Pass anti open grazing bill now to protect Igbo land from invasion – ADF to SE governors

By OBINNA EZUGWU

The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has called on the governors of the Southeast zone to facilitate the passage of anti open grazing bill in their states houses of assembly to protect Igbo land from threat of external invasion.

Spokesperson for the Foundation, Chief Abia Onyike who made the call in a chat with Business Hallmark, also said similar security outfit to Amotekun should be launched in the zone to secure the people of the zone.

“I am calling on the Southeast political leaders, including the governors, legislators and others to work very hard to ensure that the anti-open grazing bill is passed into law in each of the five southeast states’ houses of assembly,” he said.

“That would be a major instrument to guarantee the peace and tranquility of the zone, and to secure lives of our people, and also save our homeland from external invasion. It is a responsibility which the political class of this dispensation owes to the masses who elected them into office. When they have done that, the second stage would be the consideration to consolidate their collective security apparatus in line with what has happened in the Southwest.

“We have to defend our territory from all kinds of invasion because we are hearing all kinds of news about the so-called threat of Islamisation. The opening of borders for jihadists from across Africa to come into Nigeria as their homeland. These are the kinds of things that unsettle the peace and tranquility of our environment. The Igbo nation should not be found wanting. We have to be on the alert.

“That is what ADF is saying, that the political class owes a responsibility to defend our people and not to defend external interest in the Nigerian federation. Nobody can drive the drive the Igbo nation away from this land. We have come to stay. The Igbo nation is the first ethnic nationality to settle in the Nigerian federation. We settled where we are today more than 3,000 years before the Yoruba. And more than 5000 years before the Hausa/Fulani and others. We cannot be threatened in our natural abode which we inherited from our forebears.

“And for the peace of the Nigerian federation, we insist on genuine federalism. And the best way to go about it is to call for a constitutional dialogue that will resolve the impending crisis of the Nigerian federation. We have to restore the autonomous regions where every region can develop at their own pace. Then there would be justice, equity progress. That’s the only way to end spread of armed conflicts in the country and the banditry, terrorism and the crisis that has bedevilled Nigeria.”

Onyike who also spoke about the 2023 presidency said it would be dangerous for the country if the Igbo are denied the opportunity to produce the country’s president.

“The PDP cannot be the only party that can facilitate the Southeast coming to power in 2023. The APC can also facilitate it. Before 2023, there should have been no question. The political momentum must have resonated and it should have been clear to everybody that it’s either Southeast president or something more dangerous will happen,” he said.

“So, as at that time, it would have become incontestable that all the political parties would want to give the Southeast the presidential ticket. That’s my own permutation. So, it’s not only the PDP that should give ticket to the Igbo. The APC can as well do that in order to save the Nigerian federation from the threat of disintegration.”

The former commissioner for information in Ebonyi State and once chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who also spoke on the future of the party given its present challenges said it was unfortunate that there is no longer party loyalty.

According to him, people are only loyal to their religious and ethnic groups and easily betrayed their parties when there is a clash between the interest of the ethnic group and that of party. According to him, Goodluck Jonathan was betrayed by members of the PDP in 2015.

“The point is that party loyalty in Nigeria has been desecrated and politics is no longer based on principles. That is the reason why loyalty to the party has been bastardised. And in that circumstance, what we are witnessing is the invasion of the polity by renegade characters and all kinds of elements who have no commitment, whatever to the tenets of democracy,” Onyike said.

“It’s very annoying, especially for some of us who played important roles in the pro-democracy movement in Nigeria in the 1990s. Which was what laid the foundation for a return to democracy after the military was pushed away from power.

“The point is this, Nigerian political parties are not liberation movements like we have in South Africa. In South Africa you have the African National Congress (ANC) which was formed in 1912. Then, you have other political movements in Africa that were rooted in ideological orientation. You don’t have it in Nigeria.

“The political parties we have in Nigeria are just like trading companies. To that extent, anything can happen to any of them. Don’t be surprised if by tomorrow all the governors of the PDP decide to cross over to the APC. They can do it without any qualms of conscience and nothing will happen to them.

“They are not fighting for the liberation of the people. That is the truth of the matter. And the people who are now involved in governance did not take part in the pro democracy struggle that ousted the military in the 90s. The two dominant political parties were actually organised and formed by the military itself so that it can now be able to arrange for its stooges to take over political power in Nigeria. That is what has affected the development of the Nigerian democracy as it is.

“Most of the characters you find in the PDP and APC today are not politicians or leaders as such, they are what what we call, fellow travellers. They only join politics because of what they are going to gain from it. They have no serious political education. Some of them where never activists before and don’t know the major issues involved in the struggle to keep the Nigerian project going.

“We are seeing the manifestations. They have no commitment to their party. Some of them are in PDP and are also in APC as they have confessed with their mouths. And it’s very unfortunate.

“Let me also say that the manner Goodluck Jonathan was ousted from office in 2015 is also a pointer to the fact that in Nigeria today, party loyalty is not important. What is important is loyalty to ethnic nationalities and religion. I give you example. In 1999, because Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian from the Southwest of Nigeria became president, 12 core northern states that were contiguous geographically declared and inaugurated Sharia law in their states.

“That was commitment to religion and not to democracy, politics or party. That was the first sign. The second sign was the way Jonathan was removed from office, through the betrayal and treachery of members of the PDP, which was his own party. And those members of the party came from the northern part of the country. In order words, the use of the APC as a political vehicle to wrestle power from a minority person from the South South geopolitical zone was accepted and assimilated by northern politicians, some of whom were in the PDP. Some of them betrayed their party and facilitated the coming into power of the present leadership of the country.

“There is no principle in party politics in Nigeria. All characters have come to hijack the political system for their selfish interest. It is very unfortunate because if they continue that way, the future of the country will continue to hang in the balance.”