Those championing the calls that the position of the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide should not be zoned to River State because some persons of Ikwere tribe of the state are denying their Igbo ancestry should desist from such to avoid destroying the institution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
A former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State, Dr Ben Nwoye, gave the warning on Thursday in Enugu.
According to him, the constitution of Ohanaeze recognises Rivers State as a component of Igbo, adding that it is “nonsensical” for those championing the calls to jettison the rules of Ohanaeze because of few individuals’ utterances.
Quoting him, “If I say I’m no longer an Igbo, it is not enough to make me non-Igbo. It is an utterance. I can understand the pains of the Biafran Civil War and the Abandoned Property policy which those who are against Rivers are making.
“I was born in Rivers. My own parental inheritance was seized. But when you come out of a civil war, we need to learn about forgiveness.
“Again, it is not the Igbos of River State that brought that policy. It is Alfred Spiff, former military governor of the state and of the Ijaw stock.
“He decreed that if you abandoned your property, you would lose them.
“Those that inherited the affected property were also not Igwere people, it is the people that were waiting, including some Igbos that got the papers.
“But we should eschew what divides us as Ndigbo. If you look at the genocide in Rwanda, brothers killed brothers, but they reconciled and moved on.
“Biafran war witnessed relatives killing their relatives. But we can’t dwell on that any longer.
“We must move forward. From linguistic, cultural and historical perspectives, Ndigbo have more things that bind us together. Arewa is not Hausa or Fulani alone, Tivs and many other ethnic nationalities are members.”
He advised against using the utterances of FCT Minister Nyesome Wike and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amechi, both Ikwere, to discredit the Igbos in Rivers State.
Nwoye said, “Because Wike and Amechi said they were not Igbo should not be the basis.
“When they sought votes during presidential elections, they began to speak Igbo in every rally they attended.
“From the APC perspectives, Amechi said he would become a president of Igbo extraction. Igbos assimilate.
“The argument that the position should not go to Rivers is flawed because the constitution of Ohanaeze is the grundnorm.
“If Rivers is listed, and we have people who have been participating in Ohanaeze activities from the state, it means it is the turn of Rivers. Anything contrary is nonsense.”
The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, had in a release stated that the Ime Obi, the highest decision-making organ of Ohanaeze, endorsed that it is the turn of Rivers State to produce the next president of the pan-Igbo group come January 2025.