SPEECH TO WORLD LEADERS ON MAY 30 – BIAFRAN REMEMBRANCE DAY

 

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I stand before you today not just as a voice from the Igbo nation, but as a custodian of memory, justice, and hope. Today, the 30th of May, marks a day of solemn remembrance. A sacred day on which we honour the over three million Biafran men, women, and children who perished in the genocidal war between 1967 and 1970.

They died not merely in battle, but through calculated starvation, mass killings, and the deliberate orchestration of humanitarian blockades. A war crime the world witnessed, and tragically, allowed.

Today is not just about history. It is about the present. It is about a people, the Igbo who, more than half a century after that genocide, continue to face systematic marginalization, state-sponsored discrimination, and the silent erasure of their humanity within Nigeria.

We are compelled to speak, because silence is complicity.

We draw your attention to the unprovoked destruction of Igbo-owned businesses in Lagos, a campaign cloaked in lawlessness but rooted in deep ethnic hatred. We speak against the militarization of Igboland, where peaceful communities are turned into occupied zones, where armed patrols replace peace, and fear replaces freedom.

We raise our voice against the exclusion of the Igbo in key national institutions, such as the national census board and strategic federal appointments. When a people are absent from the tables where decisions are made, their existence is gradually erased from the national consciousness.

We expose the pattern of selective academic suppression, where Igbo students face unusual failures in competitive national exams. And we cannot be silent when Igbo youths are unlawfully detained, disappeared, or extrajudicially executed, crimes that go unreported, uninvestigated, and unpunished.

This is not a political outcry. It is a human one. A moral one. It is a call to the conscience of the global community. If the lessons of Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur taught us anything, it is that the world must never again wait until mass graves tell the story.

We do not come to you with anger, but with truth. We do not ask for charity, but for justice. We do not seek sympathy, but solidarity.

We call upon the international community world leaders, human rights organizations, and defenders of democracy to investigate and speak out against the ethnic persecution of the Igbo. To monitor and pressure the Nigerian government to end these systemic abuses. To support self-determination efforts through dialogue and peaceful means, as enshrined in international law.

The Igbo are a people of dignity, resilience, and profound cultural heritage. We have contributed to Nigeria’s economy, innovation, and global reputation. Yet, we are treated as strangers, as threats, as targets.

This must end

On this May 30th, we do not mourn only. We remember. 

We rise!!!. We reach out. And we reaffirm that the blood of our martyrs shall not be shed in vain.

You may write us down in history with you bitter twisted lies. You may trod us in the very dirt but still like dust we rise, leaving behind nights of terror and fear into a day break that is wonderfully clear. 

We rise bringing the gifts that our ancestors gave us. The gift of courage and grace.  We rise! We are the hope of the oppressed, the hope of a new Africa. We rise as Ndigbo. A people blessed by grace.

Let the world know: we are still here. We are still standing. And we will not be silenced.

Thank you.

Mazi Obi Okoli-Ojeluigbozi Coordinator Congress of Igbo Leaders UK and Ireland