Posted by By OLA AGBAJE on
Founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr Frederick Fasehun, has called for urgent presidential amnesty for incarcerated leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Mr Ralph Uwazuruike, to foster all-inclusive national reconciliation and cohesion.
Founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr Frederick Fasehun, has called for urgent presidential amnesty for incarcerated leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Mr Ralph Uwazuruike, to foster all-inclusive national reconciliation and cohesion.
Uwazuruike was arrested and detained about two years ago, during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime's clampdown on separatist and militia groups, over the activities of his organization which is campaigning for an independent Biafran state.
Leaders of other groups, including Fasehun himself, Ganiyu Adams and Mujahid Dokubo-Asari of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) hauled into jail with him have since regained their freedom.
Government has refused to let Uwazuruike off, despite the clamour for his release, a development which has triggered accusations of bias and persecution against the Igbo, the third largest ethnic group in the country, who he represents.
Speaking against this background, Dr Fasehun urged President Umaru Yar'Adua to free Uwazuruike to balance the on-going peace and reconciliation process.
He argued that the continued incarceration of the MASSOB leader was unjustified as those of them who met him in prison had been released and returned home.
"Why is Uwazuruike still being held? Maybe we should appeal to our President, Mallam Umaru Yar'Adua, who has started to look at this situation and make sure that there is national reconciliation by releasing Ralph Uwazuruike and other Nigerians who have been incarcerated unjustly. This is my appeal to Yar'Adua," the OPC boss said.
He added: "The incarceration of Ralph Uwazuruike was never justified and it remains so. If the world complained against the incarceration of Nelson Mandela; if we complained about the military detention of a woman in Sri Lanka; if we didn't like the imprisonment of Jomo Kenyatta and we spoke against the imprisonment of Kwame Nkrumah, and they gained freedom and later governed their nations, then you cannot justify the incarceration of Uwazuruike."
My struggle for Abiola's victory and defence of Obasanjo
Whatever I have done in the history of this nation, I want it to be on record that it was never for personal benefits. I fought for the truth as I saw it and I am also a believer of social justice. I think the Yoruba people have been badly treated in the politics of this nation. The Yoruba people played a frontline role in the emancipation of Nigeria from colonial rule. This should earn them compensation, naturally. However, all the time, they ended up being relegated to the background. And even now, we are still being relegated to the background.
Obasanjo
I saw Obasanjo as somebody who spent the slot of the Yoruba people. And that was why I fought against his removal because it would have been unfair to the Yoruba people if Obasanjo, who we believed occupied the slot of the Yoruba, was removed unceremoniously.
There would be no point in continuing with the Nigerian project for the Yoruba people if we could not come to the leadership of this nation after several years of independence. The Yoruba people are the most numerous ethnic nationality group in the country. Therefore, they deserve to rule as often as democracy permits. Unfortunate-ly, we have always been taken for a ride.
Obasanjo's unjust treatment of Yoruba people
It is most unfortunate that Obasanjo did not think that the Yoruba people deserved what we thought we rightly deserved. He was there for eight years and after eight years, there was nothing that the Yoruba people could boast of Obasanjo's achievements or legacy in the South-West geo-political zone. Nothing. Absolute nothing to the Yoruba people. He administered a systematic serial punishment on the Yoruba people. Look at all the Federal roads in the South-West. They are the worst. Look at Lagos.
Obasanjo maliciously punished Lagos State and the people as a mark of his disregard for them. Notwithstanding the fact that Lagos was supposed to have received special attention from the Federal Government as the commercial headquarters of Nigeria, he dealt with the state. Go around Lagos metropolis. All the infrastructure that belong to the Federal Government have collapsed. It is a most unfortunate situation.
When he withheld the Lagos State Local Government fund, he gave Abuja a whopping sum of N300 billion for developmental purpose as parting gift. We never had it so bad in the South-West geo-political zone. Obasanjo did things with impunity against the interest of the Yoruba people. For his eight years of presidency, we derived nothing as a race. There is a popular saying in Yoruba land that if your child is on an orange tree, you will never taste the sour and unripe orange fruit. But Obasanjo fed the Yorubas with unripe, bitter orange fruits throughout his eight years in power.
Because of the love of the Yoruba people, we gave him the second opportunity in 2003, thinking that he would change and give the people their due. But it became worse. Now, the Yoruba cannot complain if another person there does not give us our due as a people because when Obasanjo denied us of our rights, we did not complain. It would be unfair to Yar'Adua for the Yoruba people to start complaining now. But what we Yoruba have always been clamouring for in the Nigerian project is equitable, social justice and not appointments.
Free Uwazuruike to balance peace process
The incarceration of Ralph Uwazuruike was never justified and it remains so. If the world complained against the incarceration of Nelson Mandela; if we complain about the military detention of the woman in Sri Lanka; if we didn't like the imprisonment of Jomo Kenyatta and we spoke against the imprisonment of Kwame Nkrumah, who all returned from prison to govern their nations, then you cannot justify the incarceration of Uwazuruike.
Secondly, some of us met him in incarceration and were released, we came back home. Why is Uwazuruike still being held? Maybe we should appeal to our President, Mallam Umaru Yar'Adua who has started well to look at this situation and make sure that there is national reconciliation by releasing Ralph Uwazuruike and other Nigerians that have been incarcerated unjustly. This is my appeal to Yar'Adua.
Yar'Adua's pedigree
We see in him a decent and courageous leader with a strong intellectual bent. He comes from a pedigree of highly revered leadership and political background. He obtained his political tutelage under the late Alhaji Aminu Kano, the greatest defender of the common man this nation ever produced. He has also managed a state, not as jackboot or gunman, but as a thorough-bred civilian. So, he has no reason not to perform well. He knows that Nigerians have suffered unjustly and were subjected to terrible social injustice. His coming in as a young person is a positive development and a challenge to the youth. He has started well, but my only grouse is that the Yoruba people have been badly marginalized in his appointments.
We are calling his attention to ensure that genuine Federalism in which there would be devolution of power, is entrenched. Let us have a true Federalism, adjustment. Kano State now has over 70 local governments, whereas Lagos State still remains 20 local governments in spite of its ballooning population. This type of lopsided arrangement must be corrected.