The Other 'Rebels'...
By Adeyeye Joseph
MASSOB: ON THE MOVE AGAIN
Three years ago when he beat a security network thrown around Aba to proclaim the resurrection of the defunct Republic of Biafra in an abandoned uncompleted building, Ralph Uwazuruike, an Indian trained lawyer, was an unknown ideologue. Derided by the Igbo elite and wanted by the state, Uwazuruike hardly wasted time. His speech lasted four minutes, his Biafran flag could not fly at full mast and soon after he was making a quick get away on a motorcycle.
But soon enough, Uwazuruike and his Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), would prove to the ruling establishment that it was dangerous to leave a void in the hearts of a disenchanted and demeaned people. With pluck and fortitude Uwazuruike built MASSOB into a wholly grassroots political movement. While governors of the five eastern states kept him at arms length the masses, hungry, battered and angry, threw their arms wide open to give Uwazuruike and MASSOB a wide embrace.
And when the time came for a test of will between the de jure powers (the state) and the de facto ones it was a day of MASSOB's choosing.
MASSOB declared Thursday August 26, a day of protest against the injustices they alleged successive federal authorities meted on the Igbos. MASSOB instructed Igbos across the federation to stay at home between 6a.m and 4p.m. Unofficially, it was MASSOB's to show that it had occupied enormous ground in the mind of the average Igbo.
In their thousands Igbos across the country ignored government's pleas that MASSOB's call should be disregarded.
The result was a total shut down of economic activities in all the five eastern states and in major commercial centres in Lagos and major cities across the country. In Lagos, Oshodi and Idumota were a shadow of their busy, bustling selves.
The huge success that the stay at home order recorded changed the fortunes of MASSOB and ever since life for either Uwazuruike or MASSOB has never remained the same. For one, the Federal Government finally took notice.
"Government cannot sit back and watch any movement or organisation do anything that would jeopardise the unity of this country. What MASSOB is doing amounts to treason and they have to be stopped," the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Chief Akintola Olujimi (SAN) said at a press conference.
But by then the MASSOB and its course had grown so popular that even Igbo elite who had largely derided the movement and its leaders quickly latched on to the idea. Even though he did get into a squabble with the authorities for saying so, former Biafran leader, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu declared support for the group. (A belated move, given Ojukwu's initial dismissal of the group).
Ojukwu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), also said he was a patron of MASSOB. He said members of the movement have a right to wish for Biafra and that it is "nonsense" to say they do not.
"If people are grumbling, then something is wrong. You should listen to them, they are wearing the shoe. They know where it pinches. This is the problem with Nigeria. If a people want a national conference, why shouldn't they have it?"
Social critic and human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi promised to defend MASSOB if government decides to take the group to court.
"If charges are pressed against MASSOB, I will defend them. If Olujimi should make the mistake of pressing charges of treason against them, they can be sure that I will be one of the people to defend them. I don't see any treason in what they have done so far," Fawehinmi said.
"Nigerians and Nigerian Government should forget the civil war of 1967-70 and accommodate the Igbo in the political system of the country. They are being treated at the moment like lepers and I'm not happy with that type of treatment. That is not good for national cohesion and national unity."
For Uwazurike the journey has been a long and tortuous one. On some occasions Uwazurike was arrested and detained, but he was luckier than some MASSOB members who lost their lives in the process of what MASSOB calls a 'struggle'.
A contingent of soldiers once invaded his hometown Okigwe shooting into the air and beating people.
In the process about six people were reportedly killed by the soldiers who also ransacked a popular hotel known to be frequented by Uwazurike. MASSOB later alleged Uwazuike's aged father was manhandled by the policemen. On May 30, 2001, 45 MASOB members were charged with treason for allegedly declaring a state of Biafra and with attempted murder of two local police officers. In the same month security agents raided newsstands where they seized and burned publications that carried stories on activities of MASSOB.
Nevertheless, Uwazuruike and his men appeared to be growing even more popular. Already MASSOB has opened an 'embassy' it called Biafra House in the United States. Its activities and aims are also frequent topics of debates on the Internet. Indeed, the Internet aspect of the MASSOB phenomena is as vibrant as that outside it. On the Internet a rash of websites, including MASSOB's continually stock and update diverse pro-Biafran literature about the activities of the group. The group also derive much support and materiel from pro-Biafran groups abroad. One of such is the Biafra Actualization Forum (B.A.F), Ekwenche, Biafra foundation and Biafra land.
