Our
noble sons and daughters were key components of the vanguard that
spearheaded the long difficult struggle to free Nigeria from the
clutches of colonial rule. At Independence, our people by dint of
hard work had attained eminent positions in national political leadership,
Federal Government bureaucracy and the Armed Forces. Ndiigbo had
also played leading roles in the establishment of indigenous network
of mercantile outlets throughout the country, which laid the foundations
for the evolution of most of the major cities of today’s Nigeria.
The 1966 Nzeogwu-led coup that ended the First Republic marked the
beginning of a precipitous decline for Ndiigbo in the center stage
of national political arena.
The
wave of pogroms perpetrated against Igbos outside the East, especially
in the North, led to a mass return home and the eventual declaration
of the Republic of Biafra. A 30-month genocidal war was unleashed
against Ndiigbo and before the eventual collapse of Biafran resistance
in January 1970, an estimated 1.5 million inhabitants of the former
Eastern Region perished from hunger, disease and the superior firepower
of Federal troops. In the immediate post-war period, noble pronouncements
were made by General Yakubu Gowon who pledged to commit the Federal
Government to a program of “rehabilitation, reconstruction
and reconciliation” with the philosophy that there was “no
victor or vanquished”. Those public pronouncements were quickly
annulled by policy implementations, by Awolowo-led Federal Ministry
of Finance and some State Governors, which ended up impoverishing
and further dispossessing the survivors of the Biafran mayhem.
Politically, the Igbos have been made to feel and think like defeated
people, especially at the national level. With centralization and
control of political and economic power by the military junta, which
included no Igbo indigene of clout since the Civil War, our politicians
and entrepreneurs were relegated to the status of errand boys who
had to respond to the whims and caprices of their masters in order
to earn a meal at the end of the day. The return of democracy in
Nigeria offers Ndiigbo a unique opportunity to begin the process
of reasserting and reestablishing the commanding status that they
had in the nation’s center stage before the Civil War.
The task of pulling our people out of the mindset of defeat and
neglect into the proud society that we have been in the recent past
will require a well thought-out agenda and blueprint to guide all
of us who must spearhead this endeavor. Agenda Ndiigbo shall depict
a clear articulation of ways and means for revitalizing the sociocultural,
economic and political relevance of our people in contemporary Nigeria
and also streamline future interactions of our people with other
ethnopolitical interest groups in the country. All public figures,
including office holders and representatives of Igbo origin, will
be made to comply to a set of ethical conducts that will meet public
expectation as well as not contradict the laid out goals of Agenda
Ndiigbo.
Ndiigbo and the former East have what it takes to make a dramatic
comeback into the Nigerian mainstream. The concentration of intellectual
manpower, cultural pride, political willpower and economic potentials
can rival, if not supersede, those of any other geopolitical entity
within Nigeria and beyond. The BMP Committee will collaborate with
others to ensure that Agenda Ndiigbo is put in place very soon.
