Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the newly elected President-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said that Igbos will never again be told to leave their homes simply because they reside in a state different from their state of origin.
He made the comment on Monday while speaking in an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show.
According to the elder stateman, everyone has the right to live wherever they choose and no one has the right to ask Igbos to leave.
Also speaking during the interview, he highlighted key areas he would focus on while in office.
Iwuanyanwu promised to focus on education, security, developing the business community, and developing the industrial sector. He vowed to work with state governors to eradicate unemployment among Igbos.
According to Iwuanywanwu: “We have the problem of youth unemployment and most of the problems in society today, like unknown gunmen killing, kidnapping is caused mainly by unemployment.
“We are going to work with state governors in the Southeast and Igboland, we will look at facilitating employment opportunities for Igbos across the states. In 1914 when Nigeria was amalgamated, Igbos were far behind in civilization and development, but by 1960 when we had independence, Igbos came to the top in education, bureaucracy, military science and technology. Igbos embrace education, so we are going to look at this very seriously.
“Igbo businessmen have never had political powers, we have been fighting to have power, but we are very advanced. If you come to the Southeast, you will realize that there is a lot of development which is done by our businessmen, and that is why I decided I’m going to set up a council of education as we try to find what makes us strong in education.
“Found the Council of business leaders to make sure our business people succeed and ensure industries work. We can generate power with coal and it’s in abundance in Enugu State; I have been told it’s one of the best in the world. So, we are going to explore the possibility of mining the coal and using it for power.”
Watch part of the interview below.
Reacting to Iwuanyanwu’s comment, Twitter user, @BadManChulo tweeted: “Thank you Iwuayanwu for your strong and emphatic words to any political rascal that would nurture any future attack on Ndi Igbo anywhere on the basis of ethnic leaning. Ohaneze strongly condemns and wouldn’t tolerate such going forward.”
