People of Biafra are Entitled to Self-Determination
On June 24, 2026, "American Veterans of Igbo Descent," aka AVID, is sponsoring a National Press Club event in Washington D.C., the advertisement for which indicates that the following recommendations to President Donald Trump will be addressed:
• End the targeted persecution of Christians and vulnerable communities in Nigeria
• Counter the expansion of Boko Haram, ISWAP & Fulani extremist violence
• Strengthen U.S.-Nigerian security cooperation consistent with American values
• Advance accountability, justice & human dignity for all Nigerians
Conspicuously absent from the AVID advertisement is any mention of Biafra, the former independent nation of 14 million mostly Igbo people, which lost the war with Nigeria in 1970.
Today, roughly 50 million Igbo people live in Nigeria, almost all of them Christian, comprising 20-25% of Nigeria's population of more than 230 million.
The reason why the AVID advertisement does not mention Biafra could be that the current
government of Nigeria has imprisoned the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; and the Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE), Mazi Simon Ekpa, is imprisoned in Finland, ironically sentenced for supporting terrorism by posting evidence of ongoing genocide in Nigeria — for making people aware of the scale and seriousness of existential threats presenting to them by violent Islamic jihadists.
Before his arrest in Finland, the Daily News Nigeria reported that Ohanaeze Ndigbo – an Igbo socio-cultural organization — in collaboration with Southeast Nigeria political leaders, announced a $500,000 bounty for information leading to Simon Ekpa's capture.
A nearly identical bounty preceded the abduction of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
As reported by "The Cable" on June 19, 2021, Kanu was seized at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya – through what the High Court of Kenya would later rule, in its June 2025 judgment, was an unlawful extraordinary rendition carried out "with the Knowledge, connivance, complicity and tacit approval" of the Nigerian government.
In November 2025, according to an Al Jazeera article, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment because, in the words of the presiding judge, "The death penalty is now being frowned upon by the international community. Consequently, in the interests of justice, I hereby sentence the convict to life imprisonment … instead of [the] death sentence."
The people of the former Biafra Republic, like the peoples of Louisiana, Texas, and the other confederate States did not lose their rights of self-determination because they lost a civil war.
To this date, Texans still proudly call themselves Texans, and citizens of Louisiana are proud of their unique-among American States Napoleonic Code.
"Self-determination of peoples" is an American "First Thing." It is reflected in the first three words of our Constitution, "We the People," and in the final words of our Bill of Rights: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Under the Principle of First and Second Things, as framed by C.S. Lewis, "You can't get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first."
If a society only focuses on its very important Second Things, like money and survival, in the end that society does not achieve those very important Second Things and in the process loses its First Things.
According to Article 1 of the United Nations Charter, "Self-determination of peoples" is one of the guiding principles to "maintain international peace and security."
In order to maintain peace and security in Nigeria, the Nigerian Government should also recognize another "First Thing" recently formalized in Europe: the Principle of Subsidiarity, which in Nigeria is related to "Self-determination of peoples."
The Treaty on European Union (EU), as amended by the Lisbon Treaty signed in December 2007, which entered into force on December 1, 2009, provides, "Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level."
We in the United States, which serves as a beacon of human rights globally, are aware of the present challenges imposed on indigenous populations in Nigeria by the activities of Islamic Jihadists, and the apparent inability of the Nigerian government to confront the situation, which in many cases suggests complicity.
The indigenous populations have rights to self-determination and self-defense against genocide. We in America should support the rights of the Biafra people to both "Self-determination of peoples" and to the Principle of Subsidiarity in what some still call Biafra-land within Nigeria.
Joseph E. Schmitz served as inspector general of the Department of Defense from 2002-2005. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he served as foreign policy and national security advisor to candidate Donald J. Trump. Mr. Schmitz graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy, and earned his J.D. degree from Stanford Law School. He is author of, "The Inspector General Handbook: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Other Constitutional 'Enemies, Foreign and Domestic.'"