Friday

Implementation of Last Year National Conference would be a solution to Nigeria’s Problem ---Ohanaze



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








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