•S’East, S’South groups demand referendum on Confab report
Igbo leaders under the aegis of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo rose from a meeting in Owerri, Imo State yesterday with a
warning that the unity of Nigeria would continue to be threatened unless
justice and fairness were ensured and regretted that Nigeria as a
nation had not done well to champion the unity of the country 56 years
after independence.
This is as groups comprising civil
society, socio-cultural, religious and community based organisations
drawn from the South East and South South zones called for an early
referendum on the report of the 2014 National Conference.
The meeting which was held at the Imo
International Convention Center (IICC), Owerri, Imo State started at
about 4pm and rose by 9pm with governors of Imo, Abia attending while
the deputy governor of Enugu State represented her state governor while
those of Ebonyi and Anambra States took permission.
Other leaders who were present at the
meeting included former governors of old Anambra state, Chief Jim
Nwobodo, one-time governor of Anambra, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former
military governor of old Imo, Rear Admiral Allison Madueke, former
Minister of Finance, Kalu Idika Kalu, Colonel JoeAchuzie (rtd.), Prof.
Anya O Anya, Prof. George Obiozor, Dr. Paschal Dozie, Chief Simon Okeke,
and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President, Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey,
traditional rulers from all the states of Igbo land, and a host of
others.
The host governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha
stated that the time for the Igbos to cry for marginalisation was gone
because Igbos were capable of liberating themselves and become
self-reliant.
According to him, “there is no better
time to unite than now. We shall all rise and take our rightful position
in the scheme of things in the nation. As unique people we must live up
to expectations as a people of special stock.
“My dream as Igbo is to see that day we
will be economically sound and export to other nations. Our people are
not marginalised, our problem is finding a way to come together and take
the Bull by the horn. When that happens then we will be happy as a
people”, he said.
For Professor George Obiozor, the
country is not ready to solve the problems of the past, regretting that
for 56 years as an independent nation it still revolves with
uncertainties.
“We are lagging behind because the
leaders have not found it right. The unity of Nigeria has not been
guaranteed. The 2015 elections should have taught this country a lesson
which revealed that Nigeria is still divided as they voted according to
ethnic divide”, he noted.
He warned that as far as there was
injustice in the system, there would be no unity because those whose
justice, fairness were denied would have no interest in peace.
Dr. Paschal Dozie noted that Igbos
should forget the past and face the future, stressing that the
leadership of Igbo nation had to rekindle the effort to change the land
for a better future as the young ones had to learn from the old ones.
Ezeife and Madueke maintained that Igbos
should return to that collective way of doing things they were noted in
order to move forward.
For Madueke “we should be doing things
together as we did in the construction of Imo Airport which he initiated
as the military governor of old Imo state, noting that it was that
spirit of Ndigbo that we have that airport today which happened to be
the only airport in the country that was built by its citizens”.
The groups for the referendum numbering
over a dozen made the call in the resolution adopted at a meeting held
in Umuahia. They noted that it was predicated on their strong belief
that a referendum on the implementation of the confab report “is the
only way forward to save Nigeria”.
They condemned “the hounding, arrests
and intimidation of IPOB members, innocent youths, whose only sin is
their loss of faith in the lop-sided, unfair and unjust unitary Nigeria
where some regions are continuously treated as conquered people”.
Recalling the contemptuous disposition
of President Buhari towards the confab report the groups condemned the
decision by Mr. President “to consign the only solution to the myriad of
problems afflicting Nigeria to the archives”.
They insisted that the document must be
retrieved from the archives, and early referendum conducted to determine
the fate and future of Nigeria.
On the federal government’s reaction to
those expressing opposing views, the groups vehemently condemned “the
apparent decision of the FG to crush dissenting voices”, insisting that
dialogue and negotiation would engender peace, harmony and stability of
the nation.
The groups that were represented at the
meeting under the umbrella of Old Eastern Region Movement include
Traders Organisations, Students Groups, Traditional Rulers and Town
Unions, CAN, Age Grades and Socio-cultural Organizations from the South
East and South South zones.
There were also representatives of Igbo
in Academia, South East Professionals, Niger Delta Youth Forum, PFN,
World Igbo Congress, South East Traders Associations, Igbo Survival
Movement, South East Congress, Igbo Women Assembly, amongst others.
The forum agreed to be holding
bi-monthly meetings “until a larger and broad based coalition was built
amongst like minds in the South West and Middle Belt for a stronger
demand for a referendum on the 2014 confab resolutions”
In the course of deliberations the
interim chairman of the group, Bishop Michael Ibeneme lamented the
continuous heaping of false allegations on the IPOB members in order to
criminalise them, saying such wicked plots would only deepen division in
Nigeria.
“The IPOB are unarmed, non-violent mass
movement of millions of young people, who are completely tired of the
injustice in Nigeria as presently constituted. Everyone knows they are a
big headache to the Federal Government but the resort to laying false
allegation on them in order to incriminate them has turned out to be the
last straw, there is a limit to what people can take,” he said.
He condemned the “obvious plot to
continue killing and arresting them (IPOB members) in the hope that
they would eventually turn around and suddenly fall in love with this
unitary Nigeria where they have been permanently relegated to second
class status will never work. The F.G. is clearly applying the wrong
strategy. We want a referendum now.”
Leader of the Igbo Women Assembly Mrs.
Maria Okwor, who is deputy chairman of the meeting said, only a
referendum will solve the problem now.
“Our children are massacred daily,
arrested in their sleep on trumped up charges of planning to bomb China,
Canada, and Germany. No evidence, no proof, this Abacha style is only
designed to intimidate and cow everybody into fearful silence,” she
said.
Okwor insisted that the federal
authorities was wrongly reacting to the agitation of restructuring
Nigeria into true federalism as it had resorted to “employing brutal
suppression to terrorise and intimidate citizens”
“We insist on an early referendum to
decide the future of Nigeria. Brutality and suppression will never work.
We can’t be intimidated. I am 81 years and Buhari and the DSS cannot
intimidate me,” the activist octogenarian said.
Founder of Igbo Youth Movement (IYM)
and deputy secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, Evang. Elliot Uko
harped on the need for the group to build broader and strong coalition
across the country in order to harness opinions from more experienced
minds in the task of redeeming Nigeria.
“Yes, there is bitterness,
discontent and anger in Eastern Nigeria today, but we must try and carry
everybody along. Those who are yet to see that restructuring is the
only way forward must be converted. We would open their eyes to see that
Nigeria can never move forward unless we revert to true federalism,” he
said.
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