Ohanaeze Declares Sept 29 Igbo Day

September 29, 2023 has been declared the Igbo Day to ‘celebrate the innate capacity and perseverance in the Igbo to break some imposed physical boundaries to achieve incredible results where most fail’.

The date coincides with the 1966 ‘ethnic cleansing in which about 30,000 Igbos were killed in the entire Northern Nigeria’, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said in a statement on Friday, adding that the date ‘is not only fundamental and sentimental but symbolic’.

Dr Alex Ogbonnia, Ohanaeze’s national publicity secretary, in the release, added that the date is set aside every year in honour of the egalitarian nature of Ndigbo which they have demonstrated by outliving their ordeals in Nigeria.

According to him, “We celebrate that we passed through the valley of the shadow of death and bounced back in splendour; passed through the belly of the whale; traversed turmoil and hell and bounced back in glory.

“We celebrate the courage, tenacity and adaptability to live and thrive in all parts of the world. We celebrate the promise of God that He fights for the oppressed and that history will vindicate the just.

“How come that an ethnic group that has suffered various kinds of injustice, alienation and relative deprivations have undauntedly remained afloat in the academia, corporate world, transportation, tourism, commerce and industry, etc?”

The event, billed to hold in Enugu, has the theme ‘Igbo Kunie’, meaning ‘to rise and surmount Igbo collective challenges’. Ogbonnia said, “The logic behind this theme is that it is a clarion call for the Igbo to arise and fulfill their lofty destinies; a charge for the Igbo to awaken to the philosophy of Akuluo-uno; to galvanize Ndigbo towards unity; to rediscover and embrace our core traditional family values of one in brotherhood; to have a rethink on the security situation in Igbo homeland and a call for Ndigbo to rise to the challenge of self-destruction through the sit-at-home syndrome.”

The release recounted some of the ordeals Ndigbo have faced in Nigeria to include the colouration of the January 15, 1966 Ifeajuna/Nzeogwu/Ademogega coup as Igbo, the Biafran War, as well as the killing of the first Nigerian military head of state, Gen GTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, on July 29, 1966 along with his host, the military governor of the Western Region, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, by northern military officers in what was tagged ‘a counter-coup’, adding that ‘several other Igbo officers were located at various military formations and killed on the same day’.

Ohanaeze said the Igbo Day ‘is a day of sober reflection on one hand, and a day to celebrate the Igbo resilience, ingenuity, entrepreneurial skills and frontier spirit, on the other’.

The statement continued, “Without sounding immodest, all Nigerians affirm that the Igbo are endowed with the highest human creative potential, perhaps in the whole Africa. Instead of mourning, we have chosen to celebrate the God’s love and kindness towards the Igbo.”

Ogbonnia commended the Ohanaeze president-general, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, for using his entrepreneurial and administrative savvy towards the Igbo renaissance.

The statement added, “Iwuanyanwu has deployed his wealth of experience and contacts to chart a paradigm shift for Ndigbo. He has embarked on a rigorous developmental agenda; some of them include: solution to the insecurity in the South East; need for an education trust fund; need for a cultural re-orientation; resuscitation of ailing industries and home-ward industrial renaissance.”

THE WHISTLER reports that the local organizing committee of the event is headed by Professor Fred O. Eze, with Dr Malachy Chuma Ochie as secretary.

Other members are Dr Mrs Selina Ugwuoke-Adibuah, Hon Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, Barr Peter Aneke, Mazi Ambrose Obioha, and Mrs Odibeze Amaka  Anajemba.