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Tag: Igbo

  • Igbo community in C’River commends Ayade, raises security advisory committee

    Igbo community resident in Cross River, has commended Gov. Ben Ayade for his fight against insecurity in the state, announcing setting up of an advisory committee to compliment his effort.

    The commendation is contained in a statement signed by Mr Ugoji Nwabueze, leader of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the state.

    Nwabueze issued the statement after a caucus security meeting he summoned to review constant kidnappings in the state.

    He remarked that Igbos, resident in the Cross River acknowledged that insecurity, which was growing globally, was no longer the exclusive responsibility of the state but all.

    Nwabueze, a Lawyer, who is also the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Non-Indigenes Affairs (Igbo) observed that the current measures put in place by the government in fighting insecurity in the state have proven to be efficient in tackling security challenges.

    “The Igbos commend the governor for rising to the challenge of insecurity in the state through the demolition of property acquired by kidnappers, through ill-gotten ransom.

    “Also, the declaration of 35 cultists on the wanted list, whose activities greatly affected the economy and nightlife of the state, thereby, reducing its tourism potentials.

    “Consequently, the Igbo community in Cross River has set up a security advisory committee for information gathering, sensitisation and close networking with security agencies in the state.

    “The Igbos are saying, constant kidnapping of people and high insecurity caused by senseless cult wars in the state have greatly affected the business fortunes of the state,’’ Nwabueze said.

    He gave an instance of one Chief Jude Odinka, a 70-year-old businessman with health complications kidnapped, over a month ago and is yet to be released, as well as several others who have died in the process, after ransom, as too many atrocities that cannot be tolerated any longer.

    The Igbo leader appealed to the governor, not to be intimidated by pressures or blackmail from people, who wanted to use insecurity in the state to rubbish his programmes.

    “The meeting rose with the resolution that any Igbo son caught in acts that constituted insecurity to the government of the state would be allowed to face the consequences,’’ he said.

    The State government recently engaged in massive demolition of property belonging to suspected kidnappers and cult leaders at large in Calabar South Local Government Area of the State.

  • Igbo professionals holds 24-hour COVID-19 Tweetathon

    Igbo professionals holds 24-hour COVID-19 Tweetathon

    The Society of Igbo Professionals (SIP) has announced a 24-hour Tweetathon to showcase its Intervention Programme towards the prevention and mitigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the estimated 25-35 million residents in the communities of the Igbo homesteads in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Imo and Rivers States.

    The Tweetathon will hold from 12 am to 12 midnight on Saturday, 9 May 2020.

    The Society of Igbo Professionals is a registered professional organisation whose mission is to connect the global community of Igbo professionals and, leveraging the power of community, to drive sustainable socio-economic growth of Igbo individuals, organisations and communities both at home and abroad.

    The Tweetathon would connect with Ndigbo where they live, work and play across the globe, as well as with their friends and host communities, to tweet about the impact of the pandemic and discuss all aspects of SIP COVID-19 Intervention Programme.

    Nkem Ogbuaku, Lead, SIP Covid-19 Intervention Information and Communications Workgroup, explained it. “We will breakdown our intervention framework, explain the Igbo values that drive our actions, and share all our COVID-19 prevention advertising materials. We will also share communication to counter misinformation about COVID-19, provide our accountability statement and highlight our fundraising actions”.

    Other goals of the SIP Tweetathon include boosting hashtags that drive both the Intervention Programme as well as our SIP COVID-19 campaign theme, “Ndu ka”, a call to remember that life is more important than any other pursuit. The core Igbo values of #OnyeAghanaNwanneYa (‘let no-one leave a family member behind’) and #Igwebuike (‘We are stronger, unite and working together’) further underpin the messaging.

    “We expect participants to push for strong compliance with the “5” COVID-19 prevention guidelines: avoiding crowds, staying home, cleaning surfaces, covering coughs & sneezes and washing hands often”, said Professor Chika Unigwe, a coordinator of the Information and Communication Workgroup of SIP.

    The organisation looks forward to the participation of the global community of Ndigbo and their friends in the Twitter-fest. All thought leaders, advocacy groups, students, celebrities, organisations, media influencers and partners, are invited to participate, and amplify the campaign across all social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

  • Borno Gov. Zulum swears-in Yoruba, Igbo advisers

    Borno Gov. Zulum swears-in Yoruba, Igbo advisers

    Chief Kesta Ogualili from Anambra State, Alhaji Yusuf Alao from Oyo State and 24 others have been sworn-in as special advisers to Borno state governor Babagana Zulum.

