Jailed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has insisted on a referendum on the Biafran question in a message he sent from Sokoto prison.
Kanu, in the message read at the 2026 convention of the American Veterans of Igbo Descent, AVID, in the United States, also insisted that unilateral declaration of Biafran sovereignty is the only alternative to referendum.
Declaring that he will not abandon the struggle, despite his conviction and imprisonment, Kanu said, “Hear my demand. It has not changed. It will not change. Referendum, or the unilateral pursuit of Biafran sovereignty. There is no middle ground. I will not negotiate the existence of my people. I will not bargain our homeland into a committee. I will discuss referendum and nothing else. Those who want a conversation about appointments, about “restructuring,” about another conference that ends in a communiqué and a banquet, may hold that conversation without me.
“My subject is one subject: the right of Biafrans to say, in a free vote, whether they will live as a people under their own roof. I have spent eight years of my life in detention in pursuit of the only goal that matters to me, and indeed to all of us: a peaceful homeland called Biafra. Not a slogan. A country. Not revenge. Safety. Not chaos. Order under our own law.
“They arrested me first in 2005 at Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
They came again in Lagos in 2015.
Then they kidnapped me in Kenya and called the crime an arrest. Each time the charge was the same beneath the paperwork: a people must not name themselves. I name us still. Biafra.
I remain unbowed
“Solitary confinement was meant to unmake the man so that the movement would unmake itself. It failed. A life sentence was meant to close the file. The file is open. I am fixated on one goal: total freedom for Biafra. No negotiations that trade the destination for a seat at someone else’s table. Referendum. That is the conversation. That is the settlement. That is the peace.”
Addressing members of the American Veterans of Igbo Descent, Kanu said, “I greet you from where the Nigerian state has chosen to keep me. Walls do not cancel a mandate. Distance does not cancel gratitude. If this address reaches you, it is because the cause still lives, and because you have refused to let it die.”
He commended the group and its leader, Dr Sylvester Onyia, for standing with him during his trial, and supporting the Biafra struggle.
He said, “AVID is no longer a name that needs introduction among our people. It resonates from Jacksonville to Umuahia, from the halls of American veterans to the courtyards of Alaigbo. You have made it so—not by noise, but by consistency when consistency was costly.
“When the Nigerian government succeeded in penetrating the Third Administration of our Directorate of State, many who once spoke loudly fell silent, or worse, became instruments of confusion. That administration has been dissolved. Those who betrayed the family have been sacked and expelled from the IPOB worldwide family. In that storm, AVID did not wander. You recognised only one command: the command of the people through the office I still hold. You said so publicly. You said you would engage only those I appoint. That is discipline. Veterans understand discipline. Biafra needs that discipline.
“To Dr. Sylvester Onyia I speak directly
You did not advocate from a safe distance. You travelled to Abuja again and again while I was held in solitary confinement. You sat through court sittings that were designed to exhaust hope. You walked with me to hospital when my body was being used as another cell. Those journeys were not tourism. They were sacrifice. A man who has worn the uniform of the United States does not need a lecture on duty. You performed it for a brother the world was being taught to forget.
“AVID, together with Rising Sun and Ambassadors for Self-Determination, has been a pillar under my well-being when other pillars were kicked away. You provided—and you continue to provide — the kind of support that keeps a prisoner a human being and a movement intact. I expect you to continue that unflinching support for my release and for the release of every Biafran locked up unjustly. Do not grow weary. The work is not finished.
“You took the case beyond Abuja.
Through letters to British officials – especially the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and the United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria — AVID has shown what a serious diaspora does when a British citizen is abducted, rendered, isolated, and then tried as if paper can cancel law. You did not whisper. You put the United Kingdom on the record. History will remember who wrote and who looked away. Dr. Onyia, on behalf of AVID, attended numerous court sittings and fought for my release.
“You gather this year under the theme Maka Odi Nma Ndi Igbo — for the good and benefit of the Igbo people. You will stand at Igbo Landing, where our ancestors walked into the water rather than live as property. That shore is not a picnic ground. It is a verdict. The spirit of the Igbo cannot be enslaved. I stand in that verdict. So must you.
“Veterans: you swore an oath to a republic that claims self-determination as a founding creed. Do not be timid about applying that creed to the land that made you. Uphold the fair name of the Igbo people, as your own charter says. Stand with the marginalized, as your own charter says.
“Fight, by lawful and honourable means, for those still in cells because they asked for a vote. A charge to this convention. To AVID I say: keep it up. To Dr. Onyia I say: your sacrifice is seen. To Rising Sun and Ambassadors for Self-Determination I say: the pillar must not crack. To every Biafran in that hall I say: do not outsource the struggle to a future generation that will inherit our fear if we donate it. I am not available for any bargain that leaves Biafra unnamed. I am available for a referendum.
I am available for the work of a free people.”
Commenting on his conviction, the IPOB leader stated that “a rogue judge with a limited understanding of the law stood in the way of justice”.
“That obstruction is not the last word. A conviction built on repealed statutes and on the wreckage of an earlier acquittal is not justice. It is power pretending to be a court. Power expires. Principle does not,” he added.
Referendum or unilateral declaration of Biafra – Nnamdi Kanu makes demand from prison