CHIEF Mbazulike Amaechi, foremost nationalist and outspoken elder statesman has said much as he would have loved to remain in one, large indivisible Nigeria that he could no longer remain in a country where he and his kinsmen particularly the Igbo race are treated as slaves.
He said this has unfortuately been the situation with the Igbos after the civil war which eventually triggered off the agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
The First Republic Minister of Aviation stated this in a chat with Saturday Sun published on March 25, 2017 where he touched on many other national issues.
Below is an extract culled from the interview.
Excerpts:
Talking about ‘breaking up’, the South-East has consistently proclaimed that the region has been grossly marginalized. This has triggered discordant but very vocal agitation for power to be ceded to the region, while others spearhead moves to secede from Nigeria. Which in your opinion is best for Ndi-Igbo; to be president of Nigeria or to have their own nation in Biafra?
Personally, Mbazulike Amechi believes in one strong big country. I fought for that. That was a strong ideological gum binding the nationalists of our era, both in the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Zikist Movement. So, ideologically, I believe in one united big country run democratically, in which equity and justice prevail.
Unfortunately, that is what I see now. The Igbo race to which I belong in which God created me has been marked out since the civil war, and after the civil war, for almost destruction and total enslavement. The Igbo have been treated in Nigeria not as partners in a federation, not even as junior partners in a federation but as serfs, as slaves. And it’s a situation no nationalist would tolerate. No true blooded Igbo man would tolerate that any longer. And so the agitation that is on now either as IPOB or MASSOB is justified and right. I’m not saying that the breaking away and forming another country is the best solution, but such a situation would be better than remaining a slave in another country as we are being treated now.
Look at the way the Igbo are being treated in Nigeria. Look at the way we’re being killed. They are using the armed forces, and security forces to kill Ndi-Igbo. Young men meet in a non-violent demonstration, they maul them down in their hundreds. They rise to protest against a situation, they are gunned down in their hundreds. And the atrocious part of it is that when they are killed thus, the killers, murderers, police and the army take away the dead bodies of these Igbo youths, dump them into tippers, use caterpillars and excavators to dig a hole, tip them in to the hole and bury them alive. And you know the Igbo value their dead bodies.
When an Igboman dies in Lagos, even if he has no money to feed himself in his lifetime, the Igbo around him gather money to bring his body back home. That is the extent to which the Igbo value and honour their dead. That is what is being denied the youth being killed. They kill them at Aba. They kill them at Nkpor. They kill them at Onitsha. They kill them at Enugu. And apart from the killings, since the Buhari government came into power, they’ve released properly trained killers called herdsmen and armed them with the most sophisticated military weapons to come and help in killing the Igbo. But the painful aspect of the whole thing is Igbo governors, Igbo Christian religious leaders, Igbo traditional rulers, Igbo business bodies instead of coming together to say ‘Ah-ah, this killings must not continue’, they are all lying timidly silent and quiet.
The governors are not concerned; they are more interested in local government revenue, the money from security votes and so forth. The traditional leaders are too timid to come out, stand up and say something. The bishops and other Christian religious leaders we have in Igboland are not saying anything. Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) of the South East should have come together and started a fight to correct this. But they are not doing anything.
So when IPOB and MASSOB started, people say it is an association of young men, and that they have a right to agitate. But the way the government is penalizing them has popularized them and their agitation has become popular now in Igboland. I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying. When they started, people didn’t attach much importance to them but the treatment of government to them has made them popular and their leaders heroes. And if you don’t take care, it would lead to a situation where 90 per cent of Igbo would now say ‘let us join these groups because we want to get out of this country’. That is where it would lead if the Federal Government continues to look at them the way they are treating them. If they are agitating for a separate country, Scotland in Great Britain agitated for a separation of great Britain, three or four years ago. A plebiscite was ordered and majority of the people voted ‘No’ and that was the end of it. Today in America, California after Trump’s election have started agitation for separation from the union. They have not mowed them down; they have not killed them the way the Igbo are being killed. And our leaders are remaining dumb and timid.
So which do you suggest is good enough for Ndi-Igbo- a president of Igbo origin or secession from Nigeria?
What I’m saying is instead of remaining as slaves, ideally I would support everything to be done to have a country, but it must be a country in equity, justice and equality of the partners that are federating, but if we cannot have that, instead of remaining enslaved, it is better we go our separate ways peacefully.
Like Us on Facebook!
Do You Need a Sugar Mummy, Sugar Daddy, Girlfriend, Boyfriend Wife or Husband? If Yes, Then Click Here For Details
0 comments:
Post a Comment