NOTES ON “SOUTH-SOUTH?”,  AND UPDATES ON THE EASTERN NIGERIA SELF-DETERMINATION QUEST.

When in 2013 it became apparent that President Jonathan was going to contest the 2015 Election for a second term, the Caliphate loudmouthed megaphone, Junaid Mohammed, while responding in obvious exasperation to the clamour by persons from the Niger Delta Region that Jonathan must be allowed to take the two terms turn of the
“South-South” Zone like other Zones had taken, blurted out the following:
“…Afterall, the so-called South South was a creation of the North to manage its interests in Eastern Nigeria”.

Again, when during his December 30, 2015 Media Chat, President Buhari was confronted with the charge of marginalization emanating from the Igbo East, he retorted that “what else do the Igbo want. I appointed Ibe Kachikwu as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC and Godwin Emefiele as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria”.

Both Kachikwu and Emefiele are Igbo. Both are from the so-called South South.

Nkata aghugho Nigeria e’kpudogo Nigeria.

Those who do not understand the devastating depth of the Lower Niger Paradigm which uprooted the Nigeria-erected Walls of May 27, 1967 and the subsequent “South South” Geopolitical Zone hokum, will continue to float in the sea of delusion.

The emphatic outcome of the informal Referendum of yesterday May 30, 2017 sets the stage for the commencement of the journey to the formal Referendum.

It may interest us to learn that when in 2015 the LNC Team had made its Presentations to the Senior Diplomats at the UN, NY discreetly reviewing the package we had put together in seeking a Referendum, the Diplomats were satisfied that a very good case had been made out both in terms of the Map, the Requisite Consensus Building, the Clear Process Plan and the Transitioning Proposals.

Fully cognisant of the Biafra story and sentiment over the years, the only question they raised was whether we were sure that the Masses of our People who will Vote at the Referendum we sought were still eager to leave the Union Nigeria. Our answer to them was simply “Wait and See” because the LNC had already a 3-Month Jubilee Thanksgiving Procession, Programmed to commence in the last quarter of 2015 as a part of the 50th Anniversary of the 1966 Pogroms.

The Jubilee Thanksgiving Procession Program was aimed at making a show of the zeal and true desires of our People on the Self-Determination Quest.

Providentially, just as we were quietly mobilizing for the Program, Nnamdi Kanu got arrested and like a tinderbox lighted up, the whole of the Lower Niger erupted with “Biafra” chants.

It would be recalled that in some kind of a blitzkrieg operation, Benin, Yenagoa, Uromi, Port Harcourt, Uyo and several other so-called South South locations, erupted simultaneously with Aba, Onitsha, Owerri, Enugu with “Biafra” ferocious marches. There was no better geospatial description of the Lower Niger than the Map drawn by those determined Biafra footsoldiers.

In practically all the Capitals around the globe, Biafran Flags were raised in Street Marches.

IPOB provided the rhetoric opium from the London Studios of Radio Biafra. MASSOB provided the bulk of the footsoldiers you all saw on the Streets of the Lower Niger November 2015.

Those same Diplomats who had raised the question of whether the masses of our People were still minded to Vote for Independence, got on the phone to say that they had got more than answered their query, back in May and so urged that preliminary formal paperwork to commence.

The LNC was hamstrung because the level of cohesion we would want was not yet in place as the Biafra-Or-Death juggernauts did not want to hear anything about the Referendum Route to Independence as structured by the LNC. For them, it was “Conquer-and-Occupy” which was riddled with much violence as we already saw.

MASSOB embraced the LNC Referendum Template as the basis of pulling back from the Street Actions late November 2015.

The Niger Delta Avengers followed suit in 2016 when they issued their one point demand to explain their violent campaign, to wit “THE RESTORATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE OLD EASTERN REGION”.

Again the Lower Niger 1885 Map of was silhouetted in bold relief from the Niger Delta end.

The IPOB took a little longer to bring on track for the Referendum Route. Following months of gruelling interactions, which culminated in the lengthy tete-a-tete I had with Nnamdi Kanu during the February 28, 2017 Soludo-led Nzuko Umunna Visitation to Kuje.

Nnamdi Kanu told the NU Delegation in my presence that looking back at what has transpired since 2013 when he rejected the LNC Referendum Route I had tabled to him in our over 4hours meeting in my Vitoria Island Offices where he had come to see me at the request of an Igbo Patriot, (a Retired top Military gun), he was now convinced to go with the LNC Referendum Route, together with his IPOB.

From that point on, the Biafra Agitation, the Niger Delta Agitation and all related pursuits in the Region entered the threshold of evolving into one cohesive Lower Niger Self-Detemination Movement, driving one compact Independence Campaign, pursuing one Referendum Project.

The effort at bringing aboard the Eastern Nigeria Elite, Intelligentsia and Leadership Collective has also yielded great fruits and so both the homebased and Diasporan Igbo ThinkTank and Socio-Cultural and Political Aggregations, are now more informed and more involved in the Quest and March to Self-Determination. The WISG Uturu Summit of November 2017, the Igbo Conference of May 11-14 2017 in Chicago which had Ohanaeze Leadership in attendance and the World Igbo Congress Enugu Summit of 27th May 2017 are clear pointers to the progress made so far. The various online platforms including the IIF and Nzuko Umunna also show where things are.

As it is, the totally inexplicable aloofness and of the Elite/Intelligentsia of the Territory who seemed all frozen and mortified by fear and apprehension is giving way rapidly.

More hardwork of course has to be undertaken to expand the cohesion required to lead our People out of the bondage they have been in and LNC will not relent.

As is the way with Democracy there would of course be a motley of naysayers and the are entitled to voice their concerns but the Train to a different tomorrow will zoom on to its destination.

With little less arrogance and paranoia, perhaps some of those naysayers may enlighten themselves some more as to what the drivers of the Eastern Nigeria Self-Determination Campaign have in design for the new Society they seek.

The May 30th 2017 action represents an informal Referendum on the Eastern Nigeria/Biafra Question in Nigeria and the International Community, especially our sympathizers at the UN are now even more confident that the delay in commencing formal paperwork towards a Referendum in the Territory since late 2015 was worth the wait.

We have just passed a very important milestones and things will unfurl a little more rapidly in the coming days.