Magnus Eze, Enugu

Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday, called for the restructuring of Nigeria, saying that Ndigbo were not happy in the way the country was constituted. 

In his remarks at the second memorial lecture in honour of former Biafra leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, at the main campus of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University in Anambra state, Ekweremadu stressed the need for restructuring of the country, particularly the police.

He said Nigeria was the only state that practiced federalism, yet operates a centralised police service.

Ekweremadu, who emphasised that the dissatisfaction caused by the failure of the Nigerian state to accord the Igbo their rightful place in the body polity had produced two schools of thought, the pro-secession and pro-restructuring.

“From the structural imbalances, which inescapably counts against the South East zone in particular in its voting power at the National Assembly, the distribution of national offices, revenue sharing, and other blessings of democracy such as infrastructure, to the defective federalism that has made it impossible for Ndigbo to fully harness their potentials, Ndigbo have many grounds to be dissatisfied,” said Ekweremadu.

He also described pan-Nigerian presidents as vital component of rotational presidency.

Related News

“Whereas it is important that the Presidency of Nigeria rotates in order to promote justice, equity, and national unity, it is even more that every President sees the entire country as his or her constituency and ensure that every part thereof is fairly treated in order to build national loyalty. If this becomes the case, the agitation for the presidency by various parts of the country will abate,” he said.

On Ojukwu, he said: “Ikemba came ahead of his time, he lived ahead if his time, and he died ahead of his time – the laudable  visions he longed for are yet to be realised. Therefore, our nation and leaders owe it to the memory of Dim Ojukwu to strengthen Nigeria as a political entity where justice, peace, love, and unity reigns, where national interest is supreme, and where every Nigerian and every part are free and able to actualise their legitimate dreams and aspirations unmolested,irrespective of religious, political, and tribal affiliations and origin. This is indeed the greatest honour and tribute he can get from us.”

Former presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, who delivered the keynote address,  challenged Nigeria’s former head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd) to speak up about the genocide and all atrocities committed against the people of former Eastern Nigeria, otherwise known as Biafra, now that he still has the opportunity of doing so.

On the emergence of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Moghalu said: “IPOB is a cry for justice” which was not supposed to be branded as a terrorist group when other renowned criminal groups were left free without any stigma.

Moghalu said it was ethically wrong for Nigeria to be participating in the commemoration of the Rwanda genocide, whereas worse atrocities committed in their own domain remain buried.

In the same vein, wife of the former Biafra leader, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu alleged that the adamant being kept on the genocide against Biafrans was state sponsored suppression, and would not do the country any good.

Delivering keynote speech on the theme “Ndigbo in the Contemporary Nigeria Politics: problems, prospects and way forward,” Moghalu said Gen. Gowon as superintendent of the war has long over stayed without making comments, whether of his regrets or handicaps during the war.