We’ll go to war with North if..., MASSOB warns Boko Haram

THE leader of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, has expressed utter discomfort over the continuous killing of the Igbo in the northern parts of the country as he said the Igbo nation would consider an option of declaring war against the North if pushed to the wall.

The MASSOB leader, who made this known said the Igbo nation had borne the pains of sustained killing of their kinsmen in the northern parts of the country by terrorist groups for too long, contending that the issue, to members of his group, has assumed a more dangerous dimension which he said demanded an urgent attention.

The Igbo, he said, would not fold their arms while recording the highest casualty in the killing fields of the north, warning that MASSOB would soon engage the North in a bloody war to avenge the killing of innocent Ndigbo, who he said, have been plying their trades in the troubled northern zone.

Uwazuruike made the remarks at the wedding ceremony of the daughter of former Chairman of Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, in Obinugu community in Imo State, just as he assured the Hausa community in the Southeast of adequate protection, disclosing that there won’t be reprisal.

“The Hausa community living in the Southeast should not be afraid, no one will attack them. We are not going to resort to reprisals but will soon declare a full scale war against the North. We can’t take it anymore. We will take the war to their doorsteps now,” he said.

The separatist leader noted that the Nigerian government has failed in its responsibility of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians particularly the Ndigbo living in other parts of the country, especially in the Northern states.

It is recalled that over 70 Igbo traders were killed in a recent attack on a motor park in Kano when suicide bombers blew up Lagos-bound luxury buses.

Meanwhile, the Boko Haram insurgence in the northern parts of the country has started attracting the sympathy of the south-west zone, amid resolve by the leadership to hold special meetings on how to assist the North and the Federal Government to surmount the problem.

There has been a consensus among well-meaning Yoruba leaders that the Federal Government should have a rethink on the issue of request for Amnesty by the northern leaders for Boko Haram members, and the need for the government to hold a national dialogue aimed at solving the national crises before they degenerate into unimaginable chaos.

The Yoruba leaders, it was learnt, are now of the view that if Nigeria must overcome the problem of terrorism, the north should be assisted greatly with collective efforts across the country such that the problem would not end up consuming the country, going by the sustained trend. The South-West leaders, Nigerian Tribune learnt, were also of the view that on the issue of amnesty option for Boko Haram members, the presidency should not take a rigid stance, such that it would be easy to use amnesty to convince the northern leaders to accede to the necessity of holding a national dialogue for all component units to discuss the future of the country.

The new thinking in the South-West, it was gathered, was that the Federal Government should take necessary steps to prevent Nigeria from entering the phase of another civil war, which the Boko Haram insurgence, militancy in the Niger Delta and the spate of violence in the southern parts of the country had been portending.

One of the prominent Yoruba leaders, who also hold key offices within the southern political groups, Dr Kunle Olajide, affirmed the new thinking among the Yoruba leaders, contending that the concern of most of the leaders was that since a country could not survive two civil wars, it would be appropriate for all the ethnic groups in Nigeria to rally forces behind the government to prevent such.

Olajide said he was of a personal view that patriotic Nigerians must, as a matter of urgency, come together and offer useful suggestions to the government and the northern leaders on what to do to make all parts of the country safe for Nigerians, irrespective of where they came from.

“The Yoruba have made enough sacrifices to promote the cause of national unity and so are not willing and prepared to support move capable of making the country go into another civil war, a reason leaders would support any agenda aimed at addressing the issue of Boko Haram insurgence in the country,” he said.

According to Dr Olajide, at the moment, the South-West people were not happy with the current system of politics in the country and the kind of constitution the country had been experimenting with, just as he said the two would have to be corrected in the interest of peace and tranquillity.

Olajide said the Federal Government should seize the opportunity of the Centenary celebration to correct whatever the anomaly that existed in the country’s socio-economic and political system, and not just limit the Centenary to mere jamboree and celebration as being generally canvassed.

“Now that we are planning towards the centenary age of Nigeria, we should use the period for stock taking, while concerted efforts should be made to address the grievances of each and every ethnic group, while creating atmosphere for justice, equity and sense of fairness to prevail in the country,” he stressed.