THE BIAFRA NATION AND NIGERIA

The Biafra nation has carried the status of offspring as the system over the years has granted them remarkable humility, abstention and temperance.

As a nation, the Nigerian state treated the Igbo as a conquered nationality, in spite of the national mantra "no victor, no vanquished" proposed by the Chief of General Staff at the time, General Gowon.

But in truth, the spirit of "even though the tribe and the language may differ in fraternity, we are in position" has been suppressed and inactive in all these years.

The Igbo leadership, on the other hand, accepted the obvious humiliation and sustained discrimination against Nigerians from the Igbo extraction as an inevitable and excusable consequence to take up arms against the nation-state.

Despite this pronounced indignation, the leadership of the Igbo and the Ndigbo in general kept faith with the Nigeria Project, accepting their fate and hoping that sooner or later the wounds and afflictions of the war heal and the soothing rays of the sun of Nigeria will shine on the southeast.

According to Doyin Okupe, he said "It is with this spirit that the chief Vincent Amaechi; The founder and president of the Young Shall Grow Motors, and my humble car, accompanied the late Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, to his historic conference entitled "Handshake across the Niger" at Nigeria's main club, Lagos Island Club Years. 

"After this memorable event, we have conceptualized the creation of an Elite Club in Ikoyi, where the cream of Yoruba and Igbo will socialize, mix and talk freely, hoping that such an atmosphere will create the forum where true friendship and Link between East and West can be nurtured and developed. It was hoped that this would help to reduce the level of mutual mistrust between the two main southern nationalities.

"Chief Amaechi and I later followed Ikemba as a continuation of his efforts to seek peace and understanding within the nation to the North. Among the states where we visited, we were: Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto.

"It was a big tour and we were very well received by ordinary Nigerians on the street. I saw a woman Fulani who ran after the Ikemba, pushed me to the side, and used her son's hand to touch the head of ikemba.

Such was the open spectacle of love, of innate affection, and of the respect accorded to the Ikemba by the ordinary citizens of the North. This became the hallmark of our Northern tours at that time."

I sympathize with Nnamdi Kanu, a young generation of Igbo born and grown in a period of inexcusable and inexplicable humiliation and discrimination against a people.

A situation of palpable hatred and undisguised marginalization. Prior to Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB, MASSOB existed.

All these visceral manifestations of a people against injustice and inequality are irreconcilable with their level of education, exposure and mental development. Those who advocate the use of iron solutions for these "separatist" movements are trying to break the clay feet on which our unity as a nation now resides.

This is the time to heal old wounds nationwide. It is time to forgive the mistakes (on all sides) of the past. It is time to finish the wars, including the civil war. War drums sound aloud everywhere.

Let us know wisely what war drums say in different quarters. Let's take the peace of each pulpit available.

It is a great nation, composed of a complex set of formidable and potentially great nationalities which, if carefully associated, will always create the greatest history of World Black History.