By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Former Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Counsel, Bar Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has called for the rejection of any directive advocating an electoral boycott under any guise of euphemism in Igbo land.

He made the call in his latest Midweek Reflections titled, “Ala-Igbo at a Crossroads: Jettisoning Electoral Boycott Before It Becomes Another Tragedy”.

Ejiofor stressed that Ndigbo must reject such idea with every sense of responsibility, saying that such call is an attempt to turn electoral participation into an offence against the collective interest of the people.

The rights lawyer said: "I condemn in its entirety, every directive calculated to induce an electoral boycott in Ala-Igbo, particularly where such directives are issued without transparent accountability to the people who will ultimately bear the consequences.

“The time has come for Ndigbo to jettison every destructive ideology and directive that seeks to make electoral boycott a measure of loyalty, patriotism or political fidelity.

“Patriotism cannot mean deliberately weakening one’s own people, just as resistance cannot mean destroying the economic foundation upon which the people depend.”

While noting that political fidelity cannot require the sacrifice of the lives, livelihoods and future prospects of an entire generation, Ejiofor maintained that Ndigbo must never again take a path which ultimate destination is devastation.

He warned that decisions capable of inflicting long-term economic, political and social consequences on the people must be subjected to the highest level of responsibility, accountability and scrutiny.

“There is an unsettling pattern in the rhetoric presently being introduced into our political space, rhetoric packaged initially as harmless directives, civil disobedience or principled protest, but carrying within it the unmistakable seeds of consequences far more devastating than the promoters may wish the people to contemplate.

“This intervention is therefore not about politics; it is about the preservation of Ala-Igbo and the protection of the lives, livelihoods and hard-earned peace of our people.

Any directive advocating an electoral boycott, under whatever guise or euphemism it may be presented, must be unequivocally rejected. We must not permit the reopening of wounds that have taken enormous sacrifices to heal.

“We have witnessed, at great cost, what happens when political grievances are converted into rigid commands and when ordinary people are compelled to pay the ultimate price for decisions taken by those who are themselves safely removed from the consequences.

“We must therefore reject, with every sense of responsibility, any attempt to turn electoral participation into an offence against the collective interest of our people.

“Indeed, what greater irony could there be than to surrender our political voice in the name of defending our people, only to discover that the silence created by such surrender has become the very instrument through which our collective interests are diminished? Perhaps the ballot box is now being treated as the enemy, while political irrelevance is being advertised as victory.

“We must be wiser. There are legitimate constitutional, judicial, political and democratic channels through which grievances can be ventilated and remedies pursued. I therefore condemn, in its entirety, every directive calculated to induce electoral boycott in Ala-Igbo, particularly where such directives are issued without transparent accountability to the people who will ultimately bear the consequences.

“Those who are gathering the storm should understand that Ala-Igbo is no longer available for experimentation with destructive political theories.

“Our people have endured enough. Our communities have suffered enough. Our economy has paid enough. And our children deserve a future that is not perpetually held hostage by the political calculations of faceless actors. Ndi Igbo must reject every attempt to drag them backwards.

“We cannot continue to pursue political objectives through strategies whose collateral consequences are borne almost exclusively by the very people we claim to defend. A people do not preserve their homeland by rendering it ungovernable; they preserve it by protecting its peace, strengthening its institutions and relentlessly pursuing justice through every legitimate avenue available to them.

“The time has therefore come to jettison every destructive ideal and directive that seeks to make electoral boycott a measure of loyalty or patriotism. Patriotism cannot mean deliberately weakening one’s own people. Resistance cannot mean destroying one’s own economic foundation. And political fidelity cannot require sacrificing the lives and livelihoods of an entire generation.

“We must never again take a route whose destination is devastation.

“Ala-Igbo has travelled too far, suffered too much and survived too many storms to become collateral damage in another experiment in political absolutism. Let those who genuinely love Ala-Igbo prove it by protecting her peace.

“Let those who genuinely speak for our people listen to the people.

“And let those gathering another storm be reminded that the Igbo nation has seen the consequences of fire; we should not be persuaded to strike another match merely to prove that we can withstand the flames.

“Ala-Igbo must not be sacrificed on the altar of political absolutism”, Ejiofor wrote.