ONEROUS TASKS BEFORE OHANEZE LEADERSHIP IN SOCIO-POLITICAL EMANCIPATION OF IGBOS IN NIGERIA .
By Vitalis Unachukwu
You’re bound to draw blank looks and zero answers , if you conduct a random public or a town hall interview as well as a survey among the Igbos on the status , role and mission of Ohaneze, in the sociological-political emancipation of Ndigbo in Nigeria .
Frankly, most Igbos don’t know or understand what Ohaneze is doing in Nigeria .
Has Ohaneze bothered to embark on an enlightenment campaign or tour , to educate Ndigbo from the grassroots, about its role , mission and efforts towards the unity of Ndigbo , defence and protection of their ethnic interests, against the barrage of violent opposition from our counterparts in the union ?
It has just been reported, that the Ohaneze President, is writing to the Igbo nation worldwide, against,” Demonstration And Violent Action “ Against Tinubu’s Government, which may end up making mockery of Ohaneze under our helpless and hopeless situation in Nigeria .
I wonder what effect , Ohaneze’s Letter to Igbos worldwide, will have on the inevitable situation currently in Nigeria, where citizens are stretched to breaking point.
Instead of persuading the people, Ohaneze should call a meeting of all stakeholders, including the South East Governors , on how to organize and provide relief to the long suffering people of the South East .
Ndigbo are smartest, when it comes to surviving the excruciating crucibles of life , having survived a two and half years Biafra-Nigeria Civil War.
The Igbos have gone back to the defensive rear as spectators, watching Tinubu , the North and West , to bail Nigeria and Nigerians out of their economic crises and nothing more, while they remain outraged at the lingering dilemma of uncertainty and silence of the Igbos , in the face of food shortages, absence of food security and general protection of lives and property .
Anybody expecting the Igbos to say something is just day dreaming somnambulistically in a fool’s paradise, when unwarranted wickedness and hatred against the Igbos, may eventually turn to be wagonload of Blessings at God’s own benevolence in due course .
Our people have the tenacity, resilience, endurance and determination to survive any difficult situation, however seemingly insurmountable, by God’s grace , including the challenges of the present troubled times in Nigeria.
The fact is that our Northern and Western counterparts , never passed through what our people suffered during the last civil war .
That’s why they are crying and complaining, after being the worst hit in the ongoing situation facing all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, gender, class , political affiliation and socioeconomic background, because hunger , knows no boundaries .
It’s sheer hypocrisy for the Federal Government, past and present, to neglect the people of the South East, out of wickedness , jealousy and hatred, since independence,without knowing that God made the Igbos, His Special Chosen People in Nigeria, which no one could deprive them of God’s natural endowments, given to the race He had chosen .
They neglected the Igbos and Igboland at Nigeria’s own peril.
Are you surprised why the Igbos are still notably resourceful, self-supporting and self-dependent, without government’s presence in terms of investments, of which they are part of ?
This is just the beginning of the War of Armageddon in Nigeria.
Ohaneze’s idea of writing Ndigbo worldwide, amounts to beating and starving children and telling them not to cry or complain about their plight .
What’s actually the basis of Ohaneze’s support to Tinubu’s Government, after all that transpired from the 2023 Presidential Elections, in which an illustrious son of Igboland, was rigged out of that election, after he was projected to be the winner ?
At any rate , the Igbos have no regard for Ohaneze, which implies that Ohaneze’s Letter , purportedly discouraging “Demonstration And Violent Action “ Against Tinubu’s Government, will expectedly end in deaf ears .
Nigeria is already on edge and the incumbent government has no answers to the chaotic, deteriorating living conditions of the people in the country .
A hungry man is an angry man .
Telling someone famished and punished by unbearable hunger to calm down, say nothing and bear his fate with equanimity, without giving him food to assuage his condition, is a waste of time .
What’s Ohaneze’s strategy in liaison with the South East Governors on how to provide for our people and support the people at this crucial moment, who are equally at the receiving end of the bad economic policies of the present government like other Nigerians ,and what has Ohaneze done , in the face of the wicked agenda of Northern Governors adopting a scorched-earth approach, that signifies an economic blockade, leading to food insecurity and shortages, preventing trucks loads of goods road-bound for the South East ?
Writing the most oppressed , marginalized people in Nigeria, without making contingencies for their upkeep, to alleviate their hardships and assuage injustices and abuses unleashed on them , is outrageous and provocative, by all indices of assessment .
The leadership of Ohaneze are handicapped to reverse the current ignominious and pernicious economic trends based on uncontrollable inflation .
It’s better Ohaneze focuses attention on the degree of deprivations and neglect, the Igbos had gone through at the hands of bad , wicked political rulers in Nigeria .
Does it matter to Ohaneze, that of Buhari’s 8 years presidency, there was no sign of the Federal Government’s presence by way of his signature achievements in the South East , now continued by his avowed successor ?
Ohaneze may continue to sound and look politically irrelevant and toothless, if it does not bestir itself of the role of giving Ndigbo the strong bargaining voice in the power sharing formula in Nigeria .
Something is fundamentally wrong in making the move of writing Ndigbo , these perilous times .
What has Ohaneze done in mobilizing Ndigbo and bringing sufficient pressure to bear on the Federal Government on Nnamdi Kanu’s unconditional release from illegal incarceration and detention ?
Sowore and Olawale , recently had their treason charges withdrawn by the Federal Government, without the extension of such a political largesse and magnanimity to Nnamdi Kanu .
Is that right ?
