Casmir Osuoha, a businessman has been one of the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and close friend of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
However, as events unfolded, when agents of the state were allegedly hounding for the self-determination leader, Osuoha went underground, hiding from one Nigerian community to the other till now.
Narrating his relationship with the IPOB leader, Osuoha told Daily Sun, the reason why he joined the organisation, and maintained that he remains resolute to the struggle for the actualisation of Biafra through legitimate and peaceful means.
What has been your experience since the Biafra struggle?
Firstly, I was born some 54 years ago, and an adherent member and supporter of the IPOB.
I’m equally a dye in the wool supporter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s idea for self-determination for reasons every discerning Nigerian, whether Igbo and non- Igbo alike should acknowledge.
In this vein, I started facing harassment from the Nigerian police and the Department of State Security, which prompted my hiding away from my home and seeking refuge in various villages and towns.
Why did you join IPOB?
I joined IPOB on March 2015. The reason was that I perceived the organisation to be a genuine platform to liberate my people from agony and perpetual suffering, oppression, and marginalisation. Nigeria has not been fair to the Igbo since after the end of the civil war; the civil war is still on, but the only difference is that there are no more staccato sounds of guns, shelling, mortar, grenades, etc in Igbo land, but the policies of the government have been anti Igbo; formulated to asphyxiate the race. So, it was and it’s still a divine call for me to join in this veritable peaceful agitation, just like God divinely called Moses to liberate His people, Israel from the bondage and affliction of Pharaoh, so it is with Nnamdi Kanu. He is on a divine mission to liberate his people.
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is my leader; he is the only genuine leader Igbo have had since the demise of Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. I fell in love with his ideology behind the actualisation of Biafra when I started listening to Radio Biafra, which was broadcasting from London since 2013, which corroborated my experience, the truth of what my father told me about the Igbo stories and books the I have read especially the cause of the civil war in Nigeria that began in 1967 through 1970 and how my people were massacred; mass genocide carried out against the Igbo, where over two million of them were killed.
We also have to be aware that Biafra is not just a group of persons that just came out of nowhere to exist, but it has been in existence for over 400 years far before Nigeria was ever conceived. Although the First Republic of Biafra was first declared by the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967.
How long will you continue to hind?
I don’t know. One thing I know is that we shall over come. If I have my way, I will leave Nigeria for now. There is nothing working.
Have you had any bitter experience in this struggle?
Yes. No struggle is sweet. The late Nelson Mandela passed through untold tribulations. Agents of the state have harassed me severally.
The first was, when we, IPOB members organised a peaceful demonstration at Onitsha in Anambra State and in Aba, Abia State, on December 2, 2015 and February 9, 2016 respectively, in conjunction with the coalition of some human rights organisations from the East, agitating from the Nigerian government, “the restoration of the Sovereign State of the Republic of Biafra.”
We were attacked by heavily armed Nigerian military alongside the police, who threw tear gas canisters on us. They arrested and shot a lot of my brothers and sisters that very day. I was among those arrested and detained unjustly inside a military van for two days without food leaving us to die inside. We were later taken to an unknown location outside Anambra State, where we were arrested. We were flogged on daily basis to denounce our beliefs, zeal and passion for the movement of the actualisation of the Republic of Biafra and also to say detestable things against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, our leader in the movement.
One Sylvester and I were forced to sign an undertaking that we would not associate ourselves in any way with any group or persons who are in any way want or are already championing any secession group in Nigeria. I was released from detention on December 9, 2015. Note that there was no record of those in their detention; that is why you hear of people missing and never found because some of them were extra judicially killed. Then on our next peaceful none violent protest in Aba on February 9, 2016, two hours into the protest almost all the Nigerian security apparatuses were unleashed on IPOB members. Some people lost their lives to sporadic gunshots and the dehumanisation from the Nigerian security, especially the military. I saw them, I watched them point gun on peaceful people and shot them. At Aba, I was subjected to abuse, intimidation by the Nigerian security operatives. I was also molested by one Hamed (according to what his colleagues called him) of the Nigerian Army, who told me emphatically that day will be my last on earth, he took our pictures after stripping us and threatened to make it go viral if we failed to cooperate.
He told me to call my wife and my mother and say farewell to them and also let them know that we will not see any more because it will be either I die now or they take me to Kuje prison, Abuja the following week without any trial.
They refused taking our injured members to hospital, so many people were allowed to bleed to death in my very presence, and seven people were shot to death the following morning. We were released after some human right groups mounted pressure and raised the alarm on the unjust and illegal detention of some IPOB members by the military in an unknown location.
If you read the Amnesty International reports on the military killing of Biafran agitator this dates I mentioned were captured in the reports.
How can IPOB be appeased?
The Nigeria government has never been fair to the Igbo even before the declaration of Biafra in 1967. The Igbo have been suppressed and marginalised for decades. Even the blind know that Nigerian establishment ran by the Northern oligarchy is suppressing Igbo in all ramifications.
In addition, we are underrepresented in nearly all top government positions, thoroughly neglected by federal authorities, except in the quasi-confiscation of oil revenues. Igbo continue to be marginalised in all facets of the national polity. We are treated as second-class citizens. Nigeria is a very sick political enclave, deceiving people that know the price of everything but the value of none.
So, the only way out to solving these pathetic monstrous problems is only one way, ‘Pharaoh, let my people go’ As far as I am concern, Nigeria has no meaningful meaning whatsoever in terms of the multifaceted language.
No one can validly tell me the meaning of Nigeria in his or her own native language or mother tongue as it were because it does not have any meaning at all. It is alien to me and my people as well. Again, to me, actualising Biafra through legitimate and peaceful means is a divine project that must come to fruition one day whether anybody likes it or not.
People should bear in mind that freedom is not cheap. IPOB wants a referendum conducted to determine their fate. That is the civilised thing to do instead of killing people and forced them to remain in a marriage. Scotland that has been talking of session conducted a referendum and those who wanted the status quo to remain outweighed those who wanted to opt out. Not quiet long there was Brexit; where British wanted to opt out of European Union (EU), they conducted a referendum and majority supported it. Why would ours be different; let’s carryout referendum to determine those who want Biafra and those opposed to it. That will settle everything instead killing people in the name of One Nigeria.
Credit: Daily Sun