If you start protest, usually, when destruction comes, we the Igbo people usually pay the biggest price
By Moses Okorie
The president of Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Barrister Ifeanyichukwu Obasi-Nweze, has warned everybody from Igbo race residing in Abuja to focus on his business and avoid taking part in the planned protest saying Igbo people suffer the biggest consequence if the protest turns sore.
Obasi-Nweze made this known on Saturday while speaking with 365Daily in Abuja after the monthly meeting of Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo FCT.
According to him, “We do not support any protest against government, not only government; as Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo, we do not support any protest in form of coming out. If you have any issue and you relate it to us as the executive of the Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo FCT, we have normal ways of addressing it, and we will address it in that regard.
“The reason why the Ohanaeze people cannot, will not and should never be among any protesting body is that in Ohanaeze we have the good, the bad and the ugly. We have people from different parties, different camps. How would you expect a whole Ohanaeze to be protesting? If you protest against this government, for instance, are there no Igbo people in this government?
“Again, I do not want to promote the issue of scapegoating, because we believe in one Nigeria. If you start protest, usually, when destruction comes, we the Igbo people usually pay the biggest price.
“I will advise anybody that has the Igbo blood running in him to focus on his business. One thing about inflation is very funny, inflation does not catch up with somebody that has what he is doing; that is the truth”, he averred.
Speaking on the demise of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, he said FCT is the capital of Nigerian and that is why even Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu resided partly in Abuja and so the Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo in FCT is grieved.
“There is no time a man is called that people would think it is the right age, if not we would have said he attained the ripe age. Even as the bible’s recommended age is 70 years, which means he even exceeded. But because of his functionality and functional potential, we would have wished for him to still be around, because he was bulldozing and doing many things, but we cannot question God.
“I seize this opportunity to condole with the Ohanaeze family, because it is no longer a family thing, he was a father of many people. In fact I remember what he once said to me; he told me that there is nothing anyone can give to him now, because he had achieved anything that needed to be achieved by a man.
“He said that the only thing he wished is that he would like to put in more and more into the Igbo race, so that when he is no more, they would give him a heroic burial. I think that is the talk of a hero, and I believe that the Igbo race would recognize him as a hero. They should give him that heroic burial”.
On the management of Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo in FCT, Ifeanyichukwu Obasi-Nweze said, “Our own motto is ‘onye aghana nwanneya’ (Don’t forsake your brother), you can see that in the cooperative society we just launched. You can see it in someone who promised a relief programme for our people.
“We have people of like minds here who want to help to uplift the Igbo race, and I am very happy because God has brought such people around us, and the transparency with which we operate here, only people who believe in transparency come around us.
On the forthcoming Igbo Day slated for September 29, the president of Ohanaeze said they are organizing a colloquium where elders who have excelled in different fields of endeavour would come and speak to them.
“We want people who have made it in several areas to come and speak to us especially on the need for Igbo people to live in peace with their host communities. We will discuss on how we can help in the development of the places we find ourselves, and live in peaceful coexistence with those we met there.
“Then we will talk about how we can make money, because if you are doing anything and you are not making profit, then you need to stop it. These are areas we will have people to talk to us on that day. We also have sometimes to enjoy ourselves”, he added.