As reported in The Punch, Igbo Leaders of Thought, a group of prominent Igbo political leaders, rose from a meeting in Enugu State on Wednesday with a warning that President Goodluck Jonathan may become the last president of a united Nigeria, if politicians from the North East and North West continue to sponsor the activities of the Boko Haram sect.
The group maintained that the terror campaign of the sect was an ethno/religious war being waged by unnamed Northern political leaders who seek to take control of the Presidency.
The group, led by Prof. Ben Nwabueze, made this assertion in a statement by its Deputy Secretary, Evang. Elliot Uko, and the Leader of the Igbo Women Assembly, Chief Mrs Mariah Okwor.
They noted that the sponsors of the insurgency are inadvertently pushing Nigeria towards disintegration in their bid to make the country ungovernable towards actualising their quest for power.
The Igbo Leaders warned that, rather than succeed in their quest, the sponsors of the Boko Haram sect would only succeed in ensuring that Jonathan becomes Nigeria’s last president.
The statement read in part: “We wish to draw the attention of the international community especially the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS, to the ongoing daily attack on the foundation of the Nigerian state by a ruthless, barbaric and well oiled Islamist jihadist killing machine, is a political war funded and waged by ethno/religious bigots who believe that they are born with divine right to rule others perpetually.
“The fact that they are gradually axing the root that holds this country still standing, while at the same time stubbornly opposing the wishes of the vast majority of other ethnic nationalities for a restructured Nigeria, simply means that they are inadvertently tilting the country towards a dissolution whereafter they can have their “religiously pure” Islamic nation comprising the north east and north west zones of present Nigeria, but certainly without the central zone of Nigeria as their cannon fodder.”
They insisted on the restructuring of Nigeria along six regional federating units.
They stressed that the ongoing national conference would have failed if it does not establish the foundation for regionalism.
They described the current 36-state structure as a “contraption for lion share of war booty” imposed on the country by Northern generals, an arrangement which enabled them to exercise absolute control over the country’s resources.
“The continued existence of the country cannot be guaranteed if the national conference fails to adopt regionalism,” they added.
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