BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Apex Ibo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has advised different groups in the country to adopt the use of dialogue to address issues, rather than using threats to drive home their demands or agitations.
Speaking with The Point, President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, George Obiozor, warned that issuing threats and reacting to threats with further threats will not solve any problem but aggravate it.
Recall that the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had in a New Year message through a statement signed by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, banned the consumption of cows from Fulani herders during ceremonies in the South East from April 2022, in protest against the non-release of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu by the Federal Government.
IPOB’s statement read in part, “Effective that month, Fulani cows will not be used for any social or ceremonial events and festival in Biafraland.
“Our native cows will be used instead for these events. Traditional custodians of our culture, the clergy and town unions must ensure that this message gets to the grassroots,” the group directed.
Obiozor’s admonition came after the reaction to IPOB’s threat by the Coalition of Northern Groups in a statement last week through its spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, who called for a total boycott of all businesses, goods and services operated by the Igbo in the North effective from the said April 2022 as dated by IPOB, if group make good their threat.
CNG also called on northerners everywhere not to support any political party, formation, or movement that has the active participation of the South-East.
CNG’s statement read, “For the avoidance of doubt, the North while maintaining its tradition of tolerance and accommodation, shall however no longer be disposed to condoning further acts of irresponsibility in the form of deliberate threats of intimidation or harassment targeted at Northerners living and doing legitimate businesses elsewhere in the country.
“Since such targeted utterances have in the past been preludes to physical attacks on northerners and destruction of their properties in particularly the South East, we urge northern transporters and suppliers of goods to consider alternative trade routes to avoid the imminent risks that come with this IPOB threat.
“We warm that the North has had enough of the antagonism from the South East and its attack dog, the IPOB, and will no longer remain passive under such deliberate and sustained attacks and will henceforth be forced to react to every provocation and unwarranted abuse and violations.
“All those who have no other useful vocation other than attacking northerners under the slightest of pretexts should know that our patience has reached its nadir.
“The North’s reticence in speaking out or taking action is not born out of fear or ignorance of how to respond in kind,” Suleiman warned.
Also recall that the Chairman of the Amalgamation of Northern Traders in Cattle, Grains and Vegetables, Muhammad Tahir had in a statement said that they are not perturbed by the ban, as its members were prepared to comply with IPOB’s directive and boycott all markets in the South-East.
The group noted that IPOB lacked the capacity to sustain the ban as their people would revolt when beef and other foodstuffs which can only be supplied by the North, get scarce.
Tahir said, “For us, we would always support the indivisibility of Nigeria; but if IPOB wants to secede, then so be it.
“Bilateral trade between us and them is all about wealth creation for the two regions; the cattle we take to them is food and not poison.
“Therefore, if someone rejects your benevolent supply of food to their region, then you stop; because you must not feed them.
“After all, it is a mere unsustainable propaganda, which we’ve been hearing over the years,” he stated further.
Another Northern socio-political group, the Arewa Consultative Forum in an interview with newsmen on Thursday said IPOB’s threat to the North was unnecessary and a declaration of war but appealed to the northern traders to shelve their retaliation plans, although it will be difficult to appeal to the Northern groups this time around.
The National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Emmanuel Yawe in the interview said, “We have appealed to this union in the past when their members were attacked and some killed and their property destroyed due to no fault of theirs.
“The concerns of the union and their fears are justified. Somebody should call IPOB to order. We are still one country and not at war. Their pronouncements amount to an open declaration of war,” Yawe noted.
However, the Ohanaeze leader in his appeal to the groups for the adoption of peaceful interaction stated that IPOB’s threat is only the group’s position as the separatist group don’t speak for the Igbo people.
“IPOB is not the spokesman for Igbo and Igbo did not mandate anybody to say such a thing. It is the statement of an organisation made up of Igbo, but nobody asked them to say it on behalf of all Igbo people. So, that is not Igbo’s position. We are not solving the problem of Nigeria that way, we are solving the problem of Nigeria through dialogue, not through mutual animosity like the kind being talked about by these groups but a peaceful solution.”
“They are our people, they are of us and we are of them. So there is no way, we must interact among ourselves one way along the line, including the northern groups, that’s how to negotiate through dialogue,” Obiozor added further.
Expressing disappointment at the threats by the Northern groups, he stated, “The truth of the matter is that the statement, as well as the reaction, has really been excessive because it is a threat. In fact, threats don’t work, as such threats were instantaneous. When they made good their threat in the past, did the whole of the South East die?”
“Secondly, these people are used to threatening. It’s predetermined because they are looking for somebody to punish, otherwise, this kind of casual statement shouldn’t have aroused such a statement from the North.
He hence appealed for calm, saying, “Nigeria needs healing, so we need to be calm, not instantaneous threats and exuberance. There is nothing good in always being in conflict and confrontation.”
