Dear
Brothers, Sisters and Leaders in our land,
“Towards
Recreating and Enhancing Igbo National Consciousness And Rebirth”
I
forward to you this Memorandum captioned
MAY
30 AS IGBO NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE DAY/BIAFRA REMEMBRANCE DAY
in
the name of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) and all individuals and groups
that currently share in the message it conveys.
ADF
is aware that several groups, organizations and individuals have annually been
celebrating this auspicious day in our History as a Remembrance Day in one form
or the other. Many religious groups and several Pan-Igbo organizations
including Pro-Biafra organizations such as Ekwenche, MASSOB, IPOB, Coalition of
Pro-Biafra Groups, etc, have been celebrating this for some years.
ADF
is of the view we as a people should collectively do this in remembrance and
honor of the millions of our brothers and sisters who died for our sake, as
well in honor of several nationalities and their Governments, Churches,
Humanitarian Organizations and heroic individuals including those who burnt
themselves for the sake of our liberty, we should hold May #0 as a Solemn Dy in
our history. We do this also for the sake of our National Consciousness,
Solidarity and Unity as well as for or unity with all our neighbors who
suffered with us and still believe in the unity and progress of our region.
We
shall formally address this appeal to all Governments, Churches, State
Assemblies, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Clan and Town Union and other bodies for their
endorsement of this call.
We
are addressing it to you individually as major voices in our land. Please give
this call your endorsement and push for its actualization.
PROF
UZODINMA NWALA PROIF NATH ANIEKWU
ADF
PRESIDENT ADF SECRETARY
ON
BEHALF OF THE Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF)
We
Hhhhhhjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
ALAIGBO
DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (ADF)
Date:-
April 25, 2019
ADF
Press Statement on
MAY
30 AS IGBO NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE DAY
May
30 is a Day that occupies such a nodal point in the history of Alaigbo and her
neighbours. It should be hoisted as A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE of the millions who
died that we may be from; yes, who died in the cause of our struggle for self-
determination and survival as a people.
Alaigbo
Development Foundation (ADF is aware that several Igbo organizations
have
often scheduled activities to mark May 30 as a Memorial Day in Igbo history.
May 30 marks the day Biafra was declared and no patriotic Igbo son or daughter
can pretend that Biafra is not part of the history and indeed the major
water-shade in the history of the Igbo nation and the entire Igbo race and
their Neighbors.
If
anyone is in doubt let him recall what happened on May 30, 2017 and 2018, when
our sons and daughters under the aegis of IPOB declared a SIT-AT-HOME, while
MASSOB and other organisations organised various activities to commemorate that
day as a historic day in the life of Ndigbo, and as well as their neighbours.
The
total compliance of that call throughout the length and breadth of Alaigbo was
not
because IPOB or MASSB had become their supreme authority. No! That call evoked
intense yearning in the innermost recesses of the heart and mind of our people.
And, therefore, whoever provoked the observance was welcome.
BIAFRA
evokes intense longing for freedom for our people. When someone asserted
recently that Biafra is of the mind, he was right in this sense. But Biafra is
more than a state of the mind. It is also a material force that moves our
people.
Why
will Biafra not be in their heart and mind; why will Biafra not symbolise their
longing for freedom when their predicament since the Amalgamation in 1904 up to
Biafra on May 30 1967and since Biafra has been a continuous state of
estrangement, brutal and punitive measures against their economic, political
and physical survival? MAY 30 IS WORTHY TO BE OBSERVED BY THE IGBO RACE AS A
REMEMEBERANCE DAY IN THEIR HISTORY!
Ndigbo
don’t need any power to decree for or against it. What is needed is the law of
their heart – BIAFRA AS A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM.
THERE
WAS ONCE AN IGBO DAY!!!
Igbo
Day was established by our forebears and was meant to be celebrated world- wide
as one of the symbols of Igbo National Solidarity and Unity. Under the
leadership of Igbo State Union, Igbo National Day was celebrated annually
during the first week of December. However, the authority that supervised it
was THE IGBO STATE UNION.
The
military banned the Union after the Biafra war. After the war, one of our
ancestors, the venerable Dr Akanu Ibiam and others created OHANAEZE NDIGBO,
though under certain controversial political environment. For example, Chief
Iheonunaka Mbakwe, Chief Jim Nwobodo and others were not active in the Ohanaeze
describing it as an outfit of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The later
was seen at that time as contesting for the control of Igbo political and
cultural space against the NPP which had captured the heart and soul of Ndigbo.
