Ex-Arewa People's Congress boss says Biafra is a ploy to colonise the south-south

FORMER Arewa People's Congress (APC) chairman Alhaji Sagir Ringim has warned that the ongoing agitation for Biafra is a ploy by certain members of the Igbo elite to colonise parts of the south-south and usurp its resources.

 

Over recent months, several secessionist groups have been clamouring for the recreation of the defunct republic of Biafra that existed between July 1967 and January 1970. Supporters of some of these groups that include the Independent People of Biafra (Ipob), the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) and the Biafra Independent Movement (Bim) have included part of the south-south in their proposed nation.

 

Although most south-south leaders have come out to distance themselves from this Biafran agitation, many secessionist groups still dream of a country made up of what used to constitute the Eastern Region of Nigerian. Alhaji Ringim has warned that the whole Biafra agitation is a calculated effort to capture the economic prospects of the minority ethnic nationalities in the oil rich south-south.

 

Alhaji Ringim said: “Those Ipob people have a hidden agenda to recolonise the south-south, capture the region and colonise the oil fields for the betterment of the Igbos. Biafra is not blessed with solid minerals apart from coal and the geology of the region can’t support an independent country.

 

"If Ipob are now saying that yes, we want to have Biafra, what are you going to do with more than three quarter of the Igbos who are outside the east, those in Kano, those in Lagos what are you going to do with them? If you take all those people back to Biafra, they have no houses to live and they will have no means of livelihood."

 

A former intelligence officer with the Nigerian Army, Alhaji Ringim explained that because of the natural shortcomings in the southeast, Ndigbo survived as a diaspora ethnic group better than any dominant group in Nigeria. He dismissed Ipob activities as orchestrated blackmail to arm-twist other stakeholders in the polity for more economic advantage.

 

Meanwhile, Bim leader Chief Ralph Uwazuruike has appointed a Catholic Priest, Reverend Father Samuel Aniebonam as the chairman of the Biafra Independent National Electoral Commission.  Making the announcement at Ojukwu Memorial Library, Owerri in Imo State, Chief Uwazuruike explained that the measure was in line with Bim’s principle of non-violence towards establishing a sovereign control over the territorial boarders of the new Biafra.

 

He added that Father Aniebonam and his team of would conduct and supervise the internal election in all the Bim offices on February 22, 2016. It is not yet clear if other Biafran groups will recognise the new electoral body.