From Everest Ezihe, Owerri
Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the founder and leader of Biafra Independent Movement, BIM and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB has declared that his organizations will henceforth be committed to the realization of the sovereign State of Biafra, through non-violent processes.
Uwazuruike said that his organizations will no longer talk about marginalization of South Easterners or seeking for them to occupy any sensitive positions in Nigeria.
The leader made the declaration in Owerri over the weekend during the occasion marking 25 years anniversary of his formation of MASSOB, on September 13, 1999.
Subsequently in a statement issued and signed by the group’s Director of information, Mazi Chris Mocha stated that marginalization was part of the reasons for floating the group in 1999, after the alleged failure of President Olusegun Obasanjo to appoint an Igbo man into any of the vital positions in the country.
He recalled how Ndigbo of voting age had massively voted for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo during the April 1999 Presidential elections hoping that a President from the South West of Yoruba ethnic nationality after many years of military rule would treat Igbos of South East geographical area well but all they got in return were lower positions in his cabinet.
Mocha insisted that it would be laughable for any person to think that BİM-MASSOB would abandon the struggle for Biafran Independence now that Biafra had been inducted as 46th Member- State of Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organizations, UNPO.
The spokesperson further revealed the reasons for the formation of MASSOB in 1999, leaking it to the alleged denial of Nigerians of Igbo extraction of becoming the nation’s President since after the Biafran- Nigerian civil war, nor consider it proper for them to occupy positions like Chief of Army Staff,Chief of Naval Staff,Chief of Defense and Director General, DSS.
Others positions he also alleged includes;
Inspector-General of Police, Minister for Defense, Comptroller General of Custom,
Comptroller Gen.of Immigration, Chairman, Drug law enforcement Agency, National Security Adviser, Minister for Works,
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Minister for Petroleum, among others.
He maintained that marginalization and total exclusion of Ndigbo in the scheme of things in Nigeria by successive governments were reasons for the emergence of MASSOB 25 years ago, stressing, they are henceforth more committed to actualization of Biafra, than crusading against the marginalization and exploitation of Igbo ethnic nationality.
