My Stand On Biafra and Why we need to work on it - Charly Boy

Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy has once again lent out his voice in the ongoing agitation for Biafran nation.

Charly Boy

Charly Boy in a recent interview revealed the kind of Biafra he is longing for and why people needs to work towards making it a reality.

According to him, "Biafra is in my heart. I’m a Biafran child; I’ll always carry Biafra in my mind",

 I have written about my stand on Biafra; people should go and read it. It is the same thing that I’m saying — people should go back to their base and develop it. And it has to start from the communities at the local council level. We have to start to build up the communities. We should start asking our local council chairmen what they do with their monthly allocations and internally generated revenue (IGR). Let’s start holding our governors accountable. By the time we take care of the home base, the centre will not be much of a problem. But if we start it from up, the politics will always be there.

For the Igbo man who is agitating for Biafra I ask, ‘which manner of Biafra?’ Biafra is in my heart. I’m a Biafran child; I’ll always carry Biafra in my mind. At least I witnessed the civil war and saw the wickedness of man. It wasn’t just bullet that killed us, hunger killed us too. That is not what I want to go through again in my life. So, there has to be a smarter way and that is why I’m telling the Igbos, ‘let us go back and fortify our base’.

  Yes, they have been talking about the need for a seaport in the South-east so that as a people who are naturally entrepreneurial, we can do our businesses with ease. But I’m saying that even if the Federal Government is dragging its feet, there are lots of Igbo millionaires and billionaires that can come together and do that. How can you go and be developing every other place to the detriment of your own base? It’s not a good thing. 

Then, the thing I have against the kind of Biafra they are talking about is, who is going to lead me? Is it all these riffraff? No! Is it not the same problem with Nigeria? The problem that somebody in Imo State is having in terms of leadership is the same as that which somebody in Bauchi State is having.

Debunking the claims that the alleged neglect of the South-east by the Federal Government is behind the agitation for secession, he said; Well, will you reject yourself if some else rejects you? If you are rejected, you talk to yourself. And that is what I’m asking the Igbo to do. 

They should talk to themselves. If you are so hard working, if you are so tenacious, if you are so industrious, there is no way you cannot make the South-east another Dubai. Okay, people have said that the North has been controlling power at the centre. We have had Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar as presidents and both of them are from Minna, Niger State. How is Minna today? Is it the Dubai of the entire North, nay Nigeria? Is it not having the same infrastructural problems that other cities in the country are having? So, how does that change the people? Have you ever seen any strong economy that is not private sector driven? Look at Onitsha, for instance. What are we doing with it? What are we doing with Aba? So, the truth is that we are the ones marginalising ourselves.

The former president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) also think that Nigeria needs a power transformation, citing that only power can transform Nigeria.

He said; only people power can change this country. There is no other power because the government cannot be more than the people. I’m not under any illusion to think that what we recently did or what we are going to be doing till the end of the year in terms of drawing government’s attention to our conditions will be the solution to Nigeria’s problems. No! But at least if we cultivate that habit, in three years time, some things will change in this country. Like I keep saying, if they drag you out of your father’s house and you cannot defend your father’s property, that means you are less of a man. 

This Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must demand for our rights. We must express anger at the direction this country is going because nobody will come out of it if something is not done now. Even those who think they are safe will find that they are just sitting ducks because there will come a time in this country when those who have stolen all the billions cannot enjoy it here. People will just not allow that to happen.