Apex pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has penciled Port Harcourt, Rivers State for the celebration of its 2023 World Igbo Day. The Igbo apex body said the idea of Port Harcourt is a symbolic act of brotherhood and peaceful co-existence.

In a communiqué issued yesterday after a meeting of the leadership of the organisation, the body noted that the celebration is a reunion between Ndigbo, from all over the world and their Igbo-speaking kindred in Rivers State.

The group is calling for the overhauling of the political structures of Igbo kindred hood, maintaining that the current nature of states and geo-political zones ‘are merely for administrative convenience and cannot affirm our Igboness’.

The communique was signed on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo by the Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro; Chairman, National Organising Committee, Prof Obasi Igwe; Prof Thomas Ellah of Yale University in the United States; and Prof Elechi Chinda-Wonye of the University of Singapore, among others.

The communique read in part, “The hosting of the 2023 Igbo Day in Port Harcourt, Rivers State is a symbolic act of brotherhood and peaceful co-existence. The theme: Owe ye hapụ wene an ( Onye aghala nwanne ya) which can be translated as: Do not leave your brother/sister says it is all.

“Indeed, it is a reunion between Ndigbo, from all over the world and their Igbo-speaking kindred in Rivers State. We affirm that political structures such as states and geo-political zones are merely for administrative convenience and cannot deter our Igboness.

“The Igbo race is a global brand found in Nigeria; in the South-East, in the South-South and even in the Middle Belt and as well in Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, United States of America (65 per cent of African Americans confirmed through DNA Testing), Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad &Tobago, etc.

“In line with the above-mentioned Pan- Africanist ideals(Igbo ethos), this Igbo Day is being held in Rivers State as an expression of peace, filial conviviality, and equity and justice. Since 2000, when the annual Igbo Day Celebration started being hosted in its current format by Ohanaeze Ndigbo, all the Ohanaeze states have hosted it, at least twice, except Delta (once, 2012) and Enugu (multiple times).

“Because in line with the Ohanaeze constitution, it shall be the turn of Rivers State to produce the next President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo come, 11th January 2025 hosting this Igbo Day is meant to mobilize and sensitive the stakeholders and members of the Rivers State chapter of the Apex Igbo organisation, to ensure that suitable candidates for the office are identified.”