Between Ralph Uwazurike and Nnamdi Kanu

                                         Between Ralph Uwazurike and Nnamdi Kanu

                                             Uwazuirike

The issue of Biafra agitation started fifty years ago and turned cold with the ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ slogan of the federal government of Nigeria. But the perceived marginalization continued. In the 80s the cry of marginalization was muted in close quarters, until Ralph Uwazuruike, led Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) re-awakened the Biafra consciousness among the people of the southeast.

Many people born in the post civil war era, particularly those born in the 80s, who form the bulk of those agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra, learned much about the struggle through MASSOB. Uwazurike group philosophy is hinged on the principle of non-violence as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi to achieve its goal. 

                                                    Kanu

The group has its headquarters in Okwe, in the Okigwe district of Imo State with two arms to the government, the Biafra Government in Exile and Biafra Shadow Government, in 2005, MASSOB  re-introduced the old Biafran currency into circulation. The Biafran pound exchanged for two hundred and seventy naira at the border communities of Togo and the Republic of Benin.

Uwazuruike founded MASSOB in 1999, in the aftermath of the Nigerian elections that produced President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2005, Uwazurike was accused of violence and detained on treason charges after series of demonstration and protest to drive home its point and was released in 2007. Until the emergence of Nnamdi Kanu, Uwazurike was the defector voice for Biafra agitation.

In 2012, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Nnamdi Kanu, a United Kingdom-based activist came into our consciousness, with no known headquarters in the country, the group activities gained prominence with Radio Biafra, coupled with events that led to Kanu’s detention and  his release from custody through court.  IPOB is direct in its approach to achieving its goal, which many observers, particular those that witnessed the civil war kicked against as capable as throwing the country into another crisis.

Between Uwazurike and Kanu, believers of the Biafran cause are divided on who is the right person to deliver the ‘Nigerian Jews’ as the Biafra agitators calls themselves. Anti-Uwazurike faction sees in him a passive character to lead the Igbo people to the Promise Land. Those opposed to Kanu led IPOB, pictures a belligerent character, who lack the moral fibre to deliver. Referring to Kanu’s statement that Biafra will remain in Nigeria.

Who is the right person to serve as the Moses of Biafra, between Imo State born Uwazurike and Abia State born Kanu, who should Biafrans place their trust in. Should they wait for another person, (perhaps the true deliverer?).