An Address to Igbo Nation: Igbo National Predicament and the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria

1. They say it is never over until it is over.
political event.
Ndigbo are a nation in quest of self-determination and freedom in the artificial Nigerian Federation in which they have been held in bondage since the Amalgamation of 1914.

2. This struggle is not predicated on the outcome of the 2019 General Elections. From our experience in the Nigerian Federation. it was obvious that the outcome of the elections will underscore the reasons for our struggle and our rejection of the artificial Federation
3. The 2019 General Election in Nigeria has so far clearly demonstrated a high level of Igbo national unity and solidarity.

We spoke through the ballot that we are one, one people one nation - from Abakaliki and Afigbo in Ebonyi State to Nsukka, Udi in Enugu State; from Awka, Nnewi and Onitsha in Anambra State to the entire Anioma Igbos in Delta State, from Anioma to Owerri, Oguta and Egbema in Imo State; from Elele, Ikwere and Port Harcourt in Rivers State; from Port Harcourt to Aba, Umuahia in Abia State, etc, etc. It does not matter that our votes were deliberately reduced to less than half of its strength. We have demonstrated and affirmed the reality and autonomy of our region.

We have also once more shown the world that Ndigbo have strong historical and political ties with our neighbors - the Okrika, Ijaw, Ibibio and Efik in .Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River States.

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Recent events in the Nigerian Federation have underscored the artificiality of the Federation and the bondage in which various nations within it are held and subjugated. The Yoruba nation, the Tiv nation, the Edo nation, the Southern Kaduna, the Kanuris, the Ijaws, the Efik, Ibibio, etc, All are now singing the same song – longing form freedom and self-determination.

4. Was it Right for Ndigbo to have participated in the Elections, knowing that it would be rigged?

Our answer is definitely YES! We say yes to our brothers and sisters who think otherwise as well as to the Internet warriors, political magicians and those whom we may call critical critics in our midst, who would want us to do otherwise. We are happy that at the last moment all the major stakeholders, pan-Igbo organizations and pro-Biafra groups in Alaigbo, all agreed we should participate.

5. If we failed to participate, we shall have no political, legal or even moral right to question the manner in which the elections were organized or the outcome of the elections.
6. On the other hand, the scandalous manner in which the outcome of the election was programmed in advance provides us and other aggrieved neighbors a very strong impetus to continue our struggle for self-determination and freedom.
7. The fact that we participated has further justified our case that there is no democratic path to resolving the crises of unity and freedom within the Nigerian Federation.
8. The world is watching and the manner and outcome of the elections definitely arouse the disgust of those that have moral conscience. Already they feel repulsed by what has taken place in the name of elections and democracy.
9. President Buhari and his Fulani kinsmen have now shown the world –

• why they went after the Legislature hounding its leadership from pillar to post,
• why they seized the security apparatus of the state,
• why they went after the judiciary and destroyed its leadership.
• Why they took the Electoral Commission under its control.
• Why the control of the DSS, EFCC, the Police, etc, are now controlled by the Fulani and their minions, etc, etc.

10. What has taken place is no election. The various ways it has been rigged are too obvious-

• Use of the security forces to intimidate opponents
• Use of the compromised card reader.
• Why the card reader was used in only in the South.
• Why in the North they manually filled and thump-printed the ballot papers.
• Disenfranchisement of voters through the use of thugs to prevent them from getting to the voting centers
• Use of thugs to snatch ballot boxes and destroy ballots and ballot boxes and other election materials,
• Abduction of election officers and forcing them to declare APC candidates as winners
• Use of wrong voters’ registers to ensure that opposition voters names are missing and thereby disenfranchising them.
• Use of security men and thugs to attack and kill voters.

11. It is clear that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the Presidential election. The PDP should immediately publish the results from the various collation centers for the world to see the extent of reckless impunity displayed by the President and his men in order to remain in power against the will of the people.
12. We urge all lovers of freedom in the South-South, South-East, South West, Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna and other areas to support Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the quest to reclaim the mandate given to him by the people to govern.
13. We urge Ndigbo not to allow anything to affect their resolve and continue to take part in the other elections.
14. Finally, we must avoid Egbe onu, tigbuo sogbuo and other form of emotional outburst,
15. . Knowing our character and history, Ndigbo would rather die than be slaves to any other nation or nations! The world is aware of the historic Igbo Landing at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, USA in 1803. It was here that fourteen fellow Igbo brothers, under chains, held their hands and drowned themselves in a mass suicide rather than become slaves to other people.

Or again, we may recall the case of Igbo young men, already trapped as slaves, who organized the rebellion in Haiti that led to the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, facts that were not lost on the British in their activities against Ndigbo in Nigeria. That Revolution in Haiti, which started on 22 August 1791, lasted till 1804, ending French colonial rule in Saint Dominique, now the Sovereign State of Haiti. That historic event is now widely seen as “a defining moment in the history of racism in the Atlantic World ”

We do not need to add the Women Resistance movement against British Rule in Nigeria 1929, which led to a radical redefinition of colonial rule in Nigeria and elsewhere.

From the above, the message to Ndigbo at his moment is clear

We must not surrender to the forces that wish to enslave us, destroy our Civilization and our Christian religious faith.

Prof. Uzodinma Nwala
ADF President
Prof. Nath Aniekwu
ADF Secretary
February 26, 2019