2023 : No return ticket for failed Igbo NASS members – Igbo group vows

 

 

By Phil Okose, Onitsha

 

Irked by the inability of most Igbo members at both the Green and Red Chambers, of the National Assembly, NASS, to provide dividends of democracy to their constituents, a pan Igbo socio-cultural organization, Imeobi Igbo Forum, Monday, demanded that they be denied return ticket come next year’s general election.

 

Making the demand in Onitsha, Anambra State, through its National Chairman, Dr. Mike Ikegulu, the Forum described the present crop of the Igbo lawmakers/elites as the worst in the history of the Igbo nation.

 

Fuming, he said, “the present legislators who failed us in the Natiionl Assembly be denied return and replaced by fresh hands  and voices”

 

The Forum which also is interested in the emancipation of Ndigbo in Nigeria and the Diaspora, lamented that since the emergence of the present crop of Igbo political and business elites, Ndigbo have continued to be shamed and short-changed.

 

“We are not genuinely being represented in any sphere of Nigeria affairs. Their public conduct and utterances are disappointing and painful, just to please the chieftains of some ethnic group.

 

“These Igbo elites have raped and abandoned Ndigbo. Unmindful, that Nigeria is three in one. Nigeria of the Fulanis, another of the rest of Nigeria without the Igbos and the other for Ndigbo. And so is the allocation of resources and appointments.

 

“Those at the National Assembly are insensitive to our collective interests. Never lending a voice on anything of interest to Ndigbo for pecuniary interest and personal aggrandizement. They are there for self, family and friends. Unaware that whoever sells the brother, even the buyer will not trust him.

 

“One wonders why they are gearing up to return to the same indolent representation at the National Asembly in 2023. Even the serving Governors are buying their way to the Senate as retirement home. They should not be returned to public office, for abysmal performance,” the group demanded”.

 

Ikegulu went further to state that the present system of governance in Nigeria is alien to Ndigbo as Igbo leaders emerged by their actions and utterances, not by election or appointment.

 

” In a multi ethnic country as Nigeria, other ethnic groups which culture have stratified leadership, often wonder why the Igbos are represented in such a dastardly fashion. They wrongly take our political, business and religious elites as our leaders.

 

“Ndigbo can not follow you, unless you are clean and speak the truth.

Having been the first people to inhabit the earth (Ndi gboo), Igbos were ruled by elders, warriors and traditional medicine men in a decentralised, non stratified authority leadership system.

 

“Decisions were made by consensus within the balance of power in an egalitarian style. We are Republicans and it has worked well for us, until the white man came with colonialism and his religion. Igbos conquered the whole area presently known as southern Nigeria, to the extent that besides the Yorubas, all the other groups are mutations of Ndigbo, from Akaigbo to Idu land without taking territories.

 

“We had no Igwes, Obas or Emirs. Most of the present Igwes in Igbo land came as a result of Chieftaincy Edict of 1976. The ignorance of other ethnic groups about our culture has portrayed us in bad light.

 

“These greedy and shameless political elites brought similar disgrace to those other nationalities rooting for a Nigeria president of South East extraction for equity, justice and fairness. For their business and political interests, they ganged up to have IPOB proscribed, rejected referendum, set MNK up and got him kidnapped and incarcerated to silence him.

 

” They keep mum over the atrocities committed by occupying forces and the continued intimidation and slaughter of Igbo youths for agitation. They built the largest mosque in Igbo land, gave out swats of land for RUGA, recognised Sarkin Fulani in Igbo land and sabotaged zoning the president to South East.

 

“They have abused us to the consternation of the other nationalities. Igbo politicians followed the dollars in the party primaries, disregarding the recurring political realities which give us the short end of the stick.

Like the warrant chiefs of the colonial past, the present crop of political elites have signed off Ndigbo for a failed quest for acceptance by the Nigeria power structure.

 

” Nigerians should look besides these elites to ascertain the mind of Ndigbo. The present and future generations of Ndigbo will look down on the present group of Igbo political and economic elites who have largely relocated to Abuja, as the worst in history.

 

“The present Igbo legislators in the National Assembly should not be allowed back, for toying with the destiny of Ndigbo, in the complex country of Nigeria. To be replaced by fresh hands and voices, not minding ranking status. Today, Ndigbo insist on a Nigeria president of South East extraction.

 

“The same Igbo elites as political merchants are at it again, to scuttle it. Let us secure our PVCs and agree to be Obi-dient on one issue again. To eternally disgrace them at the polls in 2023 by voting Labour Party and Mr Peter Obi, into office,” the Forum pleaded.END