Okorocha vs Uwazurike: The infamous fight of Biafran saboteurs

Okorocha vs Uwazurike: The infamous fight of Biafran saboteurs 

As the story goes Raph Uwazurike made Rochas Okorocha governor. He was the one who introduced Okorocha to Ojukwu as a person who can deliver Biafra. Ojukwu in his wisdom was very sceptical of Okorocha, however Uwazurike vouched for him.

Reluctantly, Ojukwu accepted and endorsed Okorocha as the flagbearer of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). 

As Ojukwu had feared, Okorocha who came eventually became the governor of Imo State, using Ojukwu cum Biafra name decamped and joined what is widely perceived as the party of the enemies.

Ever since then, he had put Io State in chains of poverty and servitude. Pensioners in Imo State are dying in massive numbers. Civil servants retire without gratuity and pensions. Okorocha had ultimately brought Imo State to ruins. In place, Okorocha strongly suspected to be a closet Muslim is slowly islamising the state and trying to export his quasi-Islamic ideology across Biafra.

Raph Uwazuruike has gone down in history as the person who resurrected Biafra with the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). At the peak of the movement Uwazuruike was arrested and kept in Nigerian secret prison for over two years. On coming out, Uwazuruike became lily-livered. He stopped pursuing Biafra with the zeal it required and started meddling in Nigerian politics. That made him to incur the wrath of Biafrans who lost confidence in him as the person that would bring Biafra.

Recently, Uwazuruike blasted Okorocha as a saboteur of the Biafran cause. He was responding to a statement credited to

Okorocha urging Biafrans not to use Biafran agitation as a tool to blackmail Buhari. “The Igbo will not use the agitation for Biafra as a platform to negotiate the place of Ndigbo, but will support the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to attract the dividends of democracy that eluded us in the past.

“We should try to jettison religious sentiments and support President Buhari. The Igbo will not use Biafra as a front; we condemn those agitating for Biafra because that is not Ndigbo’s need.”


However, Uwazuruike swiftly condemned Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, on his criticism of the agitations of MASSOB for a Biafran State.


Uwazuruike however, urged Biafrans to disregard Okorocha’s opinions against the actualization of Biafra. In a statement released by MASSOB’s National Deputy Director for Information, Mazi Chris Mocha,Uwazuruike described Okorocha as ‘a common saboteur to the Igbo cause.’ And as such lacks the capacity to decide or determine what happens in Igbo land.

“Okorocha is aiding and abetting the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government in the continued marginalization of Ndigbo. He is also financing the central mosque near the Government House, Owerri, Imo state to the detriment of our people.”

“I came into the world to do one thing and that is to achieve Biafra and liberate my oppressed people from bondage in Nigeria.”


Follwoing Uwazuruike's allegation, Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemedo, in a statement countered and labelled Uwazuruike as the real saboteur.

“Although Chief Uwazuruike had made his claim and his allegation, the indisputable fact remains that the real Igbo saboteur is Chief Uwazuruike himself and not Governor Okorocha, because all over the world, the real enemies of the people are those who fail or refuse to tell them the truth”.

“Obviously, what must have prompted Chief Uwazuruike’s media attack on Governor Okorocha this time was the governor’s condemnation of the violent protest in the name of Biafra some weeks ago, and his remark that Igbo people would not use MASSOB as a platform to ask for what is due to them in an entity called Nigeria. But the truth must be told.

“Chief Uwazuruike had used his MASSOB to adopt and support the Peoples Democratic Party and former President Goodluck Jonathan when they held sway. He should mention one project the PDP-led Federal Government or former President Jonathan did in any part of Igbo land.

“The MASSOB leader was part of the hate campaign against the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari, while Governor Okorocha was telling his Igbo kinsmen to read accurately the body language of the rest of Nigerians. Today, it is left for Ndigbo to tell themselves the truth about who was the real saboteur, Uwazuruike or Okorocha?

“It is also left for Chief Uwazuruike to tell his audience why MASSOB went to bed throughout the period Jonathan was the President, only for MASSOB to wake up from their deep slumber now that Buhari is the President”, he said.

According to him, the Igbo cannot be asking for sovereignty in a country that they were one of the major stakeholders, adding that “if MASSOB had failed to achieve sovereignty under former President Goodluck Jonathan that they supported, would they achieve it under President Buhari they never supported? Who would allow them to achieve that? he asked.

“Truly speaking, the issue of MASSOB is a distraction. And Igbo leaders and the governors in the South-East geo-political zone won’t be part of that unnecessary distraction. The leaders and governors in the zone have resolved to work with Buhari to attract development to the area. And the projects have begun to come with the elevation of the Imo Airport to Cargo International Airport. Work is already in progress in the place.

“Governor Okorocha is an Igbo man and would continue to support and promote genuine cause of the Igbo within the corporate Nigeria and in the overall interest of the Ndigbo both at home and in the Diaspora.”