Princewill Chimezie Richards, the leader of the Biafra Nations League (BNL) has said achieving the sovereignty of Eastern and Southern Nigeria is “the main target”.
According to Richards, calls by some elders for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction is on the wrong track.
“Biafra cannot be exchanged for Igbo presidency. This struggle is more than Igbo affair. It is not an Igbo agenda that a particular people would feel when they give them presidency, then every other people should relax. The way you have your own concern is the way other ethnic groups too have their own concern. What about the Efik? They have what they need too from the Federal Government. What about the Ibibios? And you, you are interested in presidency. So every other group has been marginalised, has been cheated,” Richards said in a Facebook Live via BNL’s verified page on Monday night.
“No reasonable person would think that when you give them president, then the struggle for independence would stop. That means we are not actually fighting for Biafra; we are seeking for favour from the Federal Government. If we stop the agitation because an Igbo man has become president, then that means we are not fighting for Biafra. It means we are looking for something from the centre. And that is not what we are in the struggle for. We are fighting for Biafra; we are fighting for total liberation of our people.”
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the push for an independent Biafra has a long history in Nigeria.
In 1967, the calls of Igbo leaders for a separate state led to a brutal two-and-half year civil war. A siege by Nigeria’s federal troops on Igbo lands led to the death of estimated 1 million people, mainly due to starvation, famine and disease.
Yes, you spoke well Mr Princewel. Biafra is more than Igbo and our detractors cannot dictate how we go about our struggle for freedom from Nigeria. They only hope we will crumble after they offer Igbo their corrupt and ignoble portridge, but they are mistaken as the igbo will get to their Nigerian presidency to mess them up the more and remove the doubt that Nigeria is irredeemable.