A wide spectrum of South East rights activists have accused the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) of working to incite genocide against Ndigbo, even as they berated the group’s spokesman, Prof Ango Abdullahi, describing him as a disgrace to intellectualism.

The activists, acting under the umbrella of Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) and Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs), were reacting to NEF’s support for the quit notice served Igbos in the North by a coalition of northern youths. The groups in a statement issued on Saturday in Onitsha said they were “deeply shocked, appalled and alarmed concerning the conspiratorial incitement to genocide’s utterances of the Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, retired Prof Ango Abdullahi.”

They further said: “It is also shocking and alarming that such inflammatory and clearly genocidal incitement is coming from an academic professor, even though he is no longer an active university professor or has retired. Professor Ango Abdullahi and his Northern Elders Forum’s grounds for supporting their northern youth coalition’s recent incitement to genocide are utterly infantile, illogical, unverifiable, unscientific, false; and historically, socially, politically and economically twisted and doctored.

“It is sad and unfortunate that while retired professors remain a great asset to their countries after their active professorial service or retirement by setting up think tank or research centers with the state-of-art or world class manual and electronic laboratories or libraries or engaging in renowned consultancies in their professorial academic fields; retired Nigerian professors such as the likes of retired Professor Ango Abdullahi have not only damnably chosen the opposite, but also descended and decayed to the level of professorial senility.

“It is in this same country (Nigeria) that an active or serving university professor was sighted severally at official outings or events of a well known fraudulent billionaire and trickster somewhere in Imo State; carrying his bag and serving as one of his events’ ushers. He was later recommended to a political actor by his 419 boss leading to his appointment as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in-charge of Education.

“Academic professorship has been brought so low in Nigeria that professors are severally seen becoming senior special assistants or special advisers to Caretaker Committee Local Government Chairmen or their wives and wives of some State the Governors. A university professor whether serving or retired; that compromises or trades off his or her professorial integrity, quality, competence and authority for stomach infrastructure and long-throat; is a dreg of modern academic professorship and worst than a violent mad person with a sharp dagger or machete running amok in a crowded market or religious gathering.

“The latest primordialist, incoherent, jaundiced, un-academic, violence and genocide prone conspiratorial incitement or utterances of retired Professor Ango Abdullahi are a fundamental test case of the foregoing and a clear evidence of the rot that has befallen some retired Professors in Nigeria. They further expose the devastating effects of the principle of quarter system in the Northern Nigeria to the extent that a retired professor and former vice chancellor of a third pioneer federal university in Nigeria has chosen to become an instigator of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

“Yet the authorities of SSS; likewise the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army who go about running riot and unleashing all kinds of psycho-physical violence nonviolently expressive voices; have till date, looked the other way by adamantly refusing to arrest and prosecute the likes of retired Prof Abdullahi, members of his Northern Elders Forum and their genocidal youths for treasonable felony or incitement to genocide. Till date, Nigeria is a State Party to the Anti Genocide Convention of 1948.

“The conspiratorial incitement to genocide utterances of retired Prof Ango Abdullahi are also a clear confirmation of the readiness of the northern butchers to repeat the 1966 anti Igbo pogrom in which at least 45,000 -50,000 citizens of Old Eastern Nigeria dominated by Igbo citizens were butchered in a yearlong butcheries across the Northern Nigeria, which also generated over 1.62million Igbo IDPs and a good number of others who crossed international borders and became refugees.

“It is so sad and shocking that the likes of retired Prof Ango Abdullahi and his Northern Elders Forum have dangerously chosen to give the northern youths a matching order to slaughter the Igbo citizens residing in Northern Nigeria starting from 1^st October 2017. Retired Prof Ango Abdullahi’s professorial illiteracy as it concerns social, economic, political, cultural and military history of Nigeria was further exposed when he falsely and mischievously cited the 1966 bloody military coup, which he erroneously and provocatively tagged “Igbo Coup” as a justification for commission of a series of genocide and massacre against the Igbo People in Nigeria which started way back in 1945.

“If retired Prof Ango Abdullahi is not a victim of professorial moronism, he should have arithmetically known and understood that in military tradition, success in military putsch means victory and rise to power for those who planned and executed it, while failure attracts dire consequences from the operators of the existing military order against the coupists. In military tradition too, a group of military colleagues or peers or a group of officers of same ranks or academic military class can plan and execute a coup successfully or otherwise. A military coup is a cult or peer group exercise.

“Above all, actions and inactions in military circles are prohibited from being brought to bear on innocent civilian population or a race, which is why in internal or inter State armed conflict war, killing of non combatants or civilian populations or attacks on non military targets or necessity are out-rightly prohibited and punishable by the international law such as the Geneva Conventions or Laws of War of 1949 under the UN System. Such punishments are meted out through local criminal courts, special regional and international criminal or war crimes courts or ICC.

