The Administrator Of Customary Government Of IPOB’s Message To The Members Of United Progressive Party UPP, Anambra State.
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My fellow Biafrans, May peace of the Lord be unto you.
I wish to address you today to bring to your notice once again the reason why we are here with you in your party, UPP, now christened Biafran National Party.
Loading ...The air within and outside Biafra land currently is filled with highly heated debate with respect to why and whether Biafran agitators should veer into politics while still in Nigeria. Its right now one of the highly debated topics amongst the Biafran political and nonpolitical class. Calls and text messages from all over the world are hitting my office from many Biafrans for and against.
In spite of our tight schedule we must take out time to address this issue. Its not surprising because the matter concerns the very essence Biafrans live for: which is Biafra.
Moreso, the issue do not end only at our decision to get involve in ‘Nigerian’ politics but also why aligning with the political party; United Progressive Party, UPP for that matter? Some believe its a bad choice.
While still on this, one group of Biafran agitators, IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu is vehemently opposed to any of their members participating in the election, in what is rather called election boycott.
In addressing this issue let me state that knowingly or unknowingly, wittingly or unwittingly many of our people have been boycotting elections in Biafra land and wherever they reside inside Nigeria. Let me explain this by taking Anambra state as case study.
The most recent official population figure for Anambra state is placed at above 4million, but he official INEC figure of registered voters in the state is place at a little above 1.5 million. Nearly 2.5 million ‘boycotted’ registration of voters exercise. Again out of the 1.5 million registered voters, the total accredited voters in the last Governorship election in the state is about 400,000. This means that about 90% of our people ‘boycotted’ the electoral process in the state from voter registration to actual voting. I want to believe that what many people have come to describe as voter apathy amongst Igbo/Biafrans can rather be called election boycott. My reason for describing it so is that its borne out of frustration and therefore deliberate. When asked, an average Igbo/Biafran will tell you that there is no need to bother oneself participating in ‘Nigerian’ election processes because its filled with fraud.
They will tell you that starting from the registration of voters to the time election results are declared, Nigerian electoral processes are being stage managed.
They insist that our votes do not count. They believe the government at the centre do always have their ‘agents’ penciled down to be imposed on people.
Therefore why bother? Secondly is the fact that what comes out of Nigerian electoral processes are fraudulent and deceitful political class.
They will conclude that our political class are nothing but agents of government of occupation situated at Abuja. That once the elected party men finished loading their pocket with public money, they turn to doing the biddings of their paymasters.
Based on the above, our people chose to remove themselves from anything politics in Nigeria.
We cannot write off the above sentiments. They are as real as daylight. What is not real and therefore should be fought against is allowing such situation to perpetuate itself on us.
The Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria, MOBIN, therefore has decided to challenge that very obnoxious situation, while riding on the crest of such dangerous tide to give our struggle a new face of shifting it from the street to the political boardroom.
It’s our decision that our struggle for freedom must be removed from the streets of violence and blood to the political dialogue table where finally Biafra will leave the draftsman’s table to the physically delineated map on the ground
But we cannot achieve this if the party that has taken up the armour to ‘battle’ with us and to be called Biafran National Party, upon which shoulder the Biafran Tiger(Leopard) shall stride and roar home to roast is not strongly convinced and positioned to ‘fight’ but rather walks with rattling knees as we advance into the ‘battlefield’.
My intention here is to call on you, my fellow Biafrans, to be steadfast in this pursuit. Ours is a precarious situation. Ours is a valley, likened to an ancient Roman Court, where intrigue and subterfuge is the order of the day.
I want to remind you that your party is being looked upon to prove itself to Biafrans. Some Biafrans believe you cannot carry this Biafran flame to the end. They believe that you, as many other Nigerian politicians are too corrupt to be trusted.
They believe that money will always be a deciding factor in your midst. They believe that ‘Abuja-Politicians’ sent by those occupying our land forcefully will soon descend on you with lorry loads of Naira, and you will capitulate.
Some Biafrans believe you cannot resist monetary inducement. Please prove them wrong. My fellow Biafrans show them that the Biafran fire in you is greater than what they ascribe to you. Show them that we made no mistake choosing you. For that I say, as they come with the money, take them, but still resist them. Take the money because it is our money.
These are monies supposedly meant for the development in our areas which they hoarded, to be used to deceive us during elections. Therefore take the money. Its ours! These are people whose only presence in our land is when they need our votes. Immediately these votes are gotten, they will push away our people and return to their paymasters. The worse are the ‘birds of passage’ who do not believe in building a regional cohesion as political party, but only remember our party when they feel their so-called centre party has deny them candidacy. Once they secure our mandate, they return to the ‘pond’. Please be wary of these politicians.
We Biafrans need Biafrans at Agu Awka comes March 2018. We need that person who will not be afraid to mention Biafra. We need people who see and feel our plight as we do. We need government that won’t shy away from its responsibility of defending our people. We need government that will stand tall in defense of our collective aspirations. We need strong willed Biafrans who will not be afraid to claim their rightful heritage as Biafrans.
We need people who will understand what our people want and stand with us, rather than always telling us what the North want us to know. We a leader and not a ruler.
Therefore as you reposition yourselves and your party to take Biafrans to a greater height, please don’t hastate to show your Biafran-ness.
Let us be united in ‘fighting’ the biggest monster(INEC), the Nigerian Army, Police and all other security operatives that will target our state on Nov.18, when they will descend on us to steal our Government House. Give us a strong willed Biafran candidate, so that we join you in not only giving yourselves victory but also in defending the victory.
Let’s shame those that want us to fail.
Finally, the man dies in all that remain silent on the face of tyranny!…. Wole Soyinka.
Thank you and God bless.
Great Biafrans! Great!
Sign:
Engr. Aniebue Anthony.
Administrator, Customary Government of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra CG-IPOB.
