By a poorly scripted Fake News stunt, a Document outlining the strong objections of the Niger-Delta Nationalities to the rambunctious “Biafra Restoration” gambit of Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB was credited to Nigeria’s Former President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Jonathan has since disowned the Document which is self-evidently, a concoction of the external enemies of the Peoples of the Lower Niger, (ie the Igbo and the rest of the Niger Delta), who are desperately bent on driving the wedge of Division and Suspicion between them. (Here is the link to the disclaimer : https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/jonathan-denies-statement-biafra/ ).
The LNC notes that while the Document is fake, the grave issues raised in the False Document fairly encapsulate germane grounds of very strong objections of the Niger-Delta Nationalities to the Igbocentric “Biafra Restoration” commotion by IPOB and it’s “Supreme Leader” Nnamdi Kanu, MUST be addressed Concretely by anyone who genuinely seeks the Liberation of the Territory from the Choking Bondage of Unitary Nigeria.
This imperative of addressing these well-founded grounds of strong objections were the very reasons the LNC Structured its Self-Determination Campaign Template and Processes in a manner that comprehensively address those grave concerns by holding sacrosanct, the Unabridged and Unfettered Self-Determination Rights of each of the Constituent Ethnic Nationalities of the Lower Niger Territory.
This Lower Niger Paradigm as Proposed by the Lower Niger Congress, was also the reason the Niger-Delta Nationalities wholeheartedly embraced the LNC Template and Roadmap to Liberation from the Caliphate Monster called Nigeria, in sharp contrast to their total rejection of the totally undefined and uncharted “Biafra Restoration” Voyage.
It was in demonstration of that embrace that Niger-Delta Nationalities came out forcefully in happy participation at the SOLEMN ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLES OF THE LOWER NIGER IN PORT, April 27, 2015 which Adopted the 1885 Ethnolinguistic Map of the Lower Niger Territory as the Geographical Delimitation of the Prospective Lower Niger Federation and which also Mandated the Distillation of the CHARTER OF RELATIONSHIPS that will define the Understandings that will Underpin the Federating Constitution of the Peoples of the Territory in the inevitable Fundamental Reconfiguration of the Defunct of Nigeria.
The Modalities for Distilling that Charter of Relationships and for resolving the Question of the name by which the Territory shall enter its Independence (should the aforementioned Referendums so dictate), are well outlined.
It is noteworthy that the 8-Point Strategy of the LNC Template puts forward a Clear Map of the Territory over which Self -Determination is being Sought and Delineates the Internal Boundaries of the Six Broad Ethnolinguistic Groups that Constitute the Lower Niger (see below the 1885 Ethnolinguistic Map of the Lower Niger).
That Strategy Design which has an Outreach Arm called the MNN Alliance (aggregating the South and Middle-Belt), puts forward a Clear Roadmap for how the Self-Determination Quest of the Peoples of the Territory can be Most Expeditiously and Most Safely attained by Well-Defined Processes that were tailored to culminate in Orderly UN-Backed Referendums and Plebiscites, with a Robust International Outreach that has already established its Credibility in the Policy Beltways of Washington DC and the UN in New York.
This is totally different from the Conflict-Prone “Biafra Restoration” Commotion that re-enacts on a much worse scale, the sad suspicions and difficulties of the 1967 Biafra Venture, and provides the answers to why the LNC completely rejects what has progressively proved to be a Rogue Global “Biafra” Franchise Operated by Cold-Calculating and Clear-Minded Criminal Merchants.
Bottomline is that what the Niger Delta Nationalities are rejecting is the very objectionable method of the Nnamdi Kanu/IPOB “Biafra Restoration” that presents to the Niger-Delta Nationalities, what seems like the clear prospects an Igbo Invasion, led by an Igbo megalomaniac of a “Supreme Leader”, an Igbo Deputy “Supreme Leader” and an all-Igbo Biafra High-Command. The LNC completely agrees with the Objections of the Niger-Delta Nationalities.
On the other hand, from the many years of deep interactions with the Nationalities of the Lower Niger in the Liberation Project, the LNC can also attest with certainty, to the willingness and zeal of the Niger-Delta Nationalities to aggregate and Federate as Equal Partners with the Igbo, post-Nigeria, on clearly defined Terms anchored on the Self-Determination Imperative for each Nationality.
Here are the links to :
(1) The 8-Point Strategy of the LNC Template : https://www.facebook.com/618603708275794/posts/1809727279163425/
(2) The Video Clip from the 2015 Solemn Assembly of the Peoples of the Lower Niger in Port Harcourt :
https://youtu.be/1C5FynbyXrU
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- Tony Nnadi, the Secretary-General of Lower Niger Congress (LNC), writes from Lagos.