THE MERCY ACT FOR BIAFRAN PEOPLES 

As part of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy program in St Stephen Church, Flora, our priest, Rev. Father Dr. Martin-Edward Ohajunwa took the opportunity to share a documentary,Night Flight to Uli, which was based on the merciful acts of the Irish missionaries between 1967 and 1970, in the eastern heartland of Nigeria, then known as the Republic of Biafra.

 “It is my intention to showcase what typical acts of mercy could look like in an atmosphere of vulnerability,” Father Martin-Edward explained.

  Since, it was a historical story of a people who were mainly Christians and facilitated by the Church, he deemed it quite appropriate to share the story. More so, it gives some insight of the history of a people and the continued predicament of Christians in the southeast and south-south of the present Nigerian nation. What this documentary has provoked among those who watched it, has led to the invitation to write this reflection for a wider audience and for the story to be retold in time perspective.

 For most people in the western side of the hemisphere, the sketchy remembrance of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war between 1967 and 1970 was a tribal war between two young ambitious army officers. What is called to mind is the footage of the “Starving Children of Biafra.” There are a good percentage of the population who are unfortunately unaware of this brutal “genocide,” the greatest in African soil that decimated more than three million Igbos by the Federal troops of the Nigerian nation. It is interesting that  almost 99 percent of this population were Christians. 

 It was for the love of the Igbo people that the Irish missionaries, who were at the time, ministering to the people in the spirit of Christian evangelization, were caught up in the midst of this brutal experience. They refused to leave. They had an option to leave because of the impending war and actually during the war yet, they stayed with the people.  

 These Irish missionaries stayed back to nurse the wounded and to feed the hungry and continued ministering to all the people. From each war zone to another they fled with the people and stood firm, to aid a dying people. These missionaries became their voice in solidarity with their pain and misery, their loss and despair. It was through their presence and pastoral charity that the outside world began to note  the dire situation in the new Republic of Biafra. The situation in Biafra then led to the founding of the Doctors without Borders. Men, women and children were starved to death as a result of the Nigerian federal government policy of total economic blockade. The unconventional strategies employed to prosecute this war, like the economic blockade, the bombing of hospitals, market places, churches and civilian populations.  They reflected and argued for the ulterior motive of total annihilation of the Biafran people, who were mainly Christians.

 The religious dimension of the war could be said to be latent at the time. However, with hindsight coupled with contemporary strategies apparent in subsequent military administrations in Nigeria, and more especially since the present “democratic” government of the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, all point to the conclusion of a religious agenda.  There is a strategy to conquer the only remaining Christian enclave in the entire West Africa sub-region. The southeast and south-south of the present Nigeria is the only surviving enclave from the jihadist movement of Othman Dan Fodio that was begun in the early part of the 19^th century.

 In 1960, when Nigeria got her independence from Britain, the oath sworn by the descendant of this Muslim Fulani jihadist, Sir Ahmadu Bello was to make the entire Nigerian territory a “private estate” of their great grandfather, Othman Dan Fodio. With each passing government, there has been a strategy to hold on to power and to Islamize the Christian southeast and south-south by any means possible. Within the global menace of Islamic fundamentalism and terror, Nigerian Boko Haram arose as one arm of this ugly jihadist movement. It is even more suspicious that Boko Haram arose with the advent of a Christian President from the south-south, the past President Goodluck Jonathan. The incumbent President, (a Muslim), after failing in the election that brought Goodluck Jonathan to power in 2011, had promised to make the Nigerian nation “ungovernable” for him. Few months later, the Nigerian people were met with the deadly Boko Haram menace.

 It must be said that the resurgence for the Republic of Biafra was not as a result of the menace of the Boko Haram. But the Boko Haram menace has enabled the sympathy for those who have been making the call since 1999.  

 In recent months, the non-violent groups agitating for a peaceful secession from the Nigerian nation have been trying to make their voice heard in most capital cities of the world in Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Brussels, Rome, Cape Town (South Africa), Accra (Ghana), in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), in Japan and China. They have not only increased but have become more emboldened as each day passes; they witness the high-handedness of the present Buhari administration against the southeasterners and south-south peoples. If mere peaceful demonstrations clamoring for the release of their leader Nnamdi Kanu or simply to respect the court order to release him could be met with extrajudicial killings by the army, Navy and Police then, something is structurally wrong.

