A RESPONSE FROM CHI REPUBLIC INTER-CREED COUNCIL TO THE COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS (CNG)
We are lost to what emotions to attach to reading your address to Southeast leaders. When we remember that people came together after consultations, decided on the agenda, gave out the task of penning this address to people, while others approved it, we are left ponderous.
You described the disowning of IPOB by Southeast leaders as “insufficient, deceptive and unacceptable.” Before we take on these three words, can CNG give us the equivalent of the Northeast Governors caucus or the Northwest Governors caucus or the North Central Governors caucus, or even the ‘almighty’ Northern Governors Forum coming out with the equivalent of what the Southeast Governors Forum came out with?
Can you provide us any official instance where any of these forums or caucuses in the north came out to disown and condemn Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and the bandits that ravage the north? We can pull out for you news headlines upon news headlines of prominent northerners playing advocate for these hoodlums; and we mean senators, governors, professors, even the president -all playing advocate for these criminals. So, on what moral platform do you stand to describe as “insufficient, deceptive and unacceptable” the position of the Southeast governors?
Now, to those words you used: When you say that the response of the Southeast governors are insufficient, what do you mean? You want to see them murder peaceful Igbo youths before you can be placated? While you hold negotiations with criminals and bandits and compensate them with positions in our armed forces and funds coming from the south, including the Southeast, you want Southeast leaders to gun down youths asking for a better and secure life. How else can hypocrisy be defined?
You call Southeast leaders deceptive because they set up the security outfit Ebubeagu. To you, Ebubeagu and Eastern Security Network (ESN) are one and same. The noteworthy thing in equating Ebubeagu with ESN is not just in making that equation, it is in understanding why these security outfits were formed in the first place.
Let us remind you: These were formed in response to the murderous barbarity of the Fulani herdsmen. A group whose infamy has seen them claiming one of the world deadliest terror groups for years running now. Ebubeagu and ESN are the people’s acts of self-defense against these deadly terrorists, whose atrocities have been felt by millions across Nigeria.
So, when you see Ebubeagu and ESN as one and the same, you are simply spelling out that you have issues with the people’s efforts at self-defense. If you had backed Ebubeagu, then some may understand your grouse with ESN; but you neither want Ebubeagu or ESN. What does that make of you? If armed robbers attack a street and the people rush into their homes to pick whatever they can use for self-defense, what do we call anyone who fumes at the people’s attempt towards defense from the robbers? How can such a one claim he or she is not part of the robbers? As you equate Ebubeagu with ESN (both, self-defense initiatives), why should we not equate you with bandits, terrorists and murderers seeing that you would rather weaken the hands of those who choose to resist these demons? Should we still assume that CNG means Coalition of Northern Groups and not Coalition of Nefarious Groups -bent on a Mephistophelean plot?
In what capacity do you define the decision of state executives in a federal system as unacceptable? Are you so unfeeling that you cannot feel the piercing arrogance in that word “unacceptable”? So, if we may ask, what is acceptable to almighty you? The slaughtering of Igbo youths? The impression you give is that your stance is in defense of northern lives being wasted by Igbos. Would you mind if we take stock? Would you mind if we ascertain how many Igbo and other southerners lives have been wasted in the north, even under peaceful atmosphere? How many have been wasted under Boko Haram? How many have been kidnapped on northern roads? The befuddling thing is that you come down south, Southeast inclusive, it is still your brothers wrecking deadly havoc on southerners as they kidnap, maim, rape and kill; both in the rural areas and our highways. So, do you really mind our taking stock of who really is killing who?
Are the Igbos really killing northerners and the north is that calm? Since when did you learn self-control, that your own will be killed and your towns will not erupt in mayhem? Did you require your own to be killed before you erupted in murderous violence over a cartoon in Denmark? Did you require that your own be killed before you unleashed a ‘Belzeebubic’ violence on innocent souls over a beauty pageant? Who was killed before you drenched the soil with blood over elections lost fairly and squarely in 2011? Should we remind you about the Sharia pogroms -called riots? Who was killed by the Igbo before your boy Shekau took to the stage made of human skulls in a murderous dance?
Where in the Southeast do you have anything nearing the equivalent of these? The Unknown Gunmen? Should we give you a list of Igbos killed by the Unknown Gunmen? For your information, the Igbo have taken the largest hits by these Unknown Gunmen such that many Igbos think that these Unknown Gunmen are you guys in disguise. Who would blame anyone who has such thoughts? Are your legacies in bloodletting not enough proof?
So, can you see why it is difficult to muster the right emotions for your address to Southeast leaders as that address reeks of incredible hypocrisy? Mind you, we are not advocates for Southeast leaders. We will surely let them know how we feel. Some other groups are already doing so. To know how lots of Igbos feel about the Southeast leaders, you just need to go online and read Igbos themselves. The great Igbos say that when a person calls his place a trash heap, people will dispose their trash there. If Southeast leaders had carried themselves well, from where would you have picked the guts to utter such arrant nonsense of an address to them? From where?
Well, it is said that even a bad clock is right at least twice a day; happily, this holds true for you too despite your gaffes. Your decision to move that a referendum, whose aim is for Igbo exit from Nigeria, be conducted is a most reasonable stance from you. This shows that not all hopes are lost in reading and hearing reason from your end. Well, if you can muster some sincerity, you will agree that the Biafran agitation has been a peaceful call for a referendum. That it has not happened is not the Igbos’ fault. Actually, we may need to ask you why it has not happened all these years. However, now that you have woken up to the benefits of a referendum, knowing too that the yam and knife appears to be in your hands, this will be a very good opportunity to redeem your image of double speak.
But wait? You said that all Igbo, high and low, is in agreement with being a nuisance to Nigeria. Why then do you need a referendum to throw them out? Why not just throw them out? What if in the very unlikely situation they vote to remain a nuisance to Nigeria and Nigerians, what happens? Well, just throw them out; so, that no one in Nigeria, especially up north, will proceed to rest in peace because of the Igbo.
Signed:
Ike Eluigwe -Council Chairman
Engineer Uche Ekechukwu -Council Vice Chairman
Edwin Abba -Council Secretary