We’ll take care of IPOB’s threat to summit – Ohanaeze

Achi-Okpaga

The National Publicity Secretary of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Okpaga, speaks on the planned Igbo summit on restructuringbeing organised by the apex Igbo socio-political body in this interview with IHUOMA CHIEDOZIE

Why is Ohanaeze organising an Igbo summit on restructuring?

The National Executive Committee (of Ohanaeze) is holding in trust for the Igbo race. Ndigbo are our employers and we are their employees. On matters of such magnitude, we bring the people and informed stakeholders together to brainstorm and canvass their views and it helps to shape the initiatives. Plausibly, you know that at a point in time, the Federal Government feigned ignorance of what restructuring is all about, but we were undaunted. Later, the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, was appointed to chair the committee on restructuring. The rest, I assume, you know.

Do you think restructuring is the best option for Ndigbo considering that some Igbo are asking for Biafra?

There is no other way the Igbo can be free in Nigeria and that is why we have to educate the people through the summit. Do you know that when you create Biafra, you have restructured Nigeria? That is because anything you tinker with is no longer the same. You see, what an elder would lie down and see, a child will climb a tree and would not see. We know of a number of agitations for self-determination the world over, including those of Scotland and, most recently, Catalonia in Spain, where their leaders are still being persecuted. If the present Federal Government is indifferent to restructuring, it is completely averse to Biafra. You must start from the known to the unknown. Let us begin from somewhere pliable.

What do you have to say about the Indigenous People of Biafra’s opposition to the summit?

IPOB does not want to hear anything other than Biafra. But mind you, it (IPOB) is comprised of persons exuding youthful blood. Whenever the clouds gather, there is nothing to expect other than rain. We are actually pursuing the same goal with them but the difference is the approach. They are marching and rooting for the freedom and welfare of Biafrans with youthful boots but we are treading for the same goal with elderly eyes. The truth is that restructuring does not, cannot and will not puncture or stop the realisation of Biafra in any ramification. It will only aid its achievement.

IPOB warned that it will not allow the summit to take place. Will Ohanaeze still go ahead with the programme?

We have been organising this kind of event from time to time. It is just that we have a lot of emerging events and activities that have defied our schedule. You will recall that among others, Chief Obumselu, who was a former Vice President of Ohanaeze, was laid to rest before the former Vice President, Chief Alex Ekwueme. Now, Chief Achuzie, who was also a former Secretary General of Ohanaeze, will be buried this (last) week. These are unsolicited events that one must pause in his activities to attend to. We shall be meeting very soon to schedule our activities, including the summit which is just a continuation of what we have been doing.

Is Ohanaeze worried about IPOB’s threat? What will happen if IPOB attempts to disrupt the summit?

Certainly, we are worried but note that if a child threatens his father, the father would not be worried of being harmed but because his child may be lost. No worthy parent would be happy seeing his child veering off the track. We are not oblivious of the fact that they will try to disrupt our activities, including the planned summit, but we shall take care of that.

Will you advise the activists to embrace restructuring?

We have done a lot not only to preach to them, but to all Nigerians, including those in the Diaspora. The President-General (of Ohanaeze), Chief Nnia Nwodo, and some other members of the NEC fought as Biafran soldiers and, as a result of the horrifying experience, would not want any Igbo blood to be spilt in the course of another war. We must change our style. Even God changed His style. After using flood to destroy the world in the first instance, He decided to send His only son to die for our sins. So, God decided that rather than destroy the world with flood, as a human being, when you die you go and face judgment. Everybody will face judgment, including those persecuting Biafrans, the ones unleashing the military with armoured tanks on the unarmed and defenceless IPOB, declaring them terrorists.

IPOB should read the handwriting on the wall. They were exercising their natural and human rights of agitation for self-rule and were massacred like insects under the attack of insecticides. Now, terrorist Fulani herdsmen are killing Nigerians with unbridled impunity with their sophisticated rifles and other weapons of war. Yet, the Federal Government has not made any declaration. Instead, the Inspector-General of Police was merely instructed to relocate to Benue State as if it is only in Benue State that people are killed. Even the IGP never carried out the instruction, as admitted by the President himself and nothing was done about that!

How can you deploy soldiers with armoured tanks against unarmed IPOB members and merely ask the police to go to Benue State to face killer terrorists with assorted rifles and other weapons of war? What I am trying to establish is that it is the same way IPOB does not want to hear anything about restructuring that the Federal Government does not want to hear about Biafra. That is why we should commune and restrategise.