Igbo Corner

Arewa groups writes Emir of Kano, demands separate state of Biafra

Published

4 years ago

June 6, 2021

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has urged the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero to facilitate a separate state of Biafra for the Igbos.

This was contained in a strong-worded letter written by the coalition to the traditional ruler dated 3rd June, 2021, titled “Alert on unfolding scenarios for destabilization of Nigeria“.

The group lamented that the insistence of some South Eastern elements to take up arms against the Nigerian state and northerners “confirms that the nation’s unity is definitely negotiable”.

It urged “the Nigerian state and other critical stakeholders and international players to accept the reality that the only remaining option to avert a civil war and bloodshed is for the Igbo to be allowed to have Biafra”.

CNG asked the Kano Emir “to set up a machinery for the final evacuation of all Biafra indigenes from the North to their new country and for the safe relocation of all northerners from the South East”.

The group warned that “the North should no longer be expected to be restrained from paying back any further act of aggressive provocation on northerners living as minorities in any part of southern Nigeria”.

The letter, signed by the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Coalition of Northern Groups, Nastura A. Shariff, reads in full:

His Highness
The Emir of Kano
Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero

Your Highness,

Alert on unfolding scenarios for destabilization of Nigeria

We address this letter to you with a deep sense of patriotism and concern for a strong and prosperous northern region in the context of the current Nigerian nation with respect to both historical and current trends and the underlying character of the Igbo people of the South East.

We address you Sir, consciously believing that as critical stakeholder in the affairs of the northern society, you will accept and treat this as a warning from history which repeats itself, according to Karl Marx, once as a farce and twice as a tragedy.

LESSONS OF HISTORY

It is instructive to recount that the Igbo have benefited more than any other tribe in terms of economic monopoly and are the most accommodated and tolerated of all the ethnic groups in Nigeria, despite their notoriety for disregard to every rule of decency and etiquette globally.

They have persisted in spiteful and vile threats on the whole nation as catalyst for the kind of violence that the country faced in 1966 following the first ever military insurrection by their kith.

Setting the protocol for the unfolding agenda, the 1966 coupists decapitated the Prime Minister and the political leadership of the Northern and Western regions, leaving the zenith of Igbo leadership at the federal level and the Eastern region intact.

Since that time, the Igbo have continued to intermittently taunt and rebel against the Nigerian State, demanding to secede and form an independent country called Biafra which was among the key elements that culminated in the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 that resulted in colossal death and destruction.

RESURGENCE

Decades after, Nigeria is again witnessing the resurgence of separatist agitations, especially by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its ilk, as strategies employed to achieve the results that the coupists of the First Republic failed to realize.

The scene began with the regrouping of the Igbo to launch a brazen, though relatively decent campaign for Biafra under the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

This was eventually hijacked by another rogue group called the IPOB, led by Nnamdi Kanu whose violent campaign went beyond public lectures to the spread of xenophobic, hateful war messages, targeting the Nigerian state and other non-Igbo ethnic groups.

Kanu and IPOB’s activities grew exponentially, ranging from ordering people of other regions out of the South East – particularly northerners, to open declaration of amassing of arms to fight Nigeria.

As these dangerous contours began to spiral with repeated calls to arms by the IPOB leader, the CNG in 2017, took the bold and necessary step to issue a “quit notice” in the famous Kaduna Declaration and followed up with series of communications to the then acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and all major foreign diplomatic missions represented in Nigeria, in which we drew attention to the emerging trends in the country that were pregnant with complications and unforeseen consequences.

Those truly patriotic representations by the CNG aimed to anticipate and forestall the current drift toward anarchy and bloodshed in Nigeria, and also to alert the international community as to where responsibility would ultimately lie if such momentous and terrible events ever came to pass.

Since 2017, on almost a daily basis, IPOB/ESN have coordinated violent attacks, indiscriminate killings and destruction of properties of northerners that continued unceasingly in almost all South Eastern states and some South South communities.

The threat grew more existential with revelations of catches of arms meant for the Boko Haram insurgents routinely smuggled into the country and intercepted by the Nigerian authorities, traced to Igbo merchants.

