THE FUTILITY OF THREATENED BOYCOTT OF ANAMBRA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION

THE FUTILITY OF THREATENED BOYCOTT OF ANAMBRA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION

I will like IPOB Leaders to enlighten me on this "No Anambra Gubernatorial Election" threat.

Suppose Anambra people accept IPOB no election threat, which I very much doubt, (Anambra people, my people, being politically very savvy)  and any of the minor parties nominates a Fulani herdsman at Amansee, Awka and on election day  only herdsmen come out and voted for him and he wins; or he is returned unopposed, and gets sworn in. What will IPOB do or tell Anambra people who would have been shortchanged into having a Fulani herdsman, probably an Islamic militant as  Governor of Anambra State?
2. Does IPOB have an Army or Police to stop Anambra election?
3. "Threat" per se is a violent act and not pacifist. As non-violent rights agitators it is therefore only within the competence of IPOB to order its members not to participate in the election and not do anything other thing, including carrying out the  present threat, to stop the election. That would amount to challenging the governments of the day which according to national and international laws exercise sovereignty over Anambra state today.
3. "The tree of liberty shall be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Yes; but 290 killed, 320 incapacitated is enough for now. Time
 to move to the next level excluding grandstanding and street matches.
4. Nigeria must by national and international Law approve Biafra's independence for it to be meaningful. I hope IPOB is aware of the truth of this in International Law.
5. IPOB should therefore at this stage be making friends and winning sympathies in the South and Middle Belt of Nigeria; and reaching out internationally for sympathy and understanding. This, I am informed, is being quietly done by some very advanced groups. Any act of violence by IPOB is bound to upset these diplomatic advances.
6. IPOB must device ways and means of ensuring that all people elected as Governors, Assembly men, Representatives and Senators from the Southeast are IPOB supporters. That is the  way to referendum and independence. That is how Scotland and Quebec got their independence votes. And that is how Catalonia might get its vote. We do not need to invent the wheel.
7. Scarcely would a country or UN call for referendum because an NGO demanded it. The people's elected representatives are usually required to demand the independence vote, otherwise called referendum.
8. Time for polished, civilised and diplomatic language is now, if we are to make any progress.
9. "Hubris Syndrome" which ruined the leadership of the 1st attempt at the Republic of Biafra, must be avoided at all cost, particularly now it is a democratic dispensation, unlike in the 1967 -70 effort.
10. Grandstanding and threats that cannot be backed up, would lead to nowhere. It did not lead us anywhere 1967 - 1970.

I conclude this brief with a quote from James Madison, a founding father of USA, one of the drafters of US Constitution and later, 4th President of USA:

 " Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

Emeka Onyesoh,
 Okpala Eze na Nri.
25th July, 2017