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Thursday, June 16, 2016
Biafra too small for Igbo dream, says Igbokwe
~The Punch Nigeria. Wednesday, June 15, 2016
The Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe, says Biafra is too small to realise the Igbo dream.
Igbokwe, who condemned the resurgence of pro-Biafran agitation in the South-East, said he had 25 reasons why Biafra would not work as a country.
The APC spokesperson, in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday, said it was unfortunate that the Igbo ignored his piece of advice not to vote for former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
He said the Igbo should have been mature enough, 46 years after the civil war, "to throw persecution complex, leadership complex and defeatism attitude into the dustbin of history."
Igbokwe slammed one of the leaders of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, Ralph Uwuzuruike, adding that many Igbo leaders were using the agitation for secession to raise funds for themselves and their families.
The APC spokesperson, therefore, asked Igbo elites to stand up against the agitation so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Igbokwe described the agitators as "crooks and biafrauds."
He said, "The Igbo have this tradition and culture to move and settle anywhere in the world to do business. I think that Biafra will be too small for us as a country. Have we considered what the Igbo would lose in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt in terms of real estate if we secede?
"Before the 2015 election, I warned the Igbo that President Jonathan would not win in 2015 given the obvious and painful fact that the Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani had formed an alliance which left the South- East and the South-South as a miserable minority. The Igbo did not listen because they believed so much in the power of incumbency. The Transformation Ambassador of Nigeria had planned to give Jonathan 25 million votes by all means possible.
"Today, we hear Biafra on the social media; we hear it in Igbo land, but one thing is certain. We have to debate this one. We did not discuss the 1966 to 1970 Biafra and the 1967 to 1970 civil war, and we all know the consequences. Now, the Biafra of 2016 will be well debated."
THE IGBO RANT
BIBLICAL TRADITIONS OF NDI IGBO BEFORE THE MISSIONARIES CAME TO AFRICA* IGBO 101.
THE IGBO TRIBE AND ITS FEAR OF EXTINCTION
The Igbo: We die for causes, not for personalities
Written by Emeka Maduewesi
~on fb. 28th September, 2016.
The Igbo will never die for anyone. We will not even riot for anyone. But the Igbo will die for any cause they believe in because the Igbo have a true sense of justice and a determination to obtain it.
The Igbo will not riot because one of their own lost an election. Operation Wetie was the Western response to a massively rigged 1965 election. The Yoruba doused fellow Yorubas in petrol and burnt them alife. Properties were burnt with occupants. The Igbo will never do this.
In 1983, the Yoruba went on a rampage again over the massive rigging by NPN. Lifes were lost and properties destroyed. The riots were over personalities.
Contrast that with Anambra State where Chief Emeka Ojukwu was rigged out by his own NPN, who also rigged out Chief Jim Nwobodo. The Igbo did not protest because the goat's head is still in the goat's bag.
In the North, ba muso was the battle cry when Sultan Dasuki was imposed on the Sokoto Caliphate. The riot and protest lasted for days and crippled economic activities.
The Igbo will riot over issues and causes. The Aba Women Riot was over Tax. The Enugu coal mine riot was about conditions of service. The Ekumeku Uprising was over British colonialization.
Those of "Ekumeku" ancestry - Umu Eze Chima and Umu Nri - were at the forefront of the struggles for Nigerian independence, with people like Dr. A A Nwafor Orizu and Chief Osita Agwuna serving prison terms. Any struggles the parents could not conclude is continued by the children by other means.
The Biafran war was a response to the genocide. The war in fact was brought upon us. The battlefield was Eastern Region. The war ended in 1970 but the issues and causes were not resolved. That is where we are today.
The Igbo will also jointly rise to fight evil in their midst. They did it in Onitsha in the 1980's, Owerri in the 90's, and with Bakkassi in the 2000.
The Igbo will not die for any man. But the Igbo will stand by any man who symbolizes their cause and their pursuit of justice. Even if the man dies, the struggle continues, and like the Ekumeku warriors, the children will pick up the baton from their parents.
This is the Igbo I know, the Igbo I am, and the Igbo we are. This is my story. Feel free to tell yours.
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