By Vincent Kalu and Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Many pro-Biafra groups, at the weekend, gathered at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to form a self-indigenous government called Biafra De facto Customary Government, headed by Mujahid Dokubo Asari and other estranged associates of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnadi Kanu.
The new group,it was gathered, would take care of current insecurity challenges faced by the Igbo and also focus on science and technology advancements to make life easier for the people.
Head of Information and Communication for the customary government, Uche Mefor, in a statement, named George Onyibe as secretary of the organisation while Emeka Esiri would be in charge of legal matters.
In his maiden address to Biafrans, last Saturday, Asari said it was time the Igbo take their destiny into their hands and bring freedom to their people, children and generations of Biafrans yet unborn.
He said after the civil war, the resources of Nigeria were confiscated and taken over by those who have now become the masters of Nigeria.
“Today marks a great epoch in our history, a history that has been chequered with pains, sweat and our blood. We went through three years of gruesome genocide. We came out of it and became a people without direction.
“There has been uprising in various parts of Biafra. There was the Ogoni revolt that led to the death of Ken Saro Wiwa and others.
“My comrades, how long will they tell us they must forcefully enter our land and move their animals around? How long will they tell us the acceptable legal principle of ‘Cujus Est Solum Ejus Usque Ad Coelum’ (he who owns the land, owns all that is in the land, above the land and below the land) does not apply in our case? How long will Zamfara has the right to mine its gold and other solid mineral resources and we will not have the right to our own? How long will our creeks, streams, waters, river lets belong to the omnibus Nigerian State, but we have no right to all these resources, as they belong to the Nigerian State?”
Warning the people not to accept the role of second class citizens or play second fiddle; a situation of a slave riding on horseback and master walking on foot, he stressed that all over the world, Biafrans have projected the positive image of the black race, but at home, he said, “we are nobody. In our home, we are now third fiddle. We are mere appendages to Nigeria. It is time we cut ourselves loose.
“This has formed the decision in accepting this position, this trust. I never expected it from all our brothers and sisters across the globe who gathered and said, ‘come and lead’. I hesitated, but I thank God that it is time for us to do our duty and our service to motherland. I have accepted this role; I have dedicated my life hundred percent to play this role.
“I am not your leader, I am not your master; I am just one of you. There are many of you out there who are far better than me; who are more entitled to this position than myself, who are more intelligent than me, who are wiser and have travelled and globe throttled more than me, but you saw in me some qualities that qualified me to even come near this office, I appreciate you.”
He reminded members of the cabinet that many of them may not reach the Promised Land, because the enemy, he said is ever ready to bear his fangs and laws. He, however, assured them that, “by the grace of God, for every Pharaoh, God created a Moses and for every Goliath, God created a David.”
