S/East traditional rulers clamour for more states

Joe Nwachukwu, Owerri - 27.02.2008

The clamour for the creation of an additional state for the South East in the proposed constitutional amendment has been intensified with the demand by the South East council of traditional rulers that nothing short of this would be acceptable to the people of the zone.

Rising from a well attended crucial meeting, the first in 2008, held in Abia state, the council, in a communiqué read by its chairman, Dr. Cletus Ilomuanya, contended that the need for the South East zone to have another state was long over due.

Ilomuanya stressed that in line with the present Federal Govern-ment’s policy anchored on the rule of law and egalitarianism, the South East should no longer be short-changed in the creation of states, stating that the people of the zone as stakeholders in the Nigerian project insisted that the marginalisation of the zone should stop.

The council also frowned at the continued bastardisation of the Igbo traditional institution by Igbos residing in other states who confer on themselves the “Eze Ndigbo” despite repeated warnings for them to desist.

Accordingly, the council resolved to liaise with the Emirs and Obas in the North and South West respectively, with a view to informing them not to “recognise such impostors and possibly arrest and prosecute them,” adding that as far as the council is concerned “the Eze Ndigbo title in foreign lands remains abolished.” In the alternative, the royal fathers advised that the title “Onye Ndu Ndigbo’ should be used by those leading Igbo communities in foreign land.

To further drive home its resolve to permanently nip in the bud this problem which they argued, was ridiculing the Igbo traditional institution, the council adopted a common position to formally inform the governors of the fire eastern states of their position on the Eze Ndigbo controversy.