This piece seeks to help most of Igbo friends and well-wishers and some Igbo who are involved in the campaign of Biafra without a clear understanding of the picture of what we are fighting for. It will help many to have a better grip of what is at stake. 

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country this week after spending more than three months in the United Kingdom being treated for an undisclosed illness. His short, pre-recorded speech upon arrival did little to address the many concerns of the Nigerian people at this time - at least according to this author.

Nigeria’s historic problem of failed nation-building cannot be cured by merely amending the flawed constitution handed down by the military in 1999. The exercise is futile. What the country needs is a national Constituent Assembly to draw up a new constitution restructuring Nigeria, which then should be put to a referendum.

Breaking up Nigeria into several nations to solve its current problems, as some people suggest, will not work. The resulting chaos will be unimaginable, throwing much of West Africa into crisis. The better option is for all Nigerians to commit to work to build one Nigeria that works for all.

How come the most peaceful Nigerians are threatened with genocide again and again, whereas the Igbo have never threatened any group or participated in the mass killing of other Nigerians? Other Nigerians should stop hating the Igbo. The government should protect Igbo lives and property. If Nigerians do not want the Igbo, then call a referendum to allow the easterners to restore Biafra.

Nigeria began to unravel 50 years ago, on 27 May 1967. Since then, successive governments have failed to forge a nation out of what was left behind by the British colonialists. Nigeria works for only a small part of the population. The rest are largely on their own. There have been calls – and attempts - to break up the country. But this is not feasible today. Nigeria needs to be restructured in a way that ensures the interests of all its people are given top priority.

The Igbo expect that a post-Brexit Britain will have to sit down with a free Biafra and discuss the entire history of the Igbo genocide, the enslavement of the people of Biafra and the subsequent conquest and occupation of Biafra, forced into the genocidist Nigeria “federation”. 

Britain will surely accept full responsibility for the crimes against humanity, apologise to Biafrans and pay full reparations.

Historically, the state is a transient phenomenon. Where are the world’s once great empires? Europe, with just a third of Africa’s population, has produced 23 new states since the late 1980s. There is no point in insisting that the Igbo people, victims of Africa’s worst – and ongoing – genocide, who want their own state, must remain a part of Nigeria.

Biafra’s sons and daughters must cease to represent genocidist Nigeria in all conceivable competitions. Never again should we be treated to the grotesque scene of witnessing some Igbo athlete, some Igbo writer, some Igbo academic, appearing at some world stage carrying or wrapping themselves around a Nigerian flag. Enough! Order a Biafran flag for the occasion.

All that remains for British PM Theresa May is to announce to the world that Britain has terminated all support – military, political, diplomatic – for the prosecution of the Igbo genocide, apologise to Igbo people, pay reparations on behalf of the 3.1 million Igbo murdered and the tens of thousands murdered subsequently, pay reparations to the survivors, and pay reparations to reconstruct the shattered nation of Biafra.

In May, Nigeria played a key role to block African Union membership for Haiti. What a shame! The first African republic established by slaves in 1804, Haiti is 95 per cent Black. With its illustrious history, Haiti will surely play a more prominent role in a future African world organisation of peoples and states – not the currently constricted and contrived AU.

This book is a useful contribution that will enlighten those people who want to understand why Nigeria is not working and what needs to be done. Persons in positions of leadership in the country may find it a useful guide in tackling some of the problems troubling the nation.

The struggle for self-determination of the Biafran people will not end until they fully break away from Nigeria, a creation of British colonialists that has never worked. Unlike during the first failed attempt to secede, for the new territory to work it should not include any non-Igbo people.

State terror against the Igbo people of Nigeria continues. In 2016, nowhere else on earth in this era of instant communication are any peoples murdered so monstrously with scant responses of revulsion from the rest of the world, particularly from those chiefly responsible for propping up the Nigerian regime.

It is not just the Biafrans. There are widespread perceptions among virtually all Nigerian groups that they are marginalised and they seek redress in a new Nigeria. The reason for this is the supplanting of federalism with a Jacobin unitary state. The erosion of multiple poles of political power by military dictators and subsequently by an all-powerful presidency has exacerbated the spectre of the fear of domination everywhere in the country.

The government and policy-makers in Israel can help stop the ongoing genocide of the Igbo by boycotting all dealings with the Nigerian government. For a state like Israel to continue doing business with a genocidal state like Nigeria is not any different from sponsorship of state terrorism.

Insofar the Nigerian state continues to trample on the rights of citizens, abandons its constitutional responsibility of securing lives and property, ensures unequal distribution of social and economic wealth and guarantees the greatest happiness for the smallest number, we are all Biafrans.

The new book by Chido Onumah is a collection of essays published by the author in various publications, including Pambazuka News, in the last three years focusing on the crisis of nationhood in Nigeria.

US President Barack Obama expresses pride in his African heritage, but his regime over the last seven years has not demonstrated any substantial commitment to the wellbeing of the African people. He has merely continued the imperial interventions and militarism of his predecessors.