By Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Nnewi Contrary to the impressing that the South East and South-South Governors and politicians, particularly the...
By Chimaobi Nwaiwu,
Nnewi
Contrary to the impressing that the South East and
South-South Governors and politicians, particularly the National and State
Assembly lawmakers, were taken unawares before it established, the Eastern
Security Network, ESN, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB has made public the
letter it wrote to them, through its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, before it
established the security outfit.
The Biafra agitating group stated that it informed the
Governors and politicians of the two regions on the imperative and implication
of not having a security outfit before it came up with ESN when it became clear
that they were not ready to protect their people. Mazi Kanu had in a letter he
personally signed, dated May 15, 2020, addressed to the South East and
South-South Governors, National and State Assembly lawmakers, and Security
agencies in South-East and South-South, informing them about IPOB’s
establishment of ESN, to stop alleged siege on South-East and South-South
communities, allegedly perpetrated by alien invaders and sponsored killer
mercenaries from it said are from the Sahel.
According to the latter which was made available to newsmen
through OPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary Emma Powerful, the pro-Biafra
group said it decided to make the letter public because IPOB has been accused
at various times of being reluctant to reach out to the elected political class
in the crucial project of liberating Biafra land from the vicious and deadly
grip of killer herdsmen, terrorists, religious and territorial expansionism,
allegedly tacitly tolerated encouraged by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
IPOB letter reads in part, “This day May 15, 2020, we wish
to inform Governors, National and State
Houses of Assembly Members of Southeast and South-South States, Security of
Southeast and South-South, your Excellencies and Honorables, that It is no
longer news that our communities are under siege from alien invaders and
sponsored killer mercenaries from the Sahel.”
It is also on record that IPOB has been accused at various times of a
reluctance to reach out to the elected political class in the crucial project
of liberating our land from the vicious and deadly grip of religious and
territorial expansionism, tacitly tolerated or encouraged, by the present
Nigerian Federal government. “Even President Muhammadu Buhari had himself
recently confirmed this when he pointed to foreign Fulani elements as the core
culprits in this murderous campaign.
“It is against this background and at this auspicious moment
that the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown is in force; and when the fault lines in
the area of our collective security and protection of our vulnerable
communities have all the more been in the limelight that we now feel compelled
to bury the hatchet and reach out to you to bring your good offices to bear.
“I am therefore by this communication extending hands of
fellowship to you while inviting you to advert your minds to your obligations
to live up to your conditional duties and responsibilities in initiating laws
and policies that will impact positively on our people, especially in regard to
the security of lives, property and protection of our borders against those
that levy terror and jihadism.
“There is an ongoing and well-planned attack by supremacists
against our people and we urge you all to collaborate with IPOB in the onerous
task of keeping our communities safe. “We urge the state legislators, in
collaboration with the Governors to as a matter of extreme urgency, pass
legislation that will engender coordinated security outfits to tackle these
menaces. “IPOB is committed to assisting in this regard if called upon to do
so.
You can take umbrage in the fact that you are the ones
possessing the constitutional mandate to initiate economic and social policies
for our region in a way that will even encourage Biafran entrepreneurs in the
diaspora to look homewards. “Your intervention is much more urgent because of
the portent existential political and economic threats to our collective
existence.
Though not generally known, the Constitution of Nigeria, by
implication, allows us, and any cohesive group of aggrieved Nigerians to seek
self-determination and autonomy as a people. “This is specifically provided for
under Articles 1 & 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights,
ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1983 at CAP A9, Laws of Federation of
Nigeria, 2004.
“Why then are you not taking the expected and appropriate
legislative measures to enforce such clear statutory provisions? Why are our
lawmakers not having the appetite to see what the law says? Why are our people
suffering as a consequence of this inaction?
“This is the kernel of this communication. It, therefore,
requires your urgent and most serious consideration. “In the interim, we demand
answers as to why you saw fit to proscribe IPOB. While pondering, you must know
that Biafran youths will remain unhappy with you unless and until you
de-proscribe IPOB. “While awaiting your response, please accept my assurances
that for as long as the interest of our people remains paramount in all your
official reckonings, the IPOB shall remain amenable to consulting with you,
going forward.”
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