[allAfrica.com] [The_Africa-America_Institute_Awards_Dinner] Why MASSOB is Fighting - Ogazi Daily Champion (Lagos) INTERVIEW September 16, 2004 Posted to the web September 16, 2004 By Kenneth Ofoma Lagos The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ebonyi State chapter, recently held a rally at Onueke, a satellite town near Abakaliki, the state capital. KENNETH OFOMA, our Ebonyi State Correspondent cornered the state coordinator of MASSOB, Prince (Dr.) Linus Obrija Ogazi as he speaks on the activities of the group in the state. Excerpts: You said that the actualization of Biafra is in sight. Can you throw more light on that? Thank you very much. The actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra is actually in sight in the sense that MASSOB since its inception from 1999 till date has done a lot both in Nigeria here and with the international community. Our case has reached various corners in the whole world, especially the United Nations Organization (UNO). And with our agreement with the UNO who assured us that if we stick to our non-violence, that they are going to do everything possible to grant us Biafra. They also assured us that if we do everything possible the way they instruct us that they are going to give us Biafra. And with what we have been seeing and what we have been hearing from them, in fact, we are sure that Biafran state is in sight. Can you expatiate on the Biafra Day Celebration of August 26, 2004? The Biafra Day was a special day for the Biafrans. It was a day dedicated for the Biafrans to show their love for the Biafran Nation, to tell the world that actually what we are demanding, that we stick to our demand and that is why we instructed everybody to stay at home, pray and fast so that the United Nations will consider all that we have been doing and so that the Almighty Father will also hear and see our actions and then help us to actualize Biafra. So, it was a day set aside to demonstrate, to tell the world that the occupation of Biafran territory for more than 40 years is against humanity, to tell the world that what the Nigerian government has been doing to Biafrans, that Biafrans don't like it and they want the international community to come. Is there any significance of that particular day, August 26, 2004 in history or you just chose that day? In Biafra however, there is no formal significance of that particular day, but Biafrans with the agreement of the United Nations chose that day to demonstrate our love for our fatherland. How do you think your objective, which is the actualization of sovereign state of Biafra could be achieved without fighting for it, particularly when a lot of people and security operatives already view MASSOB as an illegal outfit and describe their actions as treasonable? There are many ways we have for achieving our objective. The ways varied, but the most important among them is that of non-violence. Before we started this, we have already learnt that India achieved their independence through non- violence. Our own must never be an exception and we knew already that Nigeria is a chaotic state, it is a violent area and that is why we adopted non- violence. We are going to achieve it, in the sense that we will stick to that non-violence and we are relying on the international community without violating any particular law they gave to us. We are sure we are going to achieve it. If there is any other thing we are doing to the contrary then that will be letting ourselves down. MASSOB has assured the whole of Nigeria that we are not going to fire a bullet to get Biafra. We have about 25 stages and we are only in the fourth one. This fourth one is the stay at home on August 26. There are other stages that we are going to follow. So we will all be doing these things according to the directive given to us by the United Nations, we can never go contrary to that and I know that if we follow them gradually, Biafra will be actualized. Do you have any date in mind? Actually for now we don't have any date in mind. But like I said before, Biafran actualization is 100 percent in sight, but we cannot say it is tomorrow or next tomorrow. We know that the fire and the zeal the Biafrans have for the actualization of Biafra is because of the alleged marginalization and maltreatment by the Nigerian government, suppose in 2007 this campaign for an Igboman to be president is actualized, do you think you will still have the enthusiasm to pursue the project of Biafra? Yes, MASSOB has already stated categorically that nothing will make us relent. There is a letter I wrote to all Ebonyians, which I sent to all local government chairmen and the rest. I told them there that MASSOB does not have any urge for any political position as far as Nigeria is concerned. We see Nigeria as a fizzling state and in that line, we cannot have the hope of being a Nigerian president, which I know the North, and the Yoruba can never grant any Igboman the opportunity of becoming the president of Nigeria. These people are just wasting their time. The other time they did it they turned them down. Ekwueme (Dr. Alex Ekwueme) was the person that formed the PDP, what happened to him? He was thrown away. Instead of being with him to eat the fruit of his labour, they just dumped him. I'm just telling everybody that even if they give Igboman the president, we are still asking for Biafra. There is no going back on this Biafra. It is 100 percent sure, we have assured ourselves of that and we are sure that we are going to get that Biafra. Do you have the support of governors from the South East? We have no single support from any governor in the South East. No single support, rather, they obey all the laws and instructions given to them by their boss in Abuja. Anything their boss tells them to do, they do it. Even they go as far as imprisoning their brothers who belong to MASSOB. There are many atrocities they committed; probably they will apologize when Biafra is actualized. So, as of now, no governor from the Eastern states has shown any interest in the affairs of MASSOB, they just support their government because that is the place they are serving right now. How is MASSOB funded, if you go to the Internet they have their web site and they are everywhere? Thank you very much, in fact so many people have asked similar question, but you see MASSOB is not being funded by anybody. No body gives us one-Naira, even from the United States or Germany or Israel. MASSOB is being funded by each of these wretched men that you see here who are members of MASSOB. If we have any project like we have Radio Biafra in United States, every MASSOBIAN contributed in building that Radio Biafra. We have the house we bought with our own money. If you attend our monthly meeting, you will find out that MASSOB pay levy ranging from N5000.00 to N10, 000. 