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Uwazuruike: Burden of His Igboness
Comfort Obi
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Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo,
leader of the Niger Delta
Peoples' Volunteer Force (NDPVF), has been released (on bail) from detention. He left Abuja in style – a charttered aircraft – and was given the priviledge of landing at the Air Force Base, Port Harcourt. Before his arrival, thousands of his fans and comrades-in-arms had taken over the Airforce base.
They were refused entry by gun-carrying Airforce men who had locked the gates. But they wouldn’t go back. They began to shoot their guns – in front of the base! They were repelled. That was only temporary. When the aircraft bearing Dokubo touched down, one of them scaled the wall of the Airforce base and opened the gate for his compatriots. Dokubo came out, clenched fists up and sporting an Adaka Boro Tee-shirt. After the airport reception, he entered a Hummer jeep, on which was hoisted a big Niger Delta flag, and went on a drive, with hundreds of cars, along Port Harcourt streets. A hero has been made. Now, he is being hosted by his people. Even former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, joined in the frenzy. He hosted Dokubo in Lagos on Tuesday, June 19.
For the records, Dokubo was arrested at about the same period as Ralph Uwazuruke, head of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun and Gani Adams, both leaders of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC). Fasehun and Adams had, months ago, regained their freedom. Penultimate week, Dokubo was also released. Uwazuruike is now the orphan amongst them.
For many reasons, I will never play the ethnic card. I appreciate that all those who have helped me in life are non-Igbos. None of them is from the South-east.
Yet, I do realise that when the chips are down, I am from somewhere. I am proudly Igbo. And when an injustice becomes too obvious, one is forced to ask: What did my people do? That is what I am asking now.
I am no admirer of Uwazuruike. Nor of MASSOB. MASSOB represents everything the Igbo do not want now. It has not helped the Igbo cause. Instead of MASSOB to be a rallying point for the Igbo, particularly the youths, as is the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), the Niger Delta Peoples' Volunteer Force (NDPVF), it became a problem for Ndigbo. If MASSOB had concentrated on the injustices done to Ndigbo, nobody would have quarrelled. But it derailed, and became a menace. It resorted to reducing some parts of Igboland to battle-fields. Our youths were being killed during senseless battles with policemen. Some rich Igbo people became subjects of attack. Some Igbo businesses were being ruined. So, you wonder what point MASSOB was making. MASSOB's derailment quickly reminds one of the money-spinning hostage-taking in the Niger Delta. While the militants in the area concentrated mostly on foreigners, the reverse was the case in Igboland. In Anambra, their own people became targets! The rich became victims. It happened to the once famous “Bakassi Boys.” From fighting criminals, they became a criminal gang, one which began to harass and torture innocent citizens. When they were banned, those who hailed them before were relieved. But I digress. I was talking about being an Igbo, and the discrimination that, atimes, goes with it. At no point has it been more pronounced than now.
I had a couple of times canvassed for the release, from detention, of Dokubo and Uwazuruike. My opinion is that nothing is gained by their detention. It only makes them heroes. With Dokubo's release, only Uwazuruike is still being held by the government. The four of them – Fasehun, Adams, Dokubo, Uwazuruike – are the same. They, allegedly, committed the same offence. In fact, Uwazuruike was the mildest of them all in his demands, approach, and actions. He was just all talk and no action. He never destroyed anything which belonged to the federal government. He never harassed foreigners. Instead, he harassed his own people.
So, what is he still doing in detention? Many people believe that the only reason he is still being held is because of his Igboness. His ethnic group is a burden to him. He belongs to a very docile ethnic group which does not care. Ndigbo do not make the right noises. They do not threaten the existence of Nigeria. The oil-producing areas in Igboland are in peace. They are not disturbing the economy of Nigeria. They are not worrying foreigners. Criminal gangs have not hijacked a just cause, and are not causing mayhem for Nigeria. The South east governors are not asking for Uwazuruike's release, as did Dokubo's Niger Delta governors. There are no Igbo elders, in the mould of E.J. Clark and co. worrying anybody to release Uwazuruike. Isn’t it sad that those asking for his release are mostly non-Igbo – Clark, Anthony Enahoro, Gani Fawehinmi, Gani Adams and Dokubo? When the Igbo ask, it is in passing. The statements are not strong enough. Yet, Uwazuruike committed no greater offence than the other released three. In detention, he is not disturbing or threatening anybody. This day when Tinubu hosted Dokubo, he (Dokubo) revealed that Obasanjo offered him an oil bloc as bribe. Nobody is asking for an oil bloc for Uwazuruike. All he needs is a release from detention – a courtesy already extended to the others.
I repeat, I am neither a fan of Uwazuruike, nor of MASSOB. But would Ndigbo please stand up and ask for – no insist on – his release? What is good for the goose, it is said, is also good for the gander!
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