*Photo:Ralph Uwazuruike*
From pitbull to poodle, if not an actual lion reduced to a stuffed one. That is the impression left by a video of Ralph Uwazuruike, founder of MASSOB, pleading for help over a disputed parcel of land he says has owned for 15 years.
According to him, ownership had never been questioned. He flashed title documents, certificates and assorted papers to prove it. Somehow, two men allegedly emerged from the dark corners of the Owerri omo onile frat to start pissing on him like a first-time landowner.
First came a demand for N7 million. Uwazuruike says he paid. Why? “To let peace reign.” That is a staggeringly remarkable explanation, especially from a lawyer and defunct separatist who challenged the Nigerian state with the subtlety of a thunderstorm.
Then came another demand of N10 million, which he says he refused to pay because, after all, he is the rightful owner of the land. The block work on the site, he says, has been smashed up. Peak see finish, this. There was a time when Uwazuruike’s name carried enough voltage to burn the alleged land grabbers to crisps if they showed up within one kilometre radius of him. He was legit high tension cable, whose MASSOB gave the Federal Government nosebleeds.
Now, the contrast is almost surreal. Watching him plead like a Bello Turji hostage is genuinely astonishing. But there is also something fishy about the affair. If the land has genuinely been his for 15 years, why was N7 million paid to anybody? Our land disputes are murky, but people do not usually part with that sort of money merely to “let peace reign” unless they suspect peace may not reign on its own.
If the Certificate of Occupancy and other documents displayed are truly clasping, why do they not appear sufficient to settle the matter? Why the public lamentation? Why the bargaining? Why the visible uncertainty? The uncomfortable possibility is that the dispute is not as straightforward as presented. Underdogs naturally attract sympathy, but underdogs are not automatically right.
The most brutal reality, however, is that of his vanished influence. Back when Uwazuruike Biafraing, nobody would have dared duel with him over land except mad was madding the person. The fear of him was a title document in itself. But power fades and loyalists evaporate, while networks thin out, which I think are the reasons he is waving files before a camera and begging for intervention.
The visibly withered aura of a man who once operated like a parallel authority makes him look like he is almajirising for justice over property he insists is indisputably his. Sad.