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Elder statesman and former federal commissioner of Information, Chief Edwin Clark has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently implement the 2014 National Conference report.
He also urged the president to ensure the reiteration of the Igbo in the socio-political sphere of the country.
The elder statesman further asked the president to release the leader of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the same way the Miyetti Allah President, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo was set free.
Clark made the calls in an open letter to President Tinubu which made extensive historic references on the need to restructure the country and reintegrate the Igbo.
Clark said “Now that the elections are over, we must face the restructuring of this country. I repeat again, the immediate restructuring of Nigeria must be carried out if this country is to remain one, and I appeal to Mr President to take immediate action to implement the historic 2014 National Conference Report which submitted 600 recommendations to the Presidency on how to restructure Nigeria in every aspect of our lives.
“The Igbos of South-East or wherever they are in Nigeria, must stand up and assert their rights legitimately, judiciously and in a democratic way to benefit like any other Nigerian as it was before the civil war of 1967.”
Clark, who decried a winner-takes-all attitude in the country, said “some people now feel that they own the Country, that they are born to rule; that, except they rule, the country will burn.”
Describing such an attitude as wrong, unfair, unjust, inequitable and unacceptable to the rest of Nigerians, he said “I repeat, all citizens of Nigeria, whether they are Ijaw, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or Fulani are all citizens of Nigeria with equal status.”
He added, “I have said that Nigeria must be restructured to correct what i described as the imbalances and make every state equal in the country, stressing that, that was why the 2014 National Conference recommended the creation of more states, where the Southeast was given four additional states and three for all other zones except the North-West, which was allotted two because it already has seven states; and if implemented, it would have made the six geopolitical zones of the country to be at par with nine states and it would have provided for each citizen a stable and united Nigeria, where all its citizens have equal right. It was regarded as one of the most important recommendations of the conference because it affected every zone of the federation.”
Clark said he is worried for young Nigerians of today and tomorrow, adding that their hopes about their future in today’s Nigeria seems bleak.
“I am talking of the 14, 15, 16 and 17 year olds, in the thirty-six (36) states and the Federal Capital Territory. Nigeria has been independent for about 64 years now but before then Nigeria became self-governing in 1957. Any child in any of the parts of that pot, when he or she grows to 17, 18, 19 and becomes independent of his parents and is able to reason for himself, has the right to ask whether he is truly part of this country when all that he sees is discrimination, hatred, injustice, unfairness in the offices, in the street, at work places and even in institutions of the government and wonders of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. It is pathetic and unacceptable.
“We can no longer describe Nigeria as a pot anymore because we now have 36 legs and if any part of these 36 legs gets broken, the country won’t be at ease and that’s exactly what we are experiencing today because the five (5) legs belonging to the South-East were fractured after the civil war. “
He however condoled with the president and Nigeria over the loss of the soldiers in our country.
“Our security is seriously in danger, if our security forces, particularly the soldiers are being humiliated and killed by civilians for no justification and the fight against insecurity will go on for a long time as suggested by Gen Tukur Buratai, the former Chief of Army Staff and former Nigeria Ambassador to Benin Republic.
“It came as a shock to all Nigerians particularly my old self, when the killing of the four (4) officers and thirteen (13) soldiers in Okuama, a village along the Forcados River. It affected me because I had on that day spoken to the commander Lt. Col Ali and Major Obi about the military burial for my late younger brother, Col Bernard Clark and we agreed to speak again in the evening when they returned to Agbor that Thursday, 14th March, 2024, but unfortunately, the Colonel and Major I spoke to in the morning before their trip to Okuama never returned.
“Similar incidence has occurred in several parts of this country, here are a few; in Abia State, on 30th May 2024, Five (5) soldiers were killed. In Zamfara State, on 27th July 2023, seven (7) soldiers were killed; on 6th February 2024, two (2) soldiers were killed; on 21st April 2024, six (6) soldiers were killed. In Katsina State on 26th April 2024, one (1) army commander was killed and on the 13th of May 2024, five (5) soldiers were killed. In Niger State on 14th August 2023, three (3) officers and twenty (20) soldiers were killed while on 21st April 2024, two (2) Officers and four (4) soldiers were killed. In Yobe State, on 24thMarch, 2024, one (1) officer and six (6) soldiers were killed. In Kebbi State, on 10th March, 2022, eighteen (18) soldiers were killed.
“From a few samples taken by me including the following wicked and inhumane attack by civilians in various parts of the country, gives one the impression that the number of soldiers who died in the civil war in trying to keep the country together between 1967-1970 is less than the ones killed by these civilians and terrorists since the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Yet, we remain divided and some Nigeria citizens after the war are being treated as second class citizens because they fought the civil war. The Americans fought a ferocious civil war from 12th April, 1861-26th May, 1865, a period of four (4) years. The war torn Nation entered the reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country; bring the former confederate states back into the United States. This was exactly what General Gowon was doing when he talked of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation; but his overthrown in 1975 ended the reconstruction that would have brought the Eastern Region fully into Nigeria,” he said.
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