Posted by By CHIDI NNADI and VAL OKARA, Owerri on
With a treason charge still hanging on his neck, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, is not perturbed just as he is not ready to drop the Biafran struggle. Instead, he would prefer to go with the wind of the struggle if Ndigbo are not accorded a rightful place in the Nigerian state.
With a treason charge still hanging on his neck, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, is not perturbed just as he is not ready to drop the Biafran struggle. Instead, he would prefer to go with the wind of the struggle if Ndigbo are not accorded a rightful place in the Nigerian state.
Uwazuruike had been in detention until late last year when he was given a temporary reprieve to go home to bury his mother. After the burial of his mother who died while he was in detention, he went to the police, urging them to return him to prison since he was not on bail.
Recently, Daily Sun trailed him to his Freedom House at Okwe in Onuimo Local Government Area, the headquarters of MASSOB.
In an interview that lasted for more than two hours, Uwazuruike looked at the Biafran project, his travails, and his people, Ndigbo, in the present day Nigeria, saying that he would rather prefer to die than to abandon Biafra when Ndigbo are still being marginalised.
He dismissed the rule of law preachment by the President Umaru Yar'Adua government, arguing that the government could not be deemed sincere with the claim without it trying former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Excerpts:
In the beginning
When you talk of the origin of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), it has to do with the origin of the predicament of the South-East and South-South in Nigeria. MASSOB came up as a result of the marginalisation of Ndigbo in Nigeria. So many things happened after the civil war because the war was fought as a result of the killing of our people in the North. And after the civil war, the killing continued unabated.
You must live before you do any other thing and life is more precious than any other thing. Essentially, since it has continued (killing of Ndigbo), we have to find a way of stopping it. If their lives and property cannot be secured in Nigeria, then, we have to look for our own… We are not taking positions in government and other opportunities, these are for the elite, the common man wants to live in order to fend for himself and whether you are the president or Senate president, it does not mean much. I am concentrating on the lives of the people, that was the essential thing that made me go for MASSOB.
Nigeria/Biafra civil war
I was a small boy of about nine years. But on two occasions, I made attempts to get enlisted in the Biafran Boys' Company, but they rejected me. If the war had continued, I could have grown up to be enlisted. I was so annoyed that I was not taken in the Boys' Company.
MASSOB and Odumegwu Ojukwu
Before I started MASSOB, I had worked under him (Ojukwu) for close to seven years and at a point, I was organising his birthdays in Lagos. There was something I did that I didn't quite like. Right from the word go, Ojukwu regarded me as his son and he did to me all a father can do for his son. When I wanted to start MASSOB, I didn't tell him. I didn't want to tell him because I knew that he wouldn't support me and I didn't want to disobey him. It would be another thing if I had told him and he said, don't do it and I go out to do it, that would be disloyalty. I knew it was wrong for me not to have told him.
I felt that it was better not to tell him than to tell him and disobey him. He was in America when I declared Biafra and, as a matter of fact, I was the last person that saw him off at the airport. He heard the declaration of Biafra in America, and he felt disappointed. He said that I disappointed him. When he came, I went to his house to see him, I read from his face that he wasn't happy with me. I felt that was the reason. All those who knew him and knew how close I was to him thought that he was the person that engineered me to start MASSOB, when I never told him. I felt for him, I was so sorry but I had to do it because I knew that if I had told him he wouldn't have allowed me to do it. And if he said, don't do it, I wouldn't have done it.
Ojukwu supporting MASSOB
Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu is somebody that lives for the people. His love for Ndigbo cannot be equaled. He likes what benefits the people and what the people will benefit from. He is somebody who lives for others and if not that Igbos came to embrace MASSOB, Ojukwu wouldn't have embraced MASSOB. He is the man of the people. I didn't tell him and by right he was not supposed to support me. It was when he saw that people were interested that he forgave me like a father would do for his son.
