Biafra: Some questions the would-be-Biafra-leaders need to answer

One may begin to wonder the reason for the agitation of the Republic of Biafra. It is only natural that a people will crave have freedom and become independent from the body which they no longer feel aligned with.

                In Spain, for some reason, a part known as the Catalonia have over the years demonstrated for a referendum to be an independent state. And in Sudan, South Sudan became independent in July 2011, having felt oppressed and marginalized by the North. The case of Sudan may well appeal to the situation of Nigeria. South Sudan had claimed that the North took over power and controlled the state after their independence from Western colonial masters, even though the oil in the South was the primary resource of the country.

                However, South Sudan has had no peace since its independence from Sudan. In this line, it brings to focus questions the ‘would-be-Biafra-leaders’ need to address in their bid to secede from Nigeria.

To begin with, South-east is one of the difficult, if not the most difficult, places to live in Nigeria – by difficult, I mean expensive, demanding and unfavourable for the poor, and so are the parts of South-south states that are included in the prospective map of Biafra. Should Biafra succeed in seceding from Nigeria, will the country be too expensive and difficult for its average citizens? This is one issue Biafra agitators should address.

Again, Nigeria is considered by many as a very corrupt and insecure country – it is defined in many negative terms. The question is if Biafra can be better than Nigeria. Nigeria is also a country with a high unemployment rate and South-east does not boast of much employable companies. That leaves one wondering if Biafra will be worse than Nigeria in the field of employment should they become an independent state.

South-east tertiary institutions are not better than other top tertiary institutions in other parts of Nigeria. Should the region become a republic of Biafra, will education be a worse nightmare than what we currently have in Nigeria?

My proposition is for South-east government to begin a process of building superpowers, industries, and making their institutions something to write home about if they actually have strong dream of becoming a republic of Biafra. South-east should be start now to be better than other regions in the country. United States is on top of the world today because they came off the back of a country that dominated the world. It will be an underachievement for the republic of Biafra if it were to secede from Nigeria and still be either the same or worse than Nigeria.