MASSOB Leaders Charged With Treason (Ralph Uwazurike)

I feel so sad over the recent handling of Uwazurike of MASSOB and other similar cases of "Treason" in Nigeria.

While not supporting treasonable acts in their true sense or the possible disassociation of the entity called Nigeria, I will be quick to advise the Government and their agents to observe and uphold human rights when handling issues they may term criminally  grave against the state , but with political undertones.

A careful study of the situation and agitations by many groups in Nigeria must have arisen out of frustration of oppressed minorities and the desire to control their own political and cultural destiny.  This principle the UN recognizes and indeed was the main motivating factor for the independence of most Colonial states, catch phrased as ''self determination''.

It is indeed so sad to observe that the full weight of the Law in Nigerian is brought to bear on individuals, depending on which side of the great divide they belong. It is a situation of different strokes for different folks. The world is hailing  and clapping for our  ''transparency, security and  control of governance'' while before us, but having a good laugh behind us for our ''home grown democracy and misrule of law''.

Please you may request for my full paper on this issue by mail.

ABUJA, 8 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - Prosecutors in Nigeria charged a separatist leader with treason on Thursday, alleging that his fight for an independent homeland for one of the country’s biggest ethnic groups included forming a tribal army to “overhaul” the government.

Ralph Uwazurike, who founded the southeastern secessionist Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), was brought before a federal court in the capital, Abuja, where four counts of treason and conspiracy were read to him and six other MASSOB members.

“The accused persons have been calling for secession from the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the court document said. The seven committed treason “by belonging to a militant group called MASSOB army, which is undergoing training with the intent to levy war against, intimidate and overhaul [President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government]”, the charge said.

All pleaded not guilty and were ordered returned to custody by presiding judge Binta Murtala-Nyako, who adjourned the case until 6 December.

The activists face the death penalty if convicted of treason.

Uwazurike appeared unfazed by the charges, waving to a small group of supporters as he left the courtroom and crying, “Up Biafra! We will not negotiate.”

In the courtroom Uwazurike alleged he had been chained to the floor and tortured by the state security police who arrested him two weeks ago. He asked to be transferred to prison custody along with his colleagues, but the judge declined the request.

Uwazurike had been declared wanted in July over the alleged circulation of currency purported to be of the independent Republic of Biafra.

Uwazurike claims that successive governments have oppressed and discriminated against Nigeria's Igbos, the dominant ethnic group in the southeast.

MASSOB wants to recreate the short-lived Republic of Biafra over which a bloody civil war was fought in Nigeria from 1967 to 1970, with more than one million people dying mostly from starvation.

Uwazurike’s campaigns have struck a chord among thousands of jobless Igbo youths who were born after the war but who have joined MASSOB's ranks.

In the southeastern city of Onitsha, a MASSOB stronghold, police on Monday clashed with thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets to protest Uwazurike’s arrest.

During the melee the private residence of Nigeria’s first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, who died in 1996, was set ablaze.

Police charged that MASSOB activists chased outnumbered policemen into the residential compound and during the clash set the house on fire. MASSOB in turn accused government agents of starting the fire to discredit the secessionist movement in the eyes of ethnic Igbos, who respect Azikiwe but also form MASSOB’s support base.

Human rights groups charge that dozens of pro-Biafran activists have been killed over the last six years for campaigning on behalf of their cause, with hundreds in detention after being arrested at marches and rallies organised by MASSOB.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49991

serves him right! 

Nigeria is one, period! You can take your message somewhere else.  The reason for all these upheavals can be linked to poverty and fustration. We are alo very impatient set of people. There are many countries in more dire situations than we are, yet we think that Nigeria is worst and every other place in the world is heaven.

A responsible Government must cater for the security of all its people, and sometimes this means dealing with people who are trying to provoke general unrest.  What Mr. Uwazurike and the other MASSOB people were campaigning for cannot succeed without bloodshed and instability in the country.

