2023: Group Calls For Igbo Unity, Says ‘We Preach Love, But We Don’t Love’

The Igbos for a Progressive Nigeria (IPAN), a global organization of Igbo people, Tuesday, called on the people of Igbo extraction to close ranks and explore all avenues to enable them to realize their dreams of producing Nigeria’s president come 2023.

According to IPAN’s national chairman, Comrade Lawrence Onuzulike, the Igbo nation had the potentials for the elusive position, but regretted that lack of unity had always been their albatross. The group also commended President Mohammadu Buhari for building solid infrastructure in the Southeast.

Onuzulike, in a message made available to THE WHISTLER in Awka, said, “It is so wrong that people who produced the first president are no more in the political scheme of Nigeria, because a part of us wants to be president while some are antagonising the other, making us look confused. We want to come together, speak with one voice, fight for our rights, and take what belongs to us for the development of the Southeast.

“We want a united Nigeria where all Igbos will be part of the scheme without marginalisation. We should stop saying ‘give us presidency’. Who is giving you presidency? We own this country together and should take what belongs to us.”

While acknowledging that Ndigbo had been degraded politically, Onuzulike said his organization was formed to change the Igbo stereotypes.

In his words, “We are no more at the forefront of political positions. An average Igbo man will think his problem is Hausa or Yoruba man. No, we need to change this perception. Yes they treated us badly during the war, but we must forget and forgive. We preach love every day, but inside us we don’t love. We are not getting the development we want because we are fighting everyone. It is time to unite and dialogue and start getting what we want. IPAN stands for Igbos for a progressive Nigeria. We want to come together as brothers and sisters.”

He also warned against projecting wrong persons for the nation’s president, explaining that, “We should be mindful of who we are projecting. Our problem is that we keep projecting one person in one party. It should not be a one-party affair. We don’t issue threats. We need to work together to promote every Igbo in all the parties. We should love ourselves.”

He also called on the Igbo nation to stop antagonizing the present administration, asserting that, “Mind you, this is Buhari we are condemning, he was the one who constructed and built Zik’s Mausoleum for us which nobody built. We need to come home and invest. I bet you there are Igbos in Lagos and other states who have not visited Igboland for the past 20 years. We are busy running to other states. The same states we feel that hates us.”