With the political atmosphere that herald the
postponement of February general election and reactionary calls for peace to be maintained before, during and after the elections keep coming up
from different wings of Nigeria,
Bamidele Ajayi of Ashiwaju.org took turn to engage the Anambra state
chairman of Ohaneze Ndigbo Youths wing, Honourable Anthony-Uche Ezekwelu on the
state of the nation and moves postulated by Ndigbo to join hands in spreading
the peace rhythm across the country.
Excerpt;
What is Ohanaeze Youth
Organization's contribution towards enjoying the sustainable democracy?
We the Igbo youths, if you look at Nigerian setting, a
country of over 250 ethnic tribes, and then a country whereby, the Ndigbo are
the largest single ethnic nationalist in Nigeria, a country whereby the Igbos
are the most widely spread in Nigeria, whereby, out of the 36 states and FCT
Abuja, Igbos make up either the largest in population if it comes to the south
east and Delta and Rivers state happens to be the second largest ethnic group
of every other state outside Igbo land.
Meaning that in every state in Nigeria, from South-south
Rivers to Maiduguri , after the indigenous population, the Igbos are the second
largest in population in that place, the Igbos are found in every political ward in Nigeria , in reasonable
number, we are the most widely spread , in other word, we are like Nigeria.
Because, we the people that believe in Nigeria more than any
other group in the country, , that iis why an Igbo man will leave here and go
to an harried sahel zone of Sokoto, Jgawa, Kastina and build a house and live
there with his generation.
You can hardly see any Hausa or Fulani Man, I don’t think
any Fulani man own any house in Igbo land, or any Hausa man, apart from one
Alhaji that owns a property in Enugu, about few of them , another one in
Onitsha, in Bida road , that’s the only place an Hausa man own a house in the
entire Igbo land.
That means, anything that will happen to Nigeria,
automatically, directly happens to a Igbo man
more than any other ethnic group or nationality n this country, meaning
that Igbos are the biggest stakeholders in the project Nigeria.
And Ndigbo have sacrificed more than any other tribe in
Nigeria in keeping Nigeria one.
The Biafran war of 1966-1970 was a war for survival not as
actually a war for self determination,
Igbos have to fight the war to liberate themselves from the pogrom that was
going on, pogrom or ethnic cleansing that was going on in that time.
We did the war to protect ourselves, to secure ourselves and
to defend ourselves, immediately the war was over, Igbos within few years got
themselves re-integrated back into Nigeria.
Ohaneze Ndigbo youth wing, being the apex Igbo youth body
worldwide, presently, we are moving round, sensitizing our people, and our
youths across the 36 states and FCT Abuja, about the issue of this democracy
because Igbos have a lot to benefit if
we sustain the democracy we have in Nigeria.
Ndigbo has more to lose, if war breaks out of Nigeria today,
our properties across the country, most them will be confisticated or steal most of them as they did after the
Baifran war, while some even described our properties as abandoned properties in our own country.
We don’t want to loose our sweat and our blood, we will
prefare that Nigeria remains one, and the way Nigeria can remain one is by we
having a sustainable and balance democracy.
However, if Nigeria happens to break up today, God forbid,
we still have a country to will be world class in standard, but we don’t want
that, for now we don’t want that!
It is our joy that we have a larger country, where the
market is large, the economy is large, the population is larger and
opportunities are larger, where we can even help other countries to grow, to
have something that the whole black Africa will be proud of.
We are already sensitizing out people that it is good, if
you watch across the country today, you will not see any Igbo man threatening
violence in anywhere we are calling for peace in Nigeria now.
We have seen war! We
have suffered the effect of war! Effect of hunger, deprivation, blockage and
all that, we won’t want our other brothers to see what we saw.
Ndigbo are determined to contribute our quota in seeing that
2015 general elections go on free. Fair, peaceful and democratic to sustain
this democracy we have in this Nigeria today, we are working hard, because we
know our people will loose too much if we don’t.
We are already calling our people to get mobilized, and our
people are already registering across the country, our people are also advising
our people to collect their PVCs to vote, and we are also preparing to vote for
a candidate that will protect the interest of an Igbo man in Nigeria
Recently, the leaders
of Ijaw Nations threatened to short down Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan
Did Not Win the coming Presidential Election, What's your reaction to such
statement and your appeal to others in the bid to refrain from making such inciting statements that is capable of truncating our fledgling democracy?
When we learnt of the meeting of the ex-militant and youth
leaders of the South-south stakeholders of Nigeria and the resolutions they can
out with, at the end of that meeting, it’s quite unfortunate that such a thing
will happen at this particular time in Nigeria.
If I were the Ijaws and the Southern Minorities, I don’t
think I should be calling for such, at this critical point in time when their
own brother, their own person is the president of the country.
However, I may not totally condemn what they did, because
what they are doing is in reaction to the calls that were being made by the
Northern youth leaders and the elders of the North, I mean elders, Professor
Jinaidu!
