Between Ralph Uwazurike and Nnamdi Kanu
Uwazuirike
The issue of Biafra
agitation started fifty years ago and turned cold with the ‘No Victor,
No Vanquished’ slogan of the federal government of Nigeria. But the perceived
marginalization continued. In the 80s the cry of marginalization was muted in close
quarters, until Ralph Uwazuruike, led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) re-awakened the Biafra consciousness
among the people of the southeast.
Many people
born in the post civil war era, particularly those born in the 80s, who form
the bulk of those agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra, learned much
about the struggle through MASSOB. Uwazurike group philosophy is hinged on the
principle of non-violence as propagated by Mahatma
Gandhi to achieve its goal.
Kanu
The group
has its headquarters in Okwe, in the Okigwe
district of Imo State with two arms to the government, the Biafra Government in Exile and Biafra Shadow
Government, in 2005, MASSOB re-introduced the old Biafran currency into
circulation. The Biafran pound exchanged for two hundred and seventy naira at
the border communities of Togo and the Republic of Benin.
Uwazuruike founded MASSOB in 1999, in the aftermath of the Nigerian elections that produced President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2005, Uwazurike
was accused of violence and detained on treason charges after series of
demonstration and protest to drive home its point and was released in 2007.
Until the emergence of Nnamdi Kanu, Uwazurike was the defector voice for Biafra
agitation.
In 2012, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led
by Nnamdi Kanu,
a United
Kingdom-based activist came into our consciousness, with no
known headquarters in the country, the group activities gained prominence with
Radio Biafra, coupled with events that led to Kanu’s detention and his release from custody through court. IPOB is direct in its approach to achieving
its goal, which many observers, particular those that witnessed the civil war kicked
against as capable as throwing the country into another crisis.
Between Uwazurike
and Kanu, believers of the Biafran cause are divided on who is the right person
to deliver the ‘Nigerian Jews’ as the Biafra agitators calls themselves. Anti-Uwazurike
faction sees in him a passive character to lead the Igbo people to the Promise
Land. Those opposed to Kanu led IPOB, pictures a belligerent character, who
lack the moral fibre to deliver. Referring to Kanu’s statement that Biafra will
remain in Nigeria.
Who is the
right person to serve as the Moses of Biafra, between Imo State born Uwazurike
and Abia State born Kanu, who should Biafrans place their trust in. Should they
wait for another person, (perhaps the true deliverer?).
Between Ralph Uwazurike and Nnamdi Kanu
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Rating:

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