Northern Coalition Ultimatum: Igbos Have No Objection To Return Home But… Ohanaeze Ndigbo
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief John Nnia Nwodo on Thursday told the Federal Government, the spokesman of Northern Coalition Group, AbdulAzeez Suleiman and others to take notice that all Igbos in the North have no objection returning home.
He however said that in the vein, all Northerners in the East shall leave the East in order for the nation to dismantle the Federal structure imposed on the people by the military and return to Autonomous Federating Units.
This is just as Ohanaeze President also said that the suspension of the RUGA without cancelation still leaves the Federal Government in violation of the laws of the Federation.
Chief Nwodo, who stated these while reacting to the call by AbdulAzeez Suleiman, who gave the Federal Government 30 day ultimatum within which to implement the RUGA, said the policy is a violation of Nigerian constitution and the Supreme Court decisions on the Land Use Act.
Chief Nwodo described the outburst of Suleiman, who claim to be representing AREWA Coalition as totally irresponsible, unlawful and provocative, adding that the outburst reminded him of the quit notice from Northern Youths two years ago.
The Ohanaeze President stressed that the threat to evict law abiding Nigerians from their places of abode in Northern Nigeria is treasonable.
He said obviously, like the gun trotting herdsmen, Suleiman will go unnoticed by the Federal controlled law enforcement agencies.
Chief Nwodo further said; “Ohanaeze insists that the RUGA policy is an Islamization and a Fulanisation policy.
“The nepotism exhibited by this Federal Government, her duplicity of standards in law enforcement, her undisguised Fulanisation policy is repugnant to rule of law and good governance.
“We will no longer tolerate any further threats from these Northern war mongers. After all, who should be the aggrieved under the circumstance? The millipede that has been marched is whimpering, but the person that marched it is complaining that his foot has been soiled.
“The South that is bearing the yoke of oppression from cattle herders are trying their best to coexist with their aggressors, yet it is the aggressors that are threatening further mayhem.
“This cannot be. I call on all Igbos to be ready to defend themselves. Enough of these threats!” Chief Nwodo emphasized.
He noted that the broadcast by Abdul Azeez Suleman, claimed to be speaking for a coalition of Northern Groups in which he had the audacity to give the Federal Government an ultimatum of 30 days to rescind its decision on the suspension of its RUGA settlements policy.
Chief Nwodo noted that AbdulAzeez Suleiman went further to threaten the expulsion of Southerners resident in the North at the expiration of his dateline if the Federal Government does not rescind its suspension decision.
THE NIGERIAN FREEFALL TO DISNTEGRATION
In the days of General Abacha, people unjustifiably assumed that that taciturn general did not know what he was doing. He proved everyone wrong. He would take a decision and ignore whatever the citizens’ reactions were. He became known as Kurma (deaf man in Hausa). Kurma imposed the worst form of dictatorship on Nigerians. We were living in abject fear. Abacha imposed a highly discriminatory constitution on us and we accepted it, and we are now complaining that Professor Auwalu Yadudu wrote an “Islamic” constitution.
Now comes Muhammadu Buhari, a general with a proven track record of disctatorial tendencies. He is implementing an agenda. Almost all federal appointments go to one section, northern Muslim Fulani, Kanuri and Hausa. There are complaints but no action taken to stop him. We have hundreds of SANs and brilliant senior lawyers who can take Buhari to court and prove his bellicose nepotism for all the world to see, but they don’t. The propagandists hammer everyone who offers any contrary opinions. Some persons who call themselves “northerners” threaten others with expulsion from the “North”,and we expect Buhari’s government to sanction them. There are educated people who still insist on seeing the north as a monolithic Muslim and Hausa-Fulani entity. The Southern states ignore the killings of northern minorities, describing it as “a northern affair”. We still insist that the genocidal attacks and killings in the Middle Belt are “herders/farmers conflicts” or “communal conflicts”. We are afraid to call naked terrorism by its name. Have we not noticed that in the last four years no federal government official has referred to Boko Haram as terrorists? They are just insurgents. They are not interested in negotiating an end to the insurgency; they will not have any excuse thereafter for not tackling the Fulani terrorists in other parts of Nigeria.
I suspect that the political elite are waiting to reap the benefits by using the apparently incompetent government handling of the crisis to rev up the arguments for secession as the solution to the problem of northern hegemony. The dogmatic insistence on “no restructuring” by Buhari’s government and their insensitive and deliberately forceful pursuit of grazing reserves, cattle colonies, ranches and RUGA settlements are driving wedges between Nigerians, and they do not seem to care. They are right and everyone else is wrong. I have even read very rude and insolent statements by so-called “progressives” insisting trident lay that “only RUGA” can end the so-called farmers/herders “conflicts”. Nigerians are not supposed to have different views from the Buhars, Osinbajos, El Rufais etc, because they are the government and they know best. In all other countries, before governments undertake far reaching demographic re-engineering and political restructuring as the grazing reserves, cattle colonies and permanent home areas (the actual meaning of RUGA where it originated in Niger Republic’s Code Rural), widespread negotiations and genuine consultations are held with all concerned communities and stakeholders right down to the villages, with the people who own the land that would be alienated. But no, no one will even consult with “farmers”, since those in power falsely claim that government “owns” the land and can take it away by merely issuing a gazette and paying compensation for trees and standing crops.
The people of this country called Nigeria will learn to be honest, courageous, conscientious and steadfast in addressing the dictatorial dispositions of those in power, or we will remain helpless while the powerful hegemonists tear the country apart and go behind their walled houses in the federal and state capitals or foreign lands to stay in safety protected by the security forces. Fela Kuti said we are always afraid when someone takes away our rights because we own a house, we have a family, or a business, we don’t want to die, and we cowardly allow brutalizations until we have lost all our dignity and become enslaved, and then we are still killed and driven out of our lands and we become permanent subjects.