Posted by From Emmanuel Ugwu in Enugu on
Following the apparent resolve of the Federal Government and National Population Commission (NPC) to exclude ethnicity and religion from the national census scheduled for November, Ohanaeze Ndigbo is now under intense pressure to announce a boycott of the headcount by Ndigbo
Following the apparent resolve of the Federal Government and National Population Commission (NPC) to exclude ethnicity and religion from the national census scheduled for November, Ohanaeze Ndigbo is now under intense pressure to announce a boycott of the headcount by Ndigbo
The pressure is coming mainly from youth groups in the South-east including Movement for the Actualisation o the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ohanaeze Youth Council, Igbo Youth Movement, World Igbo Youth Council, South-east Youth Coalition, among others.
The agitation heightened at the weekend during Imeobi meeting of Ohanaeze in which some youth groups sent position papers to Ohanaeze, urging its leadership to make a bold statement on the vexatious issue of excluding ethnicity and religion in the census data.
However, it appears Ohanaeze leadership is not swayed by the militant posture of the youth groups, preferring instead to allow the Federal Government more time to reconsider its position on the issue.
Ohanaeze President-General, Prof. Joe Irukwu, told newsmen at the end of Ohanaeze's post-National Political Reform Conference meeting in Enugu that he was confident that the Federal Government would take 'the reasonable step" by including ethnicity and religion on the data form.
'The Federal Government is reasonable, its members are quite reasonable people, so we expect that they will include those items in the census. Census is an important issue that takes place everywhere and there are universal criteria for it, there is no reason why those things should not be included. Let us have a census that Nigeria will be proud of, that's what we're saying," he said.
According to him, 'Ohanaeze would like Nigeria to have a census that would meet international standard by being comprehensive, truthful and useful," hence all relevant demographic data including ethnicity and religion should be included.
Irrespective of Ohanaeze's position the youth groups are already engaged in campaigns for a boycott as such groups as IYM, WIYC, and SEYOC have stated the boycott campaigns.
Some of the leaders who spoke to our correspondent expressed confidence that their campaigns would succeed, citing the success of a stay at home order from MASSOB on August 26, 2004 to mark Biafra Day the Southeast residents might be easily mobilized to
boycott the census.
In a letter SEYOC sent to Ohanaeze the group vehemently expressed its opposition to the exclusion of ethnicity and religion in the national census, saying 'SEYOC wishes to go a step further by stating emphatically that we are mobilizing Igbo Youths and indeed Ndigbo to boycott the census since it is a contravention of our fundamental human rights."
SEYOC went further in the letter signed by its National Coordinator, Evangelist Uchenna Ezima and Secretary, Comrade Onyeka Orji, to tell the Ohanaeze leadership that 'even if you are not with us in this regard, we expect that you shall not be against us."
The Southeast governors had at one of their meetings earlier in the year warned that the zone would not participate in the forthcoming census if religion and ethnicity were excluded in the data hence the youth groups are taking the initiative to actualize the threat.