Dokubo-Asari who said that he is a Biafran and not a Nigerian also said that the current agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra is not a call for war but that “Leave us let us go.”
He said,
“I’m not a Nigerian. Nations are not imposed on people. People don’t sit down in Berlin or anywhere and make people Nigerians. Nations are created by the will of the people. My people have never accepted Nigeria and so, how can I be a Nigerian? Nobody can impose Nigeria on me.” “The free will of the people create nations. If everybody gathered together, the Ijaw people, you know which includes the kalabari people, nobody forced the Kalabari people to become Ijaw people, because naturally, they know they are Ijaw people.” “So, nobody will force an Owerri man, an Nkwere man to be an Igbo person, he naturally knows he is an Igbo person.”
“So, if we want to be Nigerians, then we have to sit down, and decide for ourselves that today, we are going to be, or as separate identities, and accept Nigeria as our country, as our nation and we become Nigerians. We’ve not done that.” “When I go up north, do they see me as a Nigerian? They don’t! They call me ‘Nyamiri.’ They call me Nyamiri! When I go to Yoruba land, do they see me as a Nigerian? They call me ‘Omo Kobokobo.’ That’s what they call me! Omo Kobokobo.”
“ When a Yoruba man goes up north, they call him ‘Oyede Banza.’ When a Fulani man comes up to Yoruba land, what do they call him? They call him Gambari!” “I used to hear a story that there were about three people in a bus and the driver asked the conductor, how many people were in the bus and the conductor said two persons and one Gambari. He said shut up your mouth, is Gambari not a human being? But the conductor said that is your business o, me I know that in this bus there are two persons and one Gamari.” “
So, if in the north there is a riot, they don’t kill Senegalese, they don’t kill British, they don’t kill Lebanese, they will kill a Yoruba man. They will kill an Igbo man, they will kill an Ijaw man. They will kill an Efik man, they will kill others but they will not kill a Lebanese, they don’t kill a Senegalese, they don’t kill Nigerien or Malian. That clearly shows that they don’t need you.”
“Listen to the interview of that rogue that they are celebrating. People who joined to steal Ijaw people’s resources, Ahmadu Bello. What did he say in his interview? ‘That if they want to employ people in the north, they will first of all take Europeans and so on, then when it comes, if they are going to consider Africans they will take Sudanese and so on but when they are going to consider other Nigerians, they will take them on contract. It is there, they can’t deny it.”
. But me, I’m not a Nigerian, I will never be a Nigerian!” On his thoughts about Biafran agitation “I’m a Biafran! Yes, in 1967, Biafra was declared and my people were part of the declaration of Biafra. The man who gave the name Biafra to Biafra was an Ijaw man, Chief Frank Opigbo. The man who first plaid the Biafran national anthem was Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson…1967 declaration of Biafra, I am a Biafran. So, the agitation, I am part of the agitation for the realization of the sovereign state of Biafra.”
Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment