Are IPOB activities to blame for the Kaduna Declaration?

by Alexander O. Onukwue

One can speculate that the ‘Arewa’ meeting which took place in Kaduna, Tuesday, and produced a declaration against continued association with Igbos was a response to the activities of the IPOB, the South-Eastern group. Citing unruliness, cultural degeneracy and even masking as Fulani herdsmen to perpetrate atrocities, the group claimed to want no more with “acrimonious Igbo partners”.

The group claimed to be grieved by the sit-at-home encouraged by the Nnamdi Kanu-inspired group on May 30, the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the State of Biafra by Odimegwu Ojukwu in 1967. According to them, the acts of the group have led to the truncation of the activities of Nigerians who pass through the South Eastern states to other parts of Nigeria for business or otherwise.

While totally condemning military harassment, killings, and obstructions to freedom of movement and demonstration of the IPOB in the East, it is credible that many ardent believers in the ‘marginalization’ of Igbos in the grand scheme of Nigerian affairs, who dwell outside the South-East, have some sort of complaint against the Indigenous People of Biafra.

With some reports suggesting that the IPOB has plans to dissuade citizens from participating in civic duties, beginning with the Anambra elections set to hold this November, it raises the need for questions to persons and leaders from the South-East of how much they disavow the actions of the group in the context of Nigeria as a whole. Enjoying a temporary period of freedom, Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, has sought to galvanise his movement by meeting groups of supporters, both in his home state of Abia and other environments, apparently flouting the conditions on which he was granted bail by the court.

The ‘Kaduna Declaration’ signed by five groups purportedly from the North on June 06, 2017, promised to sack all Igbos from all Northern states in the country and reclaim assets, beginning from October 1, 2017.

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