In
2000, Ohanaeze Ndigbo reinstituted Igbo Day for May 29, but due to a
controversy arising from the declaration of May 29 as Democracy Day in Nigeria
by the Government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Igbo Day was shifted to September
29. This action by Ohanaeze was, no doubt, an act of self-denial, reminiscent
of defeated people noted for their lack of self-assertion and self-confidence.
It
is to be noted in the first place, reflecting the same spirit of self-denial,
the choice of May 29, was to run away from May 30, the day Biafra was declared.
And when those leaders found out that May 29 had been taken away by the
Obasanjo regime as Democracy Day, our leaders chickened out.
But
instead of landing where they should logically land, namely, May 30, they
landed on September 29 which turns out to be dead on arrival. Dead on arrival
because except the speeches and modicum of cultural activities in the State
capital where the event is held, not much is heard of IGBO DAY elsewhere, and
what is more, because it virtually conflicts with Nigeria’s Independence
celebrations. The closeness of September 29 to the Nigerian National Day –
October1, – prevents many Igbo citizens, especially those in Government from
effective participation in the activities of the Igbo National Day.
Today,
there is a historically urgent need, in the search of the soul of the Igbo
Nation to consider an alternative and historically most fitting day for IGBO
DAY. We must adopt a day which strikes the innermost recesses of the Igbo soul.
And that Day is May 30.
Events
in Alaigbo on May 30, 2017 and 2018, clearly show that May 30 has become an
official Igbo Remembrance Day not only in Alaigbo but throughout the entire
world where Igbo citizens live. \
In
2018 the BBC, Vanguard Newspaper and other notable media organs report of
high-level compliance by Umuigbo to the call for SIT-AT-HOME by the Indigenous
Peoples
of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State
of Biafra (MASSOB).
From
London to Johannesburg, to several cities in Europe, Asia, America and Canada,
the story was the same with various activities organized by Umuigbo and their
friends to mark the occasion.
On
May 30, 2017, the entire Alaigbo was shut down; markets, shops, schools and
offices closed while streets were deserted to mark the Remembrance Day.
The
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), therefore, propose to our people, Igbo
leaders, the Governments in the seven Igbo-Speaking States, all pan-Igbo
organizations including Ohanaeze Ndigbo that MAY 30 every year should be
observed as IGBO REMEMBERANCE DAY and ipso facto as BIAFRA REMEMBRANCE DAY.
It
is a Day to remember our history, to review our successes and failures as a
people, to remember those who have died fighting for the Igbo cause and also
reflect on our future.
However,
whether May 30 is declared as IGBO REMEMBRANCE DAY, IGBO NATIONAL DAY, BIAFRA
REMEMBRANCE DAY or not, most sons and daughters of the Igbo Race shall continue
to observe MAY 30 in one form or the other as A SPECIAL DAY OF REMEMBERANCE IN
IGBO HISTORY.
Compare
our case with the Yoruba nation, a self-confident nation.
June
12 is the day Abiola’s electoral victory was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida
Government.
For the Yoruba nation regarded that action as an afront on the Yoruba race,
implying that they were second class citizens not fit to occupy the Presidency
of Nigeria. June 12 has virtually become their main national day- called
DEMOCRACY DAY. Several Yoruba Sates including Osu, Ogun and Ondo had declared
June 12 as a Public Holiday within the Yoruba nation, Self-confident people.
See?
They
had fought to make it a federal event. Their legislators, political leaders and
friends fought hard to get the Federal Government and the National Assembly to
declare June 12 as the real DEMOCRACY DAY in Nigeria. Within the Yoruba nation,
June 12 was celebrated as their own DEMOCRACY DAY
Today,
the Government of General Buhari has finally adopted June 12 as Democracy Day
in Nigeria. However. Ndigbo do not bother whether the Nigerian Federal
Government allies itself or not with the yearning of the Igbo for May 30 as
their National Day, otherwise called BIAFTA DAY. It is a call made entirely in
the interest of our Regional Unity and Solidarity.
Ndigbo
should adopt MAY 30 as our IGBO REMEMBRANCE DAY otherwise called BIAFRA
REMEMBRANCE DAY.
The
mode of celebration will certainly be determined accordingly. Actvities such as
free Sit-At-Home, holiday for workers, Public Lectures and Symposia, Rallies,
Wearing
of Black or Red Bands, etc, can be defined as forms of the Remembrance Day
celebrations.
PROF.
T. UZODINMA NWALA ADF PRESIDENT
PROF
NATH ANIEKWU
ADF
SECRETARY
HON.
ABIA ONYIKE
CHAIRMAN,
ADF PUBLICITY BUREAU
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