President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo spoke candidly about the travails of Igbo people in Nigeria: “The law enforcement agencies should not dramatize to the nation that their headship confers immunity on some criminals from a section of a country and they give a high handed approach to those who do not come from that part of the country.”

“The selective prosecution of criminals in our country and the exertion of brute force on certain areas of the country even when they are not criminals destroy the very foundation on which this federation is founded. There is an increased ethnic consciousness across the length and breadth of this country and fired separatist interests, and at no time since the end of the civil war has the basis of our unity been eccentric as it is today.”

“Regarding the IPOB, I don’t know what else you want me to say that will be different from what I have said in the past. Where I come from and where I represent, the people of the South-East feel they are second class citizens in this country. They feel there is an unspoken understanding between the other parts of the country to punish them for the civil war, to exclude them from the commanding heights of the economy and from sensitive positions in the federation and even the way our politicians have been treated is nothing to write home about.”

“Ever since the war ended, the state of federal roads in the South-East remains the same. The mineral resources still remain the same till today. Of recent, an Igbo was Minister of Petroleum, and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the financial activities of NNPC were available by a click of the mouse to anyone in and out of Nigeria. You could see how much is being spent in a month. It was the first time NNPC posted profit. He was rewarded with a demotion from minister to a directorship on NNPC’s board.”

“I had been minister twice. All parastatals under a ministry report to the minister. I don’t desire any appointment by this administration, I have served my turn but these are clear examples of how Igbo are treated. I don’t think there are up to four Igbo commissioners of police in this administration in a place where you have not less than 40 commissioners of police. We have been found to be politically incompetent to handle security matters in Nigeria.”

“But we have been found to be physically competent to be foot soldiers in the war front, especially the Boko Haram war where the level of mortality is high. This is not a true federation. In Lagos, we have Igbo who have built house approved by the government but had not been given certificate of occupancy by the government for more than 15 years. There are Igbo representatives in the Lagos State House of Assembly can’t we have at least one Igbo at the executive council?”

“The Nigerian Customs charges Igbo twice the cost of clearing his goods through the sea ports. They pay at the ports and are waylaid on the roads and extorted. Our people are displeased and this has compounded anger in our youths and they have passed a vote of no confidence in us their fathers as not presenting their disgust and, so, have taken their destiny in their hands. They say they do not want to be part of this federation anymore. In our constitution, there are freedoms of expression and association and their own way of dramatising these is to ask for the state of Biafra.”

“If the Nigerian state does not respond to the active state of maginalisation of some people in our federation and restructure it, Biafra becomes an inevitable answer for every Igbo man. The way these boys are treated by the law enforcement agencies, discriminately, is unconstitutional. Now in the social media, the Oduduwa Republic has been declared. The Odua People’s Congress, OPC, carries on like a military force in South-West Nigeria and their leadership goes around in convoy saluted by police at checkpoints. Boko Haram is an armed organisation fighting the sovereignty of Nigeria.”

“In areas where they captured territories, they depose traditional rulers, install new ones, install local administrations and mounted flags. Not one of them is in a law court in Nigeria. Government negotiated with them, spent large sums of money with phoney negotiators. Those of them who decide to change, married Chibok girls and came back to Nigeria were hosted in the Presidential villa. But the young man with a placard in the street of Aba or Port Harcourt on Biafra is either maimed to death or thrown into a river or slaughtered and the allegation of 21 of them missing has not been investigated by the police.”

“If you are a Nigerian son being treated wickedly by your government how will you feel? If I didn’t mean well for the resolution of these problems, why did I not encourage these boys to foment more trouble? I have asked the government, the boys accused you of killing 11 of them in Port-Harcourt, but you denied saying only one died. Last Monday, people demonstrated against this government in Lagos, Abuja and Ijebu-Ode and other places, the police were walking side by side with them. Why would that of Igbo be different? Because they cannot be heard here they are taking their case to the Pope, Africa Union and the United Nations.”

“In the social media, you find lots of abuses on this administration and nobody has accused anybody of treasonable felony. With all due respect, the Nigerian federation has been unfair to the Igbo and I call it a ticking time bomb. What is the way out? Nigerian government must respond to the injustice done to the Igbo. I have never seen anywhere in the world where a federation is being practiced like this except in Nigeria. The headship of the federation deals with common services like defence, customs.”

“Since the First Republic of Nigeria, Nigerians have never participated in re-writing our constitution. The only thing our people designed was a regional government. Since the military coup, we have never had a constitutional conference except in a military dispensation. I served in a military government that wrote a constitution, the General Abubakar’s administration. The constitution was adulterated by the armed forces ruling council. As the minister of information I had a right of attendance not a right of speech.”

“When the military began to shout at themselves, they walked us civilians out of the place. That constitution was not read to Nigerians before swearing in because it was in print at the time of swearing in. Let’s be frank, the sovereignty of Nigeria cannot be built on falsehood. It is crying everyday for the authentic voice of the people in writing a constitution for their fatherland. There are four estates of the realm, the executive, the legislative, the judiciary and the mass media.”

“Our existence as a nation is useless, if we cannot freely talk about our misgivings and the veracity of our convictions. I challenge the Nigerian polity to begin to discuss issues as they are. Let’s stop respecting personalities that offer no new ideas on the table because a time of recession is a time of repentance Nnia Nwodo, President-General of Ohanaeze Don’t you think that the reports of the 2005 and 2014 National Conferences address some the challenges you have highlighted so far?”

“The foundation of both conferences by Obasanjo in 2005 and that of Jonathan in 2014 were undemocratic. Nobody elected those delegates to represent them. They were handpicked by the government and many saw it as selecting people you already know their point of view and who were going to produce something you want. Also, former President Jonathan did not show leadership in this regard. If he (Jonathan) really meant well, all Nigerians require is just a constitutional amendment.”

“All that is required was for PDP members in the Senate to initiate it. And the PDP then had much majority to embark on it and the opposition would have agreed with them on many areas. But the political will was not there! When the report was produced what did he do with the report? It is like the problem of the Igbo. Why didn’t he build the second Niger Bridge? Why is the Enugu-Makurdi road the same way? Why is the Enugu-Port-Harcourt road the same way?”

“Why is coal totally forgotten since the end of First Republic? Why are teaching hospitals in South-eastern Nigeria in comatose situation? The point is, you have to have the political will to change or initiate a constitutional conference. In all my life, I have never played sectional politics. Now, my primary responsibility is to Igbo. My election as the president of Ohanaeze compels me to represent the Igbo interest undiluted and I go round to exchange ideas with other sections of the country so that we can seek a solution to these problems.”

“I strongly believe in diplomacy, having seen a war in Nigeria, bringing about another war is the greatest disservice we can do to our children and I will become a saboteur if there is one because I do not pray to see another war in my lifetime again. Let’s war in words and diplomacy. No matter how people are abusing themselves let the truth be said. If we don’t sit together, we can never talk and if we don’t talk, we can never resolve our differences.”

– Culled from VANGUARD