Nigeria: Massob Militants Plot Against Britain, Over Niger Delta
July 21, 2008
21 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Emma Ogu
Owerri
Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has warned Britain against sending troops to the Niger Delta, saying that MASSOB will join forces with the militants to fight such foreign troops.
Uwazuruike, in an exclusive chat with Daily Champion yesterday in Owerri, said British forces would be defeated if they came to Niger Delta because his men were ever ready to defend the people of the region.
According to him, the deployment of foreign soldiers in the region will be viewed as war between the North and South and MASSOB cannot afford to sit and watch the killing of our "brothers in the Niger Delta."
"All the problems in Nigeria today were caused by Britain. I think God is looking for a way to punish them. If they go to Niger Delta, they will be defeated. If they go to Niger Delta what you will have will be civil war between the North and South because the Igbo will see the Niger Delta people as their brothers. Though they were against us during the Biafran war, we have all learnt our lessons. The Housas merely used them against us. We have taken that behind us. If British people or whatever you call them come to Niger Delta today to fight our brothers, I tell you MASSOB will join our brothers to fight them".
The MASSOB leader said that the marginalisation of Ndigbo in positions of authority under the present administration in the country was real and that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s government was only implementing the directive principle of state policy.
According to him, it is a state policy that Ndigbo should be kept away from top positions and successive governments in the country both military and civilian, have implemented the policy to the fullest since the end of the civil war.
"It has always been like that for Ndigbo since 1970. Every regime tends to be worse for the people of the race. When Gowon was there, it was like that, when Shehu Shagari was there it was like that. Think of Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Shonekan, Abdulsalam, Obasanjo regimes, it was the same. The thing is that immediately after the war, there was understanding between Hausas and Yorubas that the Igbo should be kept under and that is what is happening since then. It is a fundamental policy and whoever that is there will execute the policy. After Yar’Adua, another person that will come will become the worst enermy of Ndigbo".
On the issue of corruption in Nigeria, he said that the country would not make any progress in the anti-corruption war because those spear-heading it are corrupt people. According to him, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who started the programme was more corrupt than any other leader Nigeria has produced and yet the incumbent government of President Yar’ Adua refused to prosecute him.
" Obasanjo deceived the people that he was recovering Abacha’s stolen money but ended up stealing more than Abacha. Yar’Adua will end up being more corrupt than Obasanjo also. If he is sincere with anti- corruption programme why hasn’t he tried Obasanjo. The meaning of one Nigeria is stealing".
He said that the only way to salvage the country was for the people to carry out a revolution that would consume all the past rulers of the nation as it happened in Ghana.