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From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Director of Information of the Biafra Independence Movement and Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (BIM-MASSOB), Mazi Chris Mocha, yesterday, said that Igbo marginalization had persisted unabated.
He said that few weeks to the third year anniversary of the recognition of Biafra by, according to him, the Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organization (UNPO) as the 46th member- Nation, the leadership of BIM-MASSOB had perceived that marginalization of the Igbo tribe of South Eastern Nigeria had persisted.
Mocha also insisted that the Federal Governement of Nigeria was still fighting the same war of 1967 which presumebly seem to have ended on January 12, 1970.
Recall that UNPO had admitted Biafra on July 31 and induction followed shortly afterwards on August 2, 2020.
Mazi Mocha who is also the Senior Special Assistant to the leader of BIM-MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike on media and publicity, said MASSOB was formed when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the President of Nigeria.
He alleged that when former President Obasanjo named his cabinet members that it was obviously clear that Ndigbo were practically excluded from the composition of his cabinet.
He said that during the presidential election that brought Chief Obasanjo to power in 1999, that the Igbo recorded the second highest number of votes for him, alleging that Chief Obasanjo got the lowest votes in his own South West.
“Amazingly, the same South West which gave Obasanjo the lowest number of votes had later cornered all the appointments including petroleum which is the country’s main source of revenue.
“Going down memory lane, no Igbo man or woman was among President Obasanjo’s Service Chiefs and there was also no Igbo man or woman among the 12 member-security-council.
“The meaning to be deduced from the Obasanjo’s arrangement is that in discussing the security of Nigeria, the Igbo man is not wanted.
“During the military era, Ebitu Ukiwe was the Chief of Army Staff under General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) while Allison Madueke was the Chief of Naval Staff under Abacha. Ndigbo then were not so forgotten.
“But in a democratic dispensation where the Igbo have contributed a lot to nurture since 1999, there has been a bias in the governance of the country, as Ndigbo were excluded from sensitive positions including Minister for Defense; Chief of Army Staff; Chief of Air Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; National Security Adviser (NSA); Inspector General of Police (IGP); Comptroller General of Customs or be elected as Presdent.
“Others are Director General of Department of State Services ( DSS); Director General, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA);
Minister for Works and Housing;
Chief Justice of the Federation, among other strategic positions.
“Igbo of South East are still being regarded as second, if not third class citizens in Lagos State and other parts of Nigeria. The current happenings in the country have pointed to such realization. That is the very core reason Igbo want a better country with the name and title of the Republic of Biafra as a separate country, ” Mocha said.
He insisted that Biafra was the only remedy to Igbo marginalization.
He said it was the practice of unfair treatment of Ndigbo that led to the foundation of MASSOB in 1999 by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.
Describing BIM-MASSOB as the product of perpetual neglect and absence of infrastructural development in the South East, Mocha recalled how the immediate past Nigerian President, Mohammadu Buhari followed the same line of action of his predecessors.
He said that no Igbo man or woman was made a Security Chief to be among Buhari’s cabinet members.
“During President Buhari’s administration it became clear to South East politicians that there was bias in the governance of Nigeria, that even if they knelt down several times before the Emirs in Northern Nigeria as was suggested by one-time Governor of Anambra State, the exclusion of NdIgbo in political appointment has no end in sight.
“The events in the country today have opened the eyes of Igbo politicians to know that ‘no victor, no vanguished’ slogan after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, was after all to decieve Ndigbo; and the conspiracy to keep Ndigbo behind for 200 years, from January 12, 1970, is a reality, ” Mocha concluded.
