S/East Leaders Disown IPOB to Avert Genocide
The need to avert genocide against Ndigbo living in the northern parts of Nigeria and to stave off the total destruction of the South East, may have spurred Governors and leaders of the zone into pre-emptive action by reaffirming commitment to one Nigeria and reiterating their disavowal of separatist groups, as representative of the South East.
Last weekend, sequel to an earlier meeting with a Presidential delegation led by Defence Minister Major General Magashi (retd.), Governors and some elders of the South East had met in Enugu to address the insecurity in the zone.
In the communique, read out by the Chairman of the South East Governor’s Forum, Engineer Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, the meeting resolved, among others, as follows:
· The Southeast leaders condemn in totality the violent secessionist agitations in the Southeast. We firmly proclaim that we do not support them. They do not speak for Southeast.
· The impression that Southeast leaders are silent over the agitations of our youths for secession is not correct.
· Southeast governors, Ohanaeze Ndigbo president, National Assembly members, ministers and the leadership from Southeast, notable leaders from Southeast had come out publicly many times in the past to speak against such agitations.
· Southeast leaders have set up a committee to engage such youths to stop and allow the elders of Southeast to address their fears.
· Meeting directed our governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo to liaise with indigenes from Northern part of Nigeria and other indigenes of other regions that are living in the Southeast to come out openly to assure their people and Nigerians that they are very safe and well protected while living in the Southeast.
· The meeting also set up a committee under Ohanaeze to articulate and address all burning issues to further meet amongst ourselves and further meet with the presidential team.
· We the Igbo reaffirm commitment to one united Nigeria under the platform of justice, equality of rights, fairness, love and respect for one another.
· The communiqué also noted the threats by some groups in some other regions against the people of Southeast even as the leaders firmly promised to protect everyone either from the Southeast or anywhere living in the Southeast. We plead with the leaders of other regions to please note the threats against our people and protect them.
· We condemn the killing of security agents, burning of security infrastructure and killing of civilians in Southeast and even other regions.
· We request the security agencies to discharge their duties within the rules of engagement under the rule of law.”
The communiqué endorsed the Southeast joint security outfit, Ebube Agu, and asked all the personnel of Ebube Agu to work with security agencies and respect the rights and privileges of all those living in the Southeast and her visitors.
Furthermore, the communiqué also requested National Assembly members from the Southeast to support state police creation in the ongoing Constitutional amendment.
Competent sources close to the meeting told True Vision that whereas both the Governors and the elders shared the position over the marginalisation of the South East, they were worried about the false narrative being peddled that the Igbo were intolerant of strangers or were indeed killers of visitors. According to one source, particularly painful to them was the killing of Ahmed Gulak, a politician from Adamawa State whose people have for long protected the interests of Ndigbo in their midst until Boko Haram started making life uncomfortable for both indigenes and visitors.
The suspicion that some fifth columnists were being funnelled into the South East, to create mayhem which would justify pogrom against the Igbo in the North, was another reason for the pre-emptive action. It will be recalled that, in the wake of the attack on the Owerri Correctional facility by “unknown gunmen”, Governor Hope Uzodinma whose Imo State had been turned into a war zone had exonerated the IPOB of complicity in the attack.
Besides, at other times, Governor Uzodinma had cried out that about 75 percent of those involved in attacks on police stations were not of Igbo extraction thus heightening the fear that the South East was being set up for destruction. Perhaps more mysterious was the case of the lone ‘policeman’ who blew himself up while approaching a primary school in Ebonyi State, leaving people to wonder what a policeman was doing with an explosive near a primary school.
According to these sources, clandestine meetings have been going on between some Igbo elders and well-meaning counterparts from the north who, in turn, had been prevailing on their restive youth not to take any retaliatory action against the Igbo with whom, despite the civil war, they have had cordial relations for several decades.
The Civil War experience was another reason given for the resolutions reached by the Governors and the elders. In fact as one elder put it, obviously, the meteoric resurgence of Ndigbo in every facet of life both locally and internationally continues to be the envy of some Nigerians who would stop at nothing to take the Igbo back to the immediate post-Civil War experience when, despite the amount held in the bank, each Igbo account holder was given only twenty pounds to restart life. To buttress his point, he said obviously, another “abandoned property” saga was loading and that the Igbo should be wise to avert such a possibility.
Though they would not say so, it would appear that the President’s comments, particularly when he described the South East as a dot on Nigeria’s map, had exacerbated worries that the Igbo of South East zone, who have been excluded from the leadership of the nation’s security architecture, could be decimated without anyone raising an eyebrow.
Moreover, one elder recalled how some Nigerians goaded the leader of secessionist Biafra, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu into secession only to backtrack at the last minute and formed the brain box of the military onslaught against the former East Region of Nigeria. President Buhari’s ‘dot’ metaphor was said to have reminded some people of the crippling blockade that led to widespread starvation within the Biafran enclave and ultimately stilled the self-determination.
Reliable sources told the True Vision Sunday night that breath-taking confidence-building meetings were taking place across the country not only to stave off genocidal actions all over the country but to keep hope alive in the face of the President’s rigid posture on the issue of restructuring which is a major demand of most advocates of self-determination.
The meeting had in attendance Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State while Governor Hope Uzodimma and his Anambra State counterpart, Chief Willie Obiano, were represented by their deputies, Prof. Placid Njoku and Nkem Okeke respectively.
Other leaders present were former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; Senate Minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe; former Governor of Ebonyi State, Senator Sam Egwu; former Governor of Imo State, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, former governor of old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo and president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor and his predecessor, Chief Nnia Nwodo.
Others were Labour and Productivity Minister Chris Ngige; Minister of State for Mines and Steel, Uche Ogah; former secretary to the government of the federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; elder statesman, Chief (Dr.) Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma and Bishop Callistus Onaga of Enugu Anglican and Catholic Dioceses respectively; Southeast CAN Chairman, Bishop Emmanuel Ede and Former INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu. Also in attendance were former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Allison Madueke, seasoned banker and politician Marc Wabara, Senators Julius Ucha and Obinna Ogba, former national vice chairman of the PDP, Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu, chairman of the South East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya as well as traditional rulers.
