Newly elected President-General of the apex Igbo socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, says issues concerning Biafra are not for the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, to decide alone.
Obiozor also warned Igbo people and organisations to henceforth exercise restraint on actions or utterances that put Ndigbo in imminent danger or harm’s way.
The new president-general, who spoke on Wednesday during a World Press Conference at Ohanaeze National Secretariat Enugu, said the Igbo nation was not at war with Nigeria and had nothing pending before any authority that demanded a separate entity for Ndigbo.
Obiozor, at the conference tagged, ‘Ohanaeze Ndigbo: The dawn of a new era,’ appealed to the IPOB leader to toe the part of honour, listen to the voice of wisdom and drop his agitation for a separate state.
He said, “The Igbo nation is not at war with Nigeria and has nothing pending before any authority that demands a separate existence from Nigeria.
“Nnamdi Kanu is one of us and he must listen to some of us for several reasons. The fact and reality are that the issues of Biafra are above and beyond his capacity to decide.
“He must listen because he is one of us and we are all in this dilemma together. And our mutual and collective responsibilities are sacred and must be respected.”
Obiozor, who also dismissed insinuations that he will champion interests inimical to the Igbo, reminded the people of the South-East that what the late Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, meant by the bones shall rise didn’t mean conflict, violence and war.
Meanwhile, Obiozor said a memo he wrote with late former Senate President, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, led to the granting of presidential pardon and amnesty to late Ojukwu by former President Shehu Shagari in 1983.
Obiozor disclosed this in Enugu when he paid a courtesy visit to former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
Obiozor, who was in company with his Secretary-General and former Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, Okey Emuche; and other executive members, said, “I want to tell you something about my own feeling about the Igbos. We are a people of destiny, the similarity between Igbo spirit and that of the Jews is amazing to me; as an academician I wrote about it, read about it and as an Ambassador in Israel, I saw it happen. The greatest revenge against injustice is a success.”
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo president general, who later visited his immediate predecessor, Chief John Nnia Nwodo said he had been working for Ndigbo, and did the negotiation to bring Ojukwu back to Nigeria from Ivory Coast.