I prefer Biafra as an ideology not as a country

 

by Ifedinma Onwugbufor

When the Biafra war happened, Igbos were ill-prepared. Ojukwu's blood was hot - an age factor. He failed to look into the future and how much Igbos would lose in that war.
He took many Igbo young men and wasted them in different sectors of war. And achieved nothing. In the end, he ran away to Cote d'Ivoire - with a WOMAN. And moved on.
I am passionate about the Biafran ideology.
But I won't be a party to bad strategy.
The spirit warned Ojaadili, "Ojaadili, agbakwana chi gi mgba". Don't wrestle with your chi.
I prefer to see Biafra as an ideology than a country. That's my take.
I will suggest this any day, any time.
Igbos want a country to be called Biafra.
Sometimes, I just wake up and begin to laugh at this humongous Biafran dream.
It is good to dream - don't get me wrong.
But permit me to say that Igbos are not diplomatic dreamers.
So Igbos who are busy building the best hotels, schools; estates, businesses, bus stations etc in the South-West and North of Nigeria, want a country to be named Biafra with its capital located where???? Excuse me??
Funny.
Ibeto hotels in Abuja is owned by an Igbo man.
New Nyanya, a major transportation company that dominates northern routes is owned by an Igbo man.
Efab estates in different parts of Abuja are owned by an Igbo man.
Rock Foundation Schools, one of the three best schools in Wukari in Taraba State is owned by an Igbo woman. Deo Gratias schools in different parts of Abuja are owned by an Igbo woman.
Many young,  hustling Igbo ladies own tasty houses in Abuja and Lagos.
Show me a Fulani man who owns big schools in Awka.
Show me a Yoruba woman who built classy schools in Nsukka.
Show me a Tiv man who has classy hotels in Owerri.
Show me a Jukun woman who owns a big hotel in Aba.
Show me an Igbira man who owns many estates in Enugu.
Apart from Dangote's trucks that pass by Igboland for delivery, show me one Hausa man whose transportation company is domiciled in Abakiliki.
Every Yoruba man I have seen in Igboland is either a tailor or a banker or telecom worker who owns an inconsequential one-room apartment with a miserable mattress for sleeping or straffing ambitious Igbo girls who want to be laid and a miserable bucket to wash down.
Every northern ethnic minority or majority I know in Igboland is either a driver of a commuter passing by, on temporal posting by his or her company; a well-digger, farmer, fisherman, shoemaker or banker in TRANSIT with a room to lay his head.
It is only Igbos that have the mind to live in Sokoto and Bauchi with their wives and kids, establish businesses and make investments.
And the next thing, they're talking about Biafra.
Do you plan to uproot those houses and other investments or what?
Now, this three-month ultimatum ...
Why not? Why won't they? They know you will lose again like in 1970.
Where are the agitators asking for a new country? It is time to host their brethren who will soon saunter home for safety. Prepare rooms for them please. Those northern youths mean business.
If you have lived in Northern Nigeria, you would know that hausas don't play. When they mean war, it is war. One hausa man can disorganise a million people. They get mind ooooh. One of them can go on suicide bombing just to exterminate a thousand southerners in a motor park.
Those guys don't joke. Don't be deceived that they are mere threats. They make good their threats. i don't see this APC government interested in frustrating that threat.
Igbos, start tidying up to push eastwards.
Decongest your presence in northern Nigeria. Stand one leg ... like a chicken brought to a new ground. Stop feeling at home if indeed, you want Biafra. Invest in the east. Have only annexes in these other states.
You make yourselves vulnerable when you live like this.
Keep your wives and kids at Enugu, Aba, Onitsha etc, and after chasing money, return home. Have a miserable room to lay your heads and straff their babes if you can deal.
Go HOME. Stop strutting the northern areas like you are helpless.
They hate you. With the strongest passion. They have only been tolerating you. And now, they are done. Peace? It's over.
Don't be that tree that waited till men came with machetes to make firewood of it.
I am pushing eastwards next month. I won't wrestle my chi. It's no one-Nigeria anything.
The one who wins the war is the one who strategises better.
Nnamdi Kanu is human.
Don't always take his words for it.
People change as they grow older. The Ojukwu that returned to Nigeria in the 80s turned out different from the# one who led the Biafrans to war.
He had his regrets before he died. He identified the Biafran mistakes.
Yet Ojukwu was a brave stock.
Ten years from today, Kanu's disposition won't remain the same. Mark this.
Because he is human.
Ojukwu's family experienced the war. All his kids and official and secondary wives all experienced it.
Kanu's wife and kids are in the UK.
Ndigbo, ubelegede k'ana ekene eze mmuo.
I hate to employ clichés, but a stitch in time ...