While the celebration of the 18th year of Nigeria’s democracy, followed by that of 50th year of the Nigerian Civil War in the past one week have both proven to be reminders of the fact that we are stronger as a nation and have more to learn by being together than apart, some ill-motivated groups somewhere have decided that the best contribution they have to this discourse is to make a lame declaration.

Yesterday, a group of Nigerians who identify themselves, wrongly, as the mouthpiece of a region – the North – gave a heartbreaking declaration of the hate that resides within their hearts. They called for a repeat of the mass eviction of Igbos who live in the Northern regions of the country, an act that preceded Nigeria’s 15-month Civil War.

Their so-called declaration is not only filled with unquantifiable hate, it is also quite frankly filled with just as much ignorance. Here’s a look at 7 quotes from the said declaration that betray this painful ignorance.

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“…all Igbos currently residing in any part of Northern Nigeria are hereby served notice to relocate within three months and all northerners residing in the East are advised likewise.”

“Served notice”? As what? Tenants in a building called “Northern Nigerians” which Alhaji AbdulAziz Suleiman’s ancestors bequeathed to him?

Live who gives a quit notice to people to move out of a region? Even Boko Haram, as monstrous as that group is, hasn’t dared. I think any Igbo, as well as any other sane Nigerian, reading the piece of trash should just spit on the floor, bury it in some sand and move right on. What nonsense!

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“The North hereby openly calls on the authorities and other national and international stakeholders to acknowledge this declaration by taking steps to facilitate the final dissolution of this hopeless union that has never been convenient to any of the parties.”

To this, we are tempted to just say: “As what?” again but it needs to be said that any lame and obscure G-16 claiming to speak on behalf of millions of other people who yet to echo that group’s shallow thoughts must have it in over their heads. Possibly even lifting pit latrines and sniffing the worst because we are not in the least bit fooled that these people speak for the “North”. They speak for no one but their attention-seeking selves.

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“…critical player in the Nigerian project, hereby declares that it will no longer be disposed to coexisting with the Igbos and shall take definite steps to end the partnership by pulling out of the current federal arrangement.”

There is no doubt that if we decided to round these people up, quarantine them in the Northernmost region of the country and then denied them access to the meager resources that the central government of “the Nigerian project” can offer, they won’t last a quarter before they start to scream their demands for allocation from the “excess crude oil accounts”.

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“… ungrateful, uncultured Igbos… pack of acrimonious Igbo partners… Igbos are also responsible for Nigeria’s cultural and moral degeneracy”

Who even says things like these? In their minds? Out loud? Just unbelievable!

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“Emboldened by the apparent indifference of the Nigerian authorities, the Igbo secessionist tendency is widening in scope and action at every stage, with adverse effects on the law-abiding people of other regions residing in or passing through the East, while the Igbo leaders and elders by their utterances and direct action or inaction appear to support and encourage it.”

Having already “declared” in an earlier part of the document that they “shall take definite steps to end the partnership by pulling out of the current federal arrangement”, this paragraph is all the proof of how silly this declaration is. Making a proclamation condemning the actions that their own proclamation is calling for.

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“…available records show that the Igbo people have variously been apprehended while attempting to convey catches of dangerous arms and ammunition to the troubled regions.”

There’s hardly any record of this assertion anywhere else but in this declaration.

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Finally, there isn’t one word in this foolish piece that acknowledges the real events that led up to the 1967 Biafran War. Not one word about the pogroms that led to the mass migration of Southerners from the Northern parts of the country in the year before the war. Not even a sentence that acknowledges the disadvantages that many Biafran secessionists use as basis for their call for secession. Even if it meant that the group would, at the end of that sentence, counter-claim that not only Igbos are disadvantaged by the broken Nigerian system.

Instead, they went on about some idiotic “unreciprocated hospitality” like the fact that they cannot do anything about a Nigerian of another ethnic background lives in the North equals hospitality.