We Are Not Biafrans, Akwa Ibom Group Says

A socio-cultural group in Akwa Ibom State,
Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio, has protested against the
reported inclusion of the state in an imaginary
Biafran map.
The group accused the Indigenous People of
Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for Actualization
of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, of including
Akwa Ibom and other states within the south-
south region of Nigeria on the Biafran map without
consulting them.
It said it considered the inclusion an act of
disrespect and provocation.
“We wish to remind the concerned Igbos that this
senseless arrogance and callous disrespect for
the Ibibio person, an endemic and pathological
trait of their extraction has been at the core of the
differences of our two nationalities,” the group
said in a statement signed by its President,
Monday Etokakpan, and Secretary General,
James Edet.
“And so as it was in the first republic, so it is now
and so shall it be in times to come. Ibibio has
nothing in common with Igbo. To wit, we differ in
ancestry, culture, beliefs, character traits,
language, food, names, dressing and all.”
The group said if Nigeria were to break up today,
Akwa Ibom would be “at home and in league with
our kin and kindred in the proposed Atlantic
Republic consisting of present States of Akwa
Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers.
“Our Capital City shall be Port Harcourt, our
Currency and Language shall both be Lanti.”
The group said that Akwa Ibom, for now, prefers
to stay within the Nigeria federation.
“If the Igbos will be honestly desirous, sincerely
determined and eventually successful in breaking
away from Nigeria, we the Ibibio people in Akwa
Ibom and Cross River States will be totally
indifferent and will only be here to bid them fare-
well.
“As a distinct and independent-minded people of
over seven million in population we will continue
to weigh our options in the Nigerian chase board
and make the right moves the way we want it, in
the direction we want, at the time we want and will
partner with whomever we want to, if we must
partner with anyone, to serve our best interest,”
the group said.
The group said it was “unfortunate though not
surprising” for the northern youth to order the
Igbos to leave the north before October 1. It
blamed the situation on the country’s refusal to
start a process of restructuring the federation.”
The call by the northern group has been
condemned by state and federal officials.
“We call on Northern Nigeria opinion leaders,
elders, religious and political leaders and indeed
the Federal Government to do the needful in
reining in this mindless radicalism from their
youth,” the group said.
“Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio would like to remind the
northern Nigerians that no one, youth or elders, in
the country has the monopoly of violence and that
the lives and legitimately acquired property of the
Ibibio person means the world to us.
“Therefore, no harm must befall them wherever
they have chosen to live in Nigeria and indeed
anywhere on the surface of the earth. Mboho
Mkparawa Ibibio believes and will ensure that the
Ibibio people exact pound for pound, flesh for
flesh and life for life if necessary,” the group said.