Igbos are not appreciated by Nigeria – Uwechue

By Vincent UJUMADU, Awka
PRESIDENT–General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Ralph Uwechue said yesterday in Awka that Igbos have not enjoyed better understanding and demonstrable appreciation from their fellow Nigerians on their role as nation builders and committed custodians of Nigerian unity despite their rich sacrifices to the growth of the country.
In a paper titled “The Role of Ndigbo in Nigeria’s Socio-political and Economic Development” at the 2010 Faculty of Arts conference of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Uwechue observed that Igbos have given a great deal and are still giving, for the sustenance of the Nigeria project, adding that they deserve better treatment than they are getting.
“Igbos played and are still playing a leading role in the promotion of national integration. Today, there are several millions of Igbo people living, working and helping to develop significantly parts of Nigeria outside Igboland. They are in remote villages and towns nationwide and in commercial cities which shows their belief and commitment to Pan –Nigerian nationhood. For the Igbos, anywhere in Nigeria is home.”
“Sometimes, too much is being simplistically made of the random appointment of talented Igbo technocrats to high profile positions, where demonstrable competence is usually required to tackle certain specific and difficult national tasks.
What has been critically absent for decades and still missing today, is fair and effective Igbo participation in the national decision –making process, which is entirely political.
“It is therefore clear that since the British colonial administration put together this vast country, the evident role of Igbo people in the political, economic and social history of Nigeria has been that of bridge builders and nation builders. The Igbo political role in Nigeria has been consistent in the pursuit of national unity and inter –ethnic cooperation,” Uwechue said.
He observed that despite the contributions of the Igbos to national unity, there is the feeling that, as a people, Igbos are deliberately being sidelined, especially in the sphere of political leadership of the country, regretting that no Igbo person has been deemed suitable to be put at the helm of affairs at the apex management position in Nigeria.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/05/08/igbos-are-not-appreciated-by-nigeria-uwechue/

Why are you wasting cyberspace

Ok so what?
Discuss?

Abeg go and toast babes on saturday, and stop making silly threads

SEFAGO:

Why are you wasting cyberspace

Ok so what?
Discuss?

Abeg go and toast babes on saturday, and stop making silly threads

SeFAGo, if you don't like the thread, then comment on it.

The peoples of Nigeria, Hausa/Fulanis, Igbos, Yorubas and all the other ethnic groups, are not facing up to what is wrong with the system. That thing is the group of elites that congregate themselves into small groups of looters at every level of government. As those in Abuja are doing so those in Imo, Oyo and Zamfara and the local governments are doing - stealing you blind.

Yes, it is an open secret that the Igbos are kept from reaching the pinnacle of anything in Nigeria by the collective elite of kleptocrats. The reason? The civil war and continued insistence of groups in the east on Biafra. No one should expect the national elite of kleptocrats to allow space for any form of secession - that is going to destroy their daily bread. That is number one. Number two, those in the east who insist on a country of their own are not providing any serious examples of how they would make a greater state than Nigeria if by some miracle they do get a state of Biafra. Number 3, even if an angel were to come down from heaven and right all the wrongs with one condition that everyone remain in one Nigeria, these groups are likely to throw him/her out. In other words, many of these groups are not campaining on the basis of justice and equality, but the view that the Ibos are a race apart. They are not after a just Nigeria, but a no Nigeria. That would make it increasingly difficult for those among the Igbos who are truly supportive of one JUST Nigeria to see daylight.

I advice our Igbo brothers to start a campaign based on equality and justice within a united Nigeria, rather than the constant drum of Biafra this and Biafra that. At the same time this is not an advice to let yourself be unjustly treated. What I am saying is that Nigeria's ethnic groups need to drop the offensive posture, but keep a well-prepared defensive position that would only be triggered in case of any SERIOUS misadventure by the others.

EzeUche:

