Two groups, the Biafra Government in Exile (BGIE) and the Biafra Shadow Government (BSG), have urged the people of the area not to participate in the 2019 general elections.
The pro-Biafra groups said precedents showed that whether or not they voted, the administration that would emerge after the election would still not favour their course.
They spoke in a statement issued on Sunday, signed by Yahgozie Immanuel, Office of Communications, BGIE and Evangelist Godspet Ijeoma Uhagiro, Head of Information Directorate, BSG.
They said urged “all Biafra citizens should adopt this stance and boycott these elections.”
According to them, “BGIE and BSG arrived at this position on the basis that our activities are fully geared towards the restoration of the sovereign state of Biafra, also based on the following fact.
“No government of Nigeria or administration of any arm of Nigeria’s government within Nigeria’s current geopolitical space supports Biafra in any form or configuration, beginning in 1966.
“The fact of the Biafra war and aftermath did nothing to change and has never changed this reality. Adoption of electoral democracy in Nigeria starting from 1999 has not altered this truth, nor has the various pernicious exercises of state-creation by Nigeria.
“At the end of every electoral season and exercise, Nigeria will always produce results / winners, therewith, ushering a “new” administrative unit, regardless of whether voters cast votes or how they actually voted. That’s a fact. It is also a fact that such an administration, regardless of the conduct of the elections, has a principled and inherent opposition to anything Biafra or any mention of Biafra, even in Biafra land. For that matter, every political party registered in Nigeria must have signed an oath that makes it the functional equivalent of a criminal and or treasonable offense to adopt Biafra as the party’s standard or platform.
“What does this mean? It means that there will in fact be an administration the day after Nigerian elections. That administration is pre-guaranteed to be 100% anti-Biafran. So, if we vote, there will be an anti-Biafran administration. If we don’t vote, there will also be an equally anti-Biafran administration.
“We do not need to tell you what an anti-Biafran administration feels like in Biafra land. You started feeling that from 1966 before the war. Then, after the war, from 1970 until today, and this will be your fate for as long as Biafra remains forcibly annexed into Nigeria. (By the way, Biafrans in diaspora have not been spared Nigeria’s anti-Biafran activities.)”
They added that “If we vote, we are supporting our own perpetual slavery by endorsing and consenting to our own eternal enslavement.
“If we don’t vote, we are exercising the only freedom we have in this matter, which is to say, no, to unconscionable subjugation. We are in effect saying ‘I know you will kill us, and we do not have the power to stop you at this time, but we will never submit to you and make it easier by offering you our unprotected neck.’
“Whether Biafrans vote or not, the status quo will remain the same, hence our position to encourage Biafrans to boycott the exercise and focus on gaining their freedom and extricating themselves from Nigeria.
“The sovereignty of Biafra must be restored; we reassert our irreducible belief in the principles of self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter as the way forward. We are doing something about it.
” If President Buhari could openly support and call for the UN to act now in respect to self-determination for Palestinians and Western Sahara people, then, it is also right for the people of Biafra.
“We want to also state that we wish Nigeria well in whatever way they want to follow to improve their country, because in the final analysis, Nigeria if still in existence will be Biafra’s closest neighbour. Biafra will always strive to live in peace with her neighbours.
“We restate the right of Biafrans to self-determination as enshrined in international law and convention. We emphasize that in fulfilling this right, Biafra neither wages war nor peace with Nigeria; Biafra seeks her own survival and shall have it.”
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