RESTRUCTURING IS BAD FOR IGBOS
Restructuring to most people means regional or state autonomy under a Federal Structure or a Confederation. A Confederation is a looser federal structure than a Federation with the confederating units having a lot of say in the Federal government. USA is a federation while Switzerland is a confederation.
Nigeria is composed of primitive people with a mob mentality augmented by jungle injustice. A religious or civil leader can organize and whip a mob into going on a murderous rampage in minutes. Igbos have been killed under a Northern Regional pre-independence colonial regime starting in 1945. This continued under a federal system culminating in a genocidal civil war from 1967 to 1970, where an estimated 3 to 5 million Igbos were slaughtered by guns, bombs, knives, machetes, starvation, and drowning in rivers and wells.
The killing of Igbos has worsened under the Buhari Unitary Federal Government. The present dispensation ensures Hausa-Fulani domination through the seven yokes – political, economic, religious, cultural, administrative, diplomatic, and military/security.
Armed Fulani herdsmen are escorted by the Army on their killing orgies as eyewitnesses testify. Hitherto, Igbos in the Sharia far North were at risk, but the killings has extended from the Far North through the Middlebelt, to the coastal Igbo States. Armed venomous pythons and ravaging crocodiles are set loose on peacefully protesting civilians and many drowned in stagnant fermenting pools of putrid water.
Plateau killings: We underestimated number of attackers, says military
It is illegal to possess a locally made Dane gun in Nigeria but perfectly legal for Fulani herdsmen to openly carry AK-47 rifles!
The reasons why some Igbos prefer a restructuring under a federation or confederation are dubious.
They include:
1. Biafra will be landlocked. There are 46 other landlocked countries including 16 in Africa. These countries are not complaining about being landlocked. Some of the most prosperous countries in the world are landlocked. See table below.
2. Limited market. Swiss watches and precision scientific equipment from Liechtenstein are sold worldwide. Instead of Biafran goods being sold in Nigeria by Biafrans, Nigerians will buy from Biafra directly.
3. Another reason is that the Igbos have so many investments outside Igbo land and those investments are at risk if Biafra secedes. Igbo investments are at greater risk in a unitary, federal, or confederal Nigeria. Presently, taxes are levied with bias against Igbo traders. The Police and Customs target Igbo merchants almost exclusively. Markets developed by Igbo on Federal lands are arbitrarily transferred to State Governments for taxation purposes. An example is the International Trade Fair Market in Lagos. Presently no compensation is paid to Igbos whose properties are destroyed by mobs in Northern Nigeria. Regions or states under a Federation or Confederation will have their Sharia and non-Sharia Police Forces that will target Igbo merchants unfairly.
The way forward:
1. Once Biafra is created Igbo property in Nigeria are protected by International laws enforceable through the World Trade Organization and similar bodies including the United Nations. Those Igbos with investments outside Igbo land will gradually divest from Nigeria. Has any serious thinking Igbo person ever wondered why non-Igbos do not invest in Igbo land? They do not need to because their economies are propped up by Igbo investments, taxes, and employment of non-Igbos.
2. The so-called landlocked Biafra may spur innovations such as Igbo-built aircrafts and spacecrafts. Such innovations and inventions are impossible in Nigeria where the wagon is pulling the horse. As JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) scores are lowered in Nigeria, it will be going sky-high in Biafra.
3. Biafra will export manpower to Nigeria where they will be paid as much as European and American expatriates. Biafrans in the Diaspora will flock to Biafra to take advantage of the economic boom. It happened in China and India.
4. Murderous Fulani herdsmen dare not cross into Biafra to kill at will. They may also not graze their cattle outside established routes. They are welcome to trade with Biafra.
5. Creation of Biafra does not imply enmity between Nigeria and Biafra. Africastallestman knows of a future Biafran male, who has remarried thrice, all his wives are non-Igbo. Biafrans love Nigeria but as partners and neighbors.
6. The Igbos are the most accommodating tribe in Nigeria and will welcome any contiguous state(s) that is interested in the Biafran Project. It is coalition of the willing.
7. Hausa-Igbos, Yoruba-Igbos, etc. desirous of remaining in Nigeria are free to change their tribal affiliation.
Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello threatened the Igbos under a Federal Nigeria backed by his regional Police Force. The Sharia States of the far North can imprison Igbos at will for alcohol consumption or for riding in the same tricycle with a woman (see picture below). The same Igbos can consume alcohol in the Islamic UAE (United Arab Emirates) without fear of molestation. As long as Muslims owe allegiance to Sokoto and Mecca, Nigeria can never be united in a Restructured Nigeria. The Muslims will never owe allegiance to Nigeria primarily. Restructuring is only possible if every non-Muslim Nigerian converts to Islam. It ain’t gonna happen as the cowboys say it.
AHMADU BELLO SOWED THE SEEDS OF HATRED OF IGBOS IN THE NORTH
Africastallestman believes the only Restructuring that would work is a breakup of the country. This would put a stop to the human carnage and release the enormous economic potential in the countries presently crammed into Nigeria.
TABLE:
LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
Country Area (km2)
Afghanistan 652,230
Andorra 468
Armenia 29,743
Austria 83,871
Azerbaijan 86,600
Belarus 207,600
Bhutan 38,394
Bolivia 1,098,581
Botswana 582,000
Burkina Faso 274,222
Burundi 27,834
Central African Republic 622,984
Chad 1,284,000
Czech Republic 78,867
Ethiopia 1,104,300
Hungary 93,028
Kazakhstan 2,724,900
Kosovo 10,908
Kyrgyzstan 199,951
Laos 236,800
Lesotho 30,355
Liechtenstein 160
Luxembourg 2,586
Macedonia 25,713
Malawi 118,484
Mali 1,240,192
Moldova 33,846
Mongolia 1,566,500
Nepal 147,181
Niger 1,267,000
Paraguay 406,752
Rwanda 26,338
San Marino 61
Serbia 88,361
Slovakia 49,035
South Ossetia 3,900
South Sudan 619,745
Swaziland 17,364
Switzerland 41,284
Tajikistan 143,100
Turkmenistan 488,100
Uganda 241,038
Uzbekistan 447,400
Vatican City 0.44
Zambia 752,612
Zimbabwe 390,757
