Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu: wants a summit of ex-military officers of Igbo extraction

Igbo Kwenu, Igbo Kwenu! To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a PDP chieftain appears to have heeded this creed in his reaction to the surging Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

The Boko haram militants may still be limited to the North east zone of Nigeria, but Iwuanyanwu has charged the Ohaneze Ndigbo leadership to summon a meeting of all retired senior security officers of South East extraction to discuss the security of the zone.

Iwuanyanwu, a member of PDP Board of Trustees, made the call in Owerri at a news briefing on some nagging national issues.

The business mogul was reacting to the ceaseless upsurge of insurgency in some parts of the country in the wake of the forthcoming general elections.

Iwuanyanwu urged the Ohaneze Ndigbo to constitute a security committee from the retired senior security officers of the Army, Navy and Police that would work closely with the five South East governors.

“We do not need to wait until we are attacked before we start discussing security problems,” he said.

Iwuanyanwu said they would detect early signs of security breaches and advise on the best way to tackle them.

He said that every patriotic Nigerian should be more concerned with the unity, progress, peace and prosperity of the country.

Iwuanyanwu warned that if the 2015 elections was not properly handled, it could deteriorate to a point that it might be difficult to control.

“I therefore strongly suggest that since the South-South region has gone four years out of the constitutional eight years, it (South-South) should be allowed to complete the eight years,” he said.

Iwuanyanwu appealed to politicians from the South East, who he said are legitimately and rightly demanding for Presidency, to subjugate their ambition to the unity, peace and stability of the country.

He urged such people to support the South-South after which the “Presidency will go to the North”.

Iwuanyanwu said that the South-South had contributed substantially to the economic and social development of Nigeria.

“If they are denied the opportunity to serve their normal tenure of eight years, it may be viewed as an act of bad faith.

“We cannot afford at this moment to open up a new frontier of crisis in the South.

“In effect, in four years time, all Nigerians will support the presidency going to the North. After eight years in the North, the presidency will come back to the South.

“When it comes to the South, it will automatically be the turn of the South East as South West and South-South zones have had their turns,” he said.

He expressed concern at what he termed the “bloody assassination of some innocent citizens of the country and the criminal occupation of large territories by the Boko Haram sects”.

He called on Nigerians, especially leaders of the restive zones, to rise to the challenge and support the Federal Government’s efforts to restore normalcy to the troubled areas.