Igbo marginalisation: Obi urges S'East govs, leaders to speak out

Igbo marginalisation: Obi urges S’East govs, leaders to speak out — 28th May 2016 FROM PETRUS OBI, ENUGU FORMER governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has decried the inability of the South-East governors’ and other notable leaders of Igbo extraction to speak out on what is perceived as neglect of the people of the zone by the Federal Govern­ment. The former governor spoke during a public lecture with the theme, “Religion and Culture in Modern Igbo Context,” organised by the Alaigbo Development Foun­dation (ADF) at the Toscana Hotel, Enugu yesterday. Obi who harped on the growing need for Igbo to unite and speak with one voice also appealed to the traditional rulers and mem­bers of the clergy in the zone to quickly help to bring the Igbo people together, rather than allowing the politicians to talk on matters affecting the them. “When I was in office, it wasn’t easy to bring even the governors of the South-east together for our parleys but we achieved it, and for two years since we left, they’ve not been able to come to­gether. Our religious and tra­ditional leaders should come together and proffer solutions to this problem. “Another problem we have is that our means of engage­ment is very low. The quality of our politicians is very low and as such they can’t prof­fer solutions. For instance, in the Senate, we need quality people there. Today, we have very important committees in the senate. Rabiu Kwankwa­so, former governor of Kano is heading Planning, Dan­juma Goje, former governor of Gombe is heading Appro­priation and Wammako, and former governor of Sokoto is heading Education. Can you beat that? “I’m not just talking about political leaders. Our means of engagement is very low. For instance, is Prof Wole Soyinka an elected person? When he speaks, everybody listens. We have such people here but they have refused to be part of the engagement. Igbo need to work togeth­er. I’m urging the church to intervene and bring us to­gether. If we have our best in everything we do, it will augur well for us. For me, governance is about service, when I hear people saying different things at the same time, I simply shudder, I passed through the process and we were able to achieve a lot “Our means of engage­ment is very low, not just those elected, even the fol­lowers. We have to come out with the voices of quality. We must up our game”, he noted. Other leaders who la­mented the fate of Ndigbo in the present administration included Secretary General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr Joe Nwaorgu and the organ­isation’s former President- General, Dozie Ikedife, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, the ADC to late Ikemba Odu­megwu Ojukwu, Bishop Obi Onubuogu; Archbish­ops of Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches and other traditional rulers. They expressed dismay that the present administra­tion had relegated the Igbo to the background, noting that in the present arrange­ment, the people of the zone have been shut out from the nation’s security apparatus especially in the military and paramilitary, a development they insisted portends great danger for the peop