On behalf of MOBIN (Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria) we bring new year greetings to all the Igbo people and Biafran activists all over the world. The last year was very challenging, perilous and precarious in Igboland. Many died in the hands of unknown gun men enforcing their sit at home order in the name of freedom fighting. For the reason of insecurity, many people ran away from Igboland and relocated to the West and North and outside the country. Thus, Igboland was made desolate. We saw Igbo people killing their brothers and sisters for not obeying the Sit-At-Home Order. Although Nnamdi Kanu who started the sit-at-home order and its enforcement by unknown gun men, later repented of it and directed his followers to stop it, his disciple, Simon Ekpa, disobeyed him and continued with the sit-at-home order and its enforcement. It was observed that criminals hijacked the sit-at-home order and unknown gun men and besieged Igboland.
There is a theory that Fulani herdsmen and DSS agents are the people operating as unknown gun men to destroy Igboland. Nobody is sure about who the unknown gun men are. Thus, the person who created the monster that ravaged Igboland could not control the monster anymore. The result is that Igboland has been destroyed, and many Igbo people have relocated to the North and West and outside Nigeria. It became too risky to remain in Igboland. But we cannot run away from our land. This is our ancestral homeland, the place of our forefathers’ graves. We must stay here and rebuild Igboland now.
We are saying OZO EMENA (NEVER AGAIN). Mistakes have been made in the struggle for self-determination due to overzealousness. The name of Biafra became an opium which intoxicated many youths, and they lost their senses of reasoning. Nnamdi Kanu and the youths who rejected our legal methodology consisting of the use of law, politics and diplomacy to achieve self-determination, and opted for violence in the Biafran struggle must have learnt the hard way. All their propaganda that they would destroy the zoo and get Biafra within one year has failed. All their propaganda that they would go to Abuja and bring the head of Buhari has failed. All their propaganda that sitting at home every Monday would bring Biafra has failed. We warned them that propaganda has an expiry date, but they did not listen. Now, they have nothing more to say after destroying Igboland.
We have observed that most of the people engaged in the struggle for self-determination do not have proper knowledge and understanding. In the beginning when we created IPOB under the Elders headed by His Lordship, His Royal Majesty, The Honourable Justice Eze Ozobu OFR, (deceased), we showed the roadmap to our freedom. Unfortunately, the youths were deceived by the person we put in charge of our media department broadcasting on Radio Biafra, who announced on air that he had dissolved our Council of Elders because our Elders were saboteurs and traitors, and that our legal methodology was fraudulent. He advocated for the use of violence and confrontations with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Consequently, most of his followers were killed by the Nigerian Soldiers. Worse still, IPOB was proscribed which affected the original IPOB of the Elders as the Proscription Order did not differentiate between the two.
From this new year 2025, the destruction of Igboland by unknown gun men enforcing sit-at-home order in pursuit of Biafra must stop now. Whether the unknown gun men are Igbo youths or Fulani herdsmen or DSS agents, the Igbo Nation can no longer allow criminals to control the Igbo national life and decide when we come out from our houses or when to sleep. Often, their supporters have blamed the Fulani herdsmen for the atrocities being committed in Igboland. It is possible that Fulani herdsmen are involved in the destruction of Igboland, but we heard the voices of two Igbo men who ordered the people to sit at home on Mondays or be killed. They created the monsters called sit-at-home and unknown gun men and killed many Igbo people who disobeyed the order before the monsters were hijacked by criminals. Imagine the abomination committed by Igbo men in killing their brothers and sisters in pursuit of freedom. Igboland has been desecrated. The Blood of the innocent people is crying for justice.
Now, we recommend community self-policing by NDI NCHE under Customary Law as we did during the war. All Community Youths should protect their communities and stop the unknown gun men. The unknown gun men are known because they are not spirits. “ABA MA NDI ABA”. Every village knows everybody in the village and what everybody does. The youths of the village should police the village by combing its houses and forests and arrest anybody that operates as an unknown gun man. Every village or town should police itself.
Repentance from evil is the starting point for healing and restoration. Let me quote from the scriptures what the LORD God Almighty said about the healing and restoration of our land. In 2 Chron 7: 14, he said, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”.