Evidence also abound of how IPOB’S incitement to mass atrocity and possible genocide against the North, and outright rebellion to the Nigerian state, manifested in the ugly incidents of the #EndSARS protests resulting in attacks and killings of security personnel, non-Igbo residents in the East and arson across Western States like Lagos.

The attacks went on literally unchecked climaxing with the cold-blooded massacre of 19 innocent members of a pastoral family in Anambra and more recently, the gruesome assassination of Dr Ahmed Gulak in Imo.

THE NORTH

The typology of the current disturbances spreading across all northern states where the fissures between ethnic and religious groups are much more accentuated, suggests a wider plot to cause greater national instability by first diminishing the northern economic, political and educational viability.

It began with an exponential increase in the level of drug addiction and substance abuse driven by outside forces and players particularly Southeastern traders and “pharmacists” who are the main sources of the substances and drugs that target the North.

There is also an established correlation between the arms trade and drug trade in the North, both of which are intended to cause the disintegration of the region and bring about its weakening from within.

OUR CONVICTIONS

The CNG is convinced that the bulk of the support for the violent Biafra agitation coming from the younger generation of the Igbo in the fifty-year bracket with pent up jealousies against the North and its people, are direct results of the dangerous indoctrination and radicalization by their forefathers, political, religious leaders over a long period.

We are also convinced that the dimension of the current agitations and disturbances that have been ongoing ceaselessly since 2017, are aimed at rendering the country practically ungovernable, and ushering in of anarchy and instability thereby occasioning an inter-regional crisis possibly leading to civil war or general unrest that could portend towards the breakup of the country.

Thus the targeting of the North and its people for attacks and irreverent treatment by IPOB and the Eastern Security Network, emboldened by the active support of all Igbo leaders, aim at sparking off retaliation in the North with subsequent attacks to be perpetrated against Northerners in the South-East, thus making it even more likely to insist on dividing the country.

OUR STAND

In the light of the observations and inferences drawn above, the CNG hereby arrives at the following inevitable positions:

That with the dimension taken by the Biafran agitation that involves attacks and destruction of public utilities, national security assets and personnel, and violence against fellow Nigerians from other parts of the country particularly the North, it has become no longer reasonable to expect us to continue having the Igbo as a federating partner.
The fact that the strength of the Igbo agitation rests on youth who are mainly below the ages of 50, with diseased mindsets induced by their forefathers and encouraged by their political, cultural and religious leaders to take up arms against the Nigerian state and northerners, confirms that the nation’s unity is definitely negotiable.
It is therefore unreasonable for those older Nigerians who are mostly above 70 to insist that the unity of Nigeria is sacrosanct whereas the people executing the dangerous Southeast secession agenda are almost entirely below 50.

PRAYERS

Committed to constitutionalism, peace, security, fair play, decent patriotism, love of our country and fellow citizens and respect for elders, CNG hereby urges you as respected leaders to:

Act to get the Nigerian state and other critical stakeholders and international players to accept the reality that the only remaining option to avert a civil war and bloodshed is for the Igbo to be allowed to have the Biafra they have used intermittently for decades to destabilize the nation and deny peace to other components of the country.
To take urgent steps to check the mass movement of people from the proposed Biafra land into the vast interior of the North as well as the permanent nature of that migration.
To set up a machinery for the final evacuation of all Biafra indigenes from the North to their new country and for the safe relocation of all northerners from the South East.

CONCLUSION

Finally Sir, we submit that the level of anger elicited by the activities of the IPOB and its sponsors at home and in the Diaspora has reached the inevitable point where the

Igbo must be separated from us by invoking the relevant statutes on self-determination entrenched in various international conventions and treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory.

And for the avoidance of doubt, the North should no longer be expected to be restrained from paying back any further act of aggressive provocation on northerners living as minorities in any part of southern Nigeria.

No one needs to be reminded that a destabilized Nigeria also comes with negative consequences for peace and security in West Africa sub-region as well as Europe and the US and the rest of the global community.

As such the North shall no longer be disposed to relating as Nigeria with the violent Igbo secessionists nor relate at any diplomatic level with a Biafran nation that may emerge now or in the future.

Thank you.

