A leading Igbo socio-cultural group, Nzuko Umunna, has reacted to the threat issued by a coalition of Northern youth groups, asking all Nigerians of Igbo extraction to vacate the northern part of the country or face “visible actions”.
The threat which has caused some disquiet in the country came to many as a shock.
Reactions have also trailed the threat which Nzuko Umunna in a statement issued on Wednesday, June 7, 2017 signed by Ngozi Odumuko and Jude Ndukwe, the group’s co-ordinator and publicity secretary respectively, described as “puerile”.
The group urged northern leaders to call their youth to order in order to “forestalling an impending cycle of violence that could further worsen the already fragile socio-economic and political situation of the country”.
It went further to hail the swift steps taken so far by some northern leaders especially the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in bringing the situation under control.
Nzuko Umunna concluded that Ndigbo would continue to pursue their collective aspirations as a people peacefully but vigorously.
Below is the full text of the statement.
We read the open threat by a group of supposed northern youths said to comprise Citizens Action for Change, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth Development Foundation, Arewa Students Forum and Northern Emancipation Network, asking all Igbo resident and or doing business in the north to vacate the region within the next three months.
While we would have loved to ignore such puerile calls by these obscure groups, it is pertinent to put our people on high alert following the antecedents of some misguided youths who over the years have always falsely assumed that they have the monopoly of violence over every other person.
We want to believe and we have strong reasons to do so, that the position of these youths on the Igbo resident in the north is not the same as those of the larger population including the elders, traditional rulers, political leaders, businessmen/women, leaders of thought, students and all law abiding citizens of that region.
While we call on leaders and people of the north to call their youths to order, we wish to use this opportunity to draw the attention of the international community to the looming crisis arising from these threats.
The agitation of the Igbo for their collective aspirations has been peaceful so far and will always remain so. This is within our rights to so do. It would amount to an unprovoked invitation to avoidable crisis that would blow no one any good wind if anybody or group of persons decide to use this to threaten the people.
While we also strongly urge the authorities to investigate these threats and bring the authors to book immediately as a way of forestalling an impending cycle of violence that could further worsen the already fragile socio-economic and political situation of the country, we urge Ndigbo to remain calm but vigilant as they go about their normal businesses everywhere.
Our governors and traditional leaders should, as a matter of absolute necessity, kindly begin to engage their counterparts from the north. Such engagements are the hallmarks of a peace loving people even in the face of extreme provocation.
In light of the above, we must commend the efforts of Gov Nasir El-Rufai who has swiftly risen to the occasion by ordering the authorities in Kaduna to bring all signatories to the so-called “Kaduna Declaration” to book with a view to prosecuting them forthwith. If Nigeria must remain a united nation, this is the kind of non-partisan approach to issues that would heal festering wounds.
As a safeguard, all seeming violence against the Igbo in the north should be reported immediately on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/nzukoumunna/ and or on our twitter handle at https://twitter.com/nzuko_umunna for immediate response.
Finally, while we call on these youths supposedly speaking for the north to rescind their threats, we assure Nigerians of northern extraction, and indeed every Nigerian, of their continued safety and well-being anywhere they reside and or do business in Igboland even as the Igbo will not in any way relent in pursuing their aspirations peacefully but vigorously.
Leave The North By October 1 – Arewa Groups Warn Igbos
A group of prominent groups in Northern Nigeria on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 issued an ultimatum to Igbos living in the north to return home by October 1, 2017 or else they will face a situation similar to the pre-civil war pogroms visited on their kin in the 1960s.
The order was contained in an error-ridden statement, obtained by The Trent, issued after a meeting in Kaduna State. The groups, Arewa Citizens Action for Change, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Youth Development Foundation, Arewa Students Forum, and the Northern Emancipation Network, asked the Igbo residing in the region to “start making plans to leave.”
The chilling statement condemned the renewed call for the independent republic of Biafra and also expressed disdain for the Igbos and their culture saying that “the Igbo people of the South-East, not repentant of the carnage it wrought on the nation in 1966, is today boldly reliving those sinister intentions connoted by the Biafran agitation that led to the very first bloody insurrection in Nigeria’s history”.
In 1966, the Igbos were the victims of the largest genocide in Nigeria’s history with over 100,000 of them killed in Northern Nigeria by northern mobs. This pogrom led to the declaration of the Republic of Biafra which led to the Nigerian civil war in which over 3 million Igbos died.
