A HISTORY OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF BIAFRA, 2010-2021

Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is the harbinger of the long-lost evolution and history of the indigenous peoples of the aboriginal nation of Biafra. The IPOB – a unique and nonviolent global mass movement – has also emerged as the logical expression of the cultural, political, economic, and historical identity and unity of the Biafran peoples at a critical moment in the evolution of the Nigerian pendulum state. Beginning in British Colonial Africa and imperial Nigerian dynasty, and returning today to the international arena, the restored cause of the indigenous people of Biafra is the globalizing and multimedia struggle for equality, justice, peace, and liberation. (Okaisabor, 2023).

By appropriately redefining the historical role and purpose of the OAU, AU, Security Council, human rights organizations, and by modernizing and adapting anti-colonial African and United Nations Charters and statutes, the indigenous peoples of Biafra are today looking to the international community to end ethnic genocide at the hands of the officially favored and protected Nigerian state military and police forces. At the very heart and soul of the indigenous peoples of Biafra's intrinsic aspiration to join the enduring global community of nations is the rise, fall, and redemption of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra themselves. (Chiluwa et al.2020).

The modern Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) originated in 2012 as a reaction to the performance of the southeastern federal states of Nigeria in terms of infrastructural and human development, corruption, security, and human rights. Nnamdi Kanu, an English citizen of southeastern Nigerian descent who visited Nigeria in August 2012, was greatly offended by the greatly reduced quality of life that he observed in southeastern Nigeria some decades after he left. He started Radio Biafra to advocate for the plight of the people of the southeast and subsequently established IPOB. (Oparaku et al.2023).

The flames of the Biafran war of independence have been fanned by its political elite ever since. As recently as 2017 the Nigerian High Commissioner inYaoundé, Nigeria's high commissioner to Cameroon, speaking about his Government's view of the succession in the British Cameroon provinces annexed by Nigeria, told a conference with Nigerian and Cameroonian officials present: 2 We must be careful with the case of Biafra because the case of Biafra is not a forgotten case. As soon as Nigeria got independence, we went to the General Assembly of the United Nations to request entry. The United Kingdom thought we were under the Commonwealth because the two countries were independent and once this decision was made, Biafra rebelled. A number of thanks for verification of information go to the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Mr Eric Chinje, theCameroonian Government Spokesman, for this observation. (Daly, 2020).

Indigenous people often refer to ethnic groups, national minorities, or marginalized and vulnerable communities. Despite common usage, there is no clearly established definition of "indigenous people." The categories of indigenous peoples in Africa encompass a wide variety of communities, including members of often overlooked groups, such as the Hadzabe from Tanzania and the Baka from southern Cameroon. Populations belonging to these communities represent both speakers of Bantu languages, such as the Batwa and other "Pygmy" peoples from Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and Central African Republic, and a range of populations speaking non-Bantu languages, such as the Barabaig from Tanzania and the San from southern Africa. These groups are often marginalized in their various countries and are among the world's most economically and politically vulnerable people. (Williams, 2020).

Indigenous communities in Africa often have distinct languages, cultures, institutions and social structures. Indigenous groups also typically lack political representation and effective participation. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognized that indigenous people are persons considered to be indigenous who are descendants of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of other cultures or ethnic origins arrive there and establish themselves as different nationals. (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2023).

Over the last few years, amid widespread claims about their impending demise, numerous stories have emerged about the resurgence of Nigeria's Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), a self-identified Igbo ethno-nationalist organization established in 2012. Contemporary observations are that IPOB has experienced tremendous growth across Igboland through the introduction of its confrontational secessionist agenda encapsulated in its social mobilization efforts and recollections of an imagined anti-Igbo state-sanctioned program over six decades. (Henry et al., 2020).

Its London-based leader Nnamdi Kanu and his messianic role, such as challenging the agents of the Nigerian state, are part of the recall. Lack of historical enrichment presents the question of what historical processes have fueled its widespread popularity over the last few years. Where and from whose perspective is IPOB a new phenomenon? What lessons remind us from which sources do we evoke past events? Animations celebrating Igbos as a people living in a United States of Biafra and in reputable territorial assets have more than 200 years of representing differing levels of imagined relations through contests and negotiations. Yet very few studies dedicate attention to contemporary Igbo popular support for, or expression of overt secession activities. Why an independent Biafra at this time? Why IPOB through its demand for a new referendum on the future of Igbos resident in Nigeria apart from the institutional constraints of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of faction, held under the semblance of sovereign equality, that exists for its members? (Okaisabor, 2023).

The symbolic and physical contributions of Indigenous peoples of Biafra have made in shaping the biodiverse area known as the Niger Delta are evident and widely embraced by the hundreds of distinct Indigenous Biafran communities today seeking self-determination and independent international non-governmental organization (INGO) consultative status at United Nations bodies. But by keeping the Indigenous peoples of Biafra's historical narrative hidden from view, the widespread acceptance of the Nomenclature of the Ijaw People (Ijo) has contributed to cloud the Indigenous peoples' present fate connected history of self-determination on the heels of the Biafran War. The invention of the Ijaw Group, based upon the writings of Americans who had interacted with peoples from the region, was largely an ideal in a 1960s Cold War state-building enterprise at the crossroads of international development efforts to improve the living standards of marginalized ethnic Nigerian groups on the edge of the Niger Delta. (Onwubiko2023).

This study represents a significant advance in the historical study of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and its founding leader, Nnamdi Kanu. To date, there has been no primary historical study of the IPOB prior to its first appearance on the web in 2012. This represents the first complete publication of the history of the movement through 2021. Politics is a perspective that takes into account what separatists say, what they do, and what happens around them indirectly. My final story is one of a set of separatist organizations who acted and reacted in different ways. (Abada et al., 2020).

The study is consistent with the idiohistorical tradition characterized by Reemt Ottens and Rinus van Schendelen, whereby a systematic and holistic approach is taken to studying separatist parties, who are encouraged to contribute their relevance in the field of social identity and its broad political context. The purpose of this study is not to determine whether Biafran self-determination claims are right or wrong. In the opening, the concept of self-determination is defined, an IPOB policy strategy shared with the worldwide movement, and the many different thresholds that will help external and internal analysts judge the success or failure of IPOB movements are presented. (Okaisabor, 2023).