23rd April, 2012
The recent resuscitation of Radio Biafra broadcasting from London has elicited joy among many Igbos of Eastern Nigeria.
The revival of the radio station is coming at a time the Igbo nation is clamouring to be allowed to take a shot at the Presidency. Indeed, it is only the Igbo ethnic nationality that is yet to occupy the presidency among the four most dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria. The other three major ethnic groups, Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Ijaw, have taken their turns, with the Hausa/Fulani having several successful shots.
Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra, did not mince words when he said the radio station was revived to set a largely misinformed public free from the twin evil of tyrannical rule of a cabal of ill-educated and institutionally corrupt men and women and the sponsored sectarian killings directed against Christian southerners living in Northern Nigeria. The station, he said, will use and deploy every available resource to campaign for the rights of all oppressed indigenous peoples of Southern Nigeria to determine how they wish to structure their societies and live their lives, adding that looters and workers of iniquity would be named and shamed by the radio station.
To Igbos, Radio Biafra would be an effective tool to mobilise the race to actualise their dream of occupying Aso Rock by 2015. As veteran politician, Chukwuemeka Ezeife rightly pointed out last weekend, it is only the southeast geopolitical zone that has not produced the nation’s president out of the six zones in the country. He vowed at a meeting of Igbo leaders last weekend that campaigns would be carried out in all the nooks and crannies of the country to ensure that an Igbo man occupies Aso Rock in 2015. He said it is only after the Igbo have taken their turn in 2015 that the choice of President could be decided on merit and not on the basis of rotation as is the current situation!
But the Igbo have to really work hard and speak with one voice if they are to have their way because of the odds stacked against them. The issue of injustice has become a sore point in national discourse and just some days ago, former military head of state and the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, General Muhammadu Buhari warned that if injustice was not addressed, it could lead to a revolution in 2015.
There are too many ominous signs ahead of the 2015 general elections, with the North saying President Goodluck Jonathan must not contest, while his kinsmen in the South South are threatening fire and brimstone if Jonathan is not allowed to vie for a second term or if he comes to any harm.
Beyond all these threats, the Federal Government must address the grievances that are heating up the polity. No nation can make any meaningful progress when there is chaos. We hope all these threats and fire-spitting by ethnic nationalities will fade away soon. We implore security agencies to be on top of their game in order to ensure that the nation successfully pulls through this arid phase of its national life.