Between the years of 1966 and 1970 a total of 3.5 million Igbo and other Southeasterners were murdered in the most gruesome manner anyone can imagine, by the Nigerian state and its peoples. It is regarded as the worst pogrom and ethnic cleansing act that has been visited on any people since the end of the World War II. The nation of Biafra emerged in May 30, 1967 because Nigeria like a deranged monster went uncontrollably mad
and was bent on completely exterminating the entire peoples of Igbo and all other Southeasterners wherever they were found. For three full years the world with bated breath watched as Biafran children, women, old and young civilian population of the new nation were being bombed into the dust, starved into mere skeletal apparitions and raped till they died by Nigeria in a fit of boundless rage and hatred.
For three years, Britain , USSR ( Russia ), Egypt aided and abated and supplied to Nigeria men and weapons of mass destruction that were so effective that they nearly succeeded in that dastard task of complete annihilation of the entire peoples. Now forty years have gone by and Biafra and her people are still being killed and murdered for fun with the looting of their properties by the same Nigeria while the world is still watching.
The question on the lips of the victims of these terrible acts of unprovoked violence and world silence is how long will they have to wait for justice and when will men and women of conscience of this world wake up and absolve themselves of any imputation of apathy and negligence or even being parties to the wickedness with their silence?
The other question that the victims will like an answer to is if the world did indeed use different parameters in condemning heinous crimes against humanity such as occurred in Biafra? The reason for this question is because crimes and atrocities of less magnitude have occurred in other parts of the world against other peoples, before and after that blight on the face of human conscience in Biafra, and the world has rightly condemned and taken steps to stop them as well as put in place measures that would guarantee non reoccurrence.
In 1994 in Rwanda and within a period of about one hundred days a total of 800,000 people were brutally murdered and the world rose up to its responsibility and condemned the evil and called it by its rightful name, genocide. Till now as we write, the world is still working hard at trying to bring the perpetrators of those crimes to pay for their wickedness against fellow human beings. This is commendable. But while we cheer and support these noble efforts to punish evil anywhere in the world, we have continually wondered in total confusion at the deafening silence on the part of the world about the 3,500,000 genocidal murders in the Biafra of 1966 to 1970 years.
For some people who may not understand why crime must not go unpunished, we will try to explain briefly here. When the most violent and escalated phase of the genocide in Biafra was claimed to have ended in 1970, none of the criminals who disemboweled pregnant Biafran women and skinned alive men and children were called to account for their crimes. And it is because these men and women who were presided over and sponsored by Yakubu Gowon were never punished that they got emboldened and forty years after, the rape, murder, looting, pillaging, and all kinds of crimes of inhumanity to man are still being visited on Biafra and her peoples today by the same people.
Therefore the purpose for punishment for an unjust act is always to deter other would-be perpetrators and to maintain the good health of the human society. Without mincing words, the world must bring all the criminals of the Biafra Genocide to answer for their crimes and must declare the atrocity by its proper name, GENOCIDE and make effort to put in place effective measures that will forestall future occurrence.
The most effective measure is the reestablishment of the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra. This is true because in this short piece we are reminding the world that Biafra and Biafrans permanently renounced their citizenship of Nigeria and can never again go back on that decision of the 30th of May 1967 being the day that Biafra and her people became free and free forever.