Before he travelled to Nigeria and his subsequent arrest and detention by the Buhari Administration, Sam Asoluka of The AMBASSADOR MAGAZINE met and interviewed Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Radio Biafra and Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra in London.

Below are excerpts from the interview

Nigeria celebrated her 55 years of Independence yesterday, did Radio Biafra send President Muhammadu Buhari and his fellow Compatriots congratulatory message/s?

Yes. The message we sent to him is the one I am sure he is beginning to realise is very effective, a message of more disgrace and humiliation to come, the same way IPOB and Radio Biafra made sure he was humiliated in New York when he wanted to address the General Assembly, is the same thing we are wishing to him. We want the same humiliation to befall the Zoo which he is presiding over, we want it to come to an end today and not tomorrow. There is nothing to congratulate him or anybody about, there is nothing good about him, there is nothing to celebrate, nothing to congratulate him over and what I can assure him is that, many more humiliation will come before the zoo collapses. By the zoo, I mean the Zoological Republic Nigeria (ZRN) itself

Is it true that Radio Biafra has been shut down in Nigeria?

No. absolute lie. What they do is subterfuge, deception and recycling of lies of course, aided and abetted by Lagos-Ibadan express gutter Press by the junk and rubbish they write. All the things they write about Radio Biafra is neither here nor there. Radio Biafra can never ever be shut down. They have tried and failed. Even a Foreign Media carried the news that they have shut it down which was a lie. And from there on they vowed to shut it down and later they said they are now neutralising Radio Biafra. Go and ask, we are life and direct to the people. Anywhere you go in Biafraland people are listening to us on FM, our APP is there, which is the perfect trending APP you have on anywhere on the new media Platform; our Online Portals are there, we are on Short-Wave and from tomorrow the 3^rd of October, we will be for the very first time three hours on Shortwave. Not all Governments in the world can afford to do that-be on short Shortwave for 3hours. And mind you, we can be received all over the world on Shortwave Radio.

We are simply unstoppable. Biafra Television is there too. For the very first time our people can talk about their own television that is dedicated to Biafra alone. And, the whole world is of course buzzing to this very idea that Biafra has come, the truth has come and the whole world is being enlightened. We are not shut down and can never ever be shut down because our technology is infinitely superior to anything they can come up with. Mind you we are Biafrans and not baboons and monkeys from the zoo.  

Some people have likened Radio Biafra to Hutu Power Radio in Rwanda; that you preach unimaginable propaganda, what’s your take on the allegations?

I don’t buy it. I don’t accept it. I don’t know what Hutu Radio was saying and how it was constituted, but for us Radio Biafra has only one primary aim and noble task to propagate the restoration of Biafra in truth and every honesty. If there is any lie we have told, someone need to come out and tell us the lie we have told. We have never lied to anybody or lie against anybody. The fact that Muhammadu Buhari was jumping up and down that Radio Biafra lied against him means that either Muhammdu Buhari has an ear problem or that the man is not in touch with his faculty at all. We were talking about the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and not Buhari. We do not lie, we do not peddle falsehood. We do not propagate falsehood, what we tell you is the truth. Black people, especially from Africa are afraid of the truth.

Radio Biafra represent the pinnacle, the very finest of any media Platform anywhere in the world dedicated absolutely to the dissemination of information based on the truth, facts and honesty. The fact that Ahmadu Bello came out to say that he will not give job to any Igbo man, instead he will give it to a White man, what does that mean? These are some of the things that the world seem to have forgotten. All we are doing in Radio Nigeria is to bring it to light. When we bring it to light they say we are peddling hate.

If not for Radio Biafra people would not see Pentecostal Pastors for the criminals they are. Before Radio Biafra came people were afraid to mention all these people and you know their nefarious activities. And now people are developing the confidence to go out and speak the truth. Even now the whole world is questioning the validity of allowing the zoo called Nigeria to remain as an independent entity so to speak. Now they are beginning to understand the need to fracture, the need to break-up that very dimension called Nigeria so that people can go and live in peace and harmony. That is the only thing we are doing and some people say we are peddling falsehood and propaganda; is it that we let the world know the truth that the British government is only interested in the zoo called Nigeria because of oil and gas coming from Biafraland, that’s the known fact, everybody knows.

