The South East Development Peace Initiative (SPDI) has stated that the Igbos have gotten used to suffering in the country, noting that this is one of the reasons why they will not be joining the nationwide protests ongoing by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), News About Nigeria reports.
The President of the South East Development Initiative, Hon. Vitus Okechi, stated this after a meeting of the group in Enugu, noting that the injustices against Ndigbo in Nigeria are such that they do not have any reason to protest, as they have faced more challenging situations in Nigeria.
Also speaking, Okechi, a local government chairman in Enugu State, expressed shock that other parts of the country are protesting just because of hunger when Ndigbo have serially suffered deprivation, marginalisation, discrimination, humiliation, neglect, and even higher levels of hunger and deprivation.
“We have all forgotten the 1974 indigenisation policy when shares and stocks owned by foreigners in businesses in Nigeria were to be relinquished to local interests. Of course, the Igbo had been battered by the war and would not have the financial muzzle to compete. The North and West took centre stage in acquiring these shares and stocks which shifted the economic balance in their favour.
“Ndigbo have been at the receiving end in the affairs of the country and all efforts for equity and justice have fallen on deaf ears. Were there protests, NO!
“The sit-at-home in the South East is because of the incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Sit at Home has caused the Igbo losses in lives and properties. All the appeals to the federal government for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu have been rebuffed as an Igbo problem.
“We have been marginalised in every way. The roads in the South East are abandoned and neglected, while the few motorable ones are made into taxation points for security operatives.
“Outside that, some people have sworn that no Igbo should be allowed to be president in Nigeria. That is, when it is the turn of the Igbo, political parties threw their tickets open, even against their own constitution.
“In political appointments, we are treated like strangers. Even the federal character is jettisoned just to deprive the people. We are used to injustices in a country, and we have contributed immensely to its development. No! We can’t protest,” he lamented.
