The Secretary General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, in this interview speaks on the sit-at-home problem in the South East and what government needs to do to bring peace back to Igboland.
Recently, the people of Azumini went into mourning over the death of an Irish reverend father who assisted Biafran children during the civil war, using your father’s cottage hospital as a platform. Can you say more about the Catholic minister?
It was in Azumini that Rev’d Fr. Dermot Doran arrived as a young catholic priest. He was the parish priest and then principal of St. Mary’s Secondary School in 1963. He was the pioneer Principal of the school. We got the sad news that he passed on not too long ago at the age of 88 years Beyond being the pioneer principal or parish priest, he was also involved, like several others during the Nigerian civil war. He assisted humanity and helped in no small measures in the airlift of malnourished, sick Biafran children that were flown from Uli airstrip in today’s Anambra State to Gabon and Ivory Coast. His passing is a sad one, we mourn him. The Igbo nation and people of goodwill here and in the Diaspora will honour him for a long time for the role he played during the unfortunate civil war that enveloped Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. We are also here to recognize the heroic, patriotic role Sir (Dr.) D. W. Emuchay played, both during the civil war and after the civil war by making available his cottage hospital in Azumini to the United Nations in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria to serve as a resettlement centre for Biafran children that were brought back from both Gabon and Ivory Coast, the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, in company of Ajie Ukpabi Asika who was the Administrator of East Central State visited the children at the cottage hospital in 1970. The programme ran for two years. Dr. Gray of ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) Geneva was in charge of that project. Aside from one dead, the rest of the kids were successfully returned to their various families.
Did all the children return home after the war?
We are not sure how many were left behind in Gabon, Ivory Coast and other African countries that hosted them.
Are Azumini people thinking of immortalizing Fr. Doran?
For me, as a witness to his history and as the current Secretary General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ohanaeze will continue to locate the likes of Rev’d Fr. Doran wherever they could be, and in our own small ways, will find the means to honour them. At the palace of HRM Eze Edward Eule, the paramount ruler of Azumini, this issue was raised and I am confident that between his HRM Eule and the Catholic Diocese of Aba, something significant will be done in the not too distant future to honour Rev’d Fr. Doran in collaboration with Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.
How do you see the sufferings the Ndigbo are experiencing now?
This brings me to the very sad and unfortunate situation the Igbo Nation is passing through presently. The people who suffered three years of untold hardship during the civil war, in the last two years, have been subjected to an unnecessary sit-at-home that has crippled, to a very large extent, the economy of the south east. This has invited, regrettably, unnecessary insecurity challenges for the people of the south east geo-political zone and beyond. It is painful to observe that we have groups, both within the south east and beyond and, in fact, outside the shores of Nigeria that are waging war against the people of the south east and the Igbo nation in general. They have their sponsors, both within and outside and time has come for us to say, enough is enough. The pains of three years of civil war, and the efforts at our recovery, are being slowly and systematically shredded. We have of late, a video that is trending of armed groups led by Asari Dokubo at a location which is very close to the Igbo nation. Time has now come for the Federal Government of Nigeria to take immediate steps to send emissaries to the authorities in Finland in respect of Simon Ekpa and then, to properly investigate the activities of Asari Dokubo who is training a private army, the purpose of which we don’t known. The videos we have seen and the location from where they are, appear to be very close to the Igbo nation.
Can you tell the world, Ndigbo in particular what efforts are being made by the Ohanaeze and some other stakeholders to get Nnamdi Kanu out of detention?
I am in a very vantage position to confirm that Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been in the forefront of the push for the release of our brother, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The late President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador George Obiozor, together with our elder statesman, Dara Chief Mbazulike Amaechi never ceased, until they died, calling publicly and privately for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Ohanaeze had a team of observers for the past two years. At any time Nnamdi Kanu was brought to court, Ohanaeze had an observer team led by Okwadike, His Excellency Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife. More than a year ago, I was detailed by the then President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to be part of a five-man delegation that visited Nnamdi Kanu in detention; Myself, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Bishop Godfrey Onah (the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese) and then, the Methodist Bishop, Sunday Onuoha. We spent three hours with Nnamdi Kanu in the DSS detention in Abuja. We covered every issue that was of concern to him, the Igbo nation and Nigeria. During our interaction with him, Kanu never mentioned Simon Ekpa. Ekpa is doing his own private business. He has nothing to do with the release of Nnamdi Kanu. It is important for the world to get to hear that people who have no pedigree, who lack autonomous identity, who have no idea whatsoever about the sufferings Igbo have passed through and are passing through, who have now on their own, with their sponsors converted issues that concern Igbo nation into a cottage industry. It is a money-making machine for them, and I want to say, without fear of contradiction, that they would fail. The Igbo nation is beyond them. At no point was there a meeting where the Igbo nation decided to assign Ekpa with any duties that concern the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. It is important to underline that the Court of Appeal has ruled that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should be released. Dara Mbazulike Amaechi, Prof. George Obiozor, the current President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu have all, publicly and privately asked that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should be released. As you recall, two years ago, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu asked that the issue of sit-at-home should be stopped. So, the people who are going about with sit-at-home in the south east, those who formed the enforcers of sit-at-home in the south east, are enemies of the Igbo nation and Nigeria. Our people are suffering. Ninety percent of our people are into commerce, trade and private businesses and if you force them not to open their shops and businesses, of whose benefit is it? People are dying, businesses are bring ruined and others are leaving the south east because of this persistent problem of sit-at-home. So, that is the situation.
Can you confirm that Ohanaeze actually placed a bounty on Simon Ekpa?
I was part of that meeting. I sent the circular; I sent the notification for that meeting. This is the point I am making that there are characters, charlatans I would call them, who are using the name of Ohanaeze for their own private businesses. Ohanaeze did not place any bounty on anybody’s head. That is not the job of Ohanaeze and go and check it, whoever issued that statement is not part of us. There are people who are making money and use the word, Cottage Industry, they have turned Ohanaeze into cottage industry, they have their sponsors both within the south east and beyond and they will fail.
People are curious to know serious efforts by Ohanaeze leaderhip to meet with the president.
The Abuja meeting was a huge success. People are saying, ‘why Abuja?’ it was a meeting that the leadership of Ohanaeze led by Chief Emma Iwuanyanwu put together for us to have an interaction with members of the National Assembly from the south east that are based in Abuja and then our governors and than select number of stakeholders. It was well attended.
Ohanaeze is a socio-cultural organization and not a political party. It has its role cut for her to gather and pursue the interest of over 60 – 70 million people in Nigeria and in diaspora. So, what we did was to get our elected officials across party lines in the Senate and House of Representatives in the five south east states and then you have Ohanaeze. So, part of what was agreed in Abuja is for our elected officials to be at the forefront. The process is on-going. The governor of Imo State, who is also the chairman of the South East Governors Progressive Forum, is making history bringing governors of the south east to be on one page. That has been the problem. Ohanaeze has over the years tried to get the governors, because they were elected by their various citizens in the five states in the south east, to meet, discuss and look at the problems affecting our geo-political zone. That is major and it is happening and if you look at the mosaic, Abia is Labour Party, Enugu is Peoples Democratic Party, Anambra is All Progressive Grand Alliance, Ebonyi and Imo states are All Progressives Congress. So, you will not say they all belong to the same political party, but different political parties, but parties don’t matter anymore. They have been elected and sworn in. So, what Ohanaeze is looking at is governance, not politics. (Nigerian Tribune)
