategy:
1. All Fulani “herdspeople and cows” must now
leave all Biafra territory, east and west of the Oshimili River.
2. Igbo must henceforth boycott all beef and beef
products emanating from the Fulani including, especially, those marketed
throughout Biafra. Repeat: Don’t buy Fulani
beef for either home consumption for self or family or for commercial purposes e.g. in cafés, hotels or restaurants. In the wake of Uzo-Uwani, islamist Fulani beef is
toxic, not fit for purpose. The red-line has been crossed. For every one pound weight
of islamist Fulani beef/beef product purchased by a Biafran, the latter adds approximately
one British-pound sterling equivalent to the islamist Fulani genocidist treasury
that enables the jihadist to purchase the next AK47, the next clutch of
grenades, the next suicide belt, the next cache of explosives, and plan the
next Uzo-Uwani style attack on Biafra. One must never be a party to their own annihilation.
The knock-on effect of this immediate boycott is that the Fulani “herdspeople”
will have no other realistic choice but withdraw their “cows” from Biafra when no longer able to be “sold” for beef/beef products, at
once blowing the cover of the genocidists’advance territorial occupying-positioning for
the envisaged jihadist take-over.
3. All Igbo in the diaspora in Nigeria especially
those living in Lagos/west Nigeria and in the Abuja region must join in this “Don’t buy Fulani beef for either home
consumption for self or family or for commercial purposes e.g. in cafés, hotels or restaurants” immediately. No Igbo person is exempt from participating in this historic response.
4. It is now a challenge to Biafran livestock/animal
husbandry farmers and experts to expand the growth and management of efi-Igbo to offset any loss in beef
availability from this boycott. Given the expected specialist skill availability,
Biafra can establish beef self-sufficiency within five years and embark on
exporting the product to other parts of Africa and the world. In the meantime,
people can turn to sheep, goat, chicken and fish for their protein requirement.
5. All adult Biafrans in the liberal-democratic
spaces of abode in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and
elsewhere should, as a matter of urgency, compile a dossier of the Uzo-Uwani
savagery and the other murders of Biafrans by the islamist genocidist military since
November 2015 (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/onitsha-nigeria-4-th-march2016.html)and brief their members of
parliament/congresspeople/senators/deputies/prime ministers/presidents… Similarly, these adult Biafrans
should present such dossier to their parish priest/pastor and
district/provincial/regional bishop and archbishop… 6. In the wake of Uzo-Uwani, each
and every Biafran has a personal, individual role to act. The least is: inform
someone, inform everyone. Muhammadu Buhari and his ilk cannot escape the
tribunal to account for the Igbo genocide, this most gruesome genocide in Africa and one of the worst ever recorded across the world. There is no statute of limitations in international
law in the pursuit, arrest, trial, sentencing and punishment of anyone involved
in the perpetuation of the crime of genocide. Reinhold Hanning, 94, is
currently on trial in a German court at Detmold for his role as a guard in an
Auschwitz death during the Jewish genocide between January 1942 and June 1944 (The Telegraph, London, Friday 29 April
2016). Both Nigeria and joint-ally Britain are signatories to the relevant UN
convention on genocide.
7. All adult Biafran woman and man, wherever they
live on the planet, should contribute towards the arduous task to reconstructing
Uzo-Uwani. This task begins today. People should contact community and church
leaders on the ground in Uzo-Uwani and discuss how and where they can support
this enormous rebuilding. No offer for Uzo-Uwani must be made via the quisling
region regime in Enuugwu which failed monstrously to stand firmly by the
people during last Monday’s islamists’ slaughtering of innocents.
(John Coltrane Sextet, “Consequences”, part-IV of the five-part suite Meditations [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, percussion, Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone, tambourine, bells; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 23 November 1965])
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is specialist on the state and on genocide & wars in Africa in the post-1966 epoch – beginning with the Igbo genocide, 29 May 1966-present day, the foundational and most gruesome genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa. 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of this nation’s population were murdered by Nigeria and its allies, principally Britain. Africa and the rest of the world largely stood by and watched as the perpetrators enacted this horror most ruthlessly. The world could have stopped this genocide; the world should have stopped this genocide. This genocide inaugurated Africa’s current age of pestilence. During the period, 12 million additional Africans have been murdered in further genocide in Rwanda (1994), Zaïre/DRCongo (variously, since the late 1990s) and Darfur – west of the Sudan – (since 2004) and in other wars in Africa. African peoples have, presently, no other choice but exit/dismantle the extant genocide-state (the bane of their existence & progress) & construct own nation-centred states that serve their interests. He is author of several books & papers on the subject and his new book is entitled The longest genocide – since 29 May 1966 (2019).