Then some of the leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum and
other Arewa groups have come out in the past to make such a treat and call, between
2010 and 2011, there were direct treat by the elite, Hausa Fulani in the
Northern Nigeria, especially the Fulanis then and their Hausa brothers, that in
case President Jonathan contest, that they will make Nigeria on-governable for
him, Professor Jinaidu even call for war and division of Nigeria if Jonathan
wins.
Even in the year 2011, General Mohammadu Buhari, the now APC
presidential flag bearer, called on, campaign for and threatened to make the
government of President Jonathan ungovernable, if he Buhari did not win the
election, if Jonathan won the election.
President Jonathan won and they made good their threats,
because after that, we had what can be equivalent to war in the major cities of
the north, from Minna to Kaduna to Kano to Maiduguri to Bauchi and other major
cities of the north.
Even some other prominent elders of the northern of Nigeria
of Fulani’s stock, have made and their own threat within those areas, even for
this 2015 general election, since last year, they have been threatening that
Jonathan should not re-contest the election, some call for war, some said they
will make the country on-governable, some even threaten to instigate coup
against an elected executive government, and when there is a constitutionally,
democratic elected government that s till sustaining.
So, what Asari Dokubo, Tompolo, Dakolu and high chief
government name them, they were doing is
a direct answer and response to such a threat and call from Northern Nigeria,
and when those northern leaders were making the calls, they likes of TY Danjuma
did not talk, the lkes of IBB did not talk, even Bahuri gave a tacit support to
such calls in most of his interviews.
Some of the Northern leaders, especially Arewa leaders ,
until Boko Haram became a direct threat to their lives and properties, non of
the Northern Nigeria of the Hausa Fulani Muslims extraction ever made a
statement to condemn Boko Haram Terrorism.
By the time they saw that Boko Haram they started, and ignited, I beg nobody for
any apology, I can answer to it anytime any day, we have evidences to allude
that the elders of Hausa-Fulani gave a tacit support to Boko Haram not insurgency but terrorism, but by the
time, Boko Haram went out of their hands and turned into international criminal
syndicate, where their mosques being burnt, their
properties being attacked, even the Emir
of Kano, Addo Bayero Late was attacked and other started been attacked , they
now saw that their frankincense muster and gone weird and that was when they came out and started
talking .
That was the first time, the Sultan of Sokoto, the supreme
leader of the Fulanis and muslims in Nigeria came out to talk, that was a time,
even Buhari of APC have to talk, that was the time, even IBB and
Abdulsalam started making comments,
because their own lives and properties are now under threat.
Why are everybody now calling for arrest and the trial and
jailing of Asari Dokubo and co? When
they were now reacting to the threat calls they started.
What is happening now is the Southern minority that is in
power today are now in a war of words and threat with the extreme Hausa northern Fulanis over
the control of the Nigeria power.
It’s a selfish call, because non of them is autoristic, non
of them is patriotic and non of them is for Nigeria, they were trying to protect
their ethno-centric interest, not the Nigerian interest.
The Igbo man on the other way round are calling for caution
on behalf of Igbo youths, I and we are calling for caution! we are calling for
understanding and we are calling for peace!
We have laid down the blood of over 3 million Igbos in the
civil war, to keep Nigerian united and one, nobody will tell anyone to let this
country, everybody must remain here.
They spoilt it, not us, they tried to force us, when we
wanted to go, then we spill our blood but they did everything to keep us back,
they said we should remain here.
Nigeria must remain one, tell Asari Dokubo and other that
this is one Nigeria, non of us is going nowhere, we must all stay back to
salvage this country, they put this country in this mess, everyone must stay
behind .
We the Igbo, we will be most affected, if there is break out
of war, not that we are cowards, we have seen war, we have lost properties,
lives and lot of other things, we have seen the extreme poverty and extreme hunger,
we have seen the extreme condition of war, we have known and experience it, but
we are not afraid of it.
This is why the Igbos have decided to be in the melting pot
to make peace between these people because we have sacrificed for Nigeria for
it to be what it is till date.
We are in the front for Nigeria to get independence, we also
in the fore front to build Nigeria economically , socially, infact, the Igboman
is the bridge fabrick that keeps Nigeria one.
We are calling our brothers from the Southern minority and
our brothers in the core North to give reason a chance, instead of this war-war
thing, kept us go to jaw-jaw on a round table.
We all need each other for Nigeria to survive, but if they
feel it is the dis-membership of Nigeria is in their own interest, it is to the
best of not only Nigeria but Africa at large.
If this country goes to war now, it will not be like the
Biafran war that was fought on the land of the Biafran, it will be a war that
will affect the whole west Africa, the refugee crisis, the humanitarian crisis
would be too enormous for anybody to bear or to control.
Those of them talking now have not seen war in their home
lands, they are those that betray the Biafran war , the are those that sabotage
the war , but we don’t want something to happen again.
We the Igbos, we are very egalitarian people , we are a
people that believe in democracy, we are a people that believe in fundamental
human right, we are the people that believe in merit and we are the people that
believe in success, let this horn of war give peace a chance Nigerians, that’s
our call.
We are calling on all Igbo youths everywhere in Nigerian to
keep preaching PEACE, we would not want
our brothers in the North to start coming back home, because, if they do, the
economy of the North will fall.
