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The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB), a separatist group pushing for the secession of the five
South-East states from Nigeria, has begun lobbying the United Nations, American
authorities, and other Western countries to back its campaign.

At the head of the intense lobbying activities, which has seen
the group reaching out to key American government officials and policy makers,
is a Nigerian-born United States-based lobbyist, Chukwuma Obi, himself a
veteran of the Nigerian Civil War.

In a report he filed with the department of justice, in line
with the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Mr. Obi, based in Yorktown, Virginia,
said he received a brief from MASSOB’s founder, Ralph Uwazurike, last year to
lobby officials of the United Nations, American state department, and Congress
so that the Biafran issue would be debated in Congress.

“More importantly,” Mr. Obi said, he has the responsibility “to
convince world organisations to see the importance of a plebiscite for the
Biafrans through a democratic process to determine if they would want a
breakaway Biafra or be in Nigeria.

“We will present in writing and documented evidence the killing
of Ibos in the north of Nigeria to Western governments, particularly the United
States and Great Britain. We will document by correspondences and verifiable
proof why and how our securities are purposely compromised by the use of the
police and military.”

Protests and strikes

His team is also to send delegations to the UN headquarters in
New York to articulate its case.

“We may use protests and hunger strikes to get attention,” he
added. “We may seek police permits to protest in front of the United States capitol
or the United Nations headquarters in New York.”

In addition to his own effort, Mr. Obi said he would also seek
the services of other Washington-based lobbyists “to help us reach individuals
and government committees that will help achieve the objectives of MASSOB.”

The lobbyist, who said he fought in the war as a “young captain
on the Biafra side,” explained that he became involved in the project after Mr.
Uwazurike and some other members of MASSOB approached him and requested that he
should “articulate to the US government the political, economic, and social
plights of Biafrans since their defeat in the 1967 – January 1970 war.”

In the report, Mr. Obi described MASSOB as “an association of
all Ibos, some Efiks, Ibibios, and Ibos in Delta State”, with branches in
England, South Africa, United States, and Canada.

The organisation, he said, finances radio and television
propaganda around the world to push Biafra’s case and pressure world
governments “to let Biafra separate to safeguard and protect its citizens and
property.”

It is, however, not clear on Tuesday what progress Mr. Obi and
his team have made so far as he could not be reached to comment on this story.