When radio Biafra announced to the world that people go to Nigeria and take oil without paying for it, they thought it was a joke until Dezieani Madueke herself confirmed it. People go and take oil, there is no Minister, there is no Military, you can take oil, you can take gas and still nobody will stop you. This thing we have broken by Radio Biafra. It is very and on record that because of Radio Biafra things that were hidden from the sight and knowledge of our people and public is now being made open all because Radio Biafra is there despite all intimidation, all the threat, the assassination plots, because every day they plan to kill me but we are continually, relentlessly and resolutely making sure that Biafra is restored.

Since Radio Biafra started broadcasting few years ago, what actually have you achieved with it?

A lot. We have now given the people the confidence to speak the truth. We have made it possible for people to understand the basis of the formation of the zoo called Nigeria. We have united our people which is the key. Before Radio Biafra, people talk about I am Igbo, Izon, I am this, I am that. Now everybody says I am Biafran.  People listen to Radio Biafra all the way from lower Benue in Idomaland to the shores or coastal area of Biafraland, all the way in Kalabari and the rest of them. Everywhere people are united. No longer will you see an Ikwere man who will tell you I am no linger Igbo or somebody will say I am Delta Igbo. All that nonsense is gone. We now see ourselves as Biafran, one family, one people, one DNA, one Bond moving together to go and get what is rightfully ours. And, that is our freedom from those that stole it from us, the British of course. Although they gave it to the Hausa/Fulani to preside over for them. So the unity is the key.

We have also been able to restore pride and sense of dignity not just to ourselves and our names but also to the name Biafra itself. In the word process, the word Biafra is now properly spelt as a proper noun. Biafra is now discussed all over the world.

We have managed to bring shame and humiliation to Buhari. It is because of Radio Biafra that Buhari has not managed to secure one single bullet from any of the countries he has  been going to, so we have been able to do that and many more to come.

We have united our people. I was in America to address the World Igbo Congress (WIC) which has never been done before. These people if you mention Biafra before they will jump through the 50^th floor of the building but they were there receiving this gospel and of course that made them very glad that we can now identify and see where we are coming from. So for us unity is key, the boldness to go out to preach is pivotal and the key. But more critically, we are holding the zoo to account and ridicule before the whole world.

Igbo people are all over Nigeria working and doing business and you are here agitating for an Independent state of Biafra; what’s your message to them?

My message to them is come out and support in any-way that they can, if not openly but covertly. We are not asking anybody to come and become a member of IPOB in the open, people can show support underground if they wish so. But one thing is certain, what we are doing is to make sure that we secure their future, their investment, their properties and that of their children going forward, because as bizarre as it may sound their investments outside Biafraland is far more secure if Biafra is here than if there is no Biafra. For instance, you saw only what happened today in Ladipo, Mushin, where the Lagos State Government demolished all the shops. If we had Biafra that wouldn’t have happened because before you demolish the shops you will consider the diplomatic implications for it. For instance again, if you live and own property in the UK nobody can just wake and demolish it without paying the owner   compensation. Nobody can do that, as simply as that.

People come from all-over the world to buy property in the UK, why are they doing that? Because they know that their investment is well protected. If you don’t agitate for Biafra today, you can never be free wherever you are and your investment are not safe, your children are not free and at the end of the day you have Hausa/Fulani cattle-headers rampaging through your villages, through you mothers farmland, raping your mothers, raping your sisters. That is the reason why everybody should get involved in what we are doing. And, ultimately Biafra will be where to live and not the zoo called Nigeria.

In some Newspaper reports, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum was quoted thus: “As you will recall, the issue of Biafra was settled in 1970 after the war. It is therefore sad and unfortunate that 45 years after, when Nigerians are now united in a democratic system of governance that some Elements are now busy drumming up support for another war and secession through ‘Radio Biafra’ and MASSOB activities. In your opinion was the issue of Biafra settled in 1970?

