Friday, June 20, 2014
It is interesting that Bilie Human Rights Initiative
(herein after BHRI) backed by practising barrister(s) will choose when
to act in accordance with the lawand when not to.We continue to remind
you that an agreement signed under the law was blatantly breached by
BHRI and its lawyers and they turned around to cry foul.It is also
important to remind you that the EDICTS of the ‘Supreme Council of
Elders’ was and is the exclusive machination and arrangement of
operators of BHRI and NOT BASED ON THE BROAD BASED CONSULTATION AND
AUTHORISATION OF THE PEOPLE OF BIAFRA AND SO ONLY A HANDFUL OF THOSE WHO
ARE THEIR MEMBERS AND THOSE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO THEIR METHOD ARE BOUND.
The question then is: where does the ‘Council of
Elders’ got their mandate?From a Human Rights organisation called BHRI
or the Indigenous People of Biafra?Who constituted the Customary court?
The records are there. You see, it is better that you have a deep breath
and look for a way of rectifying the BUNDLE ILLEGALITY that BHRI is and
has been presiding over.If you want to practice law, practice it in all
its ramifications.
The usual quote ”No pro-Biafra activists or groups
under the authority of Bilie Human Rights Initiative and the Supreme
Council of Elders has ever been arrested, molested…..”, is laughable and
most insincere in the strictest sense. First and by this, you have
already identified that there are pro-Biafra activists or groups under
the ‘authority’ of BHRI and her ‘Supreme Council of Elders’(not the
Council of Elders of IPOB) and there are those who are not.Now as a
rational being, why not leave those who are not under your authority
alone to go about their activities? This is because you got it wrong in
the first place when you insisted that Biafra can only be restored via
LEGAL means and no other method thereby excluding others who do not
believe in your legal method or to say the least who believe that all
options must be on the table. It is bizarre to insist that independence
can only be achieved through the law court even when every available
records in history of nationhood suggest
otherwise.Since you limit yourselves you cannot limit
others and you cannot constitute an obstacle on the way of others (you
cannot force people to come under ‘BHRI and the Supreme Council of
Elders’).Doing so as you can imagine amounts to direct provocation and
nobody will want to witness the consequences of that.
Furthermore, when you say that nobody has been
arrested as a result of BHRI being in court (with its members and truly
not on behalf of every Indigenous Biafran) for you can only represent
those who are your members, it then begs the question which is: how can
you or anybody be arrested by the Nigeria government where you observe,
and pay allegiance to Nigerian constitution and adhere and obey the
Nigerian law to the letter? Since you obey Nigerian law, why then are
you claiming to be FIGHTING OR ADVOCATING FOR BIAFRA? How can Nigerian
government arrest or molest you where in fact and indeed you have
literally you have not broken any of her laws.Can’t you see that there
is something fundamentally wrong with ‘justice obtained against the
TRUTH’ ( Ikpe mara eziokwu na aka azu di ya)? Simple and direct, what
you are doing is not freedom fighting because Independence cannot and
has never been achieved via the court albeit via the oppressor’s court.
Again, to continue to feed your followers with
incorrect legal information is a mark of irresponsibility and indeed it
is for those who are card carrying members of BHRI and not for the
Indigenous People of Biafra as a people. The truth is that there is no
body of principles or laws in international law.In other words, there is
no codified principles or rules called ‘international Law’ for people
to obey. What you have there are state practices or customs and
treaties(which binds the signatories only) and of course the UN security
council resolutions(enforced mostly through the use of force)
and,expert legal opinions of jurists and legal scholars and the
decisions of the international court of Justice (herein after ICJ)
(these decisions are for disputes between independent states brought
before the court). The conduct of states in international relations or
system is not as a result of law but as a matter of choice and indeed on
the ‘permanent interests’
of states. Rosalyn Higgins(a renowned
international jurist in her book: Problems and
process, international and how we use it) clearly stated that
‘international law is not rules.It is a normative system.’ The support
for Biafra like any other can only be got through a combination of
factors which are many of politics and choice of states among others.The
next question therefore is: who can bring a case before the
International Court of Justice(ICJ)?
And here are the answers:
Only States are eligible to appear before the Court in
contentious cases. At present, this basically means the 192 United
Nations Member States.
”The Court has no jurisdiction to deal with
applications from individuals, non-governmental organizations,
corporations or any other private entity. It cannot provide them with
legal counselling or help them in their dealings with the authorities of
any State whatever.However, a State may take up the case of one of its
nationals and invoke against another State the wrongs which its national
claims to have suffered at the hands of the latter; the dispute then
becomes one between States.” (available
at:http://www.icj-cij.org/information/index.php?p1=7&p2=2) .
As can be seen above, only an independent
state/Country can take BHRI’s case against Nigeria to the ICJ as BHRI
including its ‘Council of Elders’ has no right to TAKE NIGERIA TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE(ICT).The case is already dead on the
grounds and questions of merit and admissibility.Nigeria,which you obey
its constitution and laws and who is incidentally and bizarrely your
oppressor definitely cannot take itself to the ICJ. Only an independent
country can take your case to the ICJ and the question again is: how do
you get this country to support you? The answer lies in the sphere of
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS and MANOEUVRING and not in the COURT OF YOUR
OPPRESSOR, NIGERIA. Furthermore, BHRI and its ‘SUPREME COUNCIL OF
ELDERS’ and their followers are indeed Nigerians in fact and indeed who
obey the Nigerian law and therefore coming out to the world to announce
that they are freedom fighters and agitators for Biafra makes mockery of
the Biafra
Independence struggle.You do not
confront Nigeria, you do not break any law by going to
court to literally beg, you are merely making a legal argument which
the Nigerian court is ever ready to continue to entertain till eternity
and to use it to exercise their minds for legal researchers and
scholars among them and indeed among legal researchers of BHRI. Biafra
does not want research(enough has been researched on her), she wants
freedom fighters for her liberation.It wants raw political process to
drive this home simple!
Finally and put succinctly,the case that BHRI is
pursuing against the Nigerian government is fundamentally flawed in
every ramifications and BHRI is definitely NOT REPRESENTING THE
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA AS A PEOPLE, IT IS BASICALLY, IF ANYTHING,
REPRESENTING THOSE BIAFRANS WHO ARE THEIR MEMBERS AND THE ‘SUPREME
COUNCIL OF ELDERS’ IS SOLELY FOR THOSE WHO ARE UNDER BHRI AS A HUMAN
RIGHTS ORGANIZATION.
It may also interest everyone who cares to note that
Ezu River incidence happened under the direct watch of BHRI and her
Supreme Council of Elders, the continuous bombing and slaughtering our
Biafran brethrens in Nigeria are and have been taking place under the
watchful eyes of BHRI, The socalled ELDERS OF BHRI are represented at
jamboree called NATIONAL CONFERENCE but nobody has heard them spoke out
about the killings our people and indeed Biafra Indepence. and so on.If
BHRI and her supreme council of elders are defending the Biafran people,
the question is: how many cases have they prosecuted on behalf of
Biafrans?How many BOKO HARAM bomb victims and their families have BHRI
obtained justice for? Have they obtained justice for the Ezu River
victims and what are they doing about it? You see, men in BHRI and her
Council of elders are always looking for easy way out and riding on the
back of others to achieve publicity which are purely self-centred. Come
out and make sacrifice for Biafra freedom.. Freedom is
not given, it is taken.Biafrans and the world are watching and very
soon will know who is who.
Uche Mefor.
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