From Magnus Eze, Owerri
Former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain and wife of the late Igbo leader, Mrs Bianca Ojukwu, yesterday, said that the Igbo are missing her husband, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, at this critical moment in the nation’s history.
She said that the people of Southeast, in particular, lack strong, respected and selfless leaders who could speak for them now ahead of next year’s general elections.
Mrs Ojukwu who spoke at the 11th Ojukwu Memorial Day organised by the leader of BIM/MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, at the Ojukwu Memorial Library Arcade in Owerri, Imo State, said that there was system failure in Nigeria which has left the country as vast wasteland bearing no hope for the people.
She urged Ndigbo to be fully prepared to hold their leaders accountable in next year’s elections, admonishing that they must take actions that would guarantee their wellbeing and future.
Her words: “On a day like this, we remember what Dim Ojukwu did for Ndigbo. At periods like this, as we inch towards the 2023 elections, it dawns on us that we have deficit of leaders in Igbo land. We have people that lack trust and confidence.
“We had never witnessed the kind of brutal killings we are seeing in Igbo land in recent times, not even during and after the war. Why are we seeing this? It’s because the entirety of Igbo youths, and Nigeria have a Nigeria that is a premature resting place of their hopes and aspirations. They look around, they see vast wasteland; hopelessness. In the Southeast, there is no federal presence, no employment opportunities. There is total system failure, even culturally, many of our children cannot speak Igbo. We are suffering a system failure not just in economy, but in security. There is general insecurity. Even in agriculture, we can’t go to our farms because some strange people have occupied our farms.
“We remember Ojukwu today because he would have spoken for his people. Ojukwu would have demanded for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. It’s only in Nigeria that government would ignore court judgments ordering Kanu’s release. I hereby call for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. I do so because no nation that holds its citizens hostage can have peace. No nation that also holds the future of its citizens to ransom can progress. As Igbo, it is in our genealogy to make progress, so, no one can hold us down.”
She, however, noted that Ojukwu had many children, but regretted that several of them are opportunistic sons.
The former envoy commended Uwazuruike for initiating and hosting the annual event in honour of Ojukwu, saying “APGA, the party Ojukwu strived to build, could not host memorial for him, yet a single person has instituted this and also built a gigantic Ojukwu Library in his honour.”
She pointed out that the memorial was not just for Ojukwu, but for all the persons who lost their lives in the civil war.
