MASSOB Issues New Directive To All Igbos In Nigeria

The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has issued a new directive for all the Igbos living outside the Igbo land. According to it, they should start returning home, to the South East, invest in the region by re-establishing their businesses there. The movement said those living in the northern and western parts of Nigeria show their insensitivity and the nonchalant attitude to the own people. Vanguard quoted the MASSOB national director of information Uchenna Madu: “We have decided and promise to provide adequate security for lives and property in Igboland. MASSOB shall defend Igboland with our blood, valour and enthusiasm. It is our unflinching service to our father land.” The movement also vowed to stop armed robberies, kidnapping and reduce the level of the crime in the region. “Nigeria has vowed to continue to be a state where prejudice, tribalism, exclusion and hate are elevated while nation building is ignored, a state where it seems the only logic for unity is to share oil resources and not on the basis of consent, mutual respect, fraternity and brotherhood,”Mr Madu said. However, such claims and pro-Biafra protests do not find understanding even between the Igbos themselves. For instance, an apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has dissociated itself from any secessionist activitiesand movements. Elder Chris Eluemunoh, the chairman forum of state presidents of Ohaneze, tagged the demonstrations as ‘pure madness’. At the same time, the forum pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to address the infrastructural decay in Igboland, as underdevelopment there is obvious. Several ethnic nationalities of the South South geo-political zone asked Biafra supporters to stay awayfrom their lands. The Urhobo nation has even demanded the Indigenous People of Biafra group to remove themfrom the proposed map of Biafra.