EKWE NCHE ORGANIZATION CONDEMNS THE KILLINGS AND GROSS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF IGBO IN NIGERIA
Once again, for the umpteenth time since General Olusegun Obasanjo took office in May 1999, the consciousness of the world is assaulted by news of bloodletting of Igbos, who are as yet enslaved in colonial Nigeria. Because a young Nigerian lady won the prize for the most beautiful woman in the world, Nigeria earned the opportunity to host the world beauty pageant this year.
But fundamentalist Muslims in the land who believe they alone own the country, to the exclusion of anyone else, did not want thisevent to take place. They said it would hurt their religious sensibilities and they threatened hell fire if the event was hosted in the country. Six days ago, they carried through that threat, hiding cowardly under a newspaper story that indicated that the founder of the Islamic religion, Prophet Mohammed, would have approved the beauty pageantry. Supposedly in response to this "blasphemous" story, they killed and maimed innocent Igbos as well as destroyed and looted private and public properties.
More than 200 people have been killed, many of them Igbos, and thousands made homeless, among them again many Igbos, in a crisis that as we write this press release is still ongoing.
Because of this wanton outburst of violence, the venue of the event has been moved to London, thus depriving the country an opportunity it earned to host the event. Participants of the pageantry, most of whom had arrived in the country already before this trouble started, had also been safely airlifted to London. The president once said in reacting to the adoption of Muslim Sharia law in the north that the country is a "multi-religious," not secular state. Do fundamentalist Muslims have any right to stop a beauty pageantry just because they do not like it in a country that is not a Muslim state but, rather, to use General Obasanjo�s expression, is "multi-religious"? President Obasanjo blames this latest trouble on "irresponsible journalism." There is also indication his government intends to punish the newspaper which carried the supposedly "blasphemous news item" without any clue as to what punishment it intends to mete to individuals who take the law into their hands in the guise of religion.
Ekwe Nche Organization is a group committed to Igbo welfare and sovereign independence, among other goals. In response to this latest trouble in Nigeria, the organization held a high-level meeting at which the following decisions were reached.
Ekwe Nche:
(1) condoles Igbos and members of other ethnic groups who lost dear ones in this Islamic massacre;
(2) strongly condemns the killings of innocent individuals and calls upon the government to pay appropriate compensation to survivors of families who lost people in this latest round of killings;
(3) condemns the destruction of public and private properties and calls upon the government to compensate individuals and organizations who lost their properties in this Islamic massacre and riots;
(4) rejects the unnecessary pander to Muslim "sensibility" represented in the so-called apologies tendered by the leadership of ThisDay Newspaper;
(5) strongly takes position with General Obasanjo�s putting the blame for the unprovoked wanton violence fundamentalist Muslims perpetrated on the country on "irresponsible journalism." This analysis glosses over fundamental structural problems of the country responsible for these bloodlettings, including the act of secession represented by the unilateral implementation of Islamic Sharia law in northern Nigeria, an unconstitutional action his government has refused to address;
(6) notes that this latest crisis betrays the inability of the government to protect the lives and properties of people within the borders of Nigeria and vindicates our position on the necessity for the separate nationalities in the country to take on this task themselves. Igbos believe that only a sovereign Igbo government will protect the lives and properties of our people rather than repeatedly expose them to unnecessary danger in Nigeria;
(7) notes that this latest crisis proves that the state of Nigeria cobbled together as a model for Africa by British colonial authorities (imagine this!) has failed woefully and deserves to be buried so that the separate nationalities within this failed structure can finally, for good, free themselves;
(8) exposes the inconsistency and blatant hypocrisy of Western countries who would not let their daughters spend any more time than is necessary in unsafe Nigeria, but see nothing wrong in letting Igbos, who have repeatedly been victims of northern Islamic violence, remain in the same country with these violent Islamic fundamentalist northerners;
(9) strongly condemns and vehemently repudiates the so-called "fatwa" (Islamic death decree) one northern state government imposed on the ThisDay reporter who wrote the story the fundamentalist Muslims said blasphemed them. Ekwe Nche further reminds General Obasanjo that our organization holds him personally responsible for the safety of the reporter;
(10) calls on the government to bring to book immediately and without any delay the individuals who masterminded and/or perpetrated this latest violence;
(11) notes that the latest round of violence exposes the hypocrisy of those like the president who pretend that Nigeria is not a Muslim country. In a non-Muslim country that the president says is "multi-religious," the citizens have been made to forfeit an opportunity to host an event just because the Muslims do not like it;
(12) vehemently rejects the current practice of burying Igbos in mass graves, something abominated in Igbo culture and tradition. All recoverable bodies must be returned to their respective villages and homes for proper burial;
(13) calls on the civilized world to recognize forthwith the inalienable right of the Igbo nation, numbering more than forty million in Igboland and over a hundred million worldwide, to sovereign self-determination.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
