GLOBAL CONCERNS ABOUT BIAFRA

BIAFRAN PROPAGANDA TO INFLUENCE WORLD OPINION

The statements below are some of the 39 accusations made in a propaganda pamphlet published in 1968 within Biafra.  What is propaganda?  To what extent can it be believed? 

This pamphlet was directed toward . . . whom?  People within Biafra who are unsure of the value of the war?  Nigerians outside Biafra?  Potential supporters outside Nigeria?

What issues does it raise and what values does it use to raise concern?   Which of these claims seem true to you based on your other readings?  Which claims do you want to check out further? 

Thirty-Nine Accusations (Enugu, 1968)

FROM: Kirki-Greene,vol. 2, 199-201

 (22) TURNING MINORITY AREAS INTO BATTLEGROUNDS

The sweet love affair between the Northerners and the unfortunate Biafrans whom they have bamboosled into believing they are 'minorities' warms up when the unruly Hausa troops approach any Biafran 'minority' village and start mortaring and shelling. The indiscriminate shelling (as many as 500 in twelve hours!) finds targets among the women and children whom the emirs profess to love and to protect. Those who are not killed are slaughtered, and for the benefit of the press, a handful are carted back to Lagos and Kaduna, away from the 'liberated' areas to somewhere where their services can be more readily dictated.

(23) FLOUTING GENEVA CONVENTION

Ninety per cent of the Hausas, Tivs and Fulanis who make up the so-called Nigeria army have never been to school, can neither read nor write and are not interested in 'Grammar'.
The Geneva Convention to them is nonsense. They have no regard for it except as a bother.
Consequently, all those fighting for Nigeria adopt the code of vandals in place of the international code ....

(24) TURNING THE HANDS OF THE CLOCK BACK

The feudalistic Emirs are assuming in their ignorance that no revolution has in fact taken place in Nigeria; that all that is required is a military conquest of Biafra, and the old dead Federation of Nigeria, complete with its corruption and political gymnastics, will again be resuscitated.

This single conviction is responsible for the arrogance, recrimination, and remorselessness of the Hausa-controlled Lagos Junta. It cannot see that the old Sardauna Nigeria is simply no more.

(25) STRIVING TO PROMOTE BACKWARDNESS

The Hausas and Fulanis believe that once Biafrans are exterminated, everybody will be equal. There will be no educated men, no progressive people with new ideas. Those so-called Nigerians who will be left can then settle down to an easy life of indolence in which population will be the basis of merit. Everything in the 'national cake' will then be shared out to those idiots from the most populous parts of that imagined country.

Also, the one element which inspires progress--namely challenge--will have been eliminated and with it the roots of democracy. In short, the fear of progress will have been removed for ever ....

(27) RE-INTRODUCING COLONIALISM INTO AFRICA

The Hausas and Fulanis were the most reluctant to achieve self-government and let the British go. Even after Nigerian Independence, the bogey of 'Northernisation' still carved out a kingdom for British and other non-Nigerian nationals to make careers in Northern Nigeria in preference to Southern Nigerians equally qualified and less expensive to maintain.

Today, a Northerner has usurped power in the Central Government of Nigeria and is hastening to undo the Independence struggle which Biafrans successfully fought against British Colonialism.

To make sure of a greater success in plunging Nigeria into the dark ages, the Northern clique has re-admitted Britain in every field, has signed a military pact with Russia and has ensured the final and perpetual return to a pre-Independence colonial status.

The tragedy of it all is that African Nations watch it happening with absolute unconcern.

(28) WAGING A RELIGIOUS WAR

The killings of Biafran officers in the former Nigerian Army and civilians resident in Northern Nigeria, Lagos and Ibadan, were condoned by the Gowon Regime with the smug satisfaction that 'Allah in his infinite mercy' had made it possible for 'another Northerner' to be at the head of affairs in Nigeria.

This attitude was in keeping with the late Sardauna's boast to continue Dan Fodio's jihad till he dipped the Koran in the sea.

'To make war on the heathen, if one has the power is a declared duty', the Sardauna said in his autobiography.

In short, convert the heathen Biafrans to Islam, or exterminate them ....

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