Why we restrained Igbo youths from planned protests, Ohanaeze Ndigbo

President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths Council, Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu,
said that Igbo youths would not participate in the protests, insisting that participating in the exercise may exacerbate ethnic tensions and create more divisions, which could harm the southeast people’s interest.

Okpalaezeukwu stated that Igbo have every reason to join the planned national protests billed for next month considering growing economic hardship, continued incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and the detention of many Igbo youths in Correctional facilities across the country.

He added that the marginalisation of Igbos in government appointments, denial of federal infrastructure, refusal of governors in the southeast region to integrate them into their programmes, growing unemployment among others as enough reasons to participate in the protests.

Okpalaezeukwu, who had on Monday bounded hundreds of Igbo youths drawn from the five states of the southeast during their meeting in Enugu against yielding to the protests, stated that the region had been protesting every Monday in the last two years. He added that “more protests will cause more injuries to our people, our region and our economy”.

He told the Guardian that rather than protest, the leaders have decided to engage with the federal government and governors of the Southeast on the peculiar challenges confronting the region, to find lasting solutions to them.

He maintained that while the hunger protest is within the constitutional rights of the people and also justifiable owing to the current state of affairs of the country, it is feared that the protest could result in the loss of lives and property of Igbo citizens as was the case during the Endsars protest of 2020.

Towards addressing challenges confronting Igbo however, he demanded the immediate and unconditional release from Correctional custody of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu who has been detained since 2021 as well as other youths languishing in prisons across the country.

“We need one more state to balance the Southeast with other zones. We have many of our young people, including Nnamdi Kanu held across different detention centres unjustly.

“But we don’t want a repeat of the destruction of our investments across the country because we will become the targets anywhere the protest holds.

” We will engage in meaningful dialogue to ensure that our voice is heard, moving forward and that equity, fairness and a sense of belonging is guaranteed”, he said.

He stated that Igbo youths were however angry with the five governors of the region for not “being carried along in their administration”.

“We don’t know what they are doing. They have denied us appointments, they have remained unaccounted to us but a day of reckoning is coming”, they declared.

He however commended President Bola Tinubu for signing into law the Southeast Development Commission, explaining that it would enhance the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the zone ravaged by the civil war.