Restructuring: Ohanaeze lists Nwodo, Wabara, others to articulate Ndigbo position

By Jude Opara, Abuja

The apex Igbo socio cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has named former Enugu State Governor, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, and former Senate President Adolphus Wabara to lead a 20 man committee to articulate a position for Ndigbo in the proposed restructuring of Nigeria.
A statement by the media outfit of the President-general of Ohanaeze, Chief Emmanuel Iwunyanwu named other notable members of the committee to include: former Imo state governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Senator Ben Obi, Senator Julius Ucha, Barrister Dan Nwanyanwu, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, Prof. Charles Nwekeaku, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Chief Osita Chidoka, among others.
Inaugurating the committee in Abuja, on Wednesday, the President-general of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, urged members to give the assignment the seriousness it deserved.
He said, “I’m therefore of very strong believe that restructuring of Nigeria is a social, economic and cultural imperative. Many other groups in Nigeria have continued to make demands for secession from the country.
“Such demands have come from the Northern, Western and of course, Eastern part of Nigeria.
“Once the structure of Nigeria is right, all these demands and agitations will stop and Nigeria by God’s grace will be one of the greatest countries in the world.
“The duty you are carrying out is a very sublime and critical to the future of Igbo in Nigeria.
“I pray the Almighty God who had led our people through past perilous times guide you as you carry out this sublime duty of producing a structure that will make the Federal Republic of Nigeria a happy country for all of us.”
Earlier, Iwuanyanwu went down memory lane to recall past agitations before and after the civil war and dispelled the long held wrong notions about the position of the defunct Eastern Region during the Aburi Conference in Ghana.
According to him, the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who led the Eastern delegation to the Aburi conference with General Yakubu Gowon, never asked for secession from Nigeria but for restructuring to give the component parts of the federation greater autonomy.