Our Reporter, New York
The son of Major General Philip Effiong, the second in command of the short-lived Biafra Republic, Prof. Philip Effiong Jr., has revealed that his father once warned that if the people of the South-East region don’t get fair treatment in Nigeria, another agitation for Biafran secession will arise. Effiong Jr. made the statement in an exclusive interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica on the IrokopostTV channel on YouTube.
“At the end of the war, my father had said if Nigeria doesn’t treat the former Biafrans right, they will rise in agitation and demand their rights, which is what is happening today,” the Professor at Michigan State University stated.
He linked the current call for the actualization of a Biafra Republic by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other pro-Biafra groups to the warning given by General Effiong.
The author of the critically acclaimed memoir, “Un-Civil War: Memories of a Biafran Child,” also debunked popular insinuations that his father presented a document of surrender to General Gowon. He insisted that no portion of the document presented talked of a surrender. “There’s no part of the document that is titled surrender,” Effiong Jr. reiterated. Instead, he said, the document was conditional on the inclusivity of every group in Nigeria to partake in discussions on any future political arrangements.
While commenting on the slogan of “one Nigeria,” Prof. Effiong questioned the sincerity of the slogan when the government of Nigeria denied his father all his benefits and recognitions as a senior officer of the Nigerian army.
“My father was a professional soldier, and he was dismissed without any benefit. You can imagine the difficulties he faced because he remained jobless till the day he passed,” the son of the General recounted.
Reacting to the emergence of new groups calling for the revival of the Biafra Republic in the South-East, Prof. Effiong expressed his support for the rights of people to self-determination and condemned the organized violence being meted on them by the Nigerian state.
“When you look at these demands and agitations, even though the word Biafra is included, what these young people are saying is that they are marginalized and need to be included,” he argued.
“They are agitating because they feel they don’t have a place in the country because nobody seems to be investing in their lives. They are, therefore, seeking their own space. I think it is best to recognize that this is not just about Biafra, but also about self-determination.”
He, however, expressed sadness over the conflicts and disagreements among some pro-Biafra groups and between them and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, wondering how “if we are like this now when we haven’t gotten our country, how are we going to manage that country” if it is eventually achieved.
On the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, which he described as “unjust,” he noted that he condemns the violence that Nigeria is perpetrating against self-determination advocates.
