REFORMING OHANEZE NDI IGBO.
Ohaneze is all eze but no oha. From the sequence of the name, you’ll think that it is mostly oha. You are dead wrong. Ohaneze is an elitist organization without foot soldiers. Biafra worked until its demise because General Odimegwu Ojukwu used the masses effectively.
There were several fronts created to mobilize the masses such as the Traders’ Front headed by F.F.B.C. Nwankwo and the Farmers’ Front headed by Israel Nwaeri. These fronts canvassed the entire nooks and crannies of Biafra mobilizing support for the Biafran project.
How many ogili sellers are in Ohaneze, how many bicycle repairers, how many shoemakers? Reorganizing and revitalizing Ohaneze to include all segments of Igbo society is necessary. Most of the former Ohaneze leaders were seeking personal enrichment and fame and had no interest in advancing the Igbo cause.
There are Igbo Nationalists who are holding back, that must be sought by Ohaneze and offered positions of influence in the Igbo project. The leaders of the various Biafran Fronts were not elected at a general election, but they delivered beyond expectations, given their meager resources.
Are the ezes listening? The oha is waiting for inclusion in Ohaneze.
Only if a spoon of porrage yam will not buy their birthright!!
Like you righly stipulated, there is no Oha among the Ezes. They don’t speak the mind of the people. They don’t take words from the people to the government, rather they are task masters of the Hausa Fulani, enforcing the dictates of their masters on the Oha. Ohaneze should be all encompassing, they should listen to the people and stand for the people. Communal youth leaders in Biafra land and heads of various associations and their secretaries should be members of Ohaneze. This formation should also translate in every country, state and communities where igbos resides. Whatever is agreed upon in their highrachy meetings must reach the grassroots. No more shall ndigbo wake up in the morning only to find what the so called Ohaneze has agreed and forwarded to the Hausa Fulani government on prints and medias against the minds of the igbo populace. If the Ohanezes have listened to their son Nnamdi kanu, and have condemned in strong terms the massacre of our youths by the Nigerian Armed Forces, Nigeria today would have been reshapened by now.
Nothing to add.