We want Nigeria to remain progressive and united, under a
democratic Nigeria.
However, we are also calling on a Nigeria , where equity and
fairness reigns.
For this 2015 election, is just a matter of who can shoot
gun the more, we know the Niger-Deltans can shoot gun, and we know the Boko
Haram sect too throw bombs, other people have what they have, because, nobody
has the monopoly of violence
What we are calling for is for peace and caution, let there
be a round table discussion.
Believing that the National Conference that was just
concluded should have brought a solution to this brewing crisis, that is why we
are calling on the Implementation of the outcome reached at the National
Conference in 2014, that is the solution
to Nigeria’s problem and nothing else, which remain as our own call and that is
the Ndigbo’s stand. Ndigbo will remain resolute to protect Nigeria.
But if in the end others feel otherwise, we would have no
option to protect lives and properties of Igbo lives and properties wherever
they are in Nigeria.
On the last count, It’s obvious that
Ndigbo are currently throwing their support behind President Goodluck Jonathan
re-election bid, leaving out their own brother, Chief Chekwas Okorie of the UPP and what do Ndigbo expect
from the next president?
Chekwas Okorie is a core and true igboman who has the right
to become the president of Nigeria,if anybody is tells you that Igbos are not
supporting him, I will not agree with the fellow.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the sitting president,
as a free citizen of Nigeria as the constitutional right to come for the second
term, Ndigbo are the people that believe in true democracy and we are
a people that the best groom.
All igbos are not supporting Jonathan, we have some cool
Igbomen that are also supporting Buhari who is the APC flag bearer of Nigeria, we have also some
cool Igbomen who are supporting Jonathan, aim may be of the larger number, nobody will count until the election
day.
I will let you know that let nobody think that Jonathan will
cruise home freely with Igbo votes as he did in the year 2011 general elections
because everything have changed.
There have been a lot of promises that have not been kept,
there have been a lot of agreements that were not kept, there have been a lot
of hopes that have been dashed especially that of the youths of Igbo land.
Ohaneze for now has not endorsed anybody as Igbo candidate
for presidency of 2015, in a few days to
come, we shall do so, but after giving due considerations to all the parties,
looking at what all the different presidential candidates have in stock for
Ndigbo.
We are negotiating with all parties, what we are negotiating
is the greater and the best interest of Igbos in Nigeria and the best for
Nigeria, we are not quite been tribalistic or ethnocentric this time around, but if we look at the end and see that our
interest would not be protected in the
presidency of Buhari or if we look that our presidency will not also be
protected in the presidency of Jonathan,
we shall all, it will only take days for us to network people across Nigeria,
then we shall take our option of our own brother Chekwas Okorie to be the
president of Nigeria.
However, the decision has not come yet , it will come in a
few days before the general election proper comes. That is why are fully
negotiating, we kept our doors open that we still negotiating.
But if we have a greater bargain that will have Jonathan
completes its tenure and an Igboman takes over the affairs of Nigeria for
equity and fairness, other things put in place, where all things being equal,
we will prefer to vote him.
But if it is that of Buhari of the APC the will give us to
make an Igbo man become the president of Nigeria, at the soonest possible time,
will support it.
But know you, that our Chekwas Okorie by all standard, today
in Nigeria, if you count the three major people that are contesting the
presidential race now in Nigeria, after Jonathan, being an incumbent president
who is currently enjoying the support from every zone of the country and
Buhari, a former military head-of-state who has greater interest in the North
and some part of South-west, our brother Chekwas Okorie is next in the role.
But if anything goes wrong between the two big candidates,
that might swing a surprise that will turn the table around and will make him
the president of Nigeria, considering the population of Nigeria across the 36
states and FCT, he can easily gathered the igbos vote all across the country,
like in the year 2003 when his Excellency Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu was
elected, of not for the rigging that took him out and gave Obasanjo the victory
in 2003.
The actual vote for the 2003 showed that Excellency Dim
Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu actually won the 2003 presidential election, he won
not less than 90 per cent in the whole eastern Nigerian, he won in Lagos and he
won in Kano and that of Cross Rivers and he gets votes, if the votes were
counted, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu
would have become the president of Nigeria in 2003.
A surprise is necessary and it was possible then, but let
nobody take the Igbos for granted as they took us for granted in previous
election because we gave our support to our own brother Goodluck Jonathan.
This time around, we are reasoning and we are working
quietly and silently, those who are making noise should continue with their
noise, but we will see the result on the last count, but let everybody know,
should you threat heaven and threat earth,
be you from South-south of the North-north , whether they like it or
not, we must all remain in one Nigeria.
I say and repeat with emphasis, we have built ourselves; we
have the capacity to respond to anybody that attack the lives and properties of
any Igboman anywhere across Nigeria and beyond Nigeria, let everybody note this
and never take any Igboman for granted.
I honourable Uche Ezekwelu and we have spoken the extire Igo
youths have spoken and that remain our stand.
We have already been calling our people to go all out to
collect their PVCs and ensure they cast their vote at their place of residence
to protect interest of Igbo man in Nigeria
