Posted by By JACOB EDI, Abuja on
Leader of the Biafran rebellion, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, yesterday made what seemed like a renewed call for the actualisation of the Biafran ideals, saying that the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria now have more reason than ever before to seek independence from Nigeria.
Leader of the Biafran rebellion, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, yesterday made what seemed like a renewed call for the actualisation of the Biafran ideals, saying that the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria now have more reason than ever before to seek independence from Nigeria.
Ojukwu told the BBC, on the 40th anniversary of the start of the Biafran war, in which more than one million people died, that Ndigbo were still marginalised - the very core reason for which they went to war.
He said the marginalisation became more manifes in the course of the last general election in the country when the about 14m people resident in the region were denied the right to vote and choose leaders of their own choice.
Ojukwu was the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the vexatious polls came sixth with 155,000 votes, according to official results.
The elections, won by ruling party's candidate Umaru Yar'Adua, were condemned by international observers as "not credible".
The Ikemba did a detailed appraisal of the station of the Igbo in the Nigeria of today and told the BBC that "the only alternative is a separate existence", even as he maintained that it was still possible for Nigeria to remain united.
"Give us a free and fair election - allow us to be fully part of Nigeria," Ojukwu said, adding that "what upsets the Igbo population is we are not equally Nigerian as the others".
He said it was this practice of unfair treatment of Ndigbo that led to Biafra's declaration of independence on 30 May 1967.Five weeks later the first shots were fired in the three-year war, in which more than one million people were believed to have died.
Ojukwu said he regretted the war and the deaths but said he was proud that his people had fought back.