What did Ohaneze do ?
Did Ohaneze react to this unfortunate development that smacks of a clear miscarriage of justice ?
Or didn’t Ohaneze see all that’s wrong with past and present government in the maltreatment of Ndigbo ?
It’s not making a case for Ndigbo with mouths in the pocket, without being characteristically vocal and honest like Afenifere of the Oduduwa Yoruba Kingdom or the Arewa Northern Assembly .
Ohaneze has been notably weak in the defense of Ndigbo, until the present leadership under Chief (Dr) E C Iwuanyanwu, which has made some difference so far , while Ohaneze continues to struggle for general recognition and acceptance of majority of Ndigbo, who feel betrayed by Ohaneze’s toothless political demands and structure to protect Igbo interests in Nigeria .
How many people in Igboland know about the existence of Ohaneze ?
What stops Ohaneze from calling a spade , a spade , while addressing the concerns and feelings of Ndigbo on national matters that affect their lives and families, without prevarications and pretenses ?
Anything short of speaking with one powerful Igbo Voice , and not in discordant tunes , will never guarantee the tactful representation of our IGBONESS IN THE POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF NIGERIA .
We have an identity and a value system that must be protected and not be forgotten and compromised with , by those who restively delight in using saboteurs in our midst to divide us for their own selfish political interests .
How can Ohaneze metamorphose into a respectable socio-political , umbrella organization of the Igbos, is for the current leadership to ponder about and aspire harder to achieve in order to win the hearts of Igbo people worldwide .
From the contemporary hopeless economic climate in the country, there’s no way Ohaneze can persuade or dissuade Ndigbo from showing their grouse , anger, frustration, disappointment, displeasure and disdain over the woeful performance of the Tinubu’s Government, in addressing the lot of Nigerians .
Such a political ploy of writing to Ndigbo against showing their distrust and loss of confidence in the present government under Tinubu , is misleading , notably , morally wrong .
Other ethnic organizations from the North and West , did not attempt to stop their people from protesting and reacting to their painful ordeals under Tinubu .
The earlier Ohaneze shuns pettiness, eye-service, pretenses , that would never change the xenophobic tendencies of Northern and Western politicians in government against Ndigbo, the better for its structural integrity and relevance, making sense to Ndigbo .
How often has Ohaneze held Town hall meetings in consultation of Ndigbo on their collective interests and proper place in Nigeria, knowing that any power sharing arrangement or formula in Nigeria without Ndigbo, is bound to generate friction, disunity, ethnic tensions and conflict in Nigeria, otherwise a better political alternative, resolution of the Federal Question through acceptable Restructuring, becomes the inevitable alternative .
Ohaneze should not behave in a way that relegates the Igbos to the background and a receiving end as second class citizens, expected to play a second fiddle in Nigeria’s present and the future, in the light of political leadership rotation among all the major ethnic groups and geopolitical zones in the country .
Ohaneze should not be seen to be existing for itself without showing appropriate leadership in promoting the common course of Ndigbo and providing the rallying point, ground and voice of the Igbo nation .
The leadership should not be a sell out as had been the case in the past since its inception, and should strive to achieve respect and support from Ndigbo, when it’s seen standing up , condemning and daring the government , when it’s absolutely necessary, especially when it performs poorly in the delivery of the dividends of democracy, as seen under the current circumstances, rather than eulogizing a government that has done nothing positive for the wellbeing of the people .
The task before the present Ohaneze leadership , in rewriting the history of Igbo hatred in Nigeria and giving our people the sense of belonging and a bargaining voice in Nigeria, is onerous and challenging .
The young generation of the Igbos , want immediate change of attitude to the plight of Ndigbo in the leadership of Nigeria .
The people are not ready to condone the electoral injustices and abuses inflicted on Ndigbo during the 2023 Elections and would not like those political atrocities repeat themselves by our ethnic partners in the union .
It’s a grave insult to our people, for any opposing politician in Northern Nigeria or elsewhere to say that his region will go to war, if a Nigeria’s Presidency of Igbo extraction emerges in Nigeria.
Such provocative comments could lead to war , cause or infuriate the Igbos to the brink of another ethnic conflict, which’s not impossible .
Only injustices lead to avoidable war consequences.
These are part of the challenges facing Ohaneze today, to break the jinx inhibiting Igbo integration into the political mainstream of Nigeria, or Nigeria ceases to be one country, when the Igbos resume their political agitation for Biafra Freedom as an alternative to the political stonewalling of Northern-Western Political Alliance against Ndigbo .
The task of organizing Ndigbo into a formidable Sociopolitical Organization , with stronger bargaining power in Nigeria, stands as a herculean task and goal for the Ohaneze Leadership , before Ndigbo would take Ohaneze serious .
Mindful of Ohaneze’s limitations and weaknesses, the leadership, should endeavor to be the first to defend Ndigbo, who’re made sacrificial lambs in Lagos , Northern and Western Nigeria , Rivers and other places in the country, where their commercial interests and businesses had been denied or destroyed for no justification.
It should be seen to be more transparent in all dealings with the Federal Authorities without playing unprofitable games .
The Igbo Question should be discussed , debated and resolved .
Under the political and economic conditions in Nigeria, Ohaneze cannot afford to disappoint Ndigbo in any power sharing formula with other ethnic groups and strive to protect Igbo interests in the scheme of things. against other ethnic opposition from our ethnic counterparts .
Barr Vitalis Unachukwu
Commonwealth State of Pennsylvania, United States 🇺🇸
