Leader of Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, and founder of Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike has called on the Igbo political class to bury the idea of having an Igbo man as Nigeria’s next president in the face of the current Northern conspiracy against them.
The Biafra agitator recalled that the same level of conspiracy was used to truncate the presidential ambition of some prominent Igbo personalities such as former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a trustee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Uwazuruike was reacting to a recent statement credited to Ekwueme where he asked Ndigbo to work for an Igbo president come 2019.
A statement issued yesterday by the Biafra Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha at Umuaka in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo state, quoted Uwazuruike as sympathizing with Ekwueme and other Igbo leaders “who had in the past put up relentless fight, courage and determination to become president but failed to realize such an ambition, just because they were victims of the civil war which ended on the note of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation but turned out to be retaliation, isolation and maximum hatred for Ndigbo.”
Ekwueme had said that: “I was Vice President until December 1983 and going by the old NPN order, I would have contested for the number one position in 1987, but the military intervened in 1983 and the civilian regime was cut short. I tried again in 1998 and Obasanjo was released from prison and he came and won, supported by his colleaques in the military. I tried again in 2003 and the same thing happened.
”I therefore pray that the other people (Igbo) can take it up from there and make progress”.
Uwazurike reminded Ekwueme and Iwuanyanwu how their efforts to emerge as Presidential candidates of their various political parties were thwarted when two Igbo sons were sponsored by the Peoples Demoratic Party, PDP and All Peoples Party, APP, to frustrate the chances of Ndigbo to produce a Presidential candidate.
According to him, “the anger which led me to demand the resuscitation of Biafra republic had to do with the soiled relationship between Ndigbo and the rest of Nigerians since the January 15, 1966 Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu-led military coup.
“The Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba conspiracy against Ndigbo is real and that was why the former Defence Minister, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd) could also not hide his own feeling and hatred for Ndigbo when he made an open declaration that he would go into exile than allow Dr. Ekwueme to be President of Nigeria.
“Through MASSOB/BIM, the world has heard clearly the marginalized voice of the Igbo man which wasonly heard in quiet, grumbling and murmuring tone before I started the struggle for Biafra in 1999 and today, the world is waiting for the emergence of the new Biafra Nation.
“Through me, the world which probably thought that all was well with Ndigbo in Nigeria now knows the Prison wall of injustice the Igbo man is hemmed in Nigeria.
“My observation is that if the American fathers of Independence who fought the British colonialism status quo in 1775, had allowed themselves to be derailed out of their vision through patronage and ‘settlement’, they would have died and their names forgotten few years afterwards.”