No, it wasn’t settled. What was settled was who owns the oil and how to divide the proceeds of the oil coming from Biafraland. How to divide up all the money gotten from the sale of oil and gas oil. And that’s the only reason the zoo called Nigeria exist today. Now when Coomassie speaks in this term, it gets me very upset especially mentioning IPOB and Radio Biafra in the same breath as MASSOB because we are here to fight for Biafra and MASSOB under Uwazuruike is fighting for his pocket. What I am trying to say is that nothing was settled in 1970, only who owns the oil and who gets the money once the oil is sold, that was all.

We have been in existence for nearly 5000 year, I don’t know how a people or supposedly a country that is 55 years old, my mother is older than can suddenly decide to determine the faith of the people who have been in existence for nearly 5000 years, that defies logic and common sense. And when Coomassie is speaking, you must also understand that, they are also the ones that brought the war to, they the ones that, who somehow try to use their privileged positions, because of their slave proximity to the British to lord it over everybody else.

There is nothing that they generate, nobody can name a state in Hausaland, it is, if I ask you now, what does Kano and Sokoto States contribute to the economy? You cannot tell me. The only reason Coomassie is saying it and all of them in Arewa Forum is because the oil is their only livelihood. Without the oil and gas from Biafraland they are nobody, that’s why they want to use fear, that’s why they want to cow our people, that’s why they want to use the threat of what happened to us before to try to subdue, try to subjugate us even further under their own rule which nobody wants to live anymore.

Now they are trying to use the fact that Britain supported them, because when this man, you can see from what he said, he made a very grave reference to the implications of the war in 1970. Which is to say, remember what happened to you before, it could happen to you again. Without the British they couldn’t have won the war. The only reason why Hausa people can come out and boast about their preponderance in terms of the politics of the zoo is because Britain supported them, the whole world or the super powers were against what Biafra was doing, everybody knew our potential worth and does not want us to rise up. But the world has moved on, 1970 is not 2015. This very period in time, anything they want we are going to give to them, nothing is going to stop us from what we are doing. We are not drumming for war, they started the war already and they are the ones killing us.

They are the Boko Haram. Where in the zoo did Boko Haram first struck? It was in a Roman Catholic full of Igbo worshippers. They are the ones actually fomenting war. They are the ones funding Boko Haram. They are the ones that used terror to drag Jonathan away from office so they have a lot to answer for and not us. What we are asking for or agitating for is for Biafra. Nothing more, nothing less.

You reportedly told a media organisation that “If they fail to give us Biafra, Somalia will look like a paradise compared to what will happen to that zoo. It is a promise, it is a pledge, and it is also a threat to them [Nigerians]”Who are the ‘they’ and don’t you think you have overreached yourself or crossed the line?

By ‘they’ I mean everybody who is in the zoo who think they have an interest or think they have a stake in the zoo, those that steal money, those that loot the treasury, those that think that without the oil and gas from Biafraland they will not be able to breath. They are the ‘they’ I am talking about.

And, I have not over-reached the mark. Please allow me to reiterate here that the worst will happen to the zoo. There is no question of negotiating our stance, we are not prepared to countenance, to entertain, to accept, and admit any type of negotiation that will allow us to continue inside the zoo. What we are more interested in, is very clear. We either get Biafra or everything else will be destroyed in the process. We mean it and we stand by it. We are not going back on it, because they have been so devilish and evil to us that the only thing for us is to go. Anybody stopping us is not wishing us well and we cannot wish such people well under our circumstances.

If tomorrow morning the Nigerian Government say we’ve had enough of this noise, take your Biafra. Will Nnamdi Kanu become the President of the Republic of Biafra?

No. Nnamdi Kanu will not be the President of any Biafra. My job is to make sure that Biafra is restored in truth and honesty and I am done. That was the contract I signed with Chukwu Obika Abiama and He is going to deliver Biafra to us under our watch and under our command. And once that is done, then my job is done.

We must give every praise to Chukwu Abiama in heaven, the work we have accomplished today wouldn’t have been done. In-fact we wouldn’t have started in the first place without Him.

Today Biafra is all over the world, thanks to the blessing he has given to us. We don’t intend to abuse it. We will stick ourselves to making sure that Biafra comes in, after that chukwu Abiama decides what he does with his Kingdom on this earth. After all Biafra is the kingdom of heaven and earth.

 Thank you Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.