Geoffrey Anyanwa, Enugu
Apex-Igbo socio-cultural body, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has warned against linking of Igbo aspiration in 2023 with the Biafran agitation.
Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the body, Chuks Ibegbu, in a state, urged those who engage in linking the two to desist from it.
Ibegbu, who finds such actions offensive, noted that “the Boko Haram war and demand for an Islamic Caliphate, the Oodua People’s Congress quest for Oduduwa Republic or the Niger Delta militants’ clamour for a Niger Delta Republic did not make their own from occupying Aso Rock at one time or another.
“Igbos are nation builders and their forebears fought for Nigeria Independence, so nobody should claim or pretend to love Nigeria more than the Igbos that are found in all nook and cranny of the nation.”
The Ohaneze spokesman, however, noted that the Biafra agitation was a metaphor to give the Igbos a level playing ground in Nigeria.
Furthermore, he encouraged Ndigbo to put their acts together in the view of their quest to produce the next Nigeria president in 2023 just as he commended Pan Nigeria Presidency of Igbo Extraction Coalition (PANPIEC), the umbrella body of all organisations championing the Nigeria Presidency of Igbo extraction in 2023 for “their widespread crusade, which many Nigerians are now keying in.”
Ibegbu threw his weight behind the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Chief Osita Okechukwu, on the demand that the Olu Falae versus Olu Obasanjo arrangement of 1999 be done for Ndigbo in 2023.
In the statement which he called his new year message, Ibegbu commended the Miyetti Allah for banning of night grazing, describing it as “a very welcome development and a sign that reason is now prevailing above emotion and undue sentiment.”
On the escalating tension in the Middle East, he warned it could cause a third world war if care was not taken and advised Nigerians to remain calm and not “take undue sides in the face off between America and Iran since it’s a very sensitive matter.”