Echoes from the Igbo summit Page 1 of 3

Echoes from the Igbo summit

by

Joe Igbokwe

THE organisers of the Friday January 19,2001 historic Igbo summit deserves a million thanks for bringing anybody that is somebody from the Igbo nation to to re-assess the position of Ndigbo in the Nigerian federation. In fairness to the organisers, this is the first time since the end of the civil war in 1970 when prominent Igbo sons and daughters will gather in such magnitude to address a common problem. Various attempts had been made in the past to bring Igbo leaders together but such moves have always been marred by controversies and mistrust. This situation was not helped either by the experts and professionals in divide and rule tactics from a section of the country who see and take as a private estate to be looted and plundered. These people in their inordinate ambition combined with stolen national patrimony have sworn that Igbo will never speak with one voice since 1970 as they had been doing before the Nigerian-Biafran war started in 1967. But all the plots, the subterranean moves, and the behind the scene scheming to continue to suppress the entire Ndigbo ended on Friday, January 19, 2001, when eminent Igbo leaders removed the kid gloves to tell their oppressors that enough is enough.

The historic one-day event put the entire machineries of the Enugu State government to a stand- still as every attention was focused on the landmark summit. With the exception of one or two other Igbo leaders, anybody who is somebody in Igbo nation was physically present at the gathering. The seriousness and the importance attached to the summit was understandable. Nigeria still has an Igbo problem. Igbo nation has therefore been short-changed and officially cheated in the Nigerian federation. It is no exaggeration to say that other Nigerians have perfected their criminal gang-up and fraudulently sealed the unwritten rule in Nigeria that Igbo nation must get the smallest in anything that is being shared among the six geo-political zones in the country.

Regrettably, when Dr. Alex Ekwueme and others advocated for a six zonal structure in 1994 at the Abacha constitutional conference, they did not do it so that Ndigbo (South-East) will be the underdog, the cry baby or the ordinary football to be kicked around by the actors of other zones. Dr. Ekwueme and colleagues who put their stamp of authority for the creation of the six zonal structures did not do it to create a master-servant relationship. Dr. Ekwueme and others did not do it so that the strong will continue to dominate the weak. They did not do it to create winners and losers or to allow winners to take it all. They did not do it to widen the gap between the oppressors and the oppressed. It was a genuine attempt to redress the inherent imbalances in the Nigerian project, and perhaps to address the problems associated with the distribution of Nigerian resources. Regrettably also, this genuine and patriotic attempt to give every group a sense of belonging in Nigeria was later used against Dr. Alex Ekwueme at Jos PDP primaries in 1998. Dr. Ekwueme was criminally accused by the enemies of Nigeria of trying to break up the country with his six geo-political zones arrangement. Unfortunately, the arrangement is what is being used today by the central government. That is Nigeria for you!

Few days before the summit proper, the news that filtered into our homes and offices was that IBB

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/earticles/echoes_from_the_igbo_summit.htm 7/18/2008 Echoes from the Igbo summit Page 2 of 3

and his field workers had infiltrated the Ohaneze hierarchy to pursue a different agenda not unconnected with 2003. As a result of this many eminent members of Ndigbo in who have sworn never to have anything to do with Ohaneze Ndigbo until the body is restructured decided to storm the venue to see things f