- Tony Nnadi, October 8, 2021.
During the Q&A session at a recent Virtual Town Hall, a zealous “Biafra Restoration” activist who also happened to be a University Teacher in the United States, was invited to explain to the audience, in precise terms, the exact meaning of the “Biafra Restoration” he had been campaigning about for some years.
Specifically,
(1) He was asked to explain to the audience the Exact Geographical Description of the Territory (ie Map) of the Biafra being restored.
(1) He was asked to name the Ethnic Nationalities included in the “Biafra”’Territory covered by his Map.
(3) He was asked to describe the Goal of the Campaign in clear terms without using the phrase “Biafra Restoration”
The fellow struggled for about five minutes, unable to provide concise answers any of these three Specifics.
It dawned on him that despite being a University Teacher, he could not meaningfully describe the Campaign he was waging for years, in terms of Exact Territory, People(s) covered and Goal because everything he tried to say brought out embarrassing gaps in the descriptions he was trying to advance.
By this little exercise, it dawned on him that he had all these years erroneously lumped these three items together together in the word “Biafra” thereby creating an extraordinary kind of confusion.
Then we went on to unbundle the three items and so he immediately realized :
(i)That the use of the Term “Biafra” in describing the Territory over which he seeks independence, throws up the controversy as to whether it is the Biafra Territory of May 30, 1967 or whether the Territory has shrunk to the East Central State of May 27, 1967 or expanded to include parts or the whole of Midwest Region/State of May 27, 1967.
It therefore dawned on him that a clear Territorial description of his prospective “Biafra” was necessary.
(ii) That the use of the Term “Biafrans” to describe the People Seeking the Independence also leaves everything in Controversy as to the actual People or Peoples (ie Ethnic Nationalities) seeking Independence via the “Biafra Restoration” Campaign.
It dawned on him that “Biafrans” cannot be the clear description of the People(s) involved in the search for Independence in Eastern Nigeria.
(iii) That the use of the word “Biafra” to describe the Goal of the Campaign instead of Self-Determination, for instance also throws up the same controversies as in (i)&(ii) above.
When these three items were unbundled, it became clear to the fellow that the grave error of using “Biafra” to describe the Territory, the People and the Goal was the biggest albatross to the Liberation Campaign they were trying to wage because it immediately surrounds the Liberation Campaign with such irresolvable controversies that operates like a huge albatross on the Liberation Campaign, and this is a most potent recipe for the failure of the entire Liberation Project, both for the Greater Eastern Nigeria and the entire NINAS Alliance Territories of the South and Middle-Belt.
Once we remove the word “Biafra” from the Campaign Nomenclature as outlined above, we immediately see much clearer and easy-to-understand description of *the Territory, the Peoples and the FREEDOM Goal. *
We can then build everything else on those three, devoid of Controversy.
This is precisely what the LNC did as can be gleaned from the ALADIMMA EPISTLE of 2012.
