OHANAEZE NDI IGBO OF NIGERIA, WHICH WAY FORWARD?

This apex umbrella association of the Igbo people of Nigeria has been in the wilderness for so long, trying but in vain, like Senator John McCain, to articulate its objectives. Series of infightings and drawn-out court battles have rendered this supposed pressure group into near irrelevance in the power struggle and positioning in Nigeria. Ordinarily, Icheokudotcom would not indulge itself, commenting on a local political pressure group but that we point out, few things that we believe Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo is doing wrong.

First is the failure of this group to adequately and more succintly marshall out what it is, that they want to do - clearly defined objectives are lacking. Following naturally is the route to get to the goals and sanctions for failure to deliver or penalty for any identified sabotage.

For any Igbo political pressure group to be effective, it must be an all inclusive outfit - of all Igbo-speakers or Igbo speaking areas of Nigeria. When the north speaks they are cohesive and embraces all the multiple tribes of the north including hausa, fulani, birom, tiv, junku, igbira, gwari, bornu, kataf, zuru, etc. WHen the west speaks it includes all the Yoruba speakers and speaking areas including Kwara State. It is therefore only in the Igbo area of Nigeria that people of Igbo ancestry are excluded from "mainstream" Igbo simply because they live across a river or are not within "their" warped delineated and identifiable geographical enclave of Igbo section of Nigeria. Icheoku wonders aloud why the Delta Igbo speaking areas of Asaba, Ogwashiukwu, Onitcha-ugbo, Onitcha-Alona, etc should not be included in any associations articulated for the Igbo man? Why also should some Igbo speaking areas of Rivers state such as Isi-okpo, Portharcourt, Ikwerre etc not be given a full status in any organisation representing the Igbo man? Same goes with Akwa-Ibom and Cross-River state and possibly some parts of Benue State. It is called 'Politics 101' and the bigger the merrier and the more powerful. So many rivers criss-cross the north yet it does not present any boundary problems between the various ethnicities in the north from coming together in matters which affect them. In the west we have Ogunpa river as well as many other rivers, yet when political chess-game sets in, no Oduduwa area or speaker is left out. Therefore Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo must restrucutre itself and expand its tent to incorporate every Igbo speaker and Igbo speaking areas of Nigeria into its fold. There is strength in unity and numbers help too.

Another area of adjustment for Ohaneze is to explore co-opting all such other Igbo outfits like MASSOB and Bakassi Boys into their fold to serve as its enforcement arm. Ohanaeze, to be effective, must have an effective mechanism in place to coral any recalcitrant Igbo man or woman who may want to sabotage the Igbo agenda, once fully and comprehensibly articulated. Such would be agent-provacateurs, who may have received money/contract from Igbo detractors in ABuja or elsewhere to pervert the fruition of the Igbo agenda, must be checkmated. Such an identified pervert must be made to understand that he has no place throughout Igboland and that no amount of federal protection force will suffice once he has been adjudged an anti-Igbo agenda renegade. If the enforcers cannot reach him then the Igbo should ostracise such an element from the Igbo society completely and entirely. The Odua peoples congress was effectively deployed by Afenifere since June 12th; so why not Ohanaeze copy a winning formular from the west?

Thereafter, Ohaneze must face its biggest challenge of the century - securing the Igbo presidency of Nigeria come 2016. Ironically Icheoku recalls that the ulterior motive behind Islamist Buhari led coup of December 1983 was to reap in the bud any chance of Alex Ekwueme becoming president of Nigeria after Shehu Shagari's term. Ohaneze must articulate its line of attack and agitation like the Afenifere did after June 12 which led to their own Olusegun Obasanjo's eight years Yoruba in power in Nigeria. Although it was a nightmare but which Arewa government ever succeeded? So who cares? According to the United States of America President-elect Barack Obama, power doses not concede easily, so if you want it you must fight for it! Igbo people of Nigeria, you have been thrown the gauntlet so if you so much want power act like your depends on it! Get it by all means necessary! WHatever it takes just get it! Ohaneze should in no uncanny terms let it be known to the world especially the other component parts of Nigeria that the Igbo of Nigeria are ready, willing and prepared to die, if that is what it takes, to secure their turn in Nigerian presidency in 2016. Further that no amount of conspiracy, intimidation, oppression or sabotage will frustrate this effort again or in any other manner operate to avert it. In other words, an Igbo presidency of Nigeria in 2016 is a fait accompli. It should be without any option whatsoever - now or never mantra! If it means turning Nigeria upside down on its head to "get it did" so be it! It should be put in the head of the other Nigerians that the Igbo time has come and anything short is unacceptable and will not be accepted in an entity known as one Nigeria! That what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, and that all is fair that begets fairness. Ohanaeze must put paid to the percieved cowardice of the Igbo nation and that the experience of the Biafran war is a plus and not a negative and that their hands should not be forced again.