My mother's burial and the crowd
I don't know, but I think the people have come to realise that I am actually being faithful to the cause. I have never gone to anybody to preach for him or her to come to MASSOB. They joined MASSOB on their own volition and they have remained faithful to the cause. It is God's doing and maybe the people felt that I am not a disappointment.
My detention
The current arrest and detention was the last in the series of arrests and detentions I had suffered in the past nine years. Nothing actually happened rather than certain developments about Biafra. We are talking about freedom, independence, so they felt that I had to stop it. They thought that the better thing to do was to arrest and detain Uwazuruike, and that would be the better way to stop it.
Plea to drop the word Biafra
I am not a pretender. There was a time we held that kind of meeting at the office of the former governor of Imo State, Chief Achike Udenwa and they insisted that I should drop the words Biafra and Sovereignty. Why should I drop the word sovereignty and Biafra , it is not possible. If I drop it, then, it means that I am a pretender. I want a sovereign state of Biafra, the independence of Biafra; if I remove the two words (Sovereignty and Biafra) are we to answer town union or youth movement?
I don't care if anybody supports me; what I am doing is what I feel is good for my people. I understand the amount of risk I am passing through, but it doesn't stop me from what I am doing. My interest is the goal we want to achieve. Along the line, the elite (people) who may not understand the meaning of what I am saying may understand it later. Initially, people were saying that I organised MASSOB in order to get appointment in the government, they have seen it that it is neither here nor there.
What I want to achieve with MASSOB
The sovereign state of Biafra . Period! It is possible in Nigeria because Nigeria itself was a colony of Britain . India was a colony of Britain even Eritrea was part of Ethiopia , Bangladesh was in Pakistan and Pakistan was part of India and people fought for all these. Why is this one (Biafra) an aberration?
The Igbo independence
Well, everything makes me think that way. Nigeria is not supposed to be one country and when you talk of a state there must be homogeneity among them. There must be cultural identity. We are pretenders, and that is our problem, even those (Igbos) in government, they know that they were not accepted, but just because of their selfish interest they pretend.
We have made several presentations and we have many organs. There are divisions of labour as in manning of different offices in Europe, America , South Africa and Asia . MASSOB is one of the biggest non-governmental organisations in the world going by its numerical strength.
My feeling on the release of other ethnic militia leaders
I was not surprised because I knew it would happen and that justified the reason for the struggle. I would have been surprised if I was released along with them. It would make nonsense of my struggle if we were released together. If Nigeria is good to Ndigbo and the South, why should anybody talk of Biafra ? The Igbos are not treated the same way in Nigeria , it has nothing to do with Ralph Uwazuruike, it has to do with Ndigbo. That they left me in prison justified my struggle.
Obasanjo's government and my detention
There is no difference between Obasanjo and President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and you as an Igbo man they will deceive you to believe that there is a difference, there is no difference. They have one common agenda of removing every Igboman from Nigeria by destroying their interest.
My release from prison
Have they allowed me to go now? The last time I appeared in court they said that I should go back to prison. As much as I know, maybe President Yar'Adua yielded to pressure, otherwise, does he not know that equals must be treated equally? Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is an illiterate, so I don't have anything to talk about him. Yar'Adua is not an illiterate, but he (Yar'Adua) must understand that equals must be treated equally. We are four that were detained at the same time and three have been released. Why are they still harassing me? We are not talking about the rule of law where almost all the former state governors are being prosecuted in the court and Chief Obasanjo who was at the helm of affairs of this country is still not being prosecuted . How do you think that this kind of rule of law with pinch of salt can be operated? What kind of rule of law is it? Rule of law by deceiving those who want to be deceived? If he believes in the rule of law, let him try Obasanjo then, I will take him serious. He is only chasing shadows under the guise of rule of law. If he doesn't try Obasanjo, who else will be tried?
I'm prepared to go back to prison
If the judge wants me to go back to prison, I am ready. I am here at home because the judge allows me to be here. And before then, I even went to the Imo State Police Command, Owerri after burying my late mother and handed over myself to the police, the police said that they don't have the authority to arrest me.
