Even as the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, continues his consultations in the wake of secessionist and separatist agitations in the country, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has expressed concern over the inability of the security agencies to arrest any of the northern youths who threatened Ndigbo living in the north with quit notice some weeks ago.
The non-compliance by the security agencies is in spite of the directive from both Acting President Osinbajo and the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nsair El-Rufai. It said that the action of the security agencies, which were firmly in the hands of northern officers, amounted to double standards which could lead to the second pogrom against Igbo in the north. President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, made this known while inaugurating the Planning and Strategic Committee of the pan-Igbo group, led by the former Governor of the Central Bank, CBN, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, in Enugu, yesterday.
Meanwhile, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday, said they have resolved totally and without equivocation never to participate in further elections in Biafraland in Nigeria, starting from November 18, 2017 governorship election in Anambra State, and the general election coming up in 2019. The only pre-condition for participation, the body insisted, would be a referendum on the future of Biafra. Security agencies’ double standard Nwodo said that the threat by the northern youths, with obvious backing from some northern elders, amounted to threats to declare war or mop-up operation against Ndigbo.
According to him, “What remains worrisome is the incapacity of the police to make needful arrests in this situation, pointing to double standarts from our security forces. “A desire and public proclaimation for the state of Biafra cannot be too different from a quit notice which amounts to a declaration for a new state of Nigeria without the Igbo. “In the latter case, an obvious violation of our constitution points to treason and a declaration to take inventory and acquire property not belonging to one amounts to conversion and declaration to commence mop-up action if the quit notice is not complied with at a certain date is a declaration of war.
“We have, as Ohanaeze, maintained absolute restraint in our public utterances. The Acting President, by his interactions with concerned groups, shows he is prepared to engage everyone in order to ensure that justice is done. “His proclamations that government will guarantee the security of life of all Nigerians and their properties wherever they live is reassuring. “What worries us, however, is whether the Arewa youths are acting out a plan that may spiral out of control.
Why have disclosures that some soldiers are talking with politicians not led to any arrest? “Why have none of the Arewa youths been arrested in spite of the orders of the Inspector General of Police and the Chief Security Officer of Kaduna Stae, Mallam El-Rufai? “If our security forces, formally in command and control by mainly officers of Northern Nigeria, fail to carry out lawful and needful arrests of criminals among Arewa youths, or coup plotters in the army and their civilian collaborators, how can we expect them to heed to the orders of the Acting President to protect our people in the north? “What should we advise our people in the North to do in the circumstance? Are the rhetorics of today not similar to the rhetorics between 1966 pogrom? If there should be a repeat performance, what explanation can we make to our people? “Against this background, our young men and women are spiralling out of control.
The jury is still out in Igbo land regarding the choice between self-determination and restructuring as a solution to our current impasse. “Whereas a lot of the elderly, the business class and the professionals want to preserve our continued existence as one indivisible, united and restructured Nigeria, a number of the young ones are resolute about self-determination.
“How do we resolve this duplicity that gives the impression that we all are on one of the sides depending on who is making the assessment…?” Nwodo, however, asked the committee ,which has 10 former governors as members, to design an economic blue-print that would forsee the following: *”An integrated railway network linking all the seven Ohanaeze States; *”Annual growth of one million palm trees in each of the seven states within the next five years as well as a corresponding growth of attractive processing industries for palm produce but on high, medium and small scale levels;
*”Design a policy for the maximisation of our coal resources for power generation, and another geological inventory of all our resources and carefully scripted plan for engaging the Federal Government in their exploration; *”Develop plan for a refinery for petroleum resources ; *”Plan for a paradigm shift to greenhouses methodology for vegetable production using the Netherlands experience as a typology; “There must be a deliberate policy for development of ICT hubs in our states to encourage our human capital development; “An educational curriculum geared to development of skills among our young men and women; *”Recommendation of appropriate policies to our government to improve the educational standards in our schools at all levels;
and *”Growth of reliable financial institutions for mortgage, small scale business finacing and research,” among others, he added. Nwodo açknowledged the prompt condemnation of the Igbo quit notice by Northern Governors’ Forum, Middle Belt Forum, Afenifere, PANDEF, among others. But he also noted the “rather mild and equivocal condemnation from Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF,” adding that the defiance of Arewa youths by threatening and daring the police to arrest them, the clear incapacitation of the police and unwillingness to arrest them, their renewed aggression, following the issuance of another statement involving an association of wider youth organisations in the North and the support offered them by splinter elements of the neighbourhood, point to a swell of reasonable support from a section of Northern Nigeria”, he concluded.
Prof Soludo, who spoke later, promised that the members would do their best to meet the expectations of Ndigbo, especially at this period of “our history.” IPOB IPOB’s statement, issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Powerful, made it clear that “the era of crooked Nigerian elections and imposition of politicians in Biafraland from Abuja has gone and will never be tolerated again. Until there is an agreement for a date to democratically ascertain the will of the people of Biafra, IPOB will campaign for a total boycott of elections.
According to IPOB “It is very pathetic that some hired hands and unity beggars in Nigeria have adopted the unenlightened and illiterate approach of always equating self determination with war. “IPOB is a genuine peaceful organisation that is following the stipulated laid down rules of the United Nations and African Charter, which Nigeria ratified and adopted in the constitution for self determination. “Referendum for Biafra is all we are asking for not war. It is the only civilized way to settle this burning issue of Biafra once and for all time.
“We are not interested in anything violent or war to achieve the sovereign state of Biafra because IPOB has many potent weapons than AK47, bombs and mortars. “Therefore, anybody waiting for IPOB to engage in violent warfare is wasting his or her time because Nigeria has already collapsed under the burden of incompetence, greed, corruption and institutional laziness.”
Courtesy: Vanguard
