By Tunde Thomas
The planned peace parley between political leaders from the South-Eastern part of the country, and their counterparts from the North with the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo scheduled to take place in Abuja next Thursday has been described as a charade that will not achieve the desired objective.
Making this submission in a release issued in Lagos at the weekend, Founder, Igbo Youth Movement, Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko declared that the meeting will not address the truth about the Nigerian situation.
According to him, the meeting which is being organized following the October 1 deadline Quit Notice issued by some Arewa youths on the Igbo living in the North will achieve nothing other than to paper the cracks and postpone the evil day.
“As these leaders gather on June 22 for the meeting, the divide gets only deeper, and the anger spreads wider, while the elite club congratulates themselves for another choreographed deception successfully pulled off. But the fact is that the crack in the foundation of the country would only continue to get worse until we stop lying to ourselves’’ Ugochukwu-Uko declared.
Insisting that the military-inspired constitution on which the nation is being run can’t move Nigeria forward, the Youth leader said only a fundamental restructuring of the polity back to true federalism can save the country.
Despite the quit notice by some Arewa youth groups for the Igbo to leave the North, the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) has expressed its determination to ensure the realisation of the Biafra Republic.
It urged Ndigbo living in northern Nigeria to make arrangements for relocation back home to avoid a repeat of the events of 1966, adding that the ultimatum is serious and should be treated as such.
The group’s position is contained in a communique made available to Saturday Sun and signed by the EMU Chancellor, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo, Secretary Muoneke Nwigwe, Director of Publicity, Bekee Osuagwu.
The group said the quit notice by the North to Ndigbo is not an accident or the action of a rascal group clamouring for relevance as it has the blessings of the northern establishment, the various denials notwithstanding
“Our resolve and determination for the independent state of Biafra is unshakeable. Biafra is not a brainwave. It is our vehicle of redemption and freedom from the Nigerian union that has brought us only misery and grief.
Biafra represents the movement of people out of oppression into the Promised Land of self-actualization. It is a constant reminder to the Nigerian state of its structural defects, which we have on numerous occasions called for its correction to no avail. We support the Biafran agitation. We thank the people of the southeast for heeding the call by IPoB on May 30th 2017 to sit at home. We are committed to Biafra unless the Nigerian State is ready NOW to subject itself to comprehensive restructuring”, the group stated.