    Ogualili is from Dunukofia local government of Anambra state, while Alao, is from Ogbomosho local government area of Oyo state.

    Zulum had on January 9 appointed both men who, as professionals, have lived in Borno State for many years and supported the All Progressives Congress (APC). Advisers are ranked next to commissioners in the state. Both categories receive the same salaries and allowances.

    Borno Deputy Governor Umar Kadafur represented Governor Zulum at the swearing-in of the 26 advisers at the ceremony. Each person was administered oath of office and allegiance.

    Other advisers who took oath of office include: Sheikh Modu Mustapha, Ali Audu Damasak, Mustapha Bulu, Hussaini Gambo, Bukar Busami Ardoram, Tukur Mshelia, Tijjani Goni Modu, Inna Galadima, Zarah Bukar, Mustapha Ali Sandabe, Gadau Ali Ngurno, Mohammed Maulud, Bole Modu Kachallah, Abdulrahman Abdulkarim, Barr. Bashir Maidugu, Bukar Modu Konduga, Umoru Sale Gaya, Ali Zangeri, Tukur Ibrahim, Tijjani Lawan Kukawa, Abba Sadiq Gubio, Malam Gana Badu, Alhaji Adamu Usman Chibok and Ahmed Asheikh Zarma.

    Zulum urged them to live to expectation and contribute to the attainment of the development agenda already being implemented in the last eight months.

     

  • Tension in Bayelsa as Igbo factions disagree over cultural day celebration

    Barring any last minute intervention by the Bayelsa Government and security agencies in the state, two factions of Ohaneze Ndigbo may clash during the ongoing celebration of Igbo cultural day in Yenagoa.
    Already, security has been beefed up at the Ox-bow lake pavilion, venue of the celebration, due to the crisis that engulfed the pan Igbo cultural group in the state.
    Chief Mark Nkem is recognized by the national leadership as the caretaker chairman of the group, while the Special Assistant to Bayelsa Governor on Non Indigenes, Mr Okwudiri Chukwu Okoh, is also leading another faction.
    Addressing newsmen in Yenagoa, the chairman, Igwe-In-Council for Ohaneze Ndigbo in Bayelsa, Chief Ernest Uzoefuna, said the national leadership had directed that this year’s celebration be put on hold till after the body’s election where conflicting issues would be settled.
    He said they were surprised to hear that Chukwu Okoh’s led faction had gone ahead to fix Igbo Day for Saturday, after the national body had met with both factions earlier in the week.
    The situation, he said, could degenerate into crisis when the two factions met.
    According to him, “Article 37 of Ohaneze Ndigbo constitution states that when there is crisis, Igbo day should be put on hold till that crisis is resolved.
    “The constitution is very explicit, no person should be allowed to use his personal interest to cause problem between Igbo people in Bayelsa,” he said.
    He said that the national leadership of Ohaneze had already written to the state government, and the security agencies in the state on the implication of allowing the celebration to hold.
    Also, the vice president of Ohaneze Youth Wing in Bayelsa, Mr Uchenna Okoro, and the secretary, Mr Nwosu Chukwuemeka, pleaded with the state government and security operatives to put the celebration on hold, to forstall any breakdown of law.
    The special assistant to Bayelsa State governor on non indigenes, Mr Okwudiri Okoh, dismissed the allegation, saying the Igbo cultural day was one of the ways to unite Igbo people living in Bayelsa.
    He disclosed that the day was not organized under the platform of Ohaneze Ndigbo, but the Igbo community in the state.
     

  • Father Mbaka accuses FG of maginalising Igbo

    Father Mbaka accuses FG of maginalising Igbo

    The Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, has alleged high level of the Federal Government’s marginalisation of Ndigbo in the scheme of things in Nigeria.

    The fiery priest said he is pained that in spite of his support for President Buhari, Igbo are so marginalised to the extent that he slept in Abuja for weeks to get a loan from the Bank of Agriculture to energise his farming vision in order to create jobs to teaming unemployed graduates.

    Fr. Mbaka, who spoke yesterday at the Adoration ground, during the flag-off of a three-day farmers empowerment programme by Multi-Life Saver’s, a corporative society made of 18 clusters with 5,000 members and visiting officials of the Bank of Agriculture, described the government agricultural programme as ‘poor claim and fake’.

    He said the cooperative has 470 hectares of farmland with Certificate of Occupancy, but could not get loan because he was not a northerner.

    “Whenever I went to obtain loan from the Bank of Agriculture, they would tell me to get a commercial bank that will do this and do that. The commercial banks will asked me to brink the feathers of one snake and leg of snake. This went on for many years and we are ready to impact significance into our agriculture; the only barrier is funding and encouragements,” he said.

