World Igbo Congress commends Israel for supporting Kanu

The world Igbo Congress (WIC), an apex Diaspora organization representing all Igbo associations has said it is grateful to the state of Israel for realizing the predicaments of the Igbo nation and for giving the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu support in the struggle to liberate his oppressed people.

In a statement of which was made available to this medium, Professor Anthony Ejiofor, Chairman, WIC said the body was happy that in giving Kanu support, Israel was not intimidated by the declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organization by the Nigerian Government.

According to the statement, “We are grateful to the State of Israel for realizing that our predicaments today were exactly theirs yesterday and that they were not intimidated by the unconscionable declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organization”.

In the statement titled “Lest we forget: a declaration by WIC, the rise of champions”, WIC said despite tagging IPOB as a terrorist organization that they are comforted by the fact that Menachem Begin, who later became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel, was also labeled a terrorist by the British when he was struggling for the right of the Jews to have a homeland.

“We should be comforted by the fact that Menachem Begin, who later became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel, was also labeled a terrorist by the British when he was struggling for the right of the Jews to have a homeland.

“We are not unmindful that our political class is compromised, induced, cajoled, blackmailed and intimidated into acquiescence by different arms of the Nigerian State Security who also force and or suborn them to publicly condemn these champions of the struggle. Frankly, how can they speak out when the nozzle of Federal terrorists’ rifles are pointing at their heads?”, the statement asked. 

WIC told the state of Israel that Kanu has reopened the eyes of the world to the plight and cause of the Igbo, stressing that that is the awareness the people had always needed since 1970, but never got.

“Nnamdi Kanu is highly recognized in the relevant world stage as representing our cause: The emancipation of our People. Just as exclusionary anti-Semitic Policies and pogrom of 1881 – 1884 forced Theodor Herzel (founder of Zionism) to abandon his comfort zone and champion the cause of the Jews and their right to a homeland, so did the endless massacre and economic strangulation of our people by the Federal Government of Nigeria gave rise to the IPOB’s insistence that our right to self determination and security in our region cannot be compromised.

“Our political class should publicly (not in whispers) support him. IPOB is unarmed and has never perpetrated acts of violence. They ask for an internationally supervised referendum or plebiscite as a prerequisite for determining what the majority of our peoples want. That is our common cause. Every person who hails from Biafran territory agrees that the so-called 1999 ‘constitution’ is an attempt at legitimization of the subjugation, economic strangulation, and pillorying of our people and the plunder of our resources”.

“On Aburi we stand for our Region and for our kit and kin locked into different Regions of Nigeria by the colonialists. We stand in solidarity as a people in demanding our right of self-determination, a referendum and full implementation of the Aburi Accord being the barest minimum acceptable to the generality of our people.

“Any restructuring or re-engineering of Nigeria must come to terms with this barest minimum. Nnamdi Kanu has, in several ways, demonstrated that he is a peaceful man; and flexible enough to settle for this, if that is what we, his people, want. We need to resist the temptation of accepting subornation by the Federal Government to castigate and betray him”

WIC called on all Biafrans both at home and in the Diaspora to wholeheartedly support the IPOB leader’s cause and take advantage of the awareness he has already created to design the future of their dreams.