Understanding The Nexus Between The Lower Niger Congress (LNC) And The Termination Of The Bondage Of Eastern Nigeria: A Focus On The Aladimma Epistle Of 2012

By Tony Nnadi for LNC, 27 March 2022; (originally published September 6, 2019)

Editor’s comment: Given the confusion and despair occurring in Igbo land today, many are asking: How did we get here? And: How do we get out of here? Read on to learn the answers to both these questions.

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From the contents of the ALADINMA EPISTLE 2012, it is self-evident that the LNC (Lower Niger Congress) brings a Definitive Territorial Map, Potent Strategy and an Orderly Nonviolent Process to achieving the overwhelming SELF-DETERMINATION desire and aspiration for liberation from bondage, by the peoples of the Greater Eastern Nigeria, especially the much hounded Igbo, from whose flank a global awakening that has assumed the code-name, “Biafra Agitation” is raging, but which unfortunately presents some fundamental flaws in contradistinction [differences] with the LNC Self-determination campaign template, namely:

(1) Exact map of the “Biafra” being restored.

Considering the circumstances that led to the “Federal Alliance” waging the 1967-1970 war as a “Liberation War” to free the Eastern Minorities from the invasion of the Igbo, the failure of the “Biafra Restoration Agitation” bandwagon to distill [draw up] a definite map of the territory over which they seek independence is a foundational and fundamental flaw that immediately defeats whatever case for Self-Determination they may be trying to make.

The May 30, 1967 map of Biafra (if that is what is being restored) presents a controversy no one can resolve since the “Federal” brigandage of May 27, 1967 that carved out Rivers State and South-Eastern State predate the May 30, 1967 Declaration of Eastern Region as “the Republic of Biafra”. The even more untenable claim is the one of an ancient “Biafra” country that predated Nigeria which exact map the “Biafra Restoration” bandwagon cannot fathom. Any independence campaign that does not begin with a definite and settled map of the territory targeted for the independence is completely dead on arrival.

On the other hand, the LNC, being ab initio a consensual and COLLECTIVE regional initiative, adopted the 1885 ethnolinguistic map of the Lower Niger as the EXACT territorial delimitation of the territory for which it seeks Self-Determination. The said 1885 map also clearly delineates the constituent component nationalities of the said Lower Niger Territory. In other words, the 1885 Map shows the external boundaries of the whole territory as well as the internal boundaries of the constituent component nationalities.

(2) Consensus And Internal Cohesion Amongst The Constituent Component Nationalities Of The Territory Bidding For Self-Determination/(Independence).

Totally unmindful of the painful lessons of the Biafra of 1967, the drivers of the “Biafra Agitation” without any meaningful consultations with the Eastern Minorities (so-called) have made the present “Biafra” agitation an Igbo affair, unwittingly justifying the false narrative of Igbo invasion of Eastern Minorities that was used by Nigeria to justify the execution of the 1967-1970 genocide against the peoples of the then Eastern Nigeria (Biafra), particularly the Igbo.

The LNC on the other hand began with a very robust engagement with each of the nationalities constituting the Lower Niger according to the 1885 map. After 6 years of painstaking and intensive engagements with the various nationalities of the territory, the first public presentation of the LNC was in 2009 when a sufficient consensus-level had been achieved.

The 2015 Solemn Assembly of the peoples of the Lower Niger in Port Harcourt was a formal presentation of the Joint-Bid by the peoples of the Lower Niger for Self-Determination to the global community. On this score, it is very instructive that the same Niger Delta nationalities which wholeheartedly embrace the Lower Niger Self-Determination Campaign (independence bid) vehemently reject the Igbo-only “Biafra Restoration” agitation.

(3) Strategy For Taking Down The 1999 Constitution (Pressure-Cooker-Of-Injustice, Just Like The Apartheid Constitution Of South Africa).

Going by what the LNC found out in the course of reaching out to various “Biafra” agitation groups, the leaderships of the various “Biafra Restoration” groups did not at all understand the centrality of the Unitary Constitution (1999) of Nigeria to the bondage they seek to break from, neither do they know that that Fraud of 1999 is the actual chain by which the Sovereignties entrapped in Nigeria, (including that of the Greater Eastern Nigeria) are locked down and so they did not have any designs whatsoever to take down the obnoxious Constitution 1999.

They rather mocked the single-minded exertions, campaign and focused commitment of the LNC and its MNN Alliance partners to take down the 1999 Constitution as the Strategy for freeing the trapped constituent components of Unitary Nigeria, including the Greater Eastern Nigeria which they loosely call “Biafra”.

On the other hand, the nerve-wracking efforts made by the LNC via PRONACO and other initiatives to build a consensus of the aggrieved non-caliphate rest of Nigeria to oust Unitary Nigeria by distilling Self-Determination-based successor constitutional arrangements, were ignorantly denigrated and scoffed at by the leaderships of the “Biafra Agitation” groups.