At the grassroots MASSOB has widened the organisation's umbrella to cover Igbos that are in every part of the country. Across Lagos the eastern states, for example, artisans, traders and Igbos of diverse vocations attend regular meetings were regular and daily contributions are made to the Biara and MASSOB cause.
The Talibans: MADE IN Nigeria
Little is known about the group of religious fundamentalists that have held some part of North Eastern Nigeria to ransom in recent times. But media reports have described them as 'Talibans'. The group's activities first came under scrutiny after they destroyed government buildings and killed a policeman in Yobe State.
Few days later they were on rampage again as they attacked three more police stations in the state. They burnt the stations and a local government building and stole large quantities of weapons. At one state building they occupied, the militants pulled down the Nigerian flag and raised that of Afghanistan. The group's leader is known as Mullah Omar, after the deposed leader of Afghanistan.
"I think they were only interested in attacking the authorities. That's why they didn't harm the local people," a district official told BBC.
"They said their wanted to establish a new system of Sharia law, different from the one practised now".
Sources in government have described them as having links with some other fanatical international religious movements. But what is clear is that their mode of living and operations are patterned after those of fundamentalist groups outside of this shores.
Another source told the BBC that at least one of the group leaders had been in Afghanistan, training with the Taliban, while another is currently in Saudi Arabia, after falling sick while attending pilgrimage.
But shortly after the attacks a military contingent launched an attack on their military camp the border with Niger.
Many of the Talebans were killed and security forces chased some survivors of the group to Niger Republic but some also escaped to Borno State where they were later dislodged. But hopes that the country has heard the last of the group were dashed recently when remnants of the group launched an attack on police stations in Yobe State again killing policemen and carting away weapons.
No one is exactly sure of what the demands of this group are but some of the militants captured by security agents in Niger said they wanted to introduce true Sharia in all the 12 states presently running the Sharia system of government in the country. They also denied that the group received any foreign support.
Initially, the group's stay in Yobe state was without trouble as they allegedly occupied a part of a community, which no one lived. And when they had contacts with villagers they reportedly harassed them in no way. But trouble came after a member of the group manhandled a female villager after a disagreement at the local river. The attacks on government institutions followed later. And when government forces launched a counter attack the militants forced some of the villagers to build trenches for them and purchase materials for them. While the identities of the attackers who mounted the last onslaught are yet to be ascertained an intriguing discovery made by government after the capture of some Talibans was the fact that the group had members not only from the North of the country but from other parts of Nigeria.
One of the group members was found to be from Lagos State and others were children of top government officials who allegedly abandoned home claiming that the type of religion practised by their parents were impure.
OPC: First of a kind
The Oodua Peoples' Congress (OPC) was established in the heady days of the Abacha regime. In the aftermath of the annulment of the June 12 Presidential elections, Frederick Fasehun, a medical doctor and human rights activist gathered some of his colleagues in the civil society and mooted the idea of a movement to fight for the Yorubas. Incidentally, one of the men that Fasehun brought together was an Ijaw. But of all the men that constituted that initial group it was a simple, uneducated carpenter, Gani Adams that was to gain as much fame as Fasehun.
The group had no sooner been formed than the Abacha regime unleashed security agents on its members. OPC members were hunted down, detained and killed. After General Abacha died the group experienced a schism when Abacha's successor, General Abdusalami Abubakar flagged off his transition to civil rule program in 1998. A faction of the group wanted OPC members to take part of the transition while another kicked against it. The ensuing disagreement split the group into two factions. Fasehun remained the leader of a more moderate faction while Adams and other youthful elements formed a faction that was later to gain much notoriety for the violence with which it tried to achieved its aim. While OPC succeeded in gaining wide grassroots as a political movement its self proclaimed aim to seek self-determination and autonomy for the Yorubas of South West Nigeria made successive governments to attempt to emasculate it.
Also, the support, which it had gained among the Yorubas also dwindled after the people for which cause it claimed to be fighting began to resent the highhandedness of its members. Things however came to a head between the OPC and the Federal Government after OPC militants killed a Divisional Police Officer in Bariga, Lagos in 2000. Within the same period inter ethnic clashes between OPC militants and Hausa and Ijaw youths respectively had disturbed the peace of Lagos and other parts of the South West. All this made President Olusegun Obasanjo to give a shot at sight order to the police and to place a bounty on Adams' head. Adams remained elusive for a while before his eventual arrest by the police. Presently, Adams and Fasehun are making efforts to redefine the OPC as a socio-cultural movement while its former shout for what government considered to be secession has been toned down a bit.
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