The Ralph Uwazuruike Biafra Independence Movement/Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (BIM/MASSOB) on Tuesday said the Igbos would never be “President of Igbo extraction till thy kingdom come” because of “hatred, lack of trust by other Nigerians” on the people of South East geopolitical zone.
Spokesperson of BIM/MASSOB, Elder Chris Mocha, said in a statement on Tuesday that there are artificial barriers created by other Nigerians that mars the chances of Igbo to produce Nigeria’s President, stating that no kneeling or prostrating can make this possible.
BIM /MASSOB, in restating its earlier position regarding the turn of Southeast geo-political zone to produce Nigeria’s President, faulted “political maneuvering by any Igbo organization to kneel, prostrate, beg Hausa/Fulani or Yoruba for the purpose of producing next President come 2023.”
The group said “the faulty system of Nigeria does not need Ndigbo. Yet, politicians from Southeast have never learnt their lesson to listen to BIM- MASSOB. It’s sacrilegious and not in our culture or tradition to kneel for any body.”
According to the group, “Igbo tribe is hated by other sections of Nigeria particularly Hausa/Fulani of the North and Yoruba of South West and this hatred has no end in sight in the foreseeable future. That is why the federal government was not willing or reluctant to gazette the proscription of bandits and armed Fulani herdsmen as terrorist organizations three weeks after, but was quick to to do same to Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) four days after the Igbo group was proscribed on September 2017.
“We want Biafra because igbos are regarded as inferior subjects in the affairs of the country and can only cast vote for other tribes but can never be voted for. We have no country holding us together as Nigerians because Nigerians are pretending to have a country when indeed, they have been fumbling and wobbling since independence yoked us together in the contraption called Nigeria.”
Trying to justify its quest for secession, BIM/MASSOB said: “We want Biafra because while over 50 million Easterners are protesting that since 1970, not a single person from the Southeast has ruled Nigeria. Some politicians from the North and South West who have ruled Nigeria for many years are now warming up to contest for the 2023 general elections without giving human thought or consideration to the cries of marginalization by the South Easterners who felt they have been cheated and are regarded as second class citizens. This was evident why rotational Presidency is still giving the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba political elites some nightmares.”
The group alleged that “there was a conspiracy between the North and South West people in the military against the Igbo of Southeast, that the Igbo as a defeated people after the civil war will not raise their heads to rule Nigeria till after 200 years.”
Stating that former Vice President, late Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was a victim of the conspiracy at the Jos convention in 1998, BIM/MASSOB said “this deliberate exclusion of the Igbo from governance in the country since after the civil war was part of the reason for the formation of MASSOB on September 13, 1999 by an Indian trained non- violence crusader, Barrister (Chief) Dr. Ralph Uwazuruike to pursue vigorously the realization of a separate State for the people of former Eastern region devoid of violence.”
It said that “no amount of lobbying, consultations, or bending so low to the Hausa/Fulani or Yoruba people would make the retired military Generals who were instrumental to that agreement that denied Dr. Ekwueme the chances to emerge as PDP candidate in the 1999 presidential election change their perception and concede power to Igbo man.”
Insisting that “President of Igbo extraction will never materialize even after 2023, BIM/MASSOB restates its earlier position since 2002, just as the apex igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo, is urged to fully throw their weights behind Biafra. Only the emerging country with the name and title: Republic of Biafra will end Igbo marginalization.”