12 November 2007
editorial
Lagos — After nearly two years of painful incarceration, the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, was granted a three-month partial bail the other day by the Court to enable him conclude the burial rites of his late mother.
This means that if Uwazuruike's mother had not died, he would not have been granted bail.
As Uwazuruike recalled in front of his teeming supporters who trooped out to welcome him: "Now I have not been granted bail. I have only been allowed 90 days to go and bury my mother. It therefore stands to reason that if my mother had not died, I would certainly not have been released. Asari Dokubo's mother did not die before he was released. Ganiyu Adam's mother did not die before he was released. Frederick Fashuen's mother did not die before he was released. My mother had to die for me to be released simply because I am an Igbo man"
Without any emotional attachment to Uwazuruike's cause we think that his detention is one detention that cries up to high heavens for vengeance. Here is a man who was arrested and clamped into jail alongside Gani Adams, Frederick Fasheun and Asari Dokubo at the behest of Olusegun Obasanjo who felt that they constituted threats to his misplaced third term ambition. Since then Adams, Fasheun and Dokubo had long been released, but Uwazuruike was left to languish in prison. All the previous applications filed by his lawyers to secure his freedom had been refused on frivolous grounds. Now the court has granted him only three months so that he could bury his mother and afterwards return to prison. Is there any case that elicits more sympathy than this?
The Federal government should stop pretending that Uwazuruike's detention does not have any political colouration. Of course, it has. That is why we are calling on President Yar, Adua to order for his full liberty and the liberty of all the other MASSOB members in detention. That is one way to avoid different people reading different meanings into Uwazuruike's detention. Besides, what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. If Adams, Fasheun and Dokubo are breathing the air of freedom today, equity demands that Uwazuruike and other MASSOB members be let off the hook. Since Obasanjo who ordered their detention has quit power, what is the rationale for their continued detention? Every citizen is presumed innocent until proved guilty.
In any case, why should a citizen suffer prolonged incarceration for expressing his views about Nigeria ? The beauty of democracy is that the citizens are free to express their opinion without any form of intimidation, persecution or victimization. The contrary will be totalitarianism and dictatorship which we witnessed during the military regimes.
Uwazuruike and other MASSOB members are not dangerous to the Nigerian society. They say they are fighting against the marginalization of Igbo in Nigeria. So far they have been going about this in a very non-violent way. They are not carrying arms and waging an attack on the citizenry. More importantly, the right to self-determination has been recognized in several United Nations conventions, instruments and documents. Therefore, the agitation for such a right in Nigeria should lead to dialogue and negotiation. Resort to open intimidation, use of force or imprisonment can only escalate the problem.
The best thing for the Yar'Adua government to do now is to order that Uwazuruike and other MASSOB members languishing in jail should be given their full freedom. Anything short of this is playing the ostrich.
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