Umuigbo: Udo diri unu.

I am writing to share with you my journey to Biafra. It was an exciting but sobering adventure that took a long and circuitous route: from Soweto to Abuja to Biafra.

In relating this epiphanal journey, I will, for the first time in my life, reveal the academic and activist experiences that led me to Biafra. I write freely. I do not need status or popular acclaim. But, if you see my revelation as that of a concerned fellow Igbo brother who was once pro-Nigerian like you but has now seen the RISING SUN, I would be satisfied.

I am an Igbo Catholic clergyman and a member of the Biafra Foundation (BF). As a professor of political science, specializing in International Relations (Political and Human Rights), American Politics, and Black/African Politics, I have written extensively on African/ Nigerian and international affairs. I cut my activist teeth with Randall Robinson of Transafrica and The Free South Africa Movement.

We were the ones who mounted daily protests at the South African embassy in Washington, DC in the 1980's until the collapse of apartheid. I am also a former Political Director of the NAACP and a Vice- president of the Nigerian Ministers' Council, a group that worked closely with the Nigerian embassy to secure visas for American clergymen about to visit Nigeria. More recently, I was active in NADECO, protested against Abacha at the Nigerian embassy and lobbied the US Congress against the dictator.

I was at the Eagle Forum for Obasanjo's inauguration, an event I believed was Nigeria's best last chance to save itself from disintegration. And then came Shariacracy and Kaduna 111(2000), the third most recent massacre of Ndigbo by Islamic fanatics. After the serial and cyclic genocides committed by the Nigerian state and Moslem fundamentalists against our people, Kaduna 111 was, for me, the last straw that broke Nigeria's back.

Indeed it was after this latest massacre that it finally dawned on me that Ndigbo will never find justice and security in Nigeria. That our only salvation now lies in the actualization of New Biafra, where, like in the old, we will once again show the world that a Black African people can use their material and human resources for the spiritual/cultural, technological, political and economic development of its citizens.

As individuals Ndigbo have shown their genius across the globe in virtually every field of endeavour. But they have been unable to do the same at home because of the Igbophobic nature of the Nigerian state. Unfortunately, most Igbo groups still believe Ndigbo have a future in Nigeria. I have been a member of numerous Nigerian and Igbo organizations. Virtually all of these groups were hobbled by egomania, factionalism, and the lack of a common agenda.

But for the first time, I have met in the BF and its allied organizations, a group of Igbo who are totally committed to the Igbo cause and are prepared to sacrifice their fortunes, careers, and even lives to it. They include professors of nuclear physics, psychology, politics, doctors, a judge, lawyers, computer scientists etc. They are all men and women of character and integrity. This is the first time that Igbo academics and professionals in the US have come together to promote a pro-Biafra political agenda.

For me, the Biafran enterprise, like the anti-apartheid movement, is also a moral struggle. It is not a product of "irrationality" or fantasy. It is based on basic Christian ethical principles that allow an oppressed people like Ndigbo to engage in peaceful and even violent struggle under certain circumstances: (1) Reclamation of land taken and occupied by force (2) Protection of the innocent from unjust attack (3) Restoration of rights wrongly denied (4) And the re-establishment of a just order.

In another document entitled Christian Freedom and Liberation" and issued by the Vatican on April 5, 1986, the Church said that it "was perfectly legitimate that those who suffer oppression on the part of the wealthy and the politically powerful should take action." It made it clear that "armed struggle" was permissible as a "last resort to put an end to an obvious and prolonged tyranny which is gravely damaging the fundamental rights of individuals and the common good."

BF has chosen the non-violent path to the actualization of New Biafra. We are not against dialogue unless and when it becomes appeasement that has never secured an oppressed people their rights. For history shows that mere rhetorics, zillions of complaints, and beautiful articles by "cyberspace warriors" alone, never compelled an oppressor to give an oppressed people their rights; they take it- if they are serious about their freedom.

Ask the Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Armenians, Americans, South Africans, and more recently, the Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis. Indeed in the past one year, no other Igbo organization in the US has as forcefully and vigorously promoted the Igbo agenda as the BF and its allies. During that time, for example, we have held two Biafra Genocide Conventions in Washington, DC, demonstrated twice at the Nigerian embassy against Sharia (within two weeks of our first protest and similar protests in Nigeria, Obasanjo decided to pay the salaries of former Biafran Army officers), moved into Biafra House (Yes, there is a Biafra House), lobbied Congress and the State Department on Biafran issues, picketed Obasanjo at the White House for Igbophobia, Odi, extra-judicial killings and imprisonment of MASSOB members, and his pro-Sharia policies.

Voice of Biafra International (VOBI) went on the air last year to remind the world that Biafra lives. It reverberates like an earthquake throughout Nigeria and is giving Obasanjo and his Sharia masters the fits. It was the BF that invited Uwazurike and his Biafran entourage to Washington, DC last year to formally open Biafra House. The BF took care of everything- from airfare to accommodation to feeding.

I have made a study of states within the international system and arrived at this conclusion: Nigeria is an anomaly among states; it will never survive as a united polity. And I am still waiting for someone to present to me a rational argument as to why Ndigbo should continue to support the concept of a mythical "one Nigeria", especially after the introduction of Shariacracy in the north. Multos annos to the few authentic Biafran nationalists, especially those who have made incredible financial sacrifice to keep VOBI on air and Biafra House as our own. They have never complained about their material contributions because they know the quality and reputation of the members of the BF. Their names will be written in gold when the SUN RISES!

Shame on Igbo traitors at home and in the US. Jesus had Judas, America, Arnold, and Biafra, Ifeajuna and Banjo. Your nefarious and traitorous activities were not unexpected. Yes, as Ndigbo, we value life and call a human being "nma-ndu" the beauty of life.

Nonetheless, unless you repent and join this generational struggle for the salvation of our people, be assured of one thing: The BIAFRA SUN- "ANYA- ANWU"- "the eye that never dies"- though now set in our land will soon rise and raze you to ashes with its ultra violent rays.

Finally, I am appealing to you, my brothers and sisters, to join us and use positively your enormous material and intellectual resources in the actualization of Biafra redivivus (come back to life). We know it will not be easy. But it is the morally and politically right thing to do. Time is of the essence. According to UNICEF, the Igbo language will disappear a couple of decades if we do nothing.

The onus is on Ndigbo in America who are now enjoying the freedom purchased with the blood of American patriots. Let us do it for our ancestors who bequeathed to us a legacy of liberty and freedom. Let us do it for the children so that they may inherit a land of security, opportunity, and prosperity. For dialogue without political pressure is no virtue. Vigorous political pressure in the service of freedom is no vice.

Frederick Douglas, the great African-American abolitionist, was right: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

Udo diri unu.