By Adadainfo
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on town unions of various communities in South East to sensitise natives to participate fully in the 2023 elections.
Ohanaeze also wants town unions to deliberate on the lingering sit-at-home being observed in South East on Mondays.
Ohanaeze stated this in a release by its national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, on Saturday.
The release read, “As we approach the 2023 general elections, the usual Igbo town meetings that hold every December offer us a veritable opportunity to address certain issues that confront the Igbo as a collective.
“The Igbo society is structured in a concentric outgrowth hierarchy of family, kindred, hamlet, village and town; and each of the units has a leadership and ultimately a traditional ruler for efficient and effective social-political community organization.
“Nigeria is at a crossroads. It stares all of us on our faces that if Nigeria is allowed to continue to swim in corporate malfeasance, corruption, incompetence, moral turpitude, zero patriotism and their likes that have given rise to the ongoing mass unemployment, rising insecurity, poverty and other pathologies, our next generation will suffer irretrievably.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo does not wax eloquent on partisan politics. Rather, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is an umbrella socio-cultural organization with a central philosophy to represent and protect the interests of all Igbo communities within and outside Nigeria.
“We owe it a duty to foster peace and cordial relationship between the Igbo and other ethnic groups in Nigeria. On the other hand, we stand against injustice whenever, wherever and however it is indicated.”
Ohanaeze added that ‘it is the turn of the South East to produce the president and commander in chief of the armed forces for the Federal Republic of Nigeria’.
Quoting the group, “This assertion is based on the entrenched rotation and zoning of political offices in Nigeria. Since the struggle for the presidency commenced, there have been orchestrated intrigues to subvert those age-long inter-ethnic political mechanisms for national stability by scheming the Igbo out of the process.
“Staying the course of providence, Peter Obi was able to strategize the best out of the bourgeois corrupt machinations as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party for the 2023 presidential election.
“As it stands, there should be a distinction between the politics we have and the politics we need. The Ohanaeze position is reinforced by the reality that Peter Obi represents the confluence of both the national justice and the politics that Nigeria needs.
“Ohanaeze therefore urges Ndigbo to participate actively in the 2023 general elections by mobilising themselves, close ranks and strive at best as our brothers’ keeper.”
On insecurity, Ohanaeze stated that, “The South East of Nigeria was adjudged the most peaceful and serene geopolitical zone until April 5, 2021 when hoodlums or the unknown gunmen attacked and overwhelmed the Correctional Centre, Owerri, and released a total of 1, 844 prison inmates.
“Ohanaeze had interrogated the strategic capacity of the local non-state actors to overwhelm a highly fortified correction centre and discharged a total of 1,844 inmates without any arrest.
“Since that episode, the Igbo are confronted with various forms of insecurity. Added to the menace of Fulani herdsmen-farmers’ clashes, we now have Fulani kidnappers and community invaders in many parts of Igbo land.”
Ohanaeze regretted that hundreds of lives had been lost to these recent developments, adding that, “This is very appalling and unbecoming. There must be a drastic step to counter the narrative.”
The president general of Ohanaeze ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor, in the release, said that, “We can only succeed as a people when we are determined to achieve a common purpose and such a time is now.
“The Igbo have a rendezvous with destiny in 2023 and I am sure history will vindicate us.”
