Having suffered deadly sabotage and back-biting in the past, Ndigbo must learn to be our brothers keepers – IIF
By Chuks Eke
Imeobi Igbo Forum, IIF, a pan Igbo socio-political organization has advised Ndigbo to learn to be their brothers keepers and at the same time demand what is due to then as a people.
President of the forum, Chief Ikegulu Chukwukpezie who gave the advice in a press statement titled: “what is there for Ndigbo from the First Lady?”, said Ndigbo must borrow a leaf from other nationalities in Nigeria.
According to the statement, “The Drum Beats are Silent. The canopies and chairs returned to the rental.
The hired crowd has dispersed. Not minding the way and manner the desecration of Igbo custom and tradition went. All for the first lady, Oluremi Tinubu, a woman who had massively abused the Igbo in 2019 in Lagos”.
“She pontificated that Igbos should be driven out of Lagos and their properties confiscated and taken over by the Yorubas. In another encounter with an Igbo woman voter in Lagos, she sinically claimed that ‘Igbos we no dey trust una again’. Ever since, the woman had neither recanted her statements nor apologized to Ndigbo”.
“Imeobi Igbo Forum wonders whether this new love she now professes while collecting titles is genuine? Could it be just for votes? Since when did she restore trust for the untrustworthy Igbos. So, why are some South East political elites falling over each other to please her and endorse her husband?”
“These characters occupying political offices paid glowing tributes to her husband, even promised to ensure that Ndigbo by all means vote for APC, come 2027. After these many days of jamboree, what is there for Ndigbo? Or is it just to link up a few individuals to the seat of power to beg, cap in hand?”
“It was expected that the old and new APC members including those with a foot on two camps, would have sat down with the August guest to secure some mouth-watering concessions for Ndigbo. Some would say that she is not the president, but having been conferred with the title of Oso di eme, means that she is hand in gloves with her husband in managing or mismanaging Nigeria”.
“If Remi Tinubu is an ‘Oso di eme’, it means that she is an accomplice to all the injustices perpetrated against Ndigbo by her husband’s mismanagement of Igbo concerns. Ndigbo wants answers to many issues,
which includes that, young Igbo youths randomly picked up in the pretence of being IPOB/ESN are languishing in various secret detention centres across Nigeria without trial”.
“Recruitments and appointments are done in Nigeria federal establishments, excluding Igbos. Loans are procured, for which igbos will be part of the repayment, for infrastructure development, but Southeast zone would not benefit. Rail lines that have criss-crossed Nigeria with a tube train, to go from Lagos to Maiduguri, but have not found its path in the Igbo heartland”.
“Even the gas harvested in the Southeast is reticulated away, circumventing the Igbo heartland. Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway have remained a death trap. No functional Seaport in the Southeast which is the destination of most imports in Nigeria. No international airport in the Southeast, with the most travelled population in Nigeria”.
“So, what exactly drives some Igbo political and business elites to support an administration that is more anti-Igbo than Buhari administration. Greed!! No other force than quest for wealth and material acquisitions”.
“Prominent Yorubas have ascerted that they are Yorubas before Nigeria. When will the Igbo be Igbo first, before Nigeria? So, we ask again, what exactly is the benefit of the jamboree with the First Lady for Ndigbo?”