Signed:

Nastura A. Shariff
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Coalition of Northern Groups

Post Views: 14

Analysis

Nigeria is radicalizing the Igbo, one injustice at a time ~ by Abolaji Rasaq

Published

3 months ago

May 21, 2025

kevin 'Jakpor

There’s something about persecution that does two things to a people: it either breaks them, or it makes them beasts of survival.

For centuries the Jews… they were hunted, hated, and humiliated by empires. But they didn’t vanish.

They evolved. They adapted. And today, the Jews are arguably the most powerful tribe in the world economically, intellectually, and politically. Ruthless when necessary.

They are unapologetic about their survival. Now, look at the Igbo. A tribe known for industry, resilience, and brilliance.

A people who just want to live, do business, and thrive. But Nigeria doesn’t want that. Nigeria wants control.

Nigeria wants submission. And the one thing the Igbo have never known how to do is bow. And that’s the real issue.

So what does Nigeria do? It sidelines them. Isolates them. Provokes them. Bombs their villages under the guise of security.

Locks up their agitators. Shuts down their businesses. Mocks their pain. Ignores their history. Prevent them from voting. Play politics with their education. Sponsored bigotry on them.

And then Nigeria pretends to be surprised that there’s growing radicalization in the East?

Let me be clear: The Igbo didn’t start this fire. Nigeria did.

And history, the very same history we keep refusing to learn from, has shown us that when you keep pushing a tribe that knows how to survive, they evolve into something stronger, something unstoppable.

It’s happened before. With the Jews. Europe tried to exterminate them. Instead, they became the backbone of global finance, media, tech, and diplomacy.

You don’t touch a Jew today without consequences. You don’t push them to the wall and expect them to stay quiet.

Now Nigeria is doing the same to the Igbo, pushing, prodding, provoking.

But here’s the warning: when you push an animal to the wall, it doesn’t stay calm. It fights back. It bites. And this time, when it bites, don’t act shocked.

But this isn’t just about the Igbo solely. Nigeria has perfected the art of creating monsters, then acting surprised when they bite.

The Niger Delta? Radicalized. The region was exploited for oil, polluted beyond repair, and ignored until their youths picked up arms.

The Fulani terrorists? Radicalized. Left behind by the same government that claimed to represent them, now manipulated by religion and resentment.

The Almajiri? Radicalized. Abandoned by an elite that used their poverty as a vote bank and then left them to rot.

The Agbero? Radicalized. Uneducated, weaponized, and unleashed as tools of political chaos.

Even the middle class is slowly being radicalized, not with guns, but with hopelessness. That, too, is a ticking time bomb.

A nation cannot continue to marginalize its most brilliant tribe and expect peace.

The Igbo are not docile. They are not quiet. They are not forgetful. They are survivors, and survivors don’t beg for space forever. At some point, they take it.

The Igbo didn’t set out to be radicals. They were made into one by a country that won’t stop seeing their confidence as a threat.

You can’t keep pretending unity means silence. You can’t keep preaching peace while planting injustice.

The Igbo are not asking for too much, they just want to live, build, and grow.

But if you insist on turning their dignity into defiance, their enterprise into enmity, and their survival into sedition, then you are creating a monster.

And if history has taught us anything, it’s this: when a persecuted people decide that survival is no longer enough, when they decide to stop running and start resisting, they don’t just fight back. They win.

Nigeria must understand this: you cannot keep pushing people into a corner and expect submission.

When you back a lion into a wall, don’t expect it to purr. It will roar. It will claw. It will tear through anything standing between it and freedom.

So here’s the final warning, for those who still care to listen: Nigeria is radicalizing the Igbo.

But worse, Nigeria is radicalizing everyone. And it won’t end well.

When the fire spreads, when the rebellion multiplies, when the beast we created begins to fight back, don’t act shocked; no tribe will be left untouched.

Don’t pretend it wasn’t preventable. We all made it happen. You don’t corner a lion and expect peace.

Abolaji Rasaq is a public affairs analyst.