    Mbaka begged the officials of the Bank of Agriculture to give his cooperative loans to help him create employment opportunities for the youths who have no jobs or either hope of getting a job

    He said: “It’s a sad development; if a northern has this kind of vision they would come around him, but here, we are alone. We started it in Adani and there was no help; there was flood and we lost N830 million and I went down to Nkereife. We had the largest poultry farm in the east of the Niger. In one day we lost 939,000 births. With the type of courage God gave to me, nobody knew and nobody will know apart from the fact that I’m disclosing it now. No encouragement and they are longing for authentic farmers, and we are farmers.

    “So, please, on behalf of the adoration members, we want them to monitor the funding and implementation. We don’t kill criminals here, we kill crime. If you go to Aqua Rapha investment Ltd, we have thousands of them working, yet, we don’t have governments’ support apart from Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who remembered us and created a road to this place. People thought President Buhari is helping me, but he is not helping us with one kobo. So, those who could have been helping thought he was helping and now he has become a hindrance.

    “If you go to the North, you would see how billions are spent there. If you go to my farm, there is a River that separates the land which makes it difficult for me to move equipment, and now, I’m doing the bridge by myself without help from anywhere, yet, I’m a priest.

    “So, I’m representing the poor, that is why I’m attacking many governments because when they cannot help the poor who I represent, and when the pressure is too much on me, I attack them.

    “Why can’t the federal government which claims to support agriculture not help the agriculturist? So, it is a poor and fake claim. Why can’t we have here a pilot farm that would be the eyes of this country? “We have in our aquaculture fishes one of the species which contains five billion fishes, but lack of good road to the farm led to the closure of that farm and the federal government is aware of this. So, for me, it is not just negligence, but wickedness and unhealthy marginalisation, because I’m not from the North. If a northerner had this kind of vision, from the Central Bank, order will be given. There are subsidies here and there to be granted, not even loan. They will have to seek grants, give the farm grants for whatever it takes. That is why the Igbo are crying. Some of us have been friends with the president, but when you seat down and think deeper, you see his nepotism,” he lamented.

  • Igboland will become better under Buhari-led govt – Adesina

    The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has assured that the Southeast region would witness massive infrastructural development before the B uhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government leaves office.

    He spoke while representing Buhari at the inauguration and flag off of a 5.5km road attracted by Dr. Alex Otti, the 2015 gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and built by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) at Isieketa community in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State.

    The presidential spokesman, who lamented the infrastructural decay in the country inherited by the Buhari’s administration, assured his principal would do all to ensure the infrastructural deficits were tackled.

    “One thing that is dear to the heart of President Buhari is infrastructure; roads, railway, power, etc.

    “Nigeria has a lot of deficits in infrastructure and President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to reverse that deficit.

    “We will see that by the time this administration ends Igboland will never be the same again. Igbo will be far better beyond where it has ever been before.”

    Otti thanked the Federal Government for giving the Isieketa community and its environs new lease of life.

    He said the farming community, which has suffered losses in the past would now have access road to move farm produce to nearby villages and commercial cities.

    Otti also disclosed to the cheering crowd that another 12.5km road, which stretches from the point where the 5.5km road ended to Aba-Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, has been awarded by the Federal Government through the NDDC.

  • 2019: Buhari’s emergence will pave way for Igbo presidency in 2023 – APC chieftain

    Chief Uche Ogar, a former governorship candidate under the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Abia State says that Igbos will benefit more under President Muhammadu Buhari if he emerges in 2019.

    Ogar told newsmen in Enugu on Saturday in Enugu that the president had revived some projects abandoned by the immediate past administration in the South East zone.

    According to him, President Buhari’s declaration for presidency in 2019 is good news, especially for Igbos.

    “What he has done in the South East zone is quite remarkable despite the fact that we did not support him in 2015.

    “He gave us substantive ministers, Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressways are all under construction including the 2nd Niger Bridge in Onitsha.

    “Most importantly, his emergence will give the zone the opportunity to produce the President in 2023,” he said.

    Ogar urged people of the zone to support the president’s intention and vote for him massively when the time comes.

    On plans to rerun in 2019, the political chieftain said he had not made up his mind adding that he would speak at the appropriate time.

    Ogar, who was in Enugu to attend the 43rd Annual Synod of the Methodist Church Nigeria, preached for peace in families and the country at large.

    Speaking on the theme of the synod, `Strive for Peace and Holiness’, the business magnate noted that the world presently was in crisis as nowhere on earth was safe.

