MASSOB tells Buhari: You can’t crush Biafra

Leadership of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) told President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, that his administration cannot crush Biafra.
MASSOB also said it was wrong for the president to have singled out Ndigbo for mention when members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) of Igbo extraction visited him in his hometown of Daura, in Katsina State.

MASSOB leader, Uchenna Madu made the group’s position known in a statement, yesterday.

“Telling Igbo youth corps members to inform their fellow Igbo youths in MASSOB to stop Biafran agitation, shows that he (Buhari) directly recognises the corps members as Biafrans.

“Buhari still thinks that with his kinsmen in vital positions in the military, he will easily crush Biafra. MASSOB views Buhari’s constant negative comments on Biafra as a way of reawakening consciousness among Biafrans and doggedness towards actualising our lofty dream,” Madu said.

Madu insisted “the current Biafran struggle will continue to unfold confusing methods for the Nigerian leadership.

“No man can crush Biafra because God, history and humanity are on our side.”

The MASSOB leader also reminded the president that the arrest and detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, Lotachukwu Okoli and a host of others, “as well as the killing, persecution, prosecution, mesmerisation, suppression and oppression of Biafrans cannot quench the agitation.

“It must also be noted that the current clampdown of non-violent, unarmed agitators for self rule, only worsens the problem.

“Any group whose stock in trade is to consign another to second class status, or denies another their full rights, including autonomy to political, cultural and economic development, is just as guilty of colonialism.”

Madu rejected claims that Nigeria’s problem is engineered by those agitating for an independent Biafra, but, quickly noted that “the Nigerian state, as presently constituted, is the problem with Nigeria.

“Biafran agitation is only a reaction to the many injustices, exclusions, second class citizenship, born-to-rule philosophy, marginalisation and other forms of inequity and inequality that characterise the Nigerian state.”

On Tuesday, Buhari told corps members from the South East to “tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it.

“We were made by our leaders to go and fight Biafra, not because of money or oil, because oil was not a critical factor then, but, because of one Nigeria.

“So, if leadership at various levels failed, it was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians who have no quarrel with one another.

“So, please, tell your colleagues that we must be together to build this country. It is big enough for us and potentially big enough in terms of resources.

“Those who work hard will earn a respectable living. I have seen this country; I fought for this country and I will continue to work for the unity of this country.”