Do you really think we will let them go with our oil, which amounts to 95% of our foreign exchange earnings?  So the rest of us should live in poverty and start dying of hunger, right?  No way!

So I agree with the arrest, but I do not think they deserve the maximum penalty of the treason law (execution).  If it was possible, an indefinite prison term with the guarantee that they will be released when they are ready to publicly renounce their roles in the Biafra agitation would be fair and sufficient.  One should not kill a fly with a hammer.

... whose oil??

Its evident the union is not about the people that are in these areas. Their welfare or well being are certainly not on the cards here.

It is about what can be obtained from them, their land, rivers, sea and environment even at their own peril. They can die of hunger, poverty and deprivation as far as others feed fat.
And when the oil is dried up... they will be thrown away as husks that have been sucked dry.
What can be more despicable, heartless and shameful.
The human beings created in God's own image (and born of Ibo blood) certainly, do not matter in this union

Security???... what security? for who? Maybe for the oppressors but certainly not for the people that MASSOB and other groups represents. Little wonder arson and the kidnap of a Governor has not been charged to court or the perpetrators brought to book.
It doesn't matter that their young men have spread throughout the whole continent looking for their daily bread even at the risk of their lives. For these, white colonialists were saints. Even in their wickedness, they would not have done half of what has been meted out on blacks by their kith/kin in Nigeria.(The latest Amnesty International is a good reference)
[b]Let the people be what they want to be... NO to an un-natural union... man is a free agent[/b

The motives are clear ... to subdue, trample and if possble exterminate the folks. Then you'll be happy... very happy that you were not left to poverty and hunger.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Nigeria's salvation has always come through the Igbos.... Just try removing the ones in the current Government and sum  the acheivements of all the other groups put together... and make a simple comparison.

What oppressors do not understand is that their freedom, growth and progress is tied to that of their captives. Europeans and the Catholic Church can confrim that.

Nigeria as presently constituted is a shame to the black race and will continue to be unless it cleanses itself from within. Of all its problems... the greatest is tribalism. I understand from these statements that you subscribe to it.
]

The issue here had been the arrest and treatment of Uwazurike and co. for 'treason' and not the Niger Delta. Though related in some ways, the issues are clearly different.

On the Niger Delta
1. The Niger Delta is the only group that stopped the emergence of a Biafran republic. Nigeria would not have been able to stop it. We know our differences and will sort it out at the appropriate time.
2. If the Yorubas and the Hausas did not meet and agree on the current events, then whose agenda is being played out now? Who else could have set it up?
3. Which is correct? Black South Africans waited for electoral majority in order to remove apartheid or Apartheid was abolished before blacks could have electoral majority.
4. Fundamental Change does not come through the ballot box.
5. Insisting on what you want, even if it requires violence, has given southern Sudan an independent region that has the opportunity of deciding whether it wants to be part of Sudan in the near future. Why can't it happen in Nigeria? The apologetic and discussion-for-whole-generation-syndrome, is what has landed us where we are now. My Children will not live under this oppression.
6. When will Nigeria realize that if every body is allowed to grow at its own pace and maximize its potentials, there is enough room at the top for all peoples? Despite the number of stars, the sky is not yet full, yet all of them are shining.
7. Which majority voted in the current government?  Rigged majority? Even in the president's state which may be your own state. ... the supreme court said so.

On the issue at hand, that is the Ibos, their marginalization and the arrest of MASSOB leader.

I have taken some time to read all your post and views on this and similar issues throughout this forum and have made a simple summary of my answers:
1. There is no good thing in Nigeria for the Igbos. Left alone, they would rule the world in many spheres of life. Despite losing 1million souls and being 'exterminated' from the civil service, politics, infrastructure etc... they have survived against all odds. The
2.  If the other parts of Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbos, it means there is something wrong with them or the system under which they operate. This must be the only reason why they are required in Nigeria against their wish. If you think they really want to be here, try a referendum
3. Some have dared to say that their population will be too small to sustain them...Another trash... what is  Canada's population compared to their land mass? what is the population Luxembourg and over 90 other countries? Do they come begging us for food or are we not indebted to some of them.
4. The system that brought laws like the Land use act, Onshore offshore oil dichotomy, 1999 constitution, educationally advantage/disadvantages states etc is an immoral system. This system is focused on raping (instead of protecting) its 'vulnerable' units.