The LNC-inspired MNN Alliance which is actually the undertaker platform for the dismantling and interment of the Unitary Nigeria (One-Nigeria if you like), was derisively dismissed as another One-Nigeria outfit by the leaderships of “Biafra Restoration” groups who the LNC took into confidence regarding the objective issues of Strategy and Methodology for Liberation being outlined here now.

The 2007 Suit Challenging the legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution and seeking the Immediate termination of its operation was initiated through the MNN outreach.

Having achieved the consensus on the restoration of Aburi-level Regional Autonomy to the entrapped constituent component Blocs of Nigeria, the MNN LAGOS DECLARATION of June 30, 2011 was the first Joint Multi-Regional Action by which delegates of the Lower Niger, Yorubaland and the Middle Belt formally Repudiated the Caliphate-imposed 1999 Constitution as the basis of the distressed Federation of Nigeria. The Declaration also Mandated each of the MNN Alliance Blocs to distill its Regional Charter and Draft Constitution in preparation to further coordinated Self-Determination steps that would lead to the easing out of the prevailing imposed constitutional order and to Self-Determination REFERENDUMS (and PLEBISCITES where necessary), for each Bloc to decide its future. Those who vote to opt out of the failed Nigerian Union will adopt the name by which they enter their independence

The Regional Repudiation of the 1999 Constitution as the basis of Nigeria by each of the 3 Blocs in the MNN Alliance via elaborate SOLEMN ASSEMBLIES of the peoples of the various Blocs (ie Lower Niger in Port Harcourt April 27, 2015, Yorubaland in Ibadan, September 7, 2017 and the Middle Belt in Makurdi, July 18, 2018), signposted the death knell for the rogue 1999 Constitution.

The Joint Multi-Region FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of December 11, 2018 by MNN-inspired Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance For Self-Determination, rejecting further National Elections mandated by the 1999 Constitution by the MNN Alliance Blocs was enacted to set in motion a chain of events that would terminate the operation of the 1999 Constitution. That Proclamation of December 11, 2018 was the immediate trigger of the January to July 2019 international engagements in Washington DC, which culminated in the July 2019 damning US verdict on the Fulani ethnic cleansing campaign against the indigenous nationalities of Nigeria. This was followed closely by the even more damning August 2019 UN Special Rapporteur’s description of Nigeria’s constitutional arrangements as “a pressure-cooker for injustice”.

(4) The Question Of How To Dismantle And Oust The 1967 Caliphate-Led Alliance Of The Rest Of Nigeria Against The East.

Having secured the hitherto divided nationalities of the Greater Eastern Nigeria (Lower Niger) into a cohesive formation, the LNC through its outreach called the MNN, aggregates the Yoruba and the Middle-Belt into a solid Bloc of the aggrieved non-Caliphate rest of Nigeria, (ie South and Middle-Belt) Repudiating the Caliphate-imposed 1999 Constitution and pitch themselves together decisively against the murderous 12-State Sharia Caliphate that clings tenaciously to the all-empowering 1999 Constitution, and now also executing an ethnic cleansing campaign against that non-Caliphate rest of Nigeria.

This MNN Alliance effectively dismantles and replaces the 1967 Caliphate-led Alliance that isolated and came against the East. It is pertinent to note that the aforementioned MNN LAGOS DECLARATION OF JUNE 30, 2011 was a formal Declaration of a Sovereignty Dispute by the MNN Alliance against the Unitary Nigeria as defined by the 1999 Constitution.

The implication of this approach is that whereas the “Biafra Restoration” agitation is basically a relaunch of the SECESSIONIST bid of 1967 by the then Eastern Region, (in manner that immediately isolates the East, with all its possible consequences for the East), the LNC/MNN paradigm targets the consensual DELEGITIMIZATION of the rogue 1999 Constitution in a manner that clinically dismantles that ruinous Unitary Constitution 1999, to free its entrapped constituent components (including Eastern Nigeria), with no prospects of the East being isolated as would be the case with a SECESSIONIST BID. These are therefore two opposite paradigms requiring completely different Strategies and Methodologies. What has been peddled as “unwillingness” of the LNC to work with the “Biafra Agitation” bandwagon actually stems from the damaging difficulties emanating from the OBJECTIVE ISSUES OF STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY dictated by these two totally opposed paradigms in pursuing what ostensibly seems a common cause.

In the final analysis, the 8-point objective issues of Strategy and Methodology herein outlined spell SUCCESS or FAILURE for the entire self-redemption venture and so, any coalescence of efforts MUST take their bearings from finding common grounds around those issues. Everything else is emotion and vacuous commotion that cost blood with no prospects of any meaningful outcome.

(5) The Question Of Using The Campaign Name-Tag “Biafra” At The Pre-Referendum Stage Of The Campaign.

