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Nigeria’s failure to release Ben Onwuka, Nnamdi Kanu and Onyekachi Orji will come with a heavy cost

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30th of October is seven days away. Nigerian government believes BNG is another IPOB or another MASSOB that thrive in words. Of course, many Biafran groups have said countless things that didn’t come to fruition. But BNG is our national army and not a civilian group like others.

15years on awaiting trial is simply a chilling corruption. 19 healthy men and women were kept in detention because they are Biafrans. Future is gone for them; life gone meaningless, freedom denied and living became a punishment. They were denied even a chance to take their own lives. Their situation defines what becomes of being a Biafran in Nigeria.

Ben Onwuka has been forgotten. He was arrested for trying to preach Biafra via Nigerian radio station and thrown into detention. Anybody that mentions Biafra is hunted down and indefinitely thrown into detention. Life has been made a thing of regret for the people of Biafra and every effort to right this wrong has met even a stiffer opposition.

Nnamdi Kanu gives another glimpse of what our people pass through in Nigeria. Despite knowing Nnamdi Kanu is only expressing his right to association, he was arrested and forced to keep quiet. In the process of keeping him quiet; his rights were trampled upon. If they could treat the leader of IPOB this way; what becomes of ordinary members.

BNG demanded for the release of these prisoners of conscience but it failed on deaf ears because the people of Biafra have been officially subjected to penury by the state of Nigeria. The people of Biafra have been pushed to the wall and if BNG can fight back to save lives, let it be so because the people desperately need solution.

Corruption stemming from misappropriation, bad economy, bigotry and divisive policies led to the resurrection of Biafra by Ralph Uwazurike and present agitation by Kanu, Onwuka, Asari and others. Nigerian government failed to interpret the agitation in a positive way. This failed interpretation gave rise to extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions. Instead of ending corruption; they chose to fight symptoms of it.

BNG has announced that Biafra will be re-declared a sovereign state and that is one of the costs of not releasing those prisoners of conscience. By re-declaring a sovereign state; BNG tends to save lives of thousands of Biafrans in and out of detention in different facilities across Nigeria.

The cost of Nigeria’s inaction that shows lack of readiness to heal wounds will be the re-declaration of the sovereign state of Biafra. BNG does not mince words when re-declaration announcement is made and the path is clear.

While re-declaration of the sovereign state of Biafra is not solely because of the failure to release prisoners of conscience; it should be noteworthy that Biafra re-declaration is long overdue because Nigeria failed to correct all the mistakes that led to the 1967 declaration and even slumped to a failed state.

Re-declaration of Biafra is only but a way to save a failed country that is about to swallow millions of people. Nigeria will definitely be better apart than forcing a unity that did not work, won’t work and will never work.

Ifeanyi Chijioke- Activist And Investigative Journalist

Writes From Enugu

Gmail Address: Ifeanyichijioke97@gmail

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