I therefore submit that there is no single good thing in Nigeria for the Igbos.  They must be allowed to become what they want.

They have declared their stand... they want to leave.
Just one incontrovertible gain for remaining part of Nigeria will do....Candidly, there is none...

You can only imagine the mentallity of slavery that still exists -
You have an 'employee' who has just resigned and you tell him you won't allow him to resign because there is nothing for you to gain....Hmmmm...funny! isn't it... Did you buy him??

You have a flat mate and he said he wants to move out and have his own apartment and you say that he can't ...why?...because there is nothing for you to gain if he has his own apartment...Is he your slave?

Your brother has been in your familyhome for the past forty five years without anything to show for it except retrogression. To compound matters, there is no future in sight for his children. He then decides to move out and grow up... You put his Children in Jail and Kill the less fortunate ones in the name of Politics.  And then you still ask for what you have to gain by his having to move out and seek greener pastures.  ...Isn't it the height of hollow thinking?? Yet you call him your brother....'brother' indeed!!!

What more can I say.... Sound reasoning, good conscience and all that is good in the human mind and head...does agree that the Igbos have to, and I dare say, must be allowed to be what they want to be.

No Nigerian has the Moral Authority to say that they cannot. After the WW2 the allied forces (led by America) contributed money and rebuilt Germany and Japan. What has Nigeria done for the Igbos?.. except the 20 pounds given for every house, blame game and all that...

And I'll like to point out that I am not Igbo.... I wonder what it would have been like if I was one.... ...I Love their resilience

Think about it.

**** I dare to ask what Yorubas/Hausas (in government) have really done for Nigeria....... except to steal whatever we have laboured to build.

Wise words, demmy.  I was recently complaining on another thread how our politicians are devoid of ideologies beyond this overflogged issue of ethnicity.

I want to request that you tell me what is wrong with Uwazuruike's presentation of his choice? What made it unconstitutional? By going as far as presenting this issue before UN? By using non-violence strategy? Tell me, or would you have expected violence from him? He is not a terrorist and therefore can never be violent. Understood?

As long as Igbo is concerned, we cannot be compared with the minor tribes you've mentioned because we have only three major tribes in Nigeria, others being sub- whatever. We demand acknowledgment being the major contributors to the development in Nigeria; If we are not reciprocated by being given fair treatment, then, no one will expect happiness among us.

I want to assure you that Uwazuruike's alligation is only a function or a display of Nigerian  hatred on Igbo people because other ethnicities (one like OPC) who even use arms for their freedom have not been arrested for one day.  Since we are hated, why not allow us stay on our own?

Uwazuruike should better be released <snip>.

Rubbish indeed...
The talk supporting freedom is rubbish.... while that entrenching oppresion is good talk (??)
The talk calling for the the sanctity of human dignity/life is rubbish while dehumanisation is good talk.
If this posture (opposing the need to change the terms and conditions for remaining in this God-forsaken political entity) is not archaic, backward and sub-human, then nothing is.

Must you threaten another life to entrench your fundamental human rights? That is where the talk is rubbish!

Whose life is being threatened?

I'm forced to ask whether 'you are a stranger in Jerusalem', that you do not know the things that are happening. Are you in Nigeria at all? If not, are you really touching base with events at home?

The people that are being threatened are the oppressed, economically-emasculated and infrastructurally neglected sections/regions and areas of the country.
They have boldly and clearly declared that they will accomplish their aims without arms... so why are they being charged for treason. For trying to undermine the constitution.... they say.