    “We hear constantly about wars and rumours of war around the world. Our world is in trouble and the United Nations as a body is helpless in the face of it all.

    “I believe it will require reconciliation between man and his maker to bring or enthrone peace on earth.

    “For every child of God, peace is our vocation. Let us, therefore, do all in our power to live and make peace. Let us apply the dictum of `Live and let live,’’ he said.

    Ogar used the occasion to appeal to the youth to show maturity, capability and ability in order to be involved in governance.

  • 2019: ‘Support Buhari’s re-election bid to pave way for Igbo presidency’ SGF woos S/East

    Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, has beckoned on the people of the South-East to support the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari, declaring that a second term mandate for the President will pave way for the actualization of the South East’s dream to produce a President in Nigeria.

    Mustapha made the declaration at a dinner organised by business mogul and former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu in honour of Mrs. Georgina Ehuria, Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    In what could be described as an affirmation that Buhari would participate in the 2019 presidential election in spite of the groundswell of opinion against him, Mustapha said Nigeria was a complex nation and any person or group aspiring to lead the country must do so through negotiation and compromise.

    The SGF, who was responding to Kalu’s pledge that the South-East will give at least 75 per cent of its votes to President Buhari if he decides to run for a second term in office, said the Igbo will fare better in the political equation by voting massively for the incumbent president in 2019.

    “You made allusions to the fact that the South-East would support Buhari. Let me confirm to you that for any thought of Igbo presidency, this is the shortest part. I have been in this game in the last 35, 37 years. I can attest to it. I know what it is, I know the permutations. I know what is on ground and I am an election manager. I know how you can commute, how you can fix the figures and how they come and arrive at the destination. “I can tell you without any fear, without any iota of doubt that the shortest path to an Igbo presidency is for Buhari to complete his tenure and now engage the Igbo nation in a decisive move.

    “I leave this with my Igbo brothers that the act of negotiation that you have perfected in dealing with merchandise, in dealing with commerce, in dealing with entrepreneurship, must be brought to bear on your navigating your way to the Presidency,” Mustapha said. According to the SGF, the Igbo had an advantage in terms of the homogeneity in the language and culture of the South-East, adding that there was no reason the people cannot resolve to support a particular candidate with their block votes in return for the Presidency in 2023. “Nigeria is a complex society. We come from different diverse background. I come from a state called Adamawa. There are about 96 ethnic communities. We speak different distinct languages.

    You have an advantage. You speak only one language in all the five South Eastern states. “I have told you in Adamawa, we speak 96 different ethnic dialects. In a local government, you may find four, five and when they speak; they don’t even understand each other. And the only common denominator with which we communicate is Hausa.

    Similarly, it is like that in almost all the states in the northern part of the country. But we have learnt the act of negotiation, accommodation, give and take in the process. We have shared power, even in our small state on a rotational basis that every part would have an opportunity. “In Adamawa State, as a matter of fact, most of the people that have been governor since Adamawa state, except one, come from the minutest of the tribes. That explains exactly what I mean.

    It is not the numerical figure, the act of negotiation, the ability to accommodate, the ability to give and take is what would create the prosperous Nigeria of our dream,” Mustapha said. In a welcome address, Kalu, as chief host, had expressed appreciation to President Buhari for counting a daughter of Abia State, Mrs. Georgina Ehuria, worthy of the appointment as Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office. Kalu, who described Ehuria as an exceptional lady, said that her appointment was an indication that Buhari was poised to address the issue of marginalization of Igbo in key federal appointments.

    He urged the President to continue to do more for the South-East, pledging that the region would back his re-election to the fullest. “This has shown once again that the president is looking towards us, coming to Bende Local Government, in our own home to pick a permanent secretary. We are very grateful, but even when we are thanking him, we are still expecting more that Mr. President should look more towards our area. We are not stopping because if we do, they might not remember us again.

    “President Buhari has done very well and also giving us one strong appointment in my local government and we, the Igbo, we have decided; the PDP, APC, APGA, PPA that if the president is running again, he will have 75 per cent vote in the South-East. And this is a statement of fact,” Kalu said.

    Dignitaries present at the reception included Mustapha; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita; Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole; Director General, Voice of Nigeria, Mr. Osita Okechukwu and Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.

    Others included the Managing Director, Nigeria Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC), Mr. Luke Anele; a former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Mrs. Paulien Tallen; former Governor of Ekiti State and Deputy National Chairman of the APC (South), Engr. Segun Oni; former Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Chuka Odom as well as some members of the Diplomatic Corps in Abuja.

