The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has reiterated its call for South-Easterners to abstain from participating in the planned nationwide protest, citing concerns over targeted actions by Nigerian security agencies against Igbo youths.
In a statement released on Monday, National Publicity Secretary Alex Ogbonnia highlighted that the prevailing hardships in Nigeria are the result of “Igbophobia”—a deep-seated prejudice against the Igbo people.
“The current hardship in Nigeria is an unavoidable outcome of orchestrated injustice, marginalization, callous conspiracies, corporate shenanigans, and ethnic bigotry against the Igbo,” the statement read. Ohanaeze emphasized that peace, progress, and national development are unattainable under a government policy that perpetuates injustice toward a major ethnic group.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s position on the nationwide protest scheduled for August 2024 remains firm. On February 20, 2024, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, directed the Igbo not to participate in the protest against President Bola Tinubu. He pointed out that while youths from other ethnic groups are often reprimanded and forgiven, Igbo youths face harsher consequences, including arrest and incarceration.
“The arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a glaring example of the issues faced by the Igbo,” the statement noted. “The current hardship is the comeuppance of Igbophobia—an orchestrated injustice, marginalization, callous conspiracies, corporate shenanigans, and ethnic bigotry against the Igbo.”
Ohanaeze Ndigbo maintains that there can be no peace, progress, or national development when deliberate government policies of injustice and marginalization are directed at a vibrant, capacious, resourceful, resilient, and populous ethnic group like the Igbo.
The statement also referenced former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s remarks on March 25, 2023, during the one-year anniversary of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s tenure as Governor of Anambra State. Obasanjo condemned the persistent aversion towards the Igbo, which he termed “Igbophobia,” and warned that Nigeria will continue to flounder unless it embraces merit and fully includes the Igbo in national affairs.
Ohanaeze concluded by urging the Igbo once again to avoid the forthcoming nationwide protest. “When President Muhammadu Buhari appointed about 15 service chiefs in Nigeria, excluding the Igbo, did the lopsided policy improve the security situation? We have survived tough times before, and we will survive this too,” the statement said, echoing Robert Schuller’s words: ‘Tough times never last, but tough people do.’
PIONEER NEWS 