No peace without justice: our position on marginalisation and national unity

We condemn, in the strongest terms, the endless attacks, injustices, skewed appointments and other forms of marginalisation against Ndigbo.

This is the position we presented through our President, Stanley Okafor, at our one-day conference on Nigeria and its security challenges, held in Awka, Anambra State. We convened that conference because the country's security crisis cannot be discussed honestly without naming the injustices that feed it.

Our message to the Presidency is direct: the President must rise to his responsibility to protect every ethnic group in this country. Every Nigerian deserves a genuine sense of belonging, and no part of this country should feel like a spectator in its own nation. Appointments, opportunities, and protection must reflect the whole of Nigeria — not a fraction of it.

On the question of secessionist agitation, our stand is dialogue. We call on the federal government to sit down and negotiate with secessionist groups such as IPOB. Biafra is part of the history of the eastern part of Nigeria; it cannot be wished away, and pretending otherwise only deepens the wound. A united Nigeria will be built at the table, not imposed by force.

We further demand adequate, urgent action on the worsening insecurity across the country: kidnapping, banditry, Boko Haram attacks, herder-farmer clashes and other insurgencies. Nigerians in every region deserve to sleep with both eyes closed.

Peace without justice is a ceasefire, not a country. We will keep saying so until the country hears it.

(Context: our statement as reported by The Guardian, 26 February 2021.)