Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, has given South East governors two weeks to launch Ebubeagu. Speaking on the abandoned project of floating the Ebubeagu security outfit for the zone, Prof. George Obiozor, the President General of the organization, said the ultimatum follows Ohanaeze’s meeting with the governors recently, and in which they gave their assurances to launch the security outfit to enhance security in the zone.
He, therefore, charged them to keep their promise and make the project a reality before the end of the year. In a related development, he re-echoed the determination of the South East to produce the President of the country in 2023, vowing that the current insecurity challenge rattling the nation will not deter the organisation from realising the objective.
Obiozor said this in Owerri on Friday in his Christmas and New Year messages delivered to newsmen. While acknowledging the harsh times being experienced by the zone and the country in general, he expressed optimism that the coming year “will be a lot better than the outgoing one for Ndigbo and Nigeria in all ramifications.”
He noted that “insecurity in the South-East is politically orchestrated to achieve a desired political objective and also to deceive and divert the attention of the people of southeast and the rest of Nigeria.”
He explained why Ndigbo should be given the Presidency: “No people in recent history have been unfortunate or at least had a mixed fortune or blessings as Ndigbo in Nigerian politics and governance. For example, quite often the Igbo energy and enterprise are misunderstood as being over-ambitious. The Igbo talents and ability to turn adversities into advantage, obstacles into opportunities and difficulties into dividends were misrepresented as attempt at domination.
“Consequently, Ndigbo were confronted with anger or envy, hostility and violence at any given crisis in Nigeria and even outside Nigeria. Ndigbo seek Nigerian unity but not the unity of slaves and masters; we seek peace but not peace of the graveyard. We seek justice because we know that throughout history those denied justice have had no interest in peace. Today, Nigeria President of Igbo extraction is imperative and an idea whose time has come.”