Post Views: 41

Igbo Corner

Crisis hits Nnewi over Uruagu PG election, as BoT members protest, resign

Published

4 months ago

May 9, 2025

kevin 'Jakpor

Palpable crisis is brewing in Nnewi over the election of the President General of Uruagu Community in the industrial town of Anambra State, with a business mogul and owner of Organiser Plc., Chief Innocent Okoli, accused of upsetting the apple cart.

The crisis has led to protests and resignation of members of the Board of Trustees (BoT).

One of the resignation letters sighted by News Band was from a legal practitioner, J. N. Obi, Esq.

Barrister Obi, until his resignation served as the Secretary of the Executive Committee and member, Uruagu Board of Trustees.

Tendering his resignation letter, Obi cited brazen violation of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union.

The letter was referenced OB/03 /296/2025, dated May 8, 2025, and addressed to His Highness. Obi A. C. Obi (Ogidi IV).

In the letter entitled “Letter of resignation as member, Board of Trustees (B.O. T) Uruagu Nnewi. Obi announced his resignation based on the following reasons:

Article 8. 9 (a) of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union. 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“The Board shall “Ensure the observance of this Constitution”.
Article 14.4 of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“Each ward shall submit a list of the Electors In writing to the Secretary General of the Union, one month before any election.
“The submission of the list of the Electors shall be done by the Ward Chairman In consultation with the Ward’s Obi.”
“The election sought to be conducted on Saturday, 10th day of May 2025, did not comply with the above provisious as it was on the Union’s general meeting of the I3th day of April 2025 that the expiration of the tenure of the Executives was announced.”

The legal pratictioner, however, noted that the election to be held on May 10 will not be up to one month.

He, therefore, resigned his membership of B. 0. T for failure to abide by the above provisions of the Constitution as stated above.

On his part, the former President General of Uruagu Nnewi, Chief Ambassador Charles Nwonye, decried series of illegalities in the proposed election championed by Chief Okoli.

He recalled the efforts of past and present stakeholders to ensure that Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union is recognised as a legal and responsible entity in the state.

He, however, speaking in a voice note obtained by Diaspora Digital Media (DDM), regretted:

“It’s very, very unfortunate that those counsels that instituted Uruagu Development Union are no longer alive.

“They were the ones who were known for speaking out the truth. But at the same time, we will not all keep quiet.

“I, hereby, wish to bring the following to the attention of all Uruagu indigenes, scattered all over Nigeria and in the diaspora that four years ago, a similar thing happened.

“Uruagu Nnewi Constitution was also flagrantly violated four years ago.

“At the end, a lot of stakeholders asked the former Executive Committee to resign and leave en masse.

“The Constitution, however, allowed them to recontest.

“The Executive Committee then honourably resigned and no one of us recontested, ushering in a new Executive Committee.

“They argued that following the election, the Constitution will be amended to correct all the flaws and ensure no such flagrant abused repeats itself.

“They went for the election and what happened there was the same illegality we’re talking about.

“Some of our youths went and connived with mischief makers, disrupted the election and declared the present Executive Committee members winners.

“The youths stood by them in their misguided thoughts that the Executive Committee members enjoy special gains in the office.

“They disrupted the election and ensured that the present crop of Executive Committee members was ushered in.

“The election was heavily flawed and rigged in favour of Eloka Ike and Innocent Okoli, but we let go and left peacefully.

“The new Executive Committee promised to preside for only four years and leave, but we are currently seeing the same illegalities.

“I dare ask: Should Uruagu be known only for illegalities? I thought Ndi Uruagu are smart people?

“I have observed that there are certain individuals who are hell-bent on ensuring that the Uruagu leadership fails.

“They seem bent on destroying all our efforts, acting as agents of chaos and destruction.

“How can one man gather a bunch of Umuezeagu indigenes and take them to the court, claiming that they sued the union to court?

“They deceived the High Court and got a frivolous injunction against Uruagu people, all in the name of election!

“When I got this information, I knew that something was wrong.

“How can someone, after serving a tenure fraught with irregularities, fight his way to a second tenure against the people’s wish?

“I want to make it clear to all the delegates in the so-called election that it will not be possible to make an illegality legal.

“Anyone who casts a vote in that sham election is an agent provocateur, as well as a villain.

