Keep dreaming! Hausa, Yoruba’ll never allow you be president, Uwazuruike tells Ndigbo

Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of one of the South East separatist groups, Biafra Independence Movement (BIM), has called on Ndigbo never to think that the Hausa/Fulani or Yoruba will ever allow them be president in Nigeria.

Uwazuruike, who is also the founder of Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, (MASSOB), alleged that there is a conspiracy among these major ethnic groups against Ndigbo.

He cited what happened to the presidential ambitions of former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a trustee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support his argument.

Uwazuruike in statement issued through Mazi Chris Mocha, BIM spokesman, regretted a statement ascribed to Ekwueme, who was quoted saying that his three-time presidential ambition was scuttled by the Nigerian military.

He quoted Ekwueme as saying, “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 colleagues 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”.

Uwazuruike said that Ekwueme failed to give Ndigbo any reason or assurance that the same treatment meted on him in successive elections would not be revisited on “our younger generation.”

Uwazuruike argued that the earlier the Igbos understand how they are hated by the other major ethnic groups in the country, the better for them.

He made reference to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on how he thought Ndigbo should have been treated in the country when he visited Imo State during his first official outing as Head of State in 1978.

According to him, Obasanjo had during that visit told Ndigbo to thank their gods for the generosity of the Nigerian leaders, for not lining them up for execution after the Nigeria/Biafra civil war which was pronounced as no victor, no vanquished.

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He said, “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 was only 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.”

In a related development, the father of the detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Eze Israel Kanu, has accused Uwazuruike of masterminding the continued detention of his son at Kuje Prison in Abuja.

He stated this in his Afaraukwu Ibeku, Umuahia Palace on the side-line of the traditional marriage of his last daughter, Princess Chinwe Kanu, alleging the former MASSOB leader got angry with his son after the IPOB leader raised the alarm over huge monies meant for the well-being of helpless Biafran youths which Uwazuruike allegedly misused.

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