The Sun
Founder and leader of Biafra Independent Movement/ Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (BIM/MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike says he has not wavered in his commitment to the Biafra cause.
He spoke on the renewed agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra; his non-violence approach and why it received world acclaim. He also flayed Igbo leaders for not working for the interest of their people in this interview with GEORGE ONYEJIUWA.
You started this renewed agitation for the Sovereign State of Biafra. Already it is now public knowledge that BIM/MASSOB is a member of the United Nations Unrepresented Peoples Organization. Now, what next?
Well, I started MASSOB in 1999 with 25 agenda. Before I started MASSOB, I took into consideration the protocol of the Montevideo Convention of 1933 in mind. Before this time, there was this belief that the United Nations would recognise a people who are fighting for their independence using whatever means.
But the Montevideo Convention of 1933 spelt out the modalities for a group of people fighting for their independence. So, what I did is to come up with a 25 agenda of action towards the realisation of an independent Biafra. The first thing I did was to produce the Bill of Rights which I sent to the United Nations in the early part of 2000. I remembered that it was even one of our great sons, Emeka Obasi of Hallmark, who helped me with the correct addresses of the offices of the United Nations. However, I did not make the 25 agenda of action public because I knew that our people are hijackers and that they would steal the programmes. So, I was just taking them one after the other. One of the reasons is that at a certain stage in the struggle, we would have political parties for participation in elections in Nigeria because we took into consideration that referendum is not part of the 1999 constitution as amended and such provisions has to be inserted into the constitution before you start talking about referendum in Nigeria. And this has to be done by our own platform, our people and supporters. That was even why, at a later stage with the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, we even had to float the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), so that the APGA government in the South East could push for such agenda.
But the politicians who came into the party did not understand our motives but rather started carving their own agenda of becoming the president of Nigeria. Today, you can see where APGA is. Instead of a party that is supposed to be present in all the South East states, it is only now in Anambra State and being managed by a small group of people who are using APGA as their source of livelihood.
So, the question of what obtains today. I was taking these things virtually in consideration of the modalities of the Montevideo Convention of 1933. Today, we have a mini-constitution in BIM/MASSOB, which I drafted while being detained at Keffi Prisons. And after my release, it was ratified, which we are using today. It is also on that platform that we have our yearly elections through which our executives emerge. We have our parliament. These are the things that Montevideo Convention enumerated. You must have a constitution, executives, parliament and defined territory. You must have the population and you must have a mini-government and these are the requirements. And we are practising these things. That was even the main reasons that I established Radio Biafra London to educate our members and people that this is what we need to do to have an independent Biafra, and before you could be recognised by the United Nations. And that was even why the United Nations Unrepresented Peoples Organisation said that we are the people they are looking for.
Even before we were recognised, some pro-Biafra organisations had applied to be accepted into United Nations Unrepresented Peoples Organisation, but they were not accepted. But BIM/MASSOB was registered by the UNPO as the representative of the People of Biafra because we have been following the protocol of the Montevideo Convention of 1933.
