A group, the Lower Niger Congress (LNC), a group has rejected the
nomination of General Ike Nwachukwu as the leader of South East delegates
to the national conference which would be inaugurated tomorrow.
Addressing newsmen in Aba, Abia State at the end of a town hall meeting
organized by the group, its Secretary General, Chief Tony Nnadi said his
group was opposed to Nwachukwu’s nomination to lead the South East
delegates at the confab because he fought against the interest of Ndigbo
during the civil war of 1967 to 1970.
He lamented that it would be difficult for Ndigbo to achieve its objective
of redressing the injustice done her since the amalgamation of Nigeria in
1914 with its delegate led by Nwachukwu who was not on her side during the
war.
“What the Igbos need now is to firmly grab the opportunity presented by
the national conference to discuss about the union, our being in Nigeria
which since 1914 has put us into enslavement and if we still need to be
there and continued to be enslaved.
“With the South East delegates being led by someone who fought against us
during our war of emancipation, inflicted pains and killed his kinsmen; we
are afraid if we are going to make headway at the confab,” he said.
Nnadi called on the South East Zone to use the opportunity presented by
the national conference to address certain imbalances against it in the
Nigerian federation.
“Since the Aburi Accord of 1967, everybody knew there had been an
unfinished business in the project called Nigeria; hence the confab and we
should not make the mistake of sending people like Gen. Ike Nwachukwu who
would not represent the interest of Igbos.
“The amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates by Lord Lugard
was a treaty and all treaties have life span of 100 years. That being the
case, Nigeria as a union is dead and its burial ceremony will be conducted
inside 2014 and if there will be a new union, it would be worked out by
all,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Abia state governor and chairman,South East
Governors’ Forum, Chief Theodore Orji had at the end of their recent
meeting in Enugu, announced the nomination of Gen. Ike Nwachukwu (rtd) to
lead South East delegates to the national conference.