By Rev Josh Amaezechi

PRESIDENT BUHARI'S CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO OHANEZE AND MY NOTE OF CAUTION TO NEW OHANEZE LEADERSHIP

I would like to begin by congratulating the new Ohaneze leadership and to wish them God's wisdom as they pilot the affairs of Igboland for the good of our people. However, I must raise a caution for them before they join their predecessors to sell the Igbo nation for crumbs.

It was encouraging to hear from the President General, Chief John Nwodo that he is ready to die for Ndi Igbo. My hope is that he understands that if he truly meant this, that the enemies of the Igbo have already condemned him to death even before he was elected to that position. Now in his divinely held life, he must commit himself to a departure from the ways of the past.

For Ohaneze to be truly an Igbo organization, committed to the long term interest of the Igbo people, its leadership must engage President Buhari from a principled stand. The Leadership of Ohaneze should on no account visit President Buhari until he has set up a bipartisan commission to investigate the extrajudicial killing of over 150 praying Igbo youth killed by his government as reported by Amnesty International and other Human Rights Organizations. To hub-nub with a President who is granting amnesty to murderous organizations but killing our people for peacefully asking for their rights, will be a blatant act of sabotage against the Igbo people.

To be clear, Ohaneze does not need to plead for President Buhari to investigate the killings. They should demand it. They do not need to visit Aso Rock to ask the President to investigate the killings. They can make the request from their office in Igboland.

If the new Ohaneze leadership is genuinely for the Igbo, they must resist visiting Aso Rock for the next one year. They have work to do in Igboland. They should spend the next one year putting their house in order and consulting with Igbo communities in Igboland and around the world. That should be their primary responsibility.

Ohaneze should have no business with going to Abuja to discuss the second Niger Bridge or to ask for Igbos to be included in government or to ask for the construction of roads in Igboland. These are lame excuses used to go to Aso Rock to collect crumbs and negotiate away the freedom and future of our people. The present generation of our people can no more be fooled by these schemes.

Ohaneze should have no business working for the so called "President of Igbo extraction". It is a wild goose chase and a gimmick used to continue to maintain the crumb seeking syndicates in Igboland. The Igbo does not need Nigerian Presidency. What the Igbo need is freedom coming out of a restructured Nigeria or a new republic that would protect their lives and property wherever they live around the world.

With these said, I call on the new Ohaneze leadership to ignore President Buhari's congratulatory message because it has not street value. President Buhari should first of all acknowledge that Igbo lives matter before he would have the capability of knowing who and who are qualified to be leaders of the Igbo people. Serving in Nigerian Government is not a qualification for being an Igbo leader! Loving the Igbo is. Until President Buhari or the National assembly of Nigeria brings the killers of the Igbo youth killed in the church and peaceful rallies, it will be a betrayal for Ohaneze to pay any visit to Aso Rock. Nothing good will come out of such visits but further mortgaging of the conscience of our people.