A socio-political group, South-East Renaissance Assembly (SERA) yesterday, hinged the socio-economic and political survival of Igbo nation in Nigeria on the unity and collectivism of its people, saying that all odds currently are against the Igbo race.

It said that the path to the survival of Igbo race was for its people to clearly identify its collective interests and be resolute in their pursuit, warning that Igbo race may be heading toward leaving behind a generation of children without the lesson on the spirit of Ndigbo.

The group also decried the continued incarceration of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, saying that it supports a political solution to his matter or an expeditious court process, following the challenges it has created on the economy and security of lives and property in the South-East region.

SERA, made up of leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) drawn from five states of the South-East region, told a press conference in Enugu that it would work to ensure that the APC zoned its 2023 presidential ticket to the zone, as such would transform to immediate popularity for the party and infuse a sense of belonging in the people of the region.

National Co-ordinator of the group, Chief Nweke Gbazuagu, said the group would not support any form of second fiddle for an Igbo presidential aspirant in the party, stressing that they would form “strong partnership with like-minded regions, organisations and groups in the collective effort to build a united Nigeria in which every citizen will have a sense of belonging on the basis of justice, equity, fairness and inclusiveness”.

Gbazuagu lamented that since the end of the civil war, its fallouts have continuously affected the Igbo political trajectory in the Nigerian polity, explaining that “at every twist and turn of political democratic development in Nigeria since 1979, Ndigbo is yet to be properly situated and integrated into the political equation.”

He said the South-East had been surviving as an orphan and like sheep without a shepherd,” insisting that the group would rekindle the well-known and time-tested Igbo spirit of constructive engagement to achieve and maintain the positive result for the people.

He also vowed that the group would give unreserved and unrelenting support to any individual of Igbo origin in the presidency project for 2023, adding that it was committed to ensuring that South-East secures its fair share of “national benefits” in the various sectors of the country.

Besides, the group raised concerns over the future of the youths, whom it said, feels “betrayed and abandoned, without jobs and hope despite enormous natural resources,” assuring that the group would continue to advocate for them through various channels of influence to address youths’ restiveness.