ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF OHANAEZE NDI IGBO, UK CHIEF (DR) EJIKEME ERIC UZOALOR AT THE IJAW NATIONAL CONGRESS (INC) EUROPE CONFERENCE OF ETHNIC NATIONALITIES OF NIGERIA IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 5TH FEBRUARY 2011 AT REGENT PARK HOLIDAY INN LONDON.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF OHANAEZE NDI IGBO, UK CHIEF (DR) EJIKEME ERIC UZOALOR AT THE IJAW NATIONAL CONGRESS (INC) EUROPE  CONFERENCE OF ETHNIC NATIONALITIES OF NIGERIA IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 5^TH FEBRUARY 2011 AT REGENT PARK HOLIDAY INN LONDON.

THEME: NIGERIA @ 50, VISION OF A BETTER NATION, THE JOURNEY INTO THE NEXT 50 YEARS

Representatives of the President & Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR; GCON.

His Excellency, Ambassador Dozie Nwanna, OON, The acting Nigerian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom

Your Excellencies

Royal Father, Lords Temporal and Spiritual,

Ladies and Gentlemen

A man at 50 cannot be said to be that young except there is something wrong with him. However, in the calculations of nation building, Nigeria, at 50, is still a young country. As a young country, we are still grappling with the concept of democracy as understood in the West; our capacity to build strong institutions remains weak. Our judiciary, which has its root in the finest of English tradition, is struggling and as would be expected, mirrors the Nigerian society. Governance is riddled with corruption except in a few States where chief executives are transforming and setting examples of good governance in their States.   

The journey about Nigeria is not all doom and gloom. Nigeria today is a democracy with free press; flourishing of small and medium scale businesses and commercial activities; vibrant entertainment industry and upsurge in the banking sector, and a safe environment to invest and prosper.  Nigerians are resilient people, one of the most intelligent groups comparable anywhere in the world. Nigerians are hard working people, entrepreneurial, ingenuous, erudite and adventurous. These qualities are best demonstrated in our private sector economy. However, these qualities remain to be matched by government policies or approach to sustainable power and energy supply, strategic transportation networks and other socio-enabling imperatives for industrialisation.

A credible journey therefore into the next fifty years as a nation with democratic credentials and potential medium power requires strategic thinking and massive investments, geared at capacity building in our education, health, telecommunications, power and energy, social and development infrastructure and employment generation. These measures will not only energise and strengthen our national institutions but will keep us on the right path to greater nationhood and prosperity.

However, religious intolerance has become our greatest challenge. Day in day out, we read about riot in some parts of Nigeria with ethnic and religious undertone. Many of us have read about the recent killings in Bauchi/Jos. We easily forget the mayhem these riots leave behind.  The casualties of these riots are our brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fathers.  As soon as these mayhems subside, little is mentioned about the people left behind as a result of these annual killings. Some of the religious leaders and politicians that fan the ember of the annual religious hate, bigotry and intolerance have a way of evading justice and prosecution. 

Why should a nation continue to condone these periodic slaughtering of fellow Nigerians and wanton destruction of properties that run into billions of Naira without instituting a credible public enquiry?  Why must we accept these senseless and barbaric killings of Nigerians by Nigerians and destruction of means of livelihood? What has been the effort of our national intelligence community in preventing these acts before they are carried out?  What rehabilitative programmes do we have as a nation for the families affected by these periodic murders? Do Nigerians need Visas to reside in any part of the Country? The answer should ideally be no but what has been done except calling the same religious and traditional rulers behind these killings.

The Bauchi/Jos killings in the name of religion must not be swept under the carpet. As we look into the next fifty years, the greatest calling of our time is to combat and defeat religious extremism.  Nigeria as an evolving experiment must show a zero tolerance to these barbaric killings of Nigerians by fellow Nigerians in the name of religion and ethno-territorial claims.   This episodic event brings tension and mutual distrust within neighbourhoods. It polarizes us as a nation. It re-enforces religious and ethnic hatred and suspicion.  It brings pain within the Nigerian nation-family and ugly image internationally.

It is therefore a challenge to our national consciousness and as Nigerians we must rise as an indivisible nation, under one God to defeat these ruthless murderers that still harbour Stone Age mentality. We, the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo believe in rotation of Presidency between the six (6) geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

To quote a prominent Igbo writer Chinua Achebe, we should not let others do something for us; we shall endeavour to do it ourselves. So it is high time we rise and do things for ourselves.  

Thank you all.

God Bless you.

God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.