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Igbo presidency: Biafran Elders disagree with Ohanaeze

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4 years ago

August 13, 2020

Biafran Elders Council, yesterday, faulted the decision of the apex Igbo socio- cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and some politicians of Igbo extraction, for seeking a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction instead of an independent state.

The group made their position known in a communiqué they issued after their monthly plenary, presided over by its chairman, Chief Solomon Ordu Chukwu, held at Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu Library, Owerri..

The Elders also opined that what Ndigbo need now is a total change of system and not change of individual or who is at the helm of affairs in Nigeria.The communiqué, which was read by the National Director for Special Duties, Chief Arinze Igbani and signed by the Biafran Director for Information, Elder Chris Mocha, equally dismissed Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s stand, stressing that “Ndigbo have suffered untold hardships in the Nigeria project”.

While lamenting that it was an Igbo man, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, that fought tirelessly for Nigeria’s independence in 1960 but was not trusted enough to rule the country, the Biafran Elders equally recalled that as the Governor General before Nigeria’s independence, he was merely made a ceremonial President, thus ceding all the powers to Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, a Fulani man.

“Those who are dogmatically insisting on one Nigeria are poor students of history and either that they are benefiting from the current gravely flawed system or are intellectually dishonest and lacking in creative imagination”, the Elders said.

The group observed that real democracy confers on the people, the power to determine their political future, including the demand for self-determination, if the existing political arrangements are not delivering security and well-being to the citizenry, adding that “Nigeria today has failed in every aspect of governance, especially the security of lives and property, which is the primary duty of every government”.

Biafran Elders urged Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Igbo politicians to stop pushing their campaign for Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction to look like it is agenda of the south East zone, stressing that 95 percent of Ndigbo have lost hope in Nigeria and have opted for Biafra republic instead.

The group said: “Neither restructuring nor Nigerian president of Igbo extraction can save it. How can Nigeria be one when Hausa/Fulani are still claiming superiority over others? How can Nigeria be one when Biafrans are being killed on daily basis by the state sponsored- militias? How can Nigeria remain one when the North practice Sharia Laws and are convicting and sentencing Christians with different beliefs to death by hanging for singing a song they described as blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed?”