We must not point accusing fingers at others and exonerate ourselves and try to look holier than others. The scriptures say that All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3: 23). But there is hope for the sinners as the scriptures say in Ezekiel 18:27 that “If a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life” because “If we confess our sins to God and repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9)
The message of repentance is very clear and crucial. There is so much wickedness in Igboland. In fact, it is easier to bear the pains inflicted by a foreigner than the pains inflicted by your fellow Igbo man or Igbo woman because you are of the same Igbo Blood. It is against the “Umune Blood Bond” in the Igbo Spirituality (“ihe nwanne mere nwanne”). This brings curses upon Igboland. There is no peace for the wicked. We must uphold righteousness and eschew evil for it is written in Proverbs 14: 34 that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”
Our Igbo Love Bond must be restored. In the olden days, when an Igbo person heard the voice or name of another Igbo person suffering, his body would respond with goose pimples. There is a spiritual connection between them that makes them to care for one another. He cannot abandon his brother or sister. It is the spirit of Igbo love bond anchored upon “Onuru Ube nwanne agbala oso”; and “Onye aghala nwanne ya”. This was why there was no refugee problem in Biafra. We accommodated and cared for all refugees in our houses. But today, what we see is that the Igbo man or woman who you have trusted as your brother or sister is the same person who will betray you and help the enemies to kill you. Satan has given them a demonic philosophy that “Overtaking is allowed even if you must destroy your brother to succeed”. This is an abomination. This must stop now.
The Igbo Nation must move forward. The vital question is “What do the Igbo People want?” The Igbo Nation believes in the concept of “Egbe Bere Ugo Bere” (Let the Eagle perch and let the Hawk also perch). We believe that the world is large enough to accommodate everybody. In the same way, we believe that Nigeria is large enough to accommodate everybody but if we are not accepted and accorded the same rights and privileges as given to the people of other ethnic nationalities, we shall leave Nigeria based on our philosophy that “Onye ajuru aju anaghi aju onwe ya” (He that is rejected does not reject himself).
Therefore, the Igbo Nation held the Mkpoko Igbo Conference in 1994 at Enugu and drew a roadmap to restructure Nigeria by devolution of power to the Regions and emancipate all the people of Nigeria from the institutionalised injustice and neo-colonialism entrenched in the Nigerian Constitution and bad Politics. The Conference was held in preparation for the Sani Abacha Constitutional Conference scheduled for the following year 1995.The Igbo Master Plan was presented by Dr Alex Ekwueme, Dee sam Mbakwe, and Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. It was approved by the Conference and signed by General Abacha. It was the Master Plan that produced the current 6 geopolitical regions of Nigeria.
This Master Plan was handed over to us by our fathers to implement. It was in pursuit of this Master Plan that MOBIN submitted the Memorandum to the National Assembly to restructure Nigeria to Regional Autonomy by devolution of power to the Regions. Now, we want to develop Igboland to look like Dubai. We are not asking for a territorial or geographical Biafra for now but economic Biafra. Some people think that Dubai is a country. Some think that Taiwan is a country. Some people even think that England or Scotland is a country. Most of the people agitating for Biafra do not have the correct mind-set. They are thinking about going to their Promised Land without understanding that we are already on our Promised Land. We are not like the Israelites who travelled for 40 years and fought wars for 40 years before reaching to their Promised Land. In our own case, we did not lose our Territory. We were not annihilated. We have argued in the Federal High Court in the case between Biafra and Nigeria in Suit No FHC/EN/CS/103/2019 that what we lost after the war was our sovereignty and not our indigenous identity as a people.
Therefore, we are Nigerians by citizenship but Biafrans by indigenous identity until we gain independence from Nigeria by due process. We are the remnants of Biafraland that were not consumed in the war. This is why I coined our name as Indigenous People of Biafra. We are a nation and not a limited liability company registered in the UK. We want to develop our Region to become like Taiwan, London, Dubai, etc, so that the whole world will be coming to Biafraland for business and tourism. From Regional Autonomy we can pursue outright independence in future just like Scotland is doing in the United Kingdom now. Agitation for freedom is legitimate but must follow due process of law, politics and diplomacy. This is the Igbo Master Plan for the emancipation of the Igbo Nation. Everything has a process. It is a long-term plan. Patience is required. I urge you to be patient and obedient.
You can visit our website at www.mobinnetwork.com for more information; Email: mobin.hra@gmail.com ; mobinreports@gmail.com
Happy New Year. May God Almighty bless and protect all Igbo people all over the world and prosper them.
Emeka Chigozie Emekesiri, Esq., PhD.
Chairman of MOBIN