Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, has berated Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), over his broadcast that Igbo should leave Nigeria if they so desire.
Baba-Ahmed in a widely-circulated broadcast video said “we said if secession is what every Igbo wants, and this is what the Igbos want, the nation should not fight a war over it”.
He equally called on the northerners resident in Southern Nigeria to consider returning to the North.
Ohanaeze spokesman, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, while reacting to Ahmed’s statements said the statement was extremely nauseating, uncouth, provocative, incendiary, inflammatory, and above all very arrogant and licentious.
According to the Ohanaeze scribe “We are not distracted by lowly persons who by the circumstances of their birth and conditions in life do not weigh the implications of their public conduct, remarks and actions before going public.
“The urbane among us know that Nigeria is one of the countries of the world that unites several nations in one; a federation of various nations or a multination state. Nigeria, like every other multination state, requires leaders who can formulate ideologies, policies and programmes aimed at galvanising or harmonising the diverse component units at all times.
“This accounts for such Federal Government schemes as the National Youths Service (NYSC), Federal Government (unity) colleges and other unifying national bodies. On the other hand, remarks with centrifugal dynamics are deliberately avoided in order to engender a genuine unity for the multicultural and multinational units of the country.
“We reiterate that the broadcast by Baba Ahmed is a threat to peace and unity of the country and the security agencies should act on time to serve as a deterrent to some others harbouring such mindsets against the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria.”