The use of the “Biafra” nametag for the Self-Determination campaign presupposes the inclusion of the entire Eastern Region of 1967.

If without a comprehensive discussion and in fact a concrete agreement with those components of the old Eastern Region that got excised as Rivers State and South Eastern State (now Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross-River and Akwa-Ibom States) from the Eastern Region May 27, 1967 ahead of the May 30, 1967 Unilateral Declaration of itself as the Republic of Biafra by the Eastern Region, you go proclaiming “Biafra” from the airwaves and rambunctiously from the hinterland Igbo territory in the manner that the “Biafra Agitation” bandwagon have done, you immediately set up an intractable controversy about the exact boundaries of the “Biafra” you are talking about, thereby distorting and destabilizing the internal cohesion and solidarity critically required by the territory to bid for Self-Determination/Independence.

You also immediately unite against yourself all the Forces that came against the Biafra of 1967-1970.

The LNC on the other hand set a definitive map on the table (ie the 1885 ethnolinguistic map of the Lower Niger Territory which clearly delineate the constituent component nationalities of the territory), spent 6 years (from 2003) engaging various constituent component nationalities and attaining a Consensus Threshold that became the basis of the public presentation of the Lower Niger Congress, 2009 in Warri

(6) The Question Of The Terminal Process For Concluding The Self-Determination Campaign.

While the “Biafra Agitation” targeted what it called “Conquer-and-Occupy” which basically means overwhelming and overturning the existing constitutional and governance order, the LNC Grand Script targets an orderly UN-backed REFERENDUM.

(7) The Question Of An Orderly Transitioning From The Existing Constitutional And Governance Order.

Another important but distinct compartment of the wider question of Terminal Processes is the question of how exactly to interface with the existing constitutional governance order as we approach the inevitable terminus of Unitary Nigeria.

While the LNC Script envisages a Transitioning Mechanism likenable to the 1990-1994 process by which South Africa eased itself out of the Apartheid Constitutional Order, the “Biafra Agitation” look towards a cataclysmic commotion that will overthrow the existing constitutional and governance order in the indeterminate territory of “Biafra” in which the ring-leaders of the “Biafra Restoration” commotion (who have already parceled out the key offices of State in their phantom Republic) under an omnipotent, omniscient “Supreme Leader” will take over the reins of power. There can be no better recipe for catastrophe. It is like sitting in Egypt and sharing the Promised Land amongst stakeholders while leaving the herculean task of driving out the giants that occupy the promised land to others.

(8) International Imperatives.

It takes only a casual review of what went wrong in 1967-1970 to realize the international imperatives. Whilst the LNC has ensured a most robust engagement with this stakeholder-segment, the “Biafra Restoration” agitation seems completely oblivious of the key concerns of the international stakes and the dynamics driving the subsurface attitude of the chief-stakes as evidenced by the 1967-1970 episode.

The ALADINMA EPISTLE 2012 more or less presents the RoadMap by which the earnest Self-Determination aspirations of the Greater Eastern Nigeria could be more safely, more assuredly and more quickly attained.

It must be acknowledged that the vacuum created by the failure of the Igbo leadership collective, (political inclusive) to offer hope to the Igbo populace, distressed by the deadly malfeasances of Unitary Nigeria was directly responsible for the emergence of the totally uncharted “Biafra Restoration” agitation. The refusal of that leadership collective to engage in any meaningful way (beyond the intermittent opportunistic forays by the political merchants of the East), compounded the chasm between the leadership collective and the populace.

In closing, while it could be validly said that the “Biafra Restoration” agitation is at best, the angry expression of the aforementioned desire for Self-Determination by Eastern Nigeria, the LNC Grand Script presents the Strategy and Vehicle for attaining that desire.

Well handled, the former could constitute some kind of fuel for the latter but the first order of business must be to distill a Clear DESTINATION and Potent ROADMAP.

Looking at what has happened between the December 11, 2018 Multi-Region FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION; the January 17, 2019 Emergency Press Conferences on the Nigerian Situation in Washington DC; the June/July IRF Ministerial Roundtables involving the US Congress and State Department, which brought about the damning US Verdict of Fulani ethnic cleansing against the indigenous nationalities of Nigeria, as well as the August 2019 more damning verdict of the UN Special Rapporteur which described the current constitutional and governance arrangements of Nigeria as “THE PRESSURE-COOKER FOR INJUSTICE”, it is redundant to seek to persuade anyone any further about the potency of the LNC Grand Script as outlined by the ALADINMA EPISTLE 2012.

Note 1:

The Aladinma Epistle 2012 is available on the LNC website (Archives tab), but was also recently republished by this publication and can be read from this link:

Aladinma Epistle 2012

Note 2:

Information about Lower Niger Congress

Enquiries to: +234-810-056-9448

Email to: info@lowernigercongress.org

Website: Lower Niger Congress website