ATIKU-OBI , HAS THEIR WORKS CUT OUT . THEY SHOULD CALL MNK, IPOB AND OHANEZE AND OTHER INTERESTED STAKEHOLDERS FOR A MINI CONFERENCE AND OFFER TO PURSUE THE RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA . ITS EITHER RESTRUCTURING OR BIAFRA. NO MIDDLE GROUND.
For the benefit of those, who have deliberately refused to appreciate what fuels the Nnamdi Kanu phenomenon and why this struggle will not stop until justice is done here in Nigeria, kindly read a recapture of what Ndi Igbo, Afanifere, PANDEF, Middle Belt Forum and other Progressive Nigerians desire and want in this Nigeria .
I don't feel angry or frustrated, anytime I read any article or posts by a Yoruba or Hausa/Fulani person questioning what Ndi Igbo mean by these unending cry of marginalization in Nigeria . This is expected , because people that enjoy deliberately created advantages over their competition will always want it to remain so and will hardly give it up unless pressed to the wall .
However, I get deeply perplexed, any time I read such queries from someone , who bear the Igbo name , especially , those who migrated abroad to escape the suffocating environment back home .
Anyway , for the umpteenth time, I would devote time again on this space to enlighten once more , all those who have shown genuine or mischievous lack of understanding and comprehension of what the Igbo agitation is all about . WHAT NDI IGBO DESIRE FROM NIGERIA
I wish to God , I can help you understand. But I will try again.
NOW TO THE KERNEL OF THE MATTER
1. Please kindly note that the Igbo agitation is not a hatred towards any ethnic group or people . Ndi Igbo do not hate Buhari or those oppressive elements before him. We are not desparate to rule Nigeria or oppress anyone. I don't know why people are pushing such wicked narratives . I don't know what those driving it want to achieve . Perhaps , to draw opprobrium towards Ndi Igbo.
2. The Igbo agitation is not to occupy the Presidency or to be given all the juicy political appointment in Abuja. We don't need it . Those who occupied those positions in the past benefitted only their filthy pockets. Go to the states that produced past Presidents and you will clearly notice that the standards of living of their people are even worse off than those of other Nigerians.
3. The Igbo agitation is not to be given the Oil wells in the Niger delta or the land mass of the North or the resources of west . No it is not . If it is , we would not be at the vanguard of the call for resource control in Nigerian, because most Igbo communities do not have crude oil wells.
4. The Igbo agitation is simply for Nigeria to give equitable, fair, justice, and level playing ground to every/all the stakeholders within the Nigerian space/polity . The Igbo agitation is an unequivocal demand for equity , justice , fairness equality and excellence to all .
5. To be more specific , the Igbos demand for a total restructuring of Nigeria to what we had in 1957-1963 , that was beneficial to all . What our founding fathers agreed to. Without that agreement and contract entered into by Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and our other forebears, there would have been no Nigeria today. The foundation and emergence of Nigeria was founded on an arrangement and agreement codified into a constitutional framework and body of laws before our independence in 1960. That was the only constitutional arrangement and fiscal/governance framework that was truly and consensually agreed upon by all the constituent units and ethnic nationalities in Nigeria .
What this simply means is that the Igbos demand for a redrawing of the fiscal , governance , political , socioeconomic ,resource control and autonomous architecture of Nigeria to enable her people and other people that make up Nigeria to develop their home stead at their own pace and at their own terms without being stifled of their entrepreneurial and enterprising spirits .
6. If the autonomous, resource control , governance and fiscal architecture of Nigeria is overhauled to what we had and mutually agreed upon between 1960- 1963, with the exclusive list for the FGN reduced to just control of defence and foreign relation of Nigeria , given them only 20% of our national revenues . If the six regions/constituent units are allowed to control 50% of whatever they produce within their land and allow to build , develop their own infrastructure and enter into whatever alliances that can enhance the growth of their infrastructure and human capital without the overbearing influence of Abuja. If the remaining 30% should be put in a federation account to be shared amongst the whole units, the following things will happen .
#Ndi Igbo will now be able to enter into alliances with the SS region to create mutually beneficial sea pathways into ala Igbo without recourse to Abuja.
#What this means is that all the trillions of naira, jobs, physical , fiscal and infrastructural development that are concentrated in Lagos, will now move to Aba and Onitsha. Our containers shall be cleared in Onitsha and Aba. Those importers and big businessmen that struggle to buy houses in Banana Island , Lekki and VI at cut throat prices will now create their own plantain Islands nearer how by the coast of the Niger river near the overhead bridge. They will create their own orange Island near Azumini blue rivers and Oguta lake. Many will relocate home .
#Autonomy will also allow the regional government of the SE to negotiate and attract consulate presence of the US, UK, EU, China and other countries in Enugu and Owerri. What this means is that my aged mother will not come to Lagos or travel to Abuja to secure her visa to travel abroad . She will not have waste my resources flying to Lagos enroute to NY . She won't need to come to Lagos for a connecting flight to Dubai. Just imagine the aggregate and cumulative jobs, fiscal , physical and infrastructural development that this arrangement will bring to ala Igbo and other regions , who choose to chart their own destiny unecumbered by the overbearing influence of the retrogressive forces at Abuja . .
#Autonomy and Resource control will allow the SE regional government to develop her education system that suits her people and will not suffer the ignominy of having her sons who score 200/300 in a federal common entrance exam denied admission into a Federal school , only to allot his position to a kid from Zamfara who scored 4/300.
#Autonomy , Resource control and fiscal federalism, will allow the regional government of the SE the latitude and constitutional unencumberances to enter into partnerships with the regions of the SS or SW or NC to develop rail system links that connects even to outside niegbouring countries in such viable designs and structures that is not subject to the overbearing influences of Abuja. Igbos love PPP. Igbos are commercial oriented and will not mind several toll projects that will develop ala igbo,unlike our neighbours who love freebies and will want us to build unviable highways and site projects that leads to no where just to satisfy nepotistic inclinations and put the debt burden on others .
It will also allow Ndi Igbo to harness and tap into all the solid mineral resources and natural resources that God endowed us with , without recourse to Abuja and external limitations . It will also enable us have our regional police that can easily checkmate home grown crimes and stop the murderous antics of the terrorist herdsmen .
If these international sea , air and land gateways are created in the SE region , many Igbo owned businesses sited in other regions will relocate to the homeland . We would create a commercial hub that will be the epicenter of trades, services, commerce and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.
If Nigeria is restructured today to what we had in1963; this agitation and unending cry for marginalisation will stop immediately . IPOB , MASSOB, and other groups fighting for self determination will quickly transmutate to political parties and not agitate again.
Ndi Igbo do not seek to take anyone's land without paying for it . We don't want a beggarly feeding bottle federalism . We do not want free grazing reserves (all our goats, sheep and cows are ranched and kept in pens). We pay for things we need and do not beg or snuff lives out of our landlords just to colonize them.
That the other ethnic nationalities are okay with the rot and perfidy in the land does not mean we should keep quiet . We complain louder than others because the current wicked , warped , fraudulent and mediocre driven Nigerian structures stifles our enterprise and free spirit.
For the benefits of all those , who claim that the outcry of the people of the SE are misplaced , I hope you will come around and appreciate what this agitation is all about . Let's stop spreading some of these shallow narratives . Let's dig deeper to unearth the root causative agents that feeds this agitation so as to provide the required lasting and sustainable solutions to it . No more elixirs or opiates .
#let's discuss .
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