But who wrote the constitution ... a group of military men without any... i mean any input from you, me, or anybody. Yet the first line declares...'We the people'. If this is not the treason... then I wonder what is.

Now men are being detained and tried for demanding that they do not want to be governed under a constitution that they had nothing to do with its compilation. And because they are Ibo... then they must be killed.

The facts of this case are very simple for any genuinely interested mind to understand...
1. There is a contraption called Nigeria with a population in excess of 100 million which is serving the interest of a few people.
2. These people are bent on having their way even at the peril of men's life and future like they have been doing for the past 45 years. At best they have insisted on under-developing us.
3. Any attempt at stating the obvious ( that is the interest that they serve) is punished by death... Ken Wiwa is a clear case in point.
4. They rely on ill-informed heads and ethnicity as a support base.
5. Only the blind, deaf and dumb do not know their stock-in-trade

I therefore insist that the Igbos must be allowed to be what they want to be. Marriage no be by force.

I came across this thread via the naijarita news site, so pardon my late reply.

I believe what Owo is referring to is the fact that after the civil war ended, igbo's (civilians and military members alike) were punished for the war. He refers to the fact that after the second world war, the American's and other countries came together to help rebuild Germany and Japan. Most times people attempt to secede because they have one grievance or the other. If the rest of the country is opposed to that on the basis that it is ONE country and should not be divided, then they should reflect that in their actions. Basically, there should be steps toward reconcilation and healing wounds as opposed to punishing civilians and fostering animosity.

During the almost three years that the civil war was going on, the people needed a currency with which to transact their day to day business. After the war was over, the currency was declared to be practically useless, leaving the people with nothing. This was as opposed to giving people are a fare exchange rate and a fair chance at rebuilding.

Also, prior to the war, a lot of igbo's had set up businesses and owned a lot of property in PH, Lagos and many other cities. This was all by dint of their hardwork. The war front continuously changed throughout the war and civilians had to constantly be on the run for their lives. After the war was over and things had returned to normal, Abandoned Property Acts were passed and the governments of various cities declared igbo people's property as abandoned property (eventhough the people had the deeds and other documents necessary to prove ownership) and sold the property at a pittance to the indigenes of the state. Basically, this was a forced transfer of wealth and is somewhat similar to the quota system adopted in universities, where things are not done solely on merit but based on where you are from. Hence people can complain that a particular ethnic group is "more into business than the locals and are buying up all the property." This is what is killing Nigeria. Things are not done on merit. People are penalized for working hard, students from certain areas are penalized for studying hard etc etc.

I believe this is what Owo was referring to when he asked the question, in which case asking what has been done for the igala's, urhobo's, nupe's, yoruba's and the other tribes is irrelevant since they were not victims of Abandoned Property Acts. Nobody is asking for a handout, but that the people should have been allowed to keep what they worked for and that the government should not have penalized civilian's (by seizing their property) all because of their ethnicity.

Like I said earlier, when a war ends, especially a war of secession, a government should work on fostering unity as opposed to penalizing innocent civilians. That is so shortsighted. Nigeria should have taken a cue from the happenings after WW II.

According to Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of America, those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.

That is a lesson Nigerians need to learn. Yorubas in particular.

      This is d problem wit nigerians when it was gani adams and fasheun we where all complaining when it was dokubo we where all complaining know some fools in this forum are saying it serves him(uwazurike) right,what did he do!if his people arent treated right wouldnt a freedom fighter step up?i bet if nigerians where black americans in the 50's and 60's they would deny martin luther king their support.The governmet would have to release him and other massob members after that then we have a true national confrenece as asari dokubo said in his interview with STV.If we are practicing democracy everyone has the right to speak.the quebecans are speaking seccession and they are getting the attention of the canadian government and guess what?they havent been arrested .UWAZURIKE must be released for peace, when a people get push to the wall they can only push back and i hope u all know what that means