The only man ever taken serious in any given situation is that man who has been so backed against the wall that having no more room to retreat any further, comes back charging at the aggressor like a raving lunatic. Ndi-Igbo of Nigeria are almost at that point in Nigeria and Ohanaeze must be able to relay this message to the other constituent parts of Nigeria in a clear unmistakeable words. Ohaneze's mantra henceforth should therefore be "no retreat no surrender!" to the undeclared war being waged against Ndi-Igbo of Nigeria by the other components part of Nigeria.

Ohaneze should henceforth make one objective and only one objective its only preoccupation - 2016! They should forget begging Nigeria any longer to treat them fairly and with some human diginity! They should be getting ready to draw a line on the sand to say to Nigeria, enough is enough! Treat the Igbo as a component bona-fide Nigerians or they are out of the contraption known as Nigeria! Haven't the Igbo reached a breaking point in Nigeria or must Igbo youth continuosly be seen to ask, are we there yet? The River Niger bridge debacle and the alleged missing blueprints and worksheets is yet another pointer that the anti-Igbo conspirators of Nigeria are perpetualy working overtime to subjugate the Igbos. Icheokudotcom asks, how can contruction papers and files of a mega project such as a bridge construction be missing and if, how many of the multiple copies usually produced are missing? Who is the custodian of the missing documents and what is the state of investigation thereto? Wasn't the contract for the construction of the bridge awarded during the dying years of the Olusegun Obasanjo mayhem called administration? Did the contractor's copies also miss?

It is about time this bullshit stopped and only a galvanized Ohanaeze that speaks with one vocie under the Igbo flag can put a stop to this silliness in Nigeria. Commenting on the alleged missing construction files and papers, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, pictured left, regreted that the Igbo have had enough of these insults and sabotage in Nigeria. To whcih Icheokudotcom says, the biggest insult is yet to come in 2016 baring a concert by Ohaneze to morph into a credible, undistracted single force for the Igbo nation. The lords of the manor in Nigeria will try throwing up some dusts close to 2016 and hope the Igbo will be distracted from their goal and then and only then will Icheoku remind Ohaneze of this posting should they allow themselves to be baited once again by such a schematic.

The Igbos will not die off before 2016, having survived the pogrom of Biafra and all subsequent annihiliation-schemes of past and present tribalistic anti-Igbo Nigerian governments. Ohaneze should recoil into a bunker and continue to fine-tune and strategize on how to make 2016 a reality for the Igbo dream of a Nigerian president. As a starter, Ohanaeze should get a few select candidates, vet them and start grooming them for presentation to Nigeria come 2016, as a consensus Igbo candidate for president. Ohaneze should avoid the fate which befell them during the last PDP chairmanship tussle when there were over twenty-eight (28) Igbo candidates for the job which once again, forced the other Nigerians to impose Vincent Ogbulafor on the Igbo as their Igbo chairman of the PDP. Once beaten twice shy - fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. As for possible candidates to shortlist for the job, Ohaneze should look at and consider for positioning, as Icheokudotcom recommends, Orji Uzor-Kalu, Ken Nnamani and Andy Uba for reasons already adduced in prior postings herein and we shall gladly meet in a fora to further canvass our position, if asked. So which way Ohanaeze?