Igbo elders under the aegis of United Igbo Elders Council, UNIEC, Worldwide, have set a five-point agenda they call governance model for Nigeria to have meaningful peace and development.

The group said that for peace to reign and the country to move forward, there must be restructuring and immediate release without any condition the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

It also said that the country must discontinue to condone terrorism and put an end to the Ports and economic blockades against Eastern Nigeria and by extension up to Lake Chad and other costal ports, along the Gulf of Guinea that were working before colonialism.

UNIEC in a statement entitled, “New Governance Model for Nigeria” signed by its Director Media and Publicity, Prof Obasi Igwe, and its Coordinator General, His Lordship Alpha Justice, also recommended the restoration of Eastern pole of development that ensured semi-autonomous import and export, industrialization of zones in the coastal South, originally linked to those in the riparian North, just as there must be total resolution of farmers and herders clashes.

UNIEC said it arrived at the decisions after a series of consultations and detailed analysis of diverse proposals over the dire situation in today’s Nigeria, adding that restructuring, regionalism and referendum are win-win template for peace and stability in Nigeria.

It said that one of the Ndigbo’s restructuring goals is to put an end to the Ports and economic blockades against the old Eastern region and by extension up to Lake Chad, and other costal ports, along the Gulf of Guinea.

According to UNIEC, “there is no reason the Ports that were working before colonialism, cannot continue to work now they are needed most after independence,” saying that if the Federal Government of Nigeria, is serious about genuine peace and development in the country, there must also be restoration of Eastern pole of development.

It noted that the Eastern pole of development will ensure the spilling over of development from the East to other poles of development in the Middle Belt, across to North Central and down to North East, saying that its demand, described as ‘dire demand” is directly linked to the number of requests by Nigerians.

“Poles of development refers to semi-autonomous import and export industrializing zones in the coastal South originally linked to those in the riparian North. For all intent and purposes, Lagos and and other parts-West, because of the Lagos Ports, are the only really functioning poles of development in today’s Nigeria, the rest of the states are more or less mere glamorous poles of poverty.

“So opening up Igbo/Eastern Ports system equally spills over and triggers development across the Eastern Middle Belt and beyond, while the continual lockdown of the Igbo/Eastern Ports are also having cumulative negative tolls on the entire Eastern half of the country down to Maiduguri.

“We suggest for a permanent end to the eight-year condoneations of terrorism and orchestrated “wars”. While acknowledging that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was not the perpetrator of the “war” and atrocities between 2015 and 2023, we insist that such,”wars” as insurgency in the East, “wars” against the farmers-herders clashes, in the Middle Belt, against banditry within the Hausa lands, and the “minor” replica of such “wars” in the West against our Yoruba compatriots, and in the Niger Delta, because of their “bad luck” of having oil in their soils, must stop.

“It is an indisputable fact that by mid-2015 there was not a single “insurgency” or “war” to overthrow the Federal government or procure a Biafra anywhere in Igbo society and none today, except the one manufactured by a tyrant that made sure that such a “war” existed, with shoot-to-kill or shoot-at-sight orders openly issued against promising innocent youngsters in full view of all the world, in part to punish the Igbo for their sundry sins.”

“We, therefore, demanded for the unconditional release of all political prisoners including the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and his colleagues, with an immediate end to all manner of unlawful, hooded, night and secret arrests, detentions and extrajudicial killings.

“To the average man, His Excellency President Bola Tinubu owes nothing to an ungrateful predecessor who didn’t want him to come to power and should break totally from the caveman’s cruel methodologies. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been tortured, victimized and dehumanized beyond measures and it confers to a nation no value to continue to keep an innocent citizens in jail.

“No one except the Boko Haram and associates terrorists, is waging war to dismember Nigeria and it serves no civilized logic to pamper terrorists and be unforgiving to some other citizens for not belonging to the favored race.

“Nigeria demands restructuring on the basis of single nationality regions side by side with multi ethnic nationality region, and the number in each category to be determined by competitive regional consideration. No economic policy or blueprint however brilliant formulated, can work beyond a marginal neocolonial glass ceiling without a correct political economy or foundation, otherwise a basis on which the superstructure stands.

“It is in vain that people build castle in the air or good governance on false foundation. Igbo elders proposal aim at simultaneously addressing the national question of relations between ethnic nationalities and the class question of distribution of power between elites and other formations. The Igbos want a Nigeria peacefully stabilized to secure trade, travel, investment and modernization. Ndigbo believe that every Nigerian, group or individual, has something to offer to the collectivity and that its five demands would give each group the opportunity to do so and in so doing, considerably heal the nation’s wounds” (Saturday Vanguard)

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