Leadership of Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has declared that the Igbo should no longer bother about marginalization of South Easterners or seek to occupy any sensitive position in Nigeria but should be worried about Biafra actualization.
According to BİM-MASSOB, its major preoccupation is achieving Biafra sovereignty through non-violent process.
The organization made its stand known on the occasion to mark 25 years anniversary since Chief Ralph Uwazuruike founded the pro-Biafra group on September 13, 1999.
A statement issued and signed by the group’s Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha said that marginalization was part of the reasons for floating the MASSOB, in 1999, after the failure of President Olusegun Obasanjo to appoint an Igbo into any of the vital positions in the country.
Mocha 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 tribe after many years of military rule would treat Igbo of South East well. He said all the Igbo got in return instead were inferior positions in former President Obasanjo’s cabinet.
He said it would be laughable for any sane 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.
He disclosed that the reasons for the formation of MASSOB in 1999, included the denial of an Igbo son or daughter to become the President of Nigeria since after the Biafra- Nigeria civil war.
He regretted that no Igbo man was considered fit and eligible to occupy the position of Chief of Army Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; Chief of Defense Staff or Director General, DSS.
Others include the Inspector-General of Police; Minister for Defense; Comptroller General of Customs;
Comptroller General of Immigration; Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency; National Security Adviser; Minister for Works (until recently); Chief Justice of Nigeria; Minister for Petroleum, among others.
Mocha said that MASSOB now Biafra Independence Movement (BİM-MASSOB) wanted Biafra alleging that the resources of the East had been confiscated with military might to develop other zones outside of South East/South South while the East was left to wallow in total neglect.
Going down memory lane, BİM-MASSOB said it was seeking to actualize a Sovereign State of Biafra as over 50 million Easterners were complaining that since 1970, not a single person amongst them had ruled Nigeria, saying that some politicians from the North and South West who had ruled for several years were warming up to rule the country again.
“What gives the said politicians that impression if not because the Igbo have been permanently excluded from the governance of Nigeria, “he queried.
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, adding that the agitators were more committed to actualization of Biafra. He said they were not after what he described as usual inferior (yeye) positions to occupy in Nigeria.