“Further, the patterns and trends of military coups in Nigeria clearly show that the infantile argument or defense or justification of retired Prof Ango Abdullahi is totally dead on arrival. Assuming but not conceding to retired Prof Abdullahi’s professorial illiterate argument or defense to the effect that 1966 Coup was Igbo Coup leading to killing of some northern political leaders and military officers; our questions are:

“What about the counter bloody coup of 1966 in which over 240 military officers dominated by Igbo officers were killed? Have Igbo People ever called it a Hausa-Fulani Coup? How many innocent civilian citizens of Hausa-Fulani stock have been massacred in retaliation by Igbo People or their military officers since then?

“What about the Col Dimka’s attempted bloody coup of 1976 and Major Gideon Orkar’s attempted Coup of 1990? If the two attempted coups are Middle-Belt Coups, how many innocent civilians of the Middle Belt stock have been massacred in Nigeria since then other than agro-Islamist violence so perpetrated? What about the Jos 1945 and Kano 1953 anti Igbo riots and massacres? Were they retroactively carried out in connection with the so called “Igbo Coup of 1966”?

“What of other anti Igbo massacres that took place in the following Northern Nigerian cities of: Kano 1980, Maiduguri 1982, Jimeta 1984, Gombe 1985, Zaria 1987, Kaduna and Kafanchan 1991, Bauchi and Katsina 1991, Kano 1991, Zango-Kataf 1992, Funtua 1993, Kano 1994, Kaduna 2000, Kaduna 2001, Maiduguri 2001 and Jos September 2001, Kaduna 2002?

“What about other anti Igbo massacres such as Kaduna’s Miss World Riot of November 2002 and Prophet Mohammed Cartoons Riot of February 2006 (Maiduguri), the Apo-Abuja Six killing by the Nigeria Police Force of (six young Igbo traders: Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna and Anthony and Augustina Arebu) of June 2005, the November 2008 Jos LGA Poll Riot/killings, the Jos 2010 Christmas Eve bombings, the Madalla Igbo Catholic Church bombings of 2011, the 2011 post general elections’ riots/killings that led to killing of 10 Igbo NYSC members and several other Igbo People in the North, the Mubi Igbo killings of 2012 and Nyanya Igbo Park Bombing of April 2014? This is just to mention but a few.

“Retired Prof Ango Abdullahi’s description of pre oil Southern Nigeria as acutely poor and under-developed is an award winning falsehood and acute misrepresentation of facts. The Igbo People of Nigeria were solely responsible for the development of Northern Nigeria through trade, commerce and industry which dated back in Kano, etc in 1800s. Retired Prof Abdullahi is further challenged to publicly display the map and pictures of Sabon Gari(visitors’ area or Igbo area) area of Kano and other cities of Kano before 1900 and display their present pictures and map. Today, which area of Kano is more developed than Sabon Gari and who are responsible for same? The same thing applies to northern cities of Jos, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Gusau, Sokoto, Gombe, Jalingo, Mubi, Suleja, Kantangora, Akwanga, Keffi, Kebbi, Bauchi, to mention but a few.

“If the Northern Nigeria was so rich, buoyant and economically self sustained and not backward, why did it opt out of self rule arrangements in the 50s that would have ushered in early independence for the country instead of forcing the rest of Nigeria’s region to wait until 1^st October 1960? What led to the booing and jeering of its parliamentary representatives by its Southern counterparts in Lagos in 1953? If the Northern Nigeria was so rich in the 50s what happens to it today and why do public servants and retirees in the Northern part of Nigeria receive electronic alerts of their remunerations sometimes weeks ahead of those of their Southern counterparts?

“It must be put on a clear record that the Igbo People are the most pastoral ethnic nationality, guest and tolerant tribe in Nigeria who have contributed immeasurably to the self and collective development of all parts of Nigeria. Their investments in Southwest, North-central, Northeast and Northwest are second to none. Yet naturally speaking, threats to lives and ethnic identities are incomparable with material investments and they are societal values that money can never buy and cannot be easily traded off.

“The Igbo People as decades’ long victim of the policies of structural, cultural and physical or direct violence of the successive and present central Governments in Nigeria or any part thereof are only seeking through peaceful means the cessation of the abdominal injustices and respect to their ethnic identities and inalienable right to live peacefully and progressively as a people either as part of restructured Nigeria or as a distinct political territory. Even if the Igbo People are rated poorest and landless in Nigeria by the likes of retired Prof Ango Abdullahi, at least they should be allowed to live in peace in such landlessness and poverty with dignity and self respect.”

Update news