From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
As the Igbo nation all over the world celebrates Igbo Remembrance Day today, May 30, in memory of the Biafra war of 1967-70, the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has called on Ndigbo to be sensitive to what was happening around them and be ready to defend themselves and Igboland.
Giving full support and relevance to the sit-at-home order every May 30 whereby entire Alaigbo are shut down; markets, shops, schools and offices closed while streets are deserted to mark the Biafra Remembrance Day, ADF said this year Ndigbo should take serious note of developments around them.
ADF said that though this year’s celebration was taking place during a most tragic era in the history of humanity, the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not the only terror Ndigbo and their neighbours were currently facing.
“The massacre of our people has been intensified with the influx of Fulani warriors in the guise of herdsmen or Almajiri, reckless state-sponsored terrorists and mindless butchery of our youths, attacks and burning of Igbo homes and shops, all these are happening to Ndigbo both in Igbo ancestral homes and in other parts of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“What about the destruction and seizure of Igbo businesses, abandonment of our roads, ports and railways, etc, In the face of all these, ADF hereby call on Ndigbo and their neighbors to remain vigilant, strong and united; ready to defend themselves and their ancestral land.”
In a statement signed by the President, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala; Vice President, Anthony Okolo and Secretary, Hon Abia Onyike yesterday, ADF stressed that “well-meaning people both within and outside Alaigbo have continued to warn us of planned and on-going Jihadism intended to seize our ancestral homes. What is our response? Never shall the enemy take our land! We must defend our wives, children, ancestral land and our faith till the end of the Earth in Jesus Name! Amen!”
On the May 30th celebration, which takes place all over the world where the Ndigbo reside, ADF said it was fully aware that May 30 was a day in the history of Alaigbo, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and “which nobody can wish away or ban by force of Law or prevent by force of Arms,” hence it has fully supported the observance of the day each year.
“May 30th marks the day Biafra was declared in 1967 and no patriotic Igbo son or daughter can pretend that Biafra is not part of the history and indeed the major water-shed in the history of the Igbo nation. If anyone is in doubt let him recall what has often happened on May 30, as was especially the case in 2017 and 2018 when our sons and daughters under the aegis of IPOB, MASSOB and other Pan-Igbo organizations declared a sit-at-home to commemorate Biafra Day as a historic day in the life of Ndigbo and their neighbors, with various other forms of memorial activities to mark the historic day.
“The total compliance of that call throughout the length and breadth of Alaigbo was not because these pan-Igbo and pro-Biafra organizations have become their supreme authority. No! That call evokes intense yearning in the innermost recesses of the hearts and minds of Umuigbo. Consequently, whosoever provokes the observance each year is welcome as a lover of the Igbo nation. Biafra evokes intense longing for freedom for our people. Biafra is indeed more than a state of the mind. It is also a material force that moves our people.
“Why will Biafra not be in our minds? Why will Biafra not symbolize our longing for freedom, when our predicament since the Amalgamation in 1914 up to the Biafra Declaration on My 30, 1967 and ever since Biafra has been a continuous state of estrangement, brutal attacks, bloody massacre and punitive measures against our spiritual, economic, political and physical survival?
“The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), therefore, proposes that Umuigbo should continue to observe May 30 every year as a Remembrance Day – a day to remember our history, to review our successes and failures, to remember those who have died fighting for the Igbo cause and also think and plan of our future as a nation,” ADF stated.