A CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE FOR MY PEOPLES OF THE LOWER NIGER

I am a Social Advocate and consequently, a freedom fighter on the side of my people whose destinies, lands and assets were forcefully taken over by the colonial expedition of British imperialism and made to service a parasitic union that is the product of an amalgamation in which my people were deliberately placed at a structural disadvantage.

Not to mention the persistent xenophobic killings of my people; starting with that of July 29, 1966 and lastly, with that of the 2011 post-election violence which assumed a massive terrorist dimension. Or, worse still, the well orchestrated massacre of my people between 1967-70 in what Historians call the Biafran Genocide and regard as the third genocide of the 20th Century – pictures of which turned the late Steve Jobs of Aple Inc. into an atheist.

Nevertheless, all indigenous people have an inalienable right to self determination as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (passed September 2007) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

Consequently, those two instruments are being invoked at this point to take back our lands and assets that were criminally confiscated; first, through the unequal Amalgamation of 1914 and later, through Decrees made by successive military/fascist regimes empowered by the Feudal Lords of the former Northern Protectorate.

This is however in furtherance of our resistance to “Decree 24″ called the “1999 Constitution” which is the successor to all those decrees; and which falsely, albeit, criminally alleged that we met and resolved to handover all our lands, assets and destiny to the parasitic union called Nigeria.

It will therefore be a “crime against humanity” for anyone to oppose us at this moment, let alone force us to play along with this Apartheid/Fascist State called Nigeria. Definitely not when the new men in the block – Buhari, Tinubu and their cohorts – have made it abundantly clear that the basis of the Nigerian Union will never be up for negotiation.

At this juncture, calling it quit is the only logical way forward for my people.

Written by Citizen Mark Olise.