…I assured Ojukwu MASSOB will never resort to violence and that there would be no war again in Nigeria
…MASSOB has gone beyond marching on the streets to diplomatic moves
…I set up Radio Biafra, employed Kanu to run it but
politicians hijacked him and the Radio is now being used to blackmail
me and spread hate messages
…It’s a lie –IPOB
By Vincent Ujumadu
Chief Ralph Uwazurike, the founder of the Movement for the
Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB is unhappy and that
may not be unconnected with the fact that he, of recent, is being
relegated to the background on the issue of Biafra agitation. The man of
the moment, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who Uwazurike said he employed and handed
over the Radio Biafra he set up as part of the agitation process, has
been getting all the attention of late.
Uwazurike is also worried that many people, including the
media, had not appreciated his sacrifices towards the actualization of
Biafra. But he insists that only his style of approach can lead to the
actualization of Biafra, describing as an act of wickedness, the
insinuation that he was a sell-out on the issue of the struggle.
Since the launching in Aba, Abia State in 1999, MASSOB under
Uwazurike continually alleged mass arrests and killings of its members
by government forces. He had also consistently embarked on programmes
aimed at actualizing Biafra and was indeed the arrow head of the
agitation. For the first 10 years of the formation of MASSOB by
Uwazurike, the body and its members/supporters were very active but
non-violent.
For instance, in May 2008, MASSOB released a list of 2,020
members alleged to have been killed by security agents since 1999.
Uwazuruike was arrested on several occasions and charged with treason.
In 2011, he and 280 MASSOB members were arrested in Enugu while
attending a function in honour of late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Few days later, however, former President Goodluck Jonathan ordered
Uwazuruike’s release, as well as all other MASSOB members in detention.
MASSOB thereafter launched the Biafran passport in 2009 as
part of the program to celebrate its 10th anniversary and Uwazuruike,
said the introduction of the Biafran passport was in response to
persistent demands from Biafrans in Diaspora
In 2005, MASSOB re-introduced the old Biafran currency into
circulation. This sparked a lot of excitement at the time especially as
one Biafran pound was said to exchange for two hundred and seventy naira
at the border communities of Togo and the Republic of Benin.
In February 2013, MASSOB claimed that several corpses found
floating in the Ezu River on the boundary of Enugu and Anambra States
were those of its members previously arrested by the police. The group
claimed that the police routinely executed MASSOB members without proper
trial.
On September 13, 2015 police in Anambra state arrested about
25 MASSOB members who were marking their 16th anniversary and one of
them was shot. At St Charles Lwanga Catholic Church Okpoko,18 members
were arrested and one shot and at Iba Pope Catholic Church, while at
Awada, 11 members of MASSOB were arrested. At Awka, two MASSOB members
were arrested by the police.
On May 31, 2013, Uwazurike’s MASSOB was branded as one of
three extremist groups threatening the security of Nigeria. In fact
former President Goodluck Jonathan declared that the Nigerian state
faced three fundamental security challenges posed by extremist groups
which he listed as Boko Haram in the North; the MASSOB in the
South-East; and the Oodua People’s Congress OPC, in the South-West..
But following his disagreement with a section of MASSOB
members, the bubble burst and the man, who was almost invincible in the
Biafra agitation, started receiving knocks from people who hitherto,
were adoring him. One of the allegations was that he abandoned some
MASSOB members who were incarcerated in various Nigerian prisons. He
however defended himself, saying such a thing never happened.
He told Saturday Vanguard: “The impression being created was
that someone paid me to stop the struggle. This is unfair. Or do people
expect me to start fighting Nnamdi Kanu? Or do people think you are
fighting for Biafra when you kneel down in public places to make show?
How can anybody hold the view that I am a sell-out?
“I set up Radio Biafra in 1999 and handed it over to Nnamdi
Kanu for the good of the struggle, but what did I get in return? Someone
I employed used the radio station I set up to blackmail me. Where did I
go wrong? And if you were to be Uwazurike, what will you do under such a
situation? If I didn’t set up MASSOB, how could Nnamdi Kanu have had a
platform to start what he is doing?”
Stressing that his approach to the struggle is what would
ultimately lead to the actualization of Biafra, Uwazurike added: “On May
22nd, we organized a ceremony in which over one million people
participated in Onitsha and other cities and this was reported by the
media. It was the same in Aba, Enugu, Owerri and other cities, yet
people are saying that I am backsliding or that I am a sell-out.
“Do you also know that I built 20 houses at Okwe, Imo State,
for the wounded Biafra soldiers who were begging for alms at Oji River
and I pay them salary every month? Today, there are no more Biafra
soldiers begging for alms at that spot.
“Only last month, I risked my life to travel to the North
for the sake of Biafra and I was at Arewa House in Kaduna where I met
people, yet the media and Igbo people do not appreciate my sacrifices.
How would you feel if you were to be in my position?”
Uwazurike, who led a delegation of Igbo leaders from the
South East, told some youth groups at the Arewa House in Kaduna that
MASSOB had pursued the path of peace since its creation in 1999 and
would continue to do so.
He continued: “Self-determination without violence is a
fundamental right, we must strive against sowing the seed of discord
but do all that will promote peace and justice in Nigeria. There is a
gap in communication from our leaders which needs to be bridged, hence
we are meeting with notable leaders in the north to persuade them that
there is no cause for alarm,
“We have overgrown the era of marching the streets with
Biafran flags. MASSOB is now consolidating on building structures and
diplomatic negotiations with other countries, recalling that there was a
re-declaration of Biafra on May 22nd, 2000, submission of Biafra Bill
of rights to United Nations and his attendance of OAU Summit in Lome,
Togo in 2000, among other achievements..
“MASSOB existed for 18 years without violence and in 2009, I
went to London and opened Radio Biafra and handed it over to Nnamdi
Kanu as the director. Soon afterwards, politicians hijacked him, and he
started working for them.
“The radio that was meant to educate our people and advise
our people was turned into a source of hate messages, blackmail,
intimidation and others. The resultant effect was that the northern
youths came up to challenge us, to say that they are not happy with the
hate messages and the insults they receive from the same radio.
“The main purpose of floating the organization called MASSOB
was not to cause crisis in Nigeria. I assured the late Odumegu Ojukwu
when he was alive that there would be no other civil war in Nigeria.
Because he, Ojukwu, was so concerned and wanted some measure of
assurance from me that MASSOB would not cause problems in Nigeria, I
gave him that assurance.”
