John Nwodo, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,
has described the national assembly as a reflection of
“deep ethnic divisions”.
Nwodo said this while delivering a paper entitled
‘Restructuring Nigeria: Decentralisation For National
Cohesion’ at the Chatham House in London on
Wednesday.
The president-general said the vote against devolution
of power clause during the constitution amendment by
the national assembly has not helped the situation of
the country.
He lamented that the All Progressives Congress (APC)
promised restructuring in its manifesto but has not
started the process after two years in office.
“The national assembly itself is a reflection of the deep
ethnic divisions in the country and the northern
majority conferred on it by the military makes it highly
unacceptable to southern Nigeria,” Nwodo said.
“Recent resolutions made by it on the devolution of
powers have not helped the situation. Happily, the
senate president has promised a revisit of the subject
matter.
“To achieve a national consensus on this subject
requires a national discussion. Regrettably, the ruling
party, APC which promised restructuring in its
manifesto after two years and four months in office is
still appointing a committee to define what sort of
restructuring it wants for Nigeria.
“To make matters worse, none of the other political
parties have come up with any clear-cut route for
achieving a consensus on this matter.”
According to him, the decision to declare the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist
organisation is “hurried, unfair, and not in conformity
with the intendment of the law”.
He said the “uncontested evidence” given by the
attorney-general of the federation in an interlocutory
action claiming that IPOB attempted to snatch guns
from law enforcement agents are, if proven, “merely
criminal offences”.
“They do not constitute enough evidence to meet
international law definitions of a terrorist organisation.
Happily, the United States embassy in Nigeria only
three days ago shared this conclusion and asserted
that the United States government does not recognise
IPOB as a terrorist organisation,” Nwodo said.
“This same unarmed IPOB that is being stigmatised by
the Nigerian government had its members murdered in
Asaba, Nkpor, Aba and Port Harcourt simply for having
public demonstrations without the federal government
ordering a judicial inquiry.
“Instead, after I called for one and Amnesty
International provided evidence that 150 of them were
killed, the Chief of Army Staff set up an inquiry
composed of serving and retired army officers thus
abandoning the rules of natural justice which
prescribes that you cannot be a judge in your own
court.
“The Igbo in Nigeria feel the treatment of IPOB as
unfair, discriminatory and overhanded. They see the
move as an attempt to encourage a profiling of Igbo in
the international security arena.
“We know of other self-determination groups in Nigeria
that are armed and have destroyed government and
private sector installations and wells that government
prefers to negotiate with rather than label them as
terrorist organisations.
“Fulani Herdsmen otherwise called the Fulani militants
have ravaged farms in middle belt, south-west, and
south-eastern Nigeria killing several farmers in the
process. In January 2016, they killed 500 farmers and
their families in Agatu in Benue state. In Enugu state,
they murdered more than 100 farmers in Ukpabi Nimbo
in April 2016.”
TheCable
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