Who will tell Rivers elders that I too am not Biafran!

BIAFRA? TO BE OR NOT TO BE. 
THAT'S THE QUESTION 
I can hardly believe that I wrote these lines 2+ years ago. 
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We suddenly have a new industry in town. I am referring to the stampede to disown the still non-violent agitation of probably misguided but clearly disillusioned 40-something-year-old Igbo youths for the rebirth of Biafra. Apparently nobody wants to be left out. At least not this writer. I hereby stand up to be counted.

I condemn and oppose (not violently) the renewed agitation for the moribund republic which for three years was sustained by the blood, sweat and tears of my age mates. Those of us favoured to still be alive are now between 64 and 73 years of age, proud grandparents. We are grateful to God, but not necessarily to Nigeria in which we have had varied and traumatic experiences these past 45 years. We are not complaining. We have mellowed, with reduced expectations.

But the youth are complaining, seriously. They never saw what we saw, the hide and seek in Lagos, the gauntlet at the Makurdi bridge, the surge of arrivals at the Enugu Railway Station (one without a head, need I remind anyone?), and at the various motor parks at Onitsha, Aba, Owerri, Port Harcourt. Since that generation is rightly or wrongly accused of being far less cerebral than its predecessor, it will be safe to assume that its teeming members most likely never dug into the vast post-war writings of Igbo intellectuals in the mould of Fourth Dimension publications. I can boldly ascribe to the Emir of Kano the clear articulation of the realisation that these young scions of Ndigbo learnt the sad aspects of walking the streets of Nigeria “while Igbo”, where else, in the streets of Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

When the Rivers Elders and Leaders Council (RELEC) distanced itself from the struggle for the realisation of Republic of Biafra, they are not saying anything new. Most governments and citizens of the Southeast geopolitical zone have said as much. I hereby publicly ask them to count me in.

However, that does not in any way indicate my agreement on the proper response from the government and the security agencies. I have earlier written and actually commended the Rivers State Police Command on this. They should keep up their restraint. Those who think otherwise are the real warmongers, looking for blood when none is called for.

Albert Horsfall and his chiefs have faulted organisers of the pro-Biafra protest, IPOB, described it as uncalled for, adding that Rivers people were not Biafrans. That’s correct. Neither indeed am I.

As for the yet-to-be-proven allegations over the transport of Igbo youths in trailers and buses from the five states in the Southeast zone to protest in Port Harcourt, I wonder when millions of Igbo youths resident in Rivers State got discounted. One cannot be counted absent in one’s presence. This could and should have been an MKO proverb.

Which reminds me, what on earth are the Chibok women and their supporters doing in the heart of Abuja? Don’t they know where Chibok is? Or Gwarzo for that matter? I recall that Ogoni activists boarded aircrafts and descended on Shell and UN offices in The Hague, London and New York. We hailed them for their brave, unrelenting and forthright social and political activism. The Dutch, British and Americans tolerated them or at worst ignored them. But in the case of IPOB or MASSOB, we conveniently forget long-established and accepted norms. This unwavering knee-jerk reaction to matters Igbo will never get Nigeria anywhere. Quote me.