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Dear South East Nigerian Young Adults,
I am writing this letter to you with a lot of constraints because, like many other elders of the Igbo land who fought alongside Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War, many of us are not happy with what our young people seem to be doing. of our land Igbo represent lately. A situation where innocent Igbo men are thoughtlessly slaughtered and murdered in cold blood by their fellow Igbo men is certainly not acceptable as it certainly gives the world a false impression of the struggle.
When this wave of violent killings of another Igbo occurs, many other consequences follow. Firstly, it casts a strong, long and dark shadow over the objective of the struggle because one would like to ask: what were the crimes of those who were murdered in cold blood and where does it keep their families ? We would like to ask ourselves: what would Biafra look like if and when it became an indisputable reality?
To that extent, it was reassuring that the youth wings of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the National Council of the Islamic Youth Organization called on the authorities of the indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and other groups secessionists in Nigeria sheathing their swords. and reconsider their position in the face of the frequent senseless killings in the Southeast and the northern states which are quickly becoming daily rituals.
It was equally encouraging that in unison they stressed the need to end the killings across the country and insisted that young people must explore dialogue to resolve the challenges facing Nigeria. For the groups to organize a National Youth Peace Summit by the second week of November to address grievances and unrest is obviously a step in the right direction. Whether the government is listening to them or not is another story, but one that will certainly propel young people to the “next level”.
Interestingly, this will be the first of its kind in Nigeria designed to create an all-inclusive and interactive platform anchored by the youth of the country. IPOB leaders should please listen to these young people, for nations never are built overnight. It could take ages. It could take generations. But most importantly, it will take the will of the people.
As the National Chairman of the National Council of the Islamic Youth Organization, Sani Suleiman, rightly noted, the journey to Nigeria’s 61st anniversary of independence has indeed proved difficult. This is why some of us former Igbo people in the diaspora join him in urging Nigerian politicians, regardless of party, to start involving young people at the local level on the consequences of violence.
The idea of young adults convening a National Youth Peace Summit is indeed a very thoughtful development and most of us Igbo elders believe that if the youth of Nigeria could come together and stand side by side to protest police brutality at the EndSARS protest, they can do it over and over again by expressing their frustration and disgust with the state of the nation.
But some of the recent ugly events in the southeastern states have undoubtedly posed an open challenge to the organization of IPOB, as the youth wing of Ohaneze Ndigbo.
An important factor that youth leaders should keep in mind is that if the organizational hierarchy is not properly articulated, power hungry young people who find weapons in their hands are likely to misuse them. to create fear among the population, hoping that’s what it takes. But the truth is that creating a state of fear among a people in order to “unite” them is like enslaving the same people you claim to deliver from injustice and slavery in a country plagued by insecurity. . There is nothing quite as horrible as being made to fear your parent as a member of your own “family” on behalf of the unit, trust me.
Christian-Muslim youth plan youth peace summit in mid-November
To this extent, it is important for young IPOB enthusiasts to know that even if IPOB ordered a sit-home for every Igbo in the southeast for some reason, that order should exclude essential workers like doctors, nurses and journalists who are supposed to report the level at which the order has been observed. And their report is important because it should allow the IPOB authorities to know how to rethink their future communication and engagement with their Igbo fellow citizens whose interests they are fighting for, if the need arises.
The leadership of IPOB would need to have a real understanding of the real spirit of the Igbo people about this whole struggle. If they give the order to stay home, for example, they should monitor the number of obedient Ibos who stayed home because they had to obey the call of their young – and those who disobey. whose affairs may seem more important to them than the futures of their children and children’s children. This way the rulers would know whether or not they truly represent the interests of the people and whether the struggle has the support of most Igbo people. He shouldn’t call for the use of force at all. It can only call for the collection of information.
Indeed, what the IPOB should be focusing on right now is winning the propaganda war first, keeping in mind that whoever fights to win a war should also plan to win the peace. after the war has been fought and won. This is the mistake made by Nigeria, which still haunts it more than half a century after its civil war. The leaders made no visible preparations to win the peace after the war. And so, decades after the war, the echoes of secession have continued to echo through the days. Dissidents are springing up from every imaginable nook and cranny of the country because the Nigerian leadership prepared to win the war but made no arrangements on how to win the peace after the war.
So if the IPOB is to face the propaganda front, like keeping alive in the minds of the Igbo all the suffering they went through from 1966 to this day, all the deprivations and all the marginalizations and the need for a better market, the people should be able to support them knowing that it is their young people who are fighting for a better future for themselves, their children and their children’s children. They would obey any significant command from the IPOB, of course. So, there should be this understanding bearing in mind that nations are never built overnight and that the union of different tribes into one country should never be by force. It must be negotiated in a democracy.
To better represent the Igbo tribe, the IPOB should therefore take a good look at its hierarchy and ensure that it has total control of its mechanism. There should be a national leader, maybe Ohamadike who has given so much in the fight. Then each of the five states should have a commander. Every local government should have a leader. Every town should have a chief and every village should have a chief. These leaders at the city and village level would work hand in hand with the Royal Fathers of the communities. IPOB should properly document its hierarchy to prevent thugs from committing crimes in its name as they do in the name of Islam.
This is a critical step in the functioning of the organization and the level of confidence that state and federal governments will have in its purpose. And IPOB leaders at all levels must take responsibility for everything that goes wrong in their territory, such as the recent sad and senseless killings of innocent Igbo men in Enugu and Anambra states.
The unnecessary waste of lives in the South East has indeed become a matter of grave concern to many of us who served in the Biafran Army during the Nigerian Civil War. Today the young people of the Igbo country are killing their Igbo compatriots for no reason, so much so that their sons who live abroad are now finding it difficult to return home. No one knows what might happen next. Some of them stop in Lagos and if their relatives or friends wanted to collect what they bought for them, they had to go to Lagos. Everyone lives in a state of fear. We need to straighten out this trend as it casts a long black shadow over the essence of the struggle.
When killings escalate and the impression is given that human life has become so worthless in the perception of Igbo youth in the southeast, the region’s economy suffers. Investors find it difficult to invest, whether they are indigenous or foreign. Work becomes hard to find for young people and so on. It’s not good enough for the Igbo. Thus, the IPOB should take a leading position during the November meeting between young Christians and Muslims. They could still find a key that would unlock the door.
Chef Sir Emeka Asinugo is a London-based Anglo-Nigerian journalist, author and editor of Imo State Business Link magazine (website: imostateblm.com)
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