“Let it be on record that I denounced the so-called election founded on illegality and fraud and all participants, be it a delegate or participant in any manner is an enemy of the people.”

Chief Okoli and other responsible people of Nnewi leadership could not be reached for comment at the moment of this publication.

More details will follow…

Post Views: 36

Celebrity/Entertainment

Late Mbaise monarch—Eze Nwabueze Ugorji to be buried May 22, 2025

Published

5 months ago

March 14, 2025

kevin 'Jakpor

The remains of HRH Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, Orji Ukwu 1 of Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area, will be laid to rest on Thursday, May 22, 2025.

The late Eze Ugorji will be buried in his palace at Orji Ukwu Estate, Lorji, following a Catholic funeral Mass at St. Andrews Catholic Church, Lorji.

News Band was informed that His Excellency the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, has been invited to officiate at the ceremony.

Bishop Nwobi, it was learnt, has also accepted the family’s invitation to officiate at the funeral rites of the late grand traditional ruler.

This information was provided to members of the press in Owerri by the Opara Eze (First Son of the Eze), former Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji.

His Lordship Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese (Mbaise) and Eze Nwabueze Ugorji’s First Son, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji

“The family is grateful to His Lordship for granting us a rare request to officiate at a funeral on a Thursday,” Dr. Ugorji said.

“Our father will feel honored and appreciated because he was not just a devoted Catholic, he shouldered the building of the St. Andrews Catholic Church at Lorji until his death,” the former commissioner added.

Post Views: 44

Igbo Corner

EXCLUSIVE: Ngozi Orabueze dissolves Biafra Govt In Exile as Simon Ekpa may spend longer time in prison

Published

6 months ago

February 13, 2025

kevin 'Jakpor

Dr. Ngozi Orabueze has abruptly dissolved the Biafra Government In Exile following secret information that his former boss, Simon Ekpa may not be coming out from Finnish detention in a hurry.

News Band reported that Mrs. Orabueze, a former Chief of Staff to Mr Simon Ekpa, the self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra Government In Exile, toppled his principal after he was thrown into prison for promoting violent agitation and terrorism in the Southeast of Nigeria.

Ekpa’s trial is scheduled to start in May 2025.

Ngozi, a former chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Atlanta, United States in a statement on Wednesday, announced the dissolution of Biafra Government In Exile.

She said all assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.

Orabueze also directed all officers of the former exile government to report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment.

The statement reads, “It is resolved that the Biafra Republic Government In Exile (BRGIE) is hereby dissolved as it’s reason for the existence has been superceded by the November 29, 2024 Declaration of the restoration of the Independent United States of Biafra

“All assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates(BRGIE corporation ID: D237527271) shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.

“All officers of the former exile government shall report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment. All activities of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile shall cease as of February 15, 2025”.

Meanwhile, an insider source in the movement reliably told News Band that Ngozi decided to dissolve BRGIE after receiving intel that Simon Ekpa might spend longer time in prison.

The source also revealed that the Nigerian government is doing everything within it’s power to nail Simon Ekpa for all his atrocious acts in the SouthEast region.

So, the only way to keep the agitation going in the absence of Ekpa is to dissolve BRGIE.

“Yes, Ngozi Orabueze dissolved the Biafra Republic Government In Exile so as to be fully in charge of the assets belonging to the movement. With the way the Nigerian government is going about the case of Simon Ekpa, he may spend longer time in prison”, the source said.

Moreover, before now, Orabueze has been at war with some arrowheads of the separatist movement who refused to acknowledge her authority.

This however, has led to series of fights, accusation and counter accusations among the agitators.

Post Views: 32

Igbo Corner

A tribute to Mrs. Roseline Udu Eze

Published

7 months ago

January 29, 2025

kevin 'Jakpor

We celebrate the life of Mrs. Roseline Udu Eze, a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and pillar of strength.

Her unwavering love, kindness, and selflessness left an indelible mark on all who knew her.

Though we mourn her passing, we take solace in the legacy she leaves behind and the cherished memories we hold. Rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord, dear Roseline.

You will forever be missed.

May her soul rest in perfect peace.

Amen.

Post Views: 34