The coalition of northern youths who gave Igbo residents in the North three-month ultimatum to leave the region, has written to Acting President Yem
The coalition of northern youths who gave Igbo residents in the North three-month ultimatum to leave the region, has written to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to facilitate the process of allowing Igbo to leave Nigeria.
In an open letter signed by five of the leaders of the groups, the coalition urged the Acting President to ease the exit of the Igbo from Nigeria so that they could have their country, Biafra. This, they said, should not be through violent means but in a peaceful manner through a referendum.
According to the group, the Acting President should take steps to facilitate the actualisation of the Biafran nation in line with the principle of self-determination as an integral part of contemporary international law. The group argued that as the Igbo agitations persisted and assumed threatening dimensions, they submit that there is the need to ensure that they are given the opportunity to exercise the right to self-determination as entrenched in the aforementioned international statutes to which Nigeria is a signatory.
They insisted that they were not waging war or calling anyone to violence, but noted that they were not willing to continue tolerating the malicious campaign and threats of war that the Igbo have continued to wage against them. The youth leaders added that they could not afford to continue giving the keys to their cities to a people whose utterances, plans and arrangements are clearly geared towards war and anarchy.
The coalition continued in the letter that past experience had shown that the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria manifested their hatred for Nigeria’s unity barely five years after the country’s independence from the British when on January 15, 1966, their army officers carried out the first-ever mutiny that marked the beginning of a series of crises which has profoundly altered the course of Nigeria’s history.
They noted that even in recent times, the agitation for the Igbo to have the Republic of Biafra heightened with the activities of Kanu’s IPOB and never opposed by majority of the Igbo. The coalition added, “Kanu and IPOB have declared full allegiance to a ‘Republic of Biafra’ and continue to preach hatred and war virtually every day, and not for once did any Igbo leader caution them.
“Instead, many of the leaders, including Mr. Ike Ekweremadu, the Deputy Senate President, the most senior elected Igbo, pay Kanu courtesy calls to prove that he is speaking for the entire Igbo.
“Even the latest statement by the South-East Governors Forum, signed by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, in a response to the northern reaction, did not condemn Kanu and Uwazuruike but characterised their action as peaceful.
“While we do not see this clamour for Biafra as an issue over which a single drop of blood should be shed, we, at the same time, insist that the Igbo be allowed to have their Biafra and for them to vacate our land peacefully so that our dear country Nigeria can finally enjoy lasting peace and stability.”
Those who signed the letter are the National President, AYCF, Alhaji Shettima Yerima; Joshua Viashman (Northern Youth Vanguard); Aminu Adam (Arewa Youth Development Foundation); Abdul-Azeez Suleiman (Northern Emancipation Network) and Nastura Ashir Sharif (Arewa Citizens Action for Change).
Punch