Igbos are not appreciated by Nigeria – Uwechue

By Vincent UJUMADU, Awka
PRESIDENT–General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Ralph Uwechue said yesterday in Awka that Igbos have not enjoyed better understanding and demonstrable appreciation from their fellow Nigerians on their role as nation builders and committed custodians of Nigerian unity despite their rich sacrifices to the growth of the country.
In a paper titled “The Role of Ndigbo in Nigeria’s Socio-political and Economic Development” at the 2010 Faculty of Arts conference of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Uwechue observed that Igbos have given a great deal and are still giving, for the sustenance of the Nigeria project, adding that they deserve better treatment than they are getting.
“Igbos played and are still playing a leading role in the promotion of national integration. Today, there are several millions of Igbo people living, working and helping to develop significantly parts of Nigeria outside Igboland. They are in remote villages and towns nationwide and in commercial cities which shows their belief and commitment to Pan –Nigerian nationhood. For the Igbos, anywhere in Nigeria is home.”
“Sometimes, too much is being simplistically made of the random appointment of talented Igbo technocrats to high profile positions, where demonstrable competence is usually required to tackle certain specific and difficult national tasks.
What has been critically absent for decades and still missing today, is fair and effective Igbo participation in the national decision –making process, which is entirely political.
“It is therefore clear that since the British colonial administration put together this vast country, the evident role of Igbo people in the political, economic and social history of Nigeria has been that of bridge builders and nation builders. The Igbo political role in Nigeria has been consistent in the pursuit of national unity and inter –ethnic cooperation,” Uwechue said.
He observed that despite the contributions of the Igbos to national unity, there is the feeling that, as a people, Igbos are deliberately being sidelined, especially in the sphere of political leadership of the country, regretting that no Igbo person has been deemed suitable to be put at the helm of affairs at the apex management position in Nigeria.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/05/08/igbos-are-not-appreciated-by-nigeria-uwechue/

It is an open secret that Nigeria has not appreciated the Igbo through the years. Uwechue is spot on. I wish that Nigeria will at least do one of these two things:

(1) Organize a referendum in Igboland to find out whether Igbos want to continue staying in Nigeria;

or

(2) Remove every roadblock placed against Igbo advancement in Nigeria (eg federal character and quota system, international airport and federal presence-roads, bridges etc )

Nigeria does not have any other choice, and the more Nigeria delays, the more potentially explosive the situation gets. It could be ignited unwittingly by the slightest of things.

Offer Igbo a choice to stay or exit; or reintegrate Igbo into Nigeria.

If Igbo vote to stay in Nigeria despite their current status, then they will stop agitating hence forth. If not, they should be allowed to leave in peace.

There are no other options. Delay is only postponing the evil day.

@Onlytruth

My point is that such a referendum is not going to happen because the congregation of looters span North, West and East, and it is not in their interest to allow any kind of secession.

If you offer any ethnic group the free refrendum of getting out of Nigeria today they will take it one and all, including even the much-maligned Hausa/Fulanis. Again, it is the congregation of thieves that will never let this happen even if it were the only option. A referendum is something I would support not just in Igbo land - let any ethnic group that want out become a nation of its own, and let's see who can stand alone and who cannot.

My view is that separation is not a good option. Why? 1) The so-called Biafra or O'dua or Arewa nations would be dominated by the same looters - so where does that leave us; 2) As for the insistence on Biafra - its basis is not sound, a carryover of a failed attempt; 3) The solution that the east needs is the same solution that is needed in the West and North, and we are likely to succeed the sooner we get on our enslavers together, otherwise they will always find an excuse to hold all of us down; 4) Unlike the 1960s the nations of the world are moving back towards increasing coalitions - if that is where we are going to end up eventually why can't we go there straight from here, rather than break up in the first place. There are those who even believe what we need is an African government - a rather tall and impractical dream in my view.

Really, from my viewpoint the saddest part is that the populace in the North are held down by greedy and wicked elites using religion as a weapon - these enslavers don't even believe in the things they force other people to hold on to. When ignorance boils over into violence they, as surely as they do in the West, East and South-South, deploy weapons of war to mow down the people - so it was for Boko Hara and so it was in Jos, etc. Any reason for uprising is the same problem to them - it threatens their daily bread, and so requires the same solution. Thank your heavens you live where you could come to the internet to critize and bare your mind. Others are banned from talking about the laws they are subjected to even when it is in such an impersonal place as the internet - go figure who is the slave and who is the master.

Onlytruth:

It is an open secret that Nigeria has not appreciated the Igbo through the years. Uwechue is spot on. I wish that Nigeria will at least do one of these two things:

(1) Organize a referendum in Igboland to find out whether Igbos want to continue staying in Nigeria;

or

(2) Remove every roadblock placed against Igbo advancement in Nigeria (eg federal character and quota system, international airport and federal presence-roads, bridges etc )

Nigeria does not have any other choice, and the more Nigeria delays, the more potentially explosive the situation gets. It could be ignited unwittingly by the slightest of things.

Offer Igbo a choice to stay or exit; or reintegrate Igbo into Nigeria.

If Igbo votes to stay in Nigeria despite their current status, then they will stop agitating hence forth. If not, they should be allowed to leave in peace.

There are no other options. Delay is only postponing the evil day.