On
June 1, 1969, a major policy speech on the mission of the struggling
Biafran nation, code-named the Ahiara Declaration, was given by
the Head of State, General C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. The lengthy document,
which was named after the venue where it was presented, may have
been deemed necessary at that juncture in order to reaffirm the
raison d’etre for the nascent republic and hopefully to shore
up the morale of the embattled population after almost 2 years of
a survival struggle amidst overwhelming odds. The speech was well
designed to reach deep into the mindset of the average Biafran who
clearly saw then that the genesis and perpetuation of their plight
were traceable to the neocolonial policies of the British government
toward its former possessions, which included Nigeria. In a speech
that was laced in emotive verses.
Ojukwu
began by attributing the indifference of the civilized world to
the sufferings of Biafrans as racially motivated. “The root
cause of our problem lies in the fact that we are Black. If all
the things that have happened to us had happened to another people
who are not Black, if other people who are not Black had reacted
in the way our people had reacted these two long years, the world’s
response would surely have been different”, Ojukwu declared.
He called the Biafran struggle the “latest recrudescence in
our time of the age-old struggle by the Black man for his full stature
as man”.
The Ahiara Declaration portrayed the Biafran revolution as a “resistance
to the Arab-Muslim expansionism which has menaced and ravaged the
African continent for twelve centuries”. The huge support
for the Nigerian government in its war in Biafra by many Arab-dominated
nations of Africa, like Sudan, Egypt and Morocco, was seen as part
of a grand design to islamize the coastal parts of the West African
sub-region and beyond. The document emphasized that the anti-imperialistic
stance of the Biafran leadership has drawn the wrath of the West,
especially Britain, which felt that the emergence of an independent
Afrocentric Biafra would spell doom to their overall neocolonial
exploits in the then confused Nigerian state. The role of the revisionist
Moscow regime in arming and fighting with Biafra’s enemies
was seen as part of a muddled up Soviet foreign policy which then
was desirous to establish a beachhead in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Fellow
Biafrans, these are the evil and the titanic we are engaged in a
life and death struggle. These are the forces which the Biafran
revolution must sweep aside to succeed”, the Biafran leader
asserted.
The later part of the Ahiara Declaration was devoted to elaboration
of various aspects of the Biafran revolution, particularly the need
to reject all the social ills that destroyed Nigeria. The document
extolled the virtues of good leadership, social justice, openness
and accountability in government as well as equitable distribution
of nation’s resources to every citizen. At least in design,
the new Biafra would “reject all forms of social inequalities
and disabilities and all class and sectional privileges”.
In a gesture that may have rattled some nerves, especially in Western
countries, General Ojukwu declared “In the new Biafra, all
property belongs to the community. Every individual must consider
all he has, whether in talent and material wealth, as belonging
to the community for which he holds it in trust”.
In the face of severe suffering, hunger and death as well as unrelenting
military pressure from the well equipped and more numerous federal
troops, the average Biafran needed to hear the type of inspirational
speech that Ahiara Declaration turned out to be. It was a great
paradox that the enunciation of the Biafran dream predated its collapse
by only 6 months. Nonetheless, the Ahiara Declaration posed many
cogent questions and also attempted to proffer answers to the myriad
of problems that still collude to compound the difficulties of the
Black man in the contemporary world. The document clearly defined
the place of the Black African in a world that disdains African
humanity. It provides a snapshot of the immense challenges that
confronted a people whose backs were against the wall and under
the threat of imminent mass extermination. The Ahiara Declaration,
though an unrealized design, remains a valuable document that will
continue to enlighten present and future generations of Biafrans
on the possibilities of an ideal nation that they never had.
The dream embodied in the Ahiara Declaration must live on even now
that an independent Biafra is no longer tenable in today’s
Nigeria. Just like other inventions of necessity that sustained
Biafran resistance for 30 months, this document remains a testimony
to the heroic response of a people who are proud of their heritage
and keenly aware of their collective destiny as Africans. The spirit
of Biafra, as enunciated in the Ahiara Declaration, must continue
to remain a living hope and roadmap for the eventual emancipation
of Black man and Afrocentric worldview.
“Biafra
will not betray the Black man no matter the odds.
We will fight with all our might until Black men everywhere
can point with pride to this Republic, standing dignified
and defiant, as an example of African nationalism
triumphant over its age-old enemies.” ….
- Ojukwu