00. All these money are being set aside for any particular project we want to do. MASSOB has decided never to receive even N1.00 from any politician or to receive N1.00 from anybody who says he is a millionaire, because if we do, that will be to our own detriment, and that is why we decided that whatever we do, we contribute within ourselves and do it. And that is how MASSOB is being funded from its inception till now. It is believed in some quarters that only the Nigerian government can grant autonomy to Biafra according to the international law, how do you view that statement? Well, on the contrary, no country can grant an independent state to a part of its country. Never, in the world polity. They can do that only if the Nigerian government now decides to convene sovereign national conference. If a sovereign national conference is convened, the entire ethnic group within the country will have to say their mind, to say what they want, how they want to live in this country. And after saying it, if they find it good to divide the country, like it happened in former USSR. Then when they do this, it means they have to calculate all they have, sum up the assets and liabilities and then divide it accordingly. But without that national conference, there is no way a country can grant a part of its own independence. Could you tell us how MASSOB started in Ebonyi State and who are the staunch supporters of MASSOB in the state, also you may tell us a little bit of your structure in the state? MASSOB started in the state around the year 2000 and I started it. It started very gradually from Abakaliki Township; from there it came to Ezza, and from there to Afikpo Area. Probably not up to two per cent of Ebonyi indigenes knew that MASSOB was here that particular time, until after some time, from 2000 to 2001, the thing started growing till the time we came here (Onueke) for mobilization. During this time, I went through different types of torture in the cell and so on and so forth, courtesy of security agents. At that time nobody is allowed to say Biafra. That is how it started until at a stage when if go to any particular zone now you see MASSOB. Then about the structure. The structure of MASSOB in Ebonyi state is in fact unique because this is a place we made a very good structure. Before 2001, we have zones which are Ebonyi North, Ebonyi Central and Ebonyi South MASSOB. And we were holding meetings in that order, and within the zones we divided them into provinces for mobilization sake. And to further ensure that MASSOB gets to the grassroots, we divided the provinces into districts. And to make sure that MASSOB gets really inside the families, we divided the districts into wards. In each province, an administrator heads the place and each administrator is expected to head 10 districts. The province and districts we are talking about, we are using the type of government the foreigners were using when they came to Nigeria. So province stands for a state, district stands for local government, wards stands as wards as it is now. In those wards we have some officials in charge. Within a district, we have the District Officer (D.O) in charge. The district itself is composed of 10 wards and within the district we also have supervisory councilors, which is up to 23. The structure is designed in such a way that each family must have a taste of MASSOB, and that is how it is all over Ebonyi state right now. It was recently that MASSOB national headquarters divided Ebonyi state into three zones. We call it zones now, probably when Biafra is actualized that place will be recognized as a state and is going to be autonomous. Those zones are Abakaliki zone, Ezikwo zone and Afikpo zone and a chief Administrator heads each of the zone. That is how the structure is. Do your officers receive remuneration? Thank you very much. The spirit of Biafra as I have seen it since inception of MASSOB, is one of the highest spirit any person can encounter. The love we have for Biafra does not even allow any administrator, any D.O. or any officer to demand for any particular pay for any job or anything he or she is doing for MASSOB. None of the officials from administrator to ward officers receive 10k for all that we are doing. What could you say is the major factor that inspires the MASSOB members in this struggle? The spirit of Biafra brings us together, the Biafran spirit inspires us, and we are inspired because of more than 40 years marginalization of Biafrans by the Yoruba and Hausa Oligarchy. We are inspired by every day-to-day killing of Igbos in the Northern part of Nigeria and killing of Biafrans in Yoruba land. If an Hausa man had a problem with his brother, hundreds and thousands of Igbos will be killed and because of that every Igboman who hears about Biafra will jump up and say where does that sound come from. And that is their inspiration. Any Igboman who does not stand to be counted is not a real Igboman, they are contractors like those in Abuja. So that is the inspiration. We have not come together here to do MASSOB because we are paid N5. Rather you see many of our members losing their money, losing their property and everything to make sure that MASSOB is actualized. That is why I' m telling all the politicians to understand that all these things we are doing is not for our own benefit only, we are doing it for everybody, for every Easterner, we are not doing it for our particular selves. After all, this Ebonyi state, some people gathered together to fight for the creation of Ebonyi state and many were killed, many died because of that. But today in Ebonyi state, it is not those that suffered for it that are ruling it, they did it for Ebonyians, they did it for everybody. That is what MASSOB is doing now, for all to Easterners. MASSOB is doing all this things just to emancipate Ebonyi state. That Ebonyi state will not be as it was in Nigeria, so that government will get closer to t he people, especially in this Ebonyi state. That is what we are doing and that is the spirit we have. We are not thinking that somebody will pay us millions, no, but let us actualize it, the Almighty God has to pay us.   ===============================================================================  Copyright © 2004 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ===============================================================================