The Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has repeated its call on Nigerians that Ndigbo are not secessionists or separatists but should be treated equally like every other part of Nigeria in political consideration.
The President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, George Obiozor who restated this while briefing journalists after a general meeting in Enugu, said that Igbos are prepared and deserve the Presidency in 2023, pointing out that it is politically defensible and morally justifiable.
He said that although Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is not political, the National Executive council has directed them to establish a political Action committee to be Chaired by the President General, George Obiozor, while the Secretary-General, Okey Emuchay, will serve as the Secretary.
According to him, the committee would be monitoring political trends as 2023 draws nearer and gives advice where necessary.
“As the national situation is today, it will requires Pan Nigerians like Igbos to reinvigorate the nation’s path to unity. And a Southeast Igbo president of Nigeria in 2023 will be one of the most critical but positive decisions of the nation’s history because, it is the right decision and an idea whose time has come,” Obiozor stated.
On the issue of IPOB/Nnamdi Kanu, the Ohanaeze president said: “We have been consistent in asking for political solution to the problem including prerogative of mercy for Nnamdi Kanu’s freedom and amnesty.”
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The group advised Nigerians to have serious re-examination of the history of Nigeria as one nation.
“If the truth must be told, the nation has made two consistent mistakes that have worsened the nation’s all other problems leading the nation to near breaking points,” he noted.
“Those two devils in the Nigerian politics are power-sharing and social injustice. In all, we drifted into these two problems with nonchalance or with ease, and sometimes oblivious of their consequences until what we think is a simple or easy problem develops into a national disaster or catastrophy.
“For those who can remember, how did we get into the western region crisis in the 1960s? How did we get to the civil war (1967-1970). How did we get to NADECO (Abiola crisis) and even South-South Avengers?
“Today, the situation of the country is not totally different but even more complicated. Today indeed, the way things are, with communication and modern technology, our country is set not only at the usual breaking points which were more easily controlled and contained in the past to preserve Nigerian unity, but a point of synchronised national crisis which will be more difficult to be controlled or contained today.”
Nigeria, he said, was a country negotiated and amalgamated under some agreements that balanced sensitive issues of power-sharing and balancing of power regardless of any other conditions.
“It was a system where every person had an equal chance in life regardless of their tribe, race or religion. In 1960, at independence, our Founding Fathers – Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Belo, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa- joyfully embraced both independence and all existing institutions establishing Nigeria,” he said.
Ohanaeze however, called on Nigerians to reintroduce the old doctrine of leadership system to save the country and control the present crisis, noting that Nigerian nationalism is receding as ethno-regional nationalism is growing astronomically. It is time to rebuild and restore Nigerian nationalism and national spirit.
