On the matter of cessation, In response to the recent position taken by the northern youth on the Igbos residing in northern Nigeria and for the information of the Igbos and Nigerians in general.



The Igbo-Race Movement has been made aware of the unfortunate article and video making rounds on the media, credited to the northern youth, warning the Igbos residing in northern Nigeria of dire consequences should they remain in the north after a certain deadline to vacate and advising northerners to vacate the Igbo territory by same deadline.


We are all aware that this call can only result in disruption of people’s activities and massive loss of innocent lives which we can assure you the Igbos have no more appetite for and which we thought the north would have had enough of.


We do not pretend to be unaware of the reasons for your actions being mainly the incessant calls for Igbo cessation and creation of Biafra, the unending and degrading insults on different elders and officials of Nigeria, the inaction of Igbo elders, disruption of commercial activities and protests which by the way has already taken a lot of Igbo lives.
We will like to make the below points.


1. The voices you hear do not speak for the majority of the Igbos and in fact represent only a small self-seeking group who have managed to manipulate people to their advantage. This was only made possible by the embarrassing silence of our elders who should know better.

The majority of the Igbos do not currently have any interest in breaking away from the rest of Nigeria. Should we ever nurture such intentions, we are aware of the United Nations prescribed modus operandi for this and will apply such without engaging in any hostile activities.

a. The Nigerian nation is very favourable to the Igbos, providing a huge market for commercial activities and enterprise for which we are well known for and providing a larger field of play for our brilliant minds yearning to excel in different fields of endeavour.


b. The Igbos are very well blended and intermarried with other tribes of Nigeria.


c. We are yet to understand how the Biafra will survive without the massive crude oil of the Niger Delta, without a Sea port and with a massive population of repatriated Igbos to join the already residing ones. The Niger delta has made it clear they are not part of Biafra and we don’t even love ourselves as much as we pretend to if the truth be told.


d. The Igbos are the tribe most invested outside their territory within Nigeria. We do not have any intention of forfeiting real estate or businesses in the north or any part of Nigeria for that matter and wonder if the people who call for this cessation of the Igbos have anything to lose?


e. Biafra will be landlocked within a hostile Nigeria and if we think it’s bad now, we wonder what it will be like then. Biafra will be on a tiny portion of land with about 30 million people and without a seaport or massive crude oil. Our thousands of monthly containers will be imported via a hostile Nigeria port and thousands of trucks will drive through Nigeria to bring them in monthly. who do we sell to? Ourselves only?



2. The main problems of the Igbo man has with Nigeria are corruption, bad leadership and the so called elites but these appear to have been misinterpreted and translated to mean oppression of the Igbos. We do not believe that the Igbos get the worst deal in Nigeria but a lot of us seem to look at every event from the point of a lost civil war and draw erroneous conclusions. The enemy of the Igbos therefore would be bad leadership at different levels(federal, state, local government and even as Igbos), the elites and corruption at all levels. At the top where Nigeria is plundered, there is no tribe no religion.



3. We believe in the Nigeria nation but it needs a lot of tweaking to reflect social justice and work for everyone. The first step in achieving this is purging the system of corrupt officials starting from self so that if a national conference or whatever is decided is held with the purpose of correcting the system, the entire nation can have good representation with popular not personal results achieved. To this effect all hands must be on deck on a national level and the entire country must start with house cleaning. As long as we defend our own thieves while calling for the prosecution of the other man’s thief, we shall continue to be divided and ruled to the disadvantage of all. Nigeria is a nation blessed abundantly with the capacity to make everyone reasonably comfortable but the real enemy would be the so called elites, corruption and bad leadership. The biggest hindrance to fighting this being tribalism and religion.



4. We find it unfortunate that the northern youth forum descended to the level of the people they criticise in insulting the Igbos by crediting us with prostitution, robbery and crime in general. We would have thought this was a shared occupation amongst humanity with these belonging to the oldest known professions.

You have also used terms like ungrateful and acrimonious to describe us, should we be grateful to anyone if we are considered equal stakeholders of Nigeria? Your speech therefore seems laced with hatred and can only achieve hate results.


The ultimatum given by the northern youth is a call for southern blood even if this is not the intention nor clearly stated. We have walked this road in the past and will not to walk it again. Our new war is making money and excelling in our endeavours not savagery. The average Igbo man wants a level playing field to operate, make money, pursue a fulfilling life, train our kids well and hope that the Almighty will allow us to abide with him when we move on.


The main purpose of this being to avert imminent bloodbath in the north; we call on the northern youth forum to act with reason and revise their position while there is still time. The Igbo man is not your enemy. The longer it takes to reverse this position, the more difficult it will be for a stand-down to be effected.


We also call on Igbos to start thinking with their heads and not just heed any calls for action without thinking things through. Truth be said, we have been unfair to our hosts in different states with our recent actions, shutting down businesses and disrupting the lives of people who have welcomed us. These people are not our enemies. If we can achieve unity and work with one another, most of our problems will be solved.


But ask the Igbos to produce one person for leadership and fifty will come out and fight one another till they eventually decide to give it to a non-Igbo. For those of us outside the southeast that believe in showing support for cessation by closing down businesses and similar activities, why don’t you relocate your businesses and family to Igbo land completely and allow those of us that want to coexist with others peacefully to be.


If we insist on cessation, this can be achieved within a legal frame work already prescribed, not through tormenting others and ourselves. But we urge everyone to be careful of what they wish for. Is there even a plan? Where will the capital be, Abakaliki, Awka, Enugu, Owerri or Umuahia? Who will be president first with all the comparison between the Mbaise man and snake and talks like that, what will be national source of income?


Finally, no matter how much the northern youth call is criticised, we must look at the factors that gave rise to this call and seek to address it. We must also understand that criticising this call alone will not avert bloodshed when this deadline expires. This is going to serve as a wakeup call for us Igbos to be more responsible especially our leaders who sit quietly and watch things deteriorate. There is too much hatred being spread on the media with everyone choosing to amplify evil over good.


Ogbuefi Nnabuenyi


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IGBO-RACE MOVEMENT: Uniting the Igbos worldwide, securing our best interests and promoting our people and values.

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