THE DISRUPTED IGBO LEADERS SUMMIT

Sir,

THE DISRUPTED IGBO LEADERS SUMMIT

It is not just enough for President Jonathan to deny that he had no hand in the disruption that greeted the last Igbo leaders summit in Owerri on September 27, 2010.  Just as President failed to caution his wife when she went hounding a sitting Governor Amaechi, he has failed to caution those behind the disruption of the Ndigbo meeting. Governor Ohakim who claimed that the action was based on security report that the Concorde Hotel was to be razed should the meeting go on need be asked to name and prosecute those who intended the heinous crime.
 
It should be realized that recently the northerners had a meeting in Kaduna, no one disrupted it. The south-south people had theirs in Uyo, no one disrupted it. Even people of South-west held theirs in Enugu (south-east town), no one disrupted it. Why disrupt Ndigbo in a Summit they tried to hold on their soil, a summit designed for no bad purpose. Again Ohaneze Ndigbo was denied use of a centre in Abuja thereafter the incident of Owerri.
 
Since the scenario is now playing out and Ndigbo is seeing Jonathan as ignoring them; he may as well drop his Igbo adopted name “Azikiwe” which he uses when it benefits him. Known is that Ndigbo, since the end of the civil war, has been condoning all manner of insult. It was only during the military that more States were created and now that we are in democracy, for upward of ten years, the National Assembly has refused to create additional State for the Southeast; the only zone having five states against others with six and Northwest with seven.
 
Well, upon the disruption, Ndigbo still were able to come out with a communiqué at the end of the meeting held under sun in Owerri. One of the points in the communiqué was that come 2015, an Igbo person must be the President of Nigeria; all forces that would make this not happen should now be the collective resolve of Ndigbo to challenge.
 
Benjamin Maduka, 3 Alheri Street, Jimeta-Yola, Adamawa State.