  • Operation Python Dance II: Ohaneze, Igbo Leaders should apologize to the military

    The Igbos for Nigeria Movement [INM] has called on the foremost Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohaneze Ndigbo and Igbo Leaders to apologize to the military for their earlier acts of silence, indifference, collusion and passive support that allowed the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to metamorphosed into a full blown terror group, whose leader, Nnamdi Kanu, hijacked the Igbo agitation for fairness to incite hatred across the land.

    Reacting to a visit to Gombe state on a peace mission by Ohaneze’s President General, Chief John Nwodo and other Igbo leaders, Igbos for Nigeria Movement expressed relief that the period when the organization and Igbo leaders played politics with what is ordinarily a nationwide quest for a better deal is over.

    It commended the Nigerian Army for having the will to tackle IPOB as a festering sore that was on the verge of compromising the health of the nation noting that there is nowhere in the world where terrorists are allowed to flourish unchallenged as earlier canvassed by certain many Igbo and Ohaneze leaders with vested interests.
    Igbos for Nigeria Movement explained that some top members of Ohaneze and Igbo political leaders that had banked on using IPOB and Kanu to score political points soon discovered that they were as much the victims of a terror infrastructure but had become too ashamed to accept their sins and dilemma until the launch of Operation Python Dance II, which some of them still kicked against out of habit.

    The movement said it is reassuring that the same people that were supporting IPOB, even when they were hostages, are today relishing the freedom procured for them through the success recorded by Operation Python Dance II, which has empowered them to again grow the courage to visit the same people that Kanu had vilified without them censuring him.

    It said in its sincere opinion, the least Ohaneze, Chief Nwodo and other Igbo leaders can do is to retract their past statements on the Operation Python Dance II and to encourage troops to root out other evils that have made Igboland into a place that other Nigerians avoid as a place to settle down. According to the group, the ill conceived quit notice to Igbos by some northern youths had exposed how groups like IPOB placed Igbos at a disadvantage because Igbos settle in other parts of the country in large numbers while only few persons of other ethnic groups make Igboland their homes because of attitudes like the one exhibited by Kanu.

    Igbos for Nigeria Movement noted that going forward, the expectation is that Ohaneze and any one that genuinely calls himself a leader in Igboland must now put the interest of Igbo people above their personal interest and this includes accepting that IPOB was a monster that was set to consume the genuine cause which every Igbo man had vigorously pursued in the past.
    According to the movement, had the military not stopped IPOB and Kanu, the path they were threading was on the verge of making Igbos lose what they had toiled to build in other parts of Nigeria in the past five decades given the way they needlessly antagonized other ethnic groups, including calling for their death.

    Mazi Igwe Ifeanyi,
    National Leader, Igbos for Nigeria Movement.

  • No reasonable Igbo man will support secession, Okorocha blasts Kanu

    No reasonable Igbo man will support secession, Okorocha blasts Kanu

    Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, yesterday urged the Federal Government and citizens to treat the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as an individual whose views do not represent those of the generality of Igbo.

    No reasonable Igbo man, the governor said, “would support secession or division of the country.”

    Okorocha who spoke at the new Yam festival organised by the

    State Council of Traditional Rulers said that “everyone that loves Ndigbo has condemned the activities of IPOB.”

    The Ooni of Ife, His Majesty Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, who attended the function said he would not condemn the IPOB elements but would rather ask that they be made to channel their energy positively.

    Okorocha said: “I can see that the unity of Nigeria is today dramatised in the land of Imo State. I say so because growing up as a child, I never knew where I came from because I found myself somewhere in Plateau State as a little boy and the only language I could speak was the Hausa language and I had no choice because that was where I was brought up.

    “So, I grew up being born an Igbo man, but was reared in the North and was made financially buoyant in the South-West. So I have declared myself that in no way should I be found as a tribalised Nigerian. I will remain detribalised as long as Igbo gave me parentage and childhood, as long as North reared and nurtured me and for as long as Southwest empowered me. My community and my identity is Nigeria.

    “The Igbo business men have more real estates and more properties and assets outside Igbo land than in Igbo land. So, I want to dissociate Igbo from this very thing that Igbo want to go for secession. A man that wants to go for secession cannot build mansions in Lagos, Kano, Plateau and the rest of the states.

    “I think we should single out this act of this young man from the rest of Nigerians. My worry again stands strongly on the fact that today, the issue of IPOB is being politicised. Today, most of them that never worked with the Buhari-led government are using this as an opportunity to fight the federal government. Call those people to order. It’s not far-fetched who these people are. Some of them are busy visiting Kanu’s house and encouraging him. Those people should make a rethink, because they are not doing this nation any good.”