Are you on bail?
I don't know whether I am on bail. I was not given a bail. I was asked to go home and bury my mother and after burying my mother I have extra five days. I went to the police saying that I don't need the extra days because my colleagues are still in detention. Why should they give the largesse to me? I am willing to go to prison. This rigmarole is because Uwazuruike refused to compromise, I won't compromise. They feel that every other Igboman must compromise. If they intimidate, harass me; assuming that I was convicted or killed, he that did it, won't he die? Why should I be afraid of anybody?
My members in detention
The security agents, particularly members of the State Security Services (SSS), have come up with their gimmick in the newspapers that 15,000 members of MASSOB have resigned because I did not release those in prison. They are the same people holding them. There are so many MASSOB members who are still in prison, they are not 10 people that were charged along with me. We have 13 persons in Kuje Prison, Ontisha, Abakiliki, they are everywhere, why are they talking about these 10 people, it is because they were the ones charged along with me. What we are saying is that they can never stop MASSOB from what we are doing. Even when I started the struggle, I never believed that I would be alive today. To die or not to die doesn't cross my mind at all. What concerns me most is the struggle. And even if I stop MASSOB today, I will still die.
Claim of MASSOB members resigning their membership
Of course, it is the SSS people that are doing all these. With special apology to the media, the SSS men have some journalists as their anchormen. Do you think that any member of MASSOB would be annoyed that Uwazuruike was released to bury his late mother? No such name mentioned in the media was on our list both from the national, regional and provinces.
My treason charge
There was no treason, for a treason to arise, somebody has to take up arms against the state. And anybody who conspires with that person who carried arms must be charged alongside with his principal. You must carry arms to challenge the government. Also, you must announce yourself as the president, as it is not enough to take up arms. I have not taken up arms and I have not announced myself as the president.
Our critics
Most of our people are armchair critics. When you talk of liberation struggle, it costs human lives. In South Africa , many lost their lives as a result of dismantling apartheid. So, because Nigeria got independence on a platter of gold without any struggle, this is one of the reasons the country is not stable. Nigeria can never be stable because there was no struggle for her independence. There is no way you will struggle for independence without any problem. For the last few years now, we have not had any serious problem but most of our members still died, so, I don't know why people are afraid of death.
SSS suggestion to me
The SSS suggested sometime ago that I should go on exile, but I said I was not going to anywhere. They said that they would arrange everything for me, I told the then SSS director in Imo State that I would not go anywhere. If you think that Uwazuruike is a coward, you must be making a serious mistake, I can't go to anywhere. I will be going to court every day until they execute me if they think I committed treason. I know I have not committed treason. I am a lawyer. I know the statutes and I read them. Nobody can tell me what treason is and what it is not. And I am not even a young lawyer. I am very old at the Bar. When you talk of treason, people are carrying guns, declaring war.
MASSOB carrying gun
No, ours is anchored on non-violence. We will continue to adopt non-violence. Other nations like India used it to achieve their independence. The places where arms were used to realise their objectives, there is instability in those areas today. What is worrying me is that Biafra should have an ideology like is obtained in India (Ghandism). We should have ‘Ojukwuism' in Biafra , that is the angle we should pursue now. Biafra is situated in a rock and that rock should be Ojukwu. All these nations that progressed are anchored on a philosophy not in a vacuum like Nigeria . Even the constitution should be anchored on one ideology.
At what point will you abandon this struggle?
First and foremost, I started this struggle because of my children. I don't want my children to be inferior to any other child in Nigeria , so, I am not doing it for anybody. Each time I was called up to compromise I remember my children. Nothing can make me short change them or mortgage their interest because their interest matters most to me, then to a large extent, the children of Igboland. So, it is until I die.
And if I die, I will be happy that I died because I am trying to protect the interest of my children because it is my number one obligation.