By Chima Onyekachi
September 13th, 2016
My attention has been drawn to the reportage on Thisday daily newspaper, on a letter written to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, by Congressman Tom Marino, a member of the U.S House of Representative for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district. Congressman Tom Marino, is also a member of the Committees on the Judiciary, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs, and the Chairman, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.
The letter from Tom Marino to John Kerry must be taken seriously by everyone in the U.S Congress and also by the people of America. Tom Marino has spoken the truth on the true happenings in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari. The letter is asking the US government to withhold security assistance to Nigeria until President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrate a “commitment to inclusive government and the most basic tenets of democracy: freedom to assemble and freedom of speech”. He also asked the State Department to refrain from selling warplanes and other military equipment to Nigeria until President Buhari establishes a track record of working towards inclusion.
President Muhammadu Buhari has jettisoned the federal character principle in his political appointments and has engaged in nepotism and favouritism. The federal character principle is enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution and seeks to ensure that appointments to public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious and geographic diversity of the country. Instead, Buhari has employed his former schoolmates, associates and family members to take charge of the federal civil service and military.
Also, the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has been selective in the fight against corruption, focusing mostly on perceived political rivals and overlooking the corruption cases amongst his closest advisors and members of the ruling party.
It is a known fact that the advent of Muhammadu Buhari as President of Nigeria has brought about incessant torture, inhumane treatment, extra-judicial killings and war crimes against innocent citizens. The murder of not less than 2000 peaceful Biafrans seeking their right to self-determination, by the Nigeria military is a testament to the brutality of the government led by Buhari.
The day that will not be forgotten in a hurry in Biafraland is May 30th, 2016, when hundreds of Indigenous People of Biafra were butchered and many wounded by Nigerian murderous armed forces at the order of the state. The crime of this unarmed peaceful Biafrans was non-other than they were commemorating the anniversary of the heroes of the Biafra Genocide of 1967-70.
At the moment the creeks of Biafraland is under siege and the invasion is going on by the Nigerian armed forces while Muhammadu Buhari is appeasing the deadliest terrorist group – BokoHaram.
It is noteworthy that Amnesty International released a report calling for the investigation of the killings of unarmed Biafrans by the Nigeria military and Police. In the report, they also asked for the release of abducted members of IPOB, from the detention centre of the State Security Service (SSS).
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. He is illegally in detention since October 14th, 2015 by the State Secret Service (SSS). Human rights organisation name him a prisoner of conscience (POC) because all the charges against him are nothing but false and until this moment Nigeria govt has not been able to prove a single charge against him. His continued detention against a court order rules he should be released unconditionally. The government of Muhammadu Buhari flagrantly disobeyed court orders from the competent court of jurisdiction that acquitted Nnamdi Kanu from fabricated charges of terrorism and financing terrorism. Another spurious charge of treasonable felony was later slammed against him after the court struck out previous false accusations, a puppet judge name Judge John Tsoho was chosen to subvert the course of the justice.
The continuous incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu sparked demonstration and protest across worldwide since 2015 and still active till date. The peaceful nature of Biafrans worldwide will again be demonstrated on 23rd September 2016 in a mega protest organised by IPOB in conjunction with Radio Biafra London; the epoch-making campaign is term #FreeNnamdiKanu and #BiafraExit protest in demand for the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu and the freedom of Biafra from Nigeria.
In the face of intimidation, brutality and killings, Biafrans remained peaceful and law-abiding, but that should not be mistaken for weakness.
Reasonable people and governments around the world must urgently listen to the legitimate demands of Biafrans before the situation exacerbated beyond control. The Indigenous People of Biafra are well informed and enlightened about the expired amalgamation treaty that forcefully bonded different ethnic nations to form a country called Nigeria. But instead of powerful countries in the world like the US to de-escalate the intense situation on the ground by pressuring Buhari to release Nnamdi Kanu President Barack Obama feigned ignorance and has continued to empower Buhari to slaughter Biafrans.
The United States Congress and the real people of America must not allow the same mistake made between 1967-1970 by the United States government by sitting idle watching will the genocide was carried out to be repeated. During the time in 1969, the State Department sent a six-man fact-finding mission to examine the needs of both Nigeria and Biafra resolve the issues. The Mission was made up of Senator Charles E. Goodell, Charles W. Dunn (administrative assistant), Jean Mayer (Professor of Nutrition at the School of Public Health), and three other experts on African problems. The Mission’s report called for a halt of the atrocities against Biafran civilians, and to create a chance for massive relief supplies to get the people. Also, the report blasted the United States and the United Nations, except UNICEF, for their failure to aid the people of Biafra. The mission confirmed the deliberate poisoning of smuggled food supplies from the Nigerian held territory with toxic quantities of arsenic and cyanide. The mission’s members reported that distribution centres and refugee camps were bombed and attacked whenever any scores of people are visible in the daylight. Medical centres were singled out for bombing by the Nigerian bombers.
Sadly, despite this on ground assessment and report by the mission, the then government of the United States of America still stood by, while Britain and the Soviet Union assisted Nigeria in committing this crime against humanity. Over 2million Biafrans were murdered during this Genocide.
United State govt must not allow the ugly and shameful past of the worst genocide in human history to repeat under their watch. They must raise up now in condemnation of Nigerian govt and take Tom Marino concern seriously to avert the impending doom that may befall the world if they choose not to play their role as the police of the world.
Chima Onyekachi writes for BiafraPost
Editor/Publisher: EmmaNnaji
For Biafra Reporters
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