 In a nation where possession of arms is illegal, Fulani herdsmen carry publicly AK-47 they now use to kidnap, rape and massacre the peoples of the Christian south at will, and no government institution has questioned them or even stopped them.

 From Agatu in Benue to Ogun Ekiti, Delta, Enugu, Imo and other states, there are numerous stories of kidnapping, raping and massacre and the Federal government is apparently silent. How are the Fulani herdsmen getting AK-47 rifles? Who are sponsoring them? The calculated manner of the Agatu (Benue) and Nimbo (Enugu) massacre point to a conspiracy and a set plan coordinated by a strong Islamic mafia to destroy and decimate the peoples of the Christian south. Even with the information given to the security agents, the massacre was still systematically executed. There is presently a grazing bill in the Nigerian national assembly to empower the federal government to forcefully take any land in any part of the country for the Muslim Fulani private cows to freely graze.

 The recent happenings coupled with the unguarded statements of the President Muhammadu Buhari about defying the court order to release the young man Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB); his avowed uneasiness to “tolerate” any agitation for a Republic of Biafra and his attribution that the Fulani herdsmen maiming and killing the Christian Biafra people are from Libya, have polarized the nation and have given more impetus for the Christian south to be more suspicious of his agenda.

 At a time when world leaders and groups move towards healing and reconciliation of their various ugly past, where they exist, the body language of the leaders and peoples of the Muslim north in Nigeria sounds very unapologetic. President Buhari has sworn to kill more Igbos if it is what it will take to keep Nigeria one. The unity of Nigeria is tied to the resources in the south-south and southeast – the oil and the grazing lands.

 It has been 50 years since 1966, when more than 30,000 Igbos in the north were massacred.  It is  unfortunate that the Christian Biafra, who are mainly Igbos are faced with the audacity of the Muslim Fulani violation and massacre in their own homes. At a time old wounds should have been addressed with more cordiality and empathy, seeking for ways to build bridges of peace, the institutions of the government are hounding down on social media bloggers, people with constructive criticisms, peaceful demonstrators and innocent Christians to make their point of absolute intolerance. At a time, when the Church sues for mercy, many of the Christians in Nigeria are being mercilessly killed by Muslim fundamentalists both in uniform and otherwise. Today, the Christian Biafra is faced with a new persecution in their own land. For this reason, they seek a new nation independent from Nigeria since there is a mutual distrust and irreconcilable differences.

 While one may wish for a united Nigeria, the ugly implications of a united Nigeria have gone beyond common sense. It is obvious that her leaders and the discomforting silence of the world are dangerously dragging Nigeria to her demise. The main line media in this country has been silent in what has been going on in Nigeria. Biafra lives also matter!

 As a small group who have recently become education about our priests heritage,  I ask for prayer, peace and dialogue as a way forward. I have never been an apostle of violence and will never be as an alternative to the intolerance of some people in the Nigerian polity.

 What this reflection seeks is to draw attention, to create the awareness that the Christian population of Biafra is facing presently a new persecution that could possible lead to a full-blown disaster if nothing is done to stop the Buhari government and his cohorts. The Christian Biafra is supplying the Christian world many of her sons and daughters as missionaries to all Christian world.

 Here in the church of southern Illinois, 100 percent of the Fidei Donum priests are all from Christian Biafra. We can be their voice and show them solidarity in their pain and misery as those Irish missionaries did. There are also many Christian Biafra people here in the United States contributing resourcefully to the good of this nation. When their families back home are suffering, they are also suffering. There is need for us Americans to speak up and to call on all Christians to pray for the Christian Biafra. There is need to call the attention of the U.S. government to speak up against the Christian persecution of the Biafra people. If referendum is good for some countries in Europe and Asia and Africa, why not in Nigeria for the Biafran people? The Christian Biafra are known to be a very peaceful people. They need the enabling environment to practice their faith and continue to advance their God-given potentials. It is imperative that in this Year of Mercy, we recognize the need to be apostles of Mercy by advancing the cause of peace and freedom of suffering indigenous people like those in Biafra land.