George Onyejiuwa,Owerri
Dr. Innocent Amadi is the president of Billie Human Rights Initiatives that filed a suit for self-determination on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) against the Federal Government and also represents IPOB at the United Nations. According to him, the real Indigenous Peoples of Biafra are fighting for right to determine how they are governed and not for secession.
He also said that restructuring of the country should be along the dictates of the Aburi Accord as had earlier agreed between Yakubu Gowon and the late Biafra leader; Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in 1967, for peace to reign in the country.
The ghost of Biafra has refused to die 49 years after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war ended. What would you say is responsible for the resurgence of the agitation for independent state of Biafra?
The issue of Biafra and Ndigbo is a calculated and a well-articulated effort to make sure that we do not see the light of the day by the western world. In fact, what we are suffering today is the western oligarchy and western impediment on the whole of Africa. In Nigeria, we are suffering from the Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani oligarchy and since the British colonialist handed over political power to the Hausa/Fulani, they also ensured we remained slaves and stooges to them, be it from governors down to the local governments. We cannot do anything here without getting clearance from Abuja, even the water we drink we must get clearance from Abuja. Again, the Nigerian Federal Government has refused to provide critical infrastructure in the Southeast or site any industry in the zone. You and I know that industrialization is the bedrock of any development and it is the lack of industries in the Southeast that has driven our people to Lagos. In addition, the Federal Government has neglected the seaports in Calabar and Port Harcourt and rather built more in Lagos, forcing Igbo businessmen to have no alternative, but to import through Lagos which they would later transport back to the Southeast and in the process making them to spend more. The Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi said in 1999 that the Igbo are being marginalised and that the country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder and that is the real truth and that is why I laugh when people are talking of a President of Nigeria from the Southeast. So, Ndigbo cannot expect to get more than they are getting now.
Do you think that restructuring is the panacea to the marginalisation of Ndigbo in Nigeria?
The Billie Human Rights Initiatives, the Indigenous People of Biafra and the leadership of Ohanaeze supported the six geo-political zones we have today and in our suit, we articulated ways and means that Nigeria can achieve peace. Now, when you talk of restructuring; it is us that initiated it and we are talking of restructuring according to the Aburi Accord. Had it been that the British Government allowed General Yakubu Gowon to implement what was agreed in Aburi, Nigeria would have been the most wonderful place on earth. But it was the bad advice that they gave to Gowon not to implement that agreement which would have restructured the country by allowing the regions to be self-governing, control of their resources, state police; that is what restructuring is all about. If that was done, there wouldn’t have a civil war, but rather Gowon foisted a unitary system on the country as everything is controlled from the centre which in itself has stifled real development in the country. And the northerners will never allow this kind of restructuring because it is all about the overhauling of the country with new constitution. So, if we are talking of restructuring, we should be talking about the Aburi Accord. We had decided to support Atiku/Obi ticket in the presidential election because Atiku was sincere about restructuring the polity. If the country is restructured, we are 80 per cent home. If we are restructured; we can control our economy and we can develop at our own pace and have our own security. Nnamdi Kanu and those who are asking for Biafra, who will give them Biafra when your security is controlled from outside? Billie Human Rights Initiatives is talking about self-determination that we have the right to govern ourselves, not secession. So, the restructuring we are talking about is the one that was agreed between Ojukwu and Gowon at Aburi and not the type that the Hausa/Fulani political leaders want and that is what will bring peace, but the northerners don’t want that.
Are you saying that there will be no peace until the country returns to the Aburi Agreement?
Yes. That is the restructuring we are talking about by doing away with this current constitution and have the people’s constitution, this is because the constitution that we are using had no input from the people and it is a fraudulent one which said, “We the people”. Which people came together to agree that they should be governed in this manner?
You talked about real IPOB, which one is the authentic one?
The real IPOB has already established supreme customary government led by the Justice Eze Ozobu, with the deputy in the person of the late Dozie Ikedife and the late Joe Achuzie as the Secretary General with Ezewoke Nna from Abia State as Public Relations Officer while the late Debe Ojukwu was member of the Supreme Customary Council. We are operating according to the dictates of the law. We are citizens of Nigeria, but indigenes of Biafra and we are not talking about secession because the world abhors secession and the United Nations will not support secession in any country and don’t forget that Nigeria is also a member of the United Nations. But there would be a situation where there is high level of sympathy by the international community for a people to decide that they have the right for self-determination. Nigeria is also a signatory to the right of indigenous people and that they have right to choose how they want to be governed and it is on that basis that we sued Nigeria federation to grant the Indigenous People of Biafra the right for self-determination. Even in that case against Nigeria, IPOB USA run by Nnamdi Kanu and his group wrote a petition against us that we are not Biafra people and we should be handed over to the authorities. So, you can imagine and today he is claiming to be the leader of IPOB and the question is how?
Why are many prominent leaders, especially businessmen from Southeast not keen to identify with the struggle for self-determination by IPOB?
They don’t understand what we mean by self-determination and again they think that if we have self-determination that they are going to lose most of their property. But in international law, anywhere you have a property, it is protected. Many of us have property in UK, Germany, and Russia, all you need to do is to pay your taxes as at when due. But because of the fear of abandoned property saga that came up after the end of the civil war; even the policies after the war were worse than the war itself and majority of our business elite are afraid that their support for the self-determination of Biafra would make them lose all their investments. But their being okay is nothing to write home about because they know that this is not an ideal situation. However, we are operating within the laws of the land. As I said earlier, we are not fighting for secession but for self-determination as Indigenous People of Biafra within the Nigeria federation who have the right to determine how they’re governed.
If in 2023 the presidency is ceded to the Southeast by those who are perceived to control the levers of power, would that quell the agitation for Biafra?
I am happy that you said those who control the levers of power, and if they decide to do that they would find those pliant Igbo politicians who are ready to do as told. However, they will not give the presidential slot to the Southeast in 2023 and nobody should kill himself about that. Today, we have two major parties which are PDP and APC, while the PDP has a zoning arrangement, the APC does not. The only way that Southeast will produce the president of the country in 2023 is for both the PDP and APC to adopt persons from the Southeast as their presidential candidates then we will know that they are serious about it. But if not, it would not work. Even if the PDP adopts an Igboman as its presidential candidate and the APC gives it to a Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba; they will win and not the Igbo man because of high-level of conspiracy against Ndigbo. They have already structured the country in such a way that they must continue to rule us. Now, the Muslim North by their religion regards non-Muslims as infidels who should not be allowed to rule over them. Again, they have also structured the country in such a way that every strategic position in the country is manned by them and that is what President Muhammadu Buhari is doing. Then, I ask, where are Christian leaders? They only go to Abuja to collect money and don’t talk about the real issue that affects the country. So, forget about an Igbo man becoming president. Look at the conspiracy against President Goodluck Jonathan by the northerners though he was doing everything to please them, but they were not happy and wanted him out because they saw him as an infidel. Now, peradventure that they decide to pick a president of the country from the Southeast, will they pick a mixed breed Igbo man or will they pick a real Igboman, because if a real Igbo man gets there, he will fix this country. But if you put that mixed Igbo man, his major task would be to please his masters; the Hausa/Fulani political oligarchy, and things will remain the way they are. The only thing that Hausa/Fulani want is power and will do everything to ensure that they retain it. That is why whenever they found themselves out of power – during the time of Obasanjo and then Jonathan, they were not happy. You can see the reason we say that we want restructuring of the country along the Aburi Agreement so that when the centre is less powerful, the states or whatever can take charge of their internal affairs, especially their natural resources and harness them for their development and until that is done, Nigeria will not progress beyond what we have today.