Igbo Leaders of Thought, a group of
prominent Igbo political leaders, rose from a meeting in Enugu on Wednesday
with a warning that President Goodluck Jonathan may become the last president
of one united Nigeria, if a politician from the North-East and North-West
continue to sponsor the activities of the Boko Haram sect.
The Igbo leaders maintained their belief
that the terror campaign of the Boko Haram sect was an ethno/religious war
being waged by unnamed northern political leaders, who seek to take control of
the presidency.
The group, which is led by Prof. Ben
Nwabueze, spoke in a statement signed by its Deputy Secretary, Evang. Elliot
Uko, and the Leader of the Igbo Women Assembly, Chief Mariah Okwor.
They noted that the sponsors of the
insurgency are inadvertently pushing Nigeria towards disintegration in their
bid to make the country ungovernable towards actualising their quest for
central power.
However, the Igbo leaders warned that,
rather than succeed in their quest, the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect would
only succeed in ensuring that Jonathan becomes Nigeria’s last president.
Parts of the statement read, “We wish to
draw the attention of the international community, especially the United
Nations, African Union and ECOWAS, that the ongoing daily attack on the
foundation of the Nigerian state by a ruthless, barbaric and well oiled Islamic
jihadist killing machine, is a political war funded and waged by
ethno/religious bigots who believe that they are born with divine right to rule
others perpetually.
“The fact that they are gradually axing
the root that holds this country still standing, while at the same time
stubbornly opposing the wishes of the vast majority of other ethnic
nationalities for a restructured Nigeria, simply means that they are
inadvertently tilting the country towards a dissolution whereafter they can
have their “religiously pure” Islamic nation, comprising the north-east and
north-west zones of present Nigeria, but certainly without the central zone of
Nigeria as their cannon fodder.
“Now that evidence has confirmed through
the ongoing military court marshall that disgruntled senior army officers
recently retired from the army in cahoots with a large pool of political
leaders of a particular section of the country are the ones directing and
influencing certain serving senior, medium-level and even junior army officers
to subvert, undermine and bring down the government by feeding Boko Haram with
intelligence, what more does anybody need to see that this is clearly a
religious and political war for the very soul of Nigeria.
“For these evil people, we have only one
message: you will never seize central power by making Nigeria ungovernable
through senseless insurgency. Rather, if anything, you will only succeed in
confirming Jonathan as the last president of one united Nigeria.
The Igbo leaders equally insisted on the
restructuring of Nigeria along six regional federating units.
They stressed that the ongoing National
Conference would fail if it does not establish the foundation for regionalism.
They described the current 36-state
structure as a “contraption for lion share of war booty” imposed on the country
by northern generals, an arrangement, which enabled them to exercise absolute
control over the country’s resources.
The continued existence of the country
cannot be guaranteed if the National Conference fails to adopt regionalism,
they added.
It read further, “After wide
consultations with broad spectrum of Ndigbo, we hereby reiterate the position
of the Igbo nation on the ongoing National Conference.
“If Nigeria is not restructured along the
lines of six regions as federating units, with each unit maintaining its powers
as democratically provided under the 1963 Constitution, the ongoing conference
would have served no useful purpose in the struggle to save Nigeria.”
Culled From PUNCH
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