The Biafran Struggle Is Not A Crime, It Is The Last Breath Of A People Refusing To Be Erased

The Biafran Struggle Is Not A Crime, It Is The Last Breath Of A People Refusing To Be Erased Chinua Achebe and, presently, Chimamanda Adichi...

The Biafran Struggle Is Not A Crime, It Is The Last Breath Of A People Refusing To Be Erased

Chinua Achebe and, presently, Chimamanda Adichie have consistently emphasized the need for storytelling. A story is as important as the teller. It therefore is important for all sides to be heard. The Biafran story has been told by the other side, the side that wanted the  Biafran struggle to be misunderstood, misrepresented, and worst still criminalized. But at its core, it is not a crime—it is a cry for identity, survival, and justice. It symbolizes the fighting spirit of a people refusing to be erased by historical injustices, systemic marginalization, and political neglect. Now is the time to listen to the other side with context and not just cherry picked talking points pushing a narrative.

One of such egregious and fictionally cherry picked talking points about Biafra is the presentation of the United States of America (USA) as a neutral observer or the inorganic discovery of a CIA secret archived wire-cable portraying Biafrans as heroic or that heroes fight like Biafrans or how there was a plan(s) in the offing to render assistance to dying Biafrans if they had held on for 6 more months. As a country with a foreign policy strategy that classify Africa as only a source of raw material, it was never in the economic and political interest of USA to assist Biafra. This is true of every intervention from the Whitehouse - whether it was abolishing slavery, colonialism, etc. For context, the perpetrators of slavery abolished it because it became economically unsustainable. Industrialization needed raw materials and so, they replaced slave trade with colonialism. And today, colonialism has been replaced with neocolonialism.

The root of the Biafran struggle traces back to the slave trade era climaxed by Igbo landing of Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, USA in1803; to the Ekumeku resistance against colonialism (Guerilla Resistance) to the Independence clamoring and galvanizing of the indigenous peoples during the post-colonial eve. Fast forward to Nigeria’s post-colonial era, a time when the new nation was still navigating the challenges of uniting diverse ethnic groups. The 1967–1970 Biafran War was not merely a secessionist movement—it was a desperate attempt by the Igbo people and others in Eastern Nigeria to assert their right to live freely and with dignity, after facing targeted killings, discrimination, and disenfranchisement.

Surely, it is not slightly possible that there can be a justification for the killing of innocent civilians – disemboweled pregnant women, throwing of little children into deep wells, driving of sticks through female genitals, cutting off heads and hosting them on a steak like trophies – assuming the January 15 1966 coup that culminated in deaths of prominent figures from the north was indeed an Igbo coup, as the killing was, indeed, an organic display of deep seated hatred and grudge that was not immediate but remote and is  incurable. This was the singular message of the British government propaganda arm – the BBC – and a cross section of Nigeria media funded by Britain, that the innocent civilians murdered in cold blood deserved death because a coup was allegedly orchestrated by their tribespeople in Nigeria army.

 However, through social media, this lie has been totally debunked to the extent that we know how tribal politics was introduced in Nigeria by Awolowo, while bigotry was introduced by Akintola and regional interference was introduced by Tafawa Balewa. All these shenanigans started from 1962, leading to Operation Wetie and climaxing in the jailing of Awolowo by Tafawa Balewa. The people that died in the coup were all Awolowo enemies and the sole objective of the coup was to free him from jail and make him president. The then Michael Okpara's, eastern region which was competing globally with one of the world’s fastest growing economy stands to gain nothing from such anachronistic and antithetic coup.

Over 5 million lives were lost during the pogrom and the civil war, many through starvation, disease, and relentless violence. That trauma did not vanish with the ceasefire—it became embedded in the soul of a people who felt betrayed and unheard. More than 50 years later, those wounds remain unhealed. For many, the idea of Biafra is not about rebellion; it is about remembrance, justice, and the refusal to forget a history written in blood.

To criminalize this struggle is to silence the voices of a people who have never truly recovered from war, who continue to feel excluded from the nation’s political and economic mainstream. The persistent underdevelopment of the South-East, the lack of federal representation, and the militarized response to peaceful advocacy are not signs of unity—they are reminders of the very oppression that sparked the original conflict.

There is absolutely no justification for Lagos ports to be functional while eastern ports that are closer to sea with 16km unbeaten record are moribund. With the exception of Lekki port, it is important to highlight that Lagos ports are deep river ports including Apapa. There is no valid excuse for easterners going to Abuja or Lagos or Kano to obtain visa or for so-called international flights to land in Lagos or Kano or Abuja before proceeding to Enugu or Port Harcourt even when there is nothing to do there except to obey a regional profiling Nigeria government policy. The examples are endless.

Movements for self-determination are not new to the world. From Scotland to Catalonia, people seek the right to define their identity and determine their future. The Biafran cause deserves the same space for dialogue—not bullets, prisons, or propaganda. It is only through listening, understanding, and addressing deep-rooted grievances that true unity can be forged, and true unity is not forged only as integral parts of a country; people and countries can be good neighbors.

The Biafran struggle is not a crime—it is a call for justice. It is the heartbeat of a people who refuse to disappear. It is not driven by hatred, but by hope: hope for dignity, equity, and the right to exist on their own terms. Until Nigeria chooses reconciliation over repression, the spirit of Biafra will remain unquenched—not as a threat, but as a testament to the resilience of a people who refuse to be erased, to be murdered and told to forget it and build bridges. No bridge, reconciliation or progress will be made in Nigeria until the world acknowledges the genocide against Biafra. Never again shall the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) be criminalized for seeking self-determination, because it is a movement that is “the last breath of a people refusing to be erased.”

Family Writers Press International