The pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chekwas Okorie, has urged Igbos to unite and save their people.
He stated that the Igbo nation’s lack of unity and purpose has exposed it to embarrassing ridicule, disrespect, alienation, and marginalisation by its contemporaries.
Okorie, speaking at the Igbo Agenda Dialogue held in Abuja on Wednesday, stated that the Igbo’s contemporaries have managed to control the lever of political power.
Okorie said, “Things came to a most worrisome head when a former president of Nigeria while presiding over the affairs of the country described us as a dot in a circle, which in a sense implies that we are few and landlocked.
“The true position as is well known even by the person that mocked us in that manner is that there is no ethnic nationality in Nigeria that has greater access to the sea than the Igbo Nation.
“Following the advent of the Igbo Forum in 1976, which metamorphosed into Ohanaeze Ndigbo in 1979, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was our patron then, repeatedly cautioned during our meetings that the worst thing that usually happened to any race that lost a war was the loss of self-esteem.
“He[Azikiwe] further said that it would take several decades of conscientious focused leadership to recover from the loss of self-esteem.
“I remember those inimitable words when I watch with sadness and embarrassment the sycophantic, subservient, and condescending posturing of some of our leaders just to get by in a country where we are supposed to be equal stakeholders. Some even disown their identities as Igbo to escape oppression by those in power. It is now 55 years since the Biafra/Nigeria fratricidal war ended. Now is the time to redeem, reassert, and reclaim our inalienable rights in Nigeria.
“We are unarguably the ethnic nationality with the largest population in Nigeria. Our geographical spread in this vast country is second to none. We are easily the second largest population of practically all the states of Nigeria and about 99% of the population of the South East geo-political zone.
“Similarly, studies have proved that we constitute a minimum of 25% of the voting population of all the States of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory.
“In view of the nature of democratic practice in Nigeria, the majority of votes and its component geographical spread are the critical factors that determine electoral victory in our elections. It stands to reason that if we put our acts together nobody will win a presidential election in Nigeria without sitting down with the Igbo to agree on the terms of engagement.”
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