Even an Igbo president cannot stop Biafra aspiration – MASSOB
From Tony Adibe, Enugu
May we know why you started the struggle?
The reason for the struggle is because the Igbo are marginalised. They have no security of lives and property in Nigeria. The Igbo are counted as third class citizens in the political entity called Nigeria. The man that fought for the independence of Nigeria was pushed aside at the end of the day. They hijacked the leadership of the nation from him.
Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe fought for the independence of Nigeria, but when he succeeded he was pushed aside and made a ceremonial president of the country - a president without powers - while Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa became the prime minister.
Can you tell us what the Pro-Biafra agitation aims to achieve?
The main reason we are agitating for Biafra is that we need freedom. We want to have our own country. We don’t want to be slaves to Nigeria anymore. We want to be free.
When the late Biafran leader, Ikemba Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu returned from exile in Ivory Coast, he said he was going to reintegrate the Igbo into the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics because he was the one that pulled them out in the first place. That was seen as the end of the war and agitation. Now, doesn’t your new agitation contradict Ojukwu’s position?
No, we are not contradicting what Ikemba Ojukwu said. His plan was to reintegrate Ndigbo into the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics, but the Nigeria he wanted to reintegrate us into does not like us. For instance, Alhaji Balarabe Musa recently confirmed that the Igbo are marginalised. He said that if the Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (three ‘Rs’) initiated by General Yakubu Gowon, the then head of state after the civil war was properly implemented, the Igbo wouldn’t have been demanding for Biafra. This is just the simple truth.
Should an Igbo man become the president of Nigeria, would you continue the agitation for Biafra?
Yes. We will continue because as I told you, our aim is to achieve Biafra, nothing more than that. If an Igbo man becomes the president, he will not have the power to control the security of Nigeria, the economy of Nigeria and other things.
For the last two years now, the proBiafra agitation has been more engaging than in the past. Why this sudden surge, energy and vibrancy in the agitation?
When we started this thing in 1999 with Raphael Lebeanya Uwazuruike, we trusted and believed in him, but from the last three years, he deviated and the struggle became weak. But by the grace of God, Nnamdi Kanu came in and we now discovered that Uwazuruike and his MASSOB had deviated.
We had to call Uwazuruike to defend himself before the committee we inaugurated to investigate the allegations against him. After the report from the committee was submitted, we invited him to explain or clear himself, but he refused. We passed a vote of no confidence on him and expelled him. After his expulsion, we elected Uchenna Madu as the leader. The young man came with new vision and that’s why the struggle became vibrant again. Also, Nnamdi Kanu, who was part of MASSOB when he came in, had to kick-start from his own end while we started from our own area. Now, you can see that Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and MASSOB are working hand-in-hand for the same goal because of the mutual understanding between us.
People say that MASSOB, IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups like the Biafra Zionist Movement (BZM) are mere commercial ventures of their founders. How do you react to that?
Well, it depends on their understanding of the concept of the Biafra agitation. People have the right to express their opinions, but the truth still remains that since the inception of this struggle, the May 30, 2017 sit-at-home order proved such people wrong. It has proven that no matter the threat, arrest and detention, harassment from the Nigeria security agencies, we are not deterred. This is to tell you that what we are doing is real and legitimate. People can say anything, but at the end of the day, the truth must prevail. Even in the era of Mahatma Ghandi of India; people criticised him, but at the end he succeeded, and we will definitely succeed. Those who said negative things will change their views. We control the masses. The governors, the politicians don’t control the masses.
Some critics say the sudden upsurge in the Biafra agitation is to distract President Buhari’s government. What’s your take on this?
No. That is not true. When Jonathan was there we continued with our struggle. Although I’m not trying to defend Jonathan’s government, he was conscious of human rights, which he didn’t want to violate. He was trying to avoid human rights violation. But Buhari’s government is the opposite.
Why is it that the pro-Biafra agitators hardly talk about the performances of the governors in the South-East, which you regard as Biafra enclave?
The reason we don’t talk about the governors is because we know them. There is an Igbo adage which says that “Onye gburu nwa nneya abughi dike” (the man who kills his brother is not a great man). So we decided to let them be because we know that a day of reckoning is coming. When Biafra is actualised, all of them will give account because during the time of Dr M. I. Okpara as Premier of the Eastern Region, everybody knew the high level of infrastructure and development he brought in the area. But now, most of those structures have died without the so-called governors in the South-East zone trying to rehabilitate them. The South-West is attempting to revamp the cocoa industry in the area and the North is doing something about the legacies of Ahmadu Bello, but here in the South-East, our governors are only interested in going to Abuja to get power. The reason we are always talking about the Federal Government is because it imposed the governors on us. We did not elect them. That is why governors from the South-East will always run to Abuja for help whenever they have problems.
If you are given Biafra today, what are you going to do with it?
We will start by giving free education to every Biafran and move to technology. We will establish an institution for technology where those who are talented will acquire skills so that we will be able to produce certain things we need, not to import them. You are aware that every Igbo man is industrious and intelligent. In a couple of years, you will see that we will be trailing South Africa in terms of development and productivity. In Biafra, there is going to be a total cleansing. All these things the governors are doing, such as nepotism, godfatherism, sectionalism, bribery and corruption are not going to exist in the new Biafra.
Those faults you pointed out were said to have existed even under the Biafra Republic headed by Emeka Ojukwu. What magic are you going to perform to be different?
That was why Biafra under Ojukwu failed. The then Biafra failed because of the existence of those faults or anomalies. I was reading a book on the Biafra-Nigeria war, written by Alexander Maduebo and another book on the civil war by another author, and they mentioned something like this. I was aggrieved when I read it because when we are talking of Biafra, it should be a place that will accommodate both the poor and the rich, no matter where you come from. There will be no slave or outcast; everybody must be equal in our own Biafra. The new Biafra will not be like the old one.