The Igbo Conscience (TIC), led by Barrister Monday Ubani, ex-Chairman of Ikeja Branch of Nigerian Bar Association, has dismissed the clamour for Biafra, asserting that the Igbo are better off in Nigeria.
“TIC is unequivocal in distancing the generality of Ndigbo from the present politically-orchestrated clamour for secession from Nigeria,” the group said in a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday.
Mr. Ubani was in the company of Mr. Joe Igbokwe, Mr. Clever Opara and Barrister Mrs. Nkechi Chukwueke at the conference.
The group noted that those agitating for Biafra have a misplaced idea of war, as most of them were not born during the civil war and know nothing about what it is to go through one.
“We deplore the spirited attempt by some people to distort Nigeria’s history as it affects eminent Igbo elements,” the statement said. “We deplore in particular the attempt to cast Chief Emeka Ojukwu in the image of a poster child of Nigeria’s disunity. True, Chief Ojukwu did lead the Biafran war. But he was never a pathological rebel. In fact, Ojukwu was a pan-Nigerian through and through; and did state many times that the Biafran rebellion was forced upon him by historical circumstances. Most history books consider him a reluctant rebel.”
TIC dismissed those who think that Biafra will be the solution to all their problems when they separate from Nigeria, as their sponsors have brainwashed them to believe, drawing attention to the examples of South Sudan and Pakistan.
In addition, the group noted: “While it is possible for any Yoruba man or woman from any state in the South West to serve in any capacity in Lagos it is extremely difficult if not impossible for an Igbo from one Igbo state to work in another Igbo state.”
In that regard, it recalled the case in Abia when former Gov Orji sacked all civil servants from Imo, Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi, and in Enugu State when a former Governor sacked all the civil servants from Anambra state when Enugu was carved out of the old Anambra State.
TIC blamed the Biafra clamour on some “economic refugees” living in Europe and America who engage in it as a way of mitigating the harsh economic realities in Nigeria.
“Most of them, with no known means of livelihood and drawing from the social benefits of their host countries, are in the lone business of fanning the embers of hatred, persecution and destruction in the name of supporting Biafra,” it said. “They continue to leverage on the stable political, economic and social spheres of their host countries to keep their children from harms ways while they instigate jobless youths, hoodlums, Okada riders, traders and victims of the system in Nigeria to suicide via the use of social media.”
It challenged such people to relocate to Biafra with their children and become agitators instead of prodding other unfortunate youths to destruction.
