A nonpartisan, pan-Igbo forum, the Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) was established to bring together, involve, and inspire Igbo stakeholders in Nigeria and the diaspora in pursuit of a common political goal. Leaders from various political parties, town unions, market and professional associations, women’s and youth organizations, diaspora organizations, and esteemed individuals who are dedicated to forging a more robust and united political future for the Igbo Nation come together for the Igbo Agenda Dialogue.
What role does the Igbo Agenda Dialogue play in promoting peace, political awareness, and participation throughout the South East in the wake of the recent event in Anambra State where Governor Charles Soludo closed the Onitsha Main Market for a week, resulting in a relative calm?
The failure to effectively engage the public is at the root of the problem. Furthermore, they appear to be clueless about how to deal with it. The question is: How can we get in touch with well-known individuals to assist in reaching out to these young men and women and see if there are any other ways to guarantee peace through communication? I don’t say what I don’t do myself, for instance. The Igbo Agenda Dialogue was founded primarily to address such circumstances, and it is rapidly expanding. something that was only launched last year. Reaching out to our young men and women and explaining to them how they may reclaim their place in Nigeria by taking part in the country’s democratic process is the main goal of what we are doing. Our goal is to alter Nigeria’s political landscape in opposition to those who wish to undermine us. We lack the resources to use any kind of force. We are reaching out to market groups and traditional institutions through outreach, town hall meetings, and persuasion and interface in order to have a conversation with them about the full involvement of Ndigbo and their legitimate place in Nigerian politics.
Does Igbo Agenda Dialogue support or have ties to any political parties in the run-up to the elections next year?
No, it is a pro-democracy, social, political, and nonpartisan organization. I reiterate: a pro-democracy, social, political, and nonpartisan organization. Therefore, it is not a part of any party. Similar to what the All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently doing, a party will go out and canvass for votes, urging people to come and register to vote for their people. Igbo people are being charged with the necessity of political involvement in this one. For instance, you registered 11.5 million voters before to the 2023 election, and all of Nigeria’s zones received their ballots. However, you only cast two million votes for each of the presidential contenders during the election, which means that almost 9.3 million Igbo people did not cast any ballots at all. Additionally, we have stated that we aim to reach 20 million Southeast voters before the election concludes. Therefore, the president should be chosen first, regardless of which party receives the 20 million votes, as Igbo people believe that you first secure the floor before looking for a place to lay your mat. Azotala, Azobute, indeed. Thus, this is the reason we are here. I have remained here for a considerable amount of time. I offered the APGA, the first political party for Igbo people, to them. In Nigeria, I was the first Igbo guy to launch a political party. The argument against using that party to run for president was because Chief Awolowo, Malam Aminu Kano, and Malam Waziri Ibrahim had all done so before me. Azikiwe belonged to the NCNC, which was established by Herbert Macaulay. The NCNC was a division of the NNDP, which was established in 1923. My modest self, an Igbo man, was able to establish a political party in Nigeria for the first time more than eight decades later.
How many Igbo voters is the Igbo Agenda Dialogue specifically targeting?
The first goal we have is to have 20 million registered voters in the Southeast and roughly 15 million Igbo registered voters in the rest of Nigeria listed in INEC’s official records. This is attainable. It is now up to the political parties to determine how many votes they can gain out of the current total if we have this block. Experience has shown me that the typical Igbo guy is logical, thus we are not here to encourage anyone to vote for this or that. Furthermore, he doesn’t need convincing to know who to vote for after he has made up his mind to cast his ballot. Peter Obi received 1.9 million votes, or 89.6%, of the 2.2 million voters that cast ballots in 2023. However, that % score is really good on an exam. It’s an A. However, it is a bad pass in terms of political statistics because it falls short of one-third of the more than six million votes that the Igbo people cast for Jonathan in 2011.
What is Igbo Agenda Dialogue doing to alleviate the South East’s voter apathy with this admirable idea? This is because many Nigerians, especially those from the South East, think that their votes don’t always matter in elections, which causes them to abstain from voting.
Our goal is to do just that. To avoid misunderstandings, we have also held discussions with police leadership to ensure that no one goes to claim that we are organizing the populace for subversion of any kind. The National Security Adviser, or DSS, has not yet met with us. However, even the Igbo Agender Dialogue has been registered in the United States while we are gathering with our people. And I couldn’t believe how quickly our folks overseas are embracing it. Since Igbo people are linked by a broad network of groups and unions, this organization is not for individual membership; rather, it is connecting to all known associations and unions worldwide. The Igbo Gender Dialogue can be thought of as a grid. It resembles a political grid similar to Nigeria’s electricity grid in that it hosts all of these associations and communicates with them in real time. Additionally, we receive real-time feedback for action. We are now active on at least six social media networks. In response, we received an invitation from the Inspector General of Police. We have sent letters to all of our governors, including Soludo, outlining our plans and requesting their cooperation in order to improve peace in our region and inspire our inhabitants to take pride in their citizenship and help reclaim their own area.
Returning to the topic of insecurity in Anambra and other South East regions, how do you believe the Igbo Agender Dialogue will contribute to reducing anxieties and regaining the trust of traders to resume conducting business on Mondays as usual? Will there be some sort of conversation with those who are escalating the traders’ and others’ fears?
It has only just begun with what we are doing. By engaging with them, our people will be able to stop this on their own. by connecting with them. by explaining to them how their actions are harming the Igbo land economy. that they’re not doing us any good. Take a look at how everyone, including my modest self, has responded to the Nnamdi Kanu problem. When their own son is being mistreated because they carried their cross, it is how the Igbo people ought to react. However, I must now turn around since I am aware that Nnamdi Kanu was not involved in this sit-at-home activity. It is intolerable that a group would suddenly turn around and claim that Nnamdi Kanu’s imprisonment is the reason they are forcing this suffering on their people. However, you cannot coerce someone into arguing with you by using force, which is why I thought Soludo’s strategy was inadequate. I’ve been here long enough to know this. In 2002, I gave my approval for Nnamdi Kanu to be appointed chairman of the APGA in the United Kingdom. It was around twenty-four years ago. APGA members in the diaspora were all involved in the founding of IPOB in Europe, but their disillusionment with the political system was caused by APGA’s failure. There probably wouldn’t be an IPOB today if the APGA issue hadn’t occurred. Ironically, the exact answer that saved APGA’s soul is now being used for the reason we established it, and we are turning to a nonpartisan strategy—which is much more successful—to accomplish the same goal that APGA was unable to. Therefore, if we know people who were upset at the time, it means we can too, and they are older now because anyone who has grown older by 24 years is no longer a child. Therefore, we can still get in touch with them tomorrow if we knew them back then and we still do. The fact that they are aware of this history is a plus. Why not interact with those who have gained their confidence? Will they see that there are things we can accomplish without betraying our people and putting them in needless risk if I start acting like Gumi and the other man, the other professor in Katsina?
Do you believe that the Federal Government or the governors of the region should genuinely mobilize and maintain proper security in markets to further reassure the traders, even though it appears that things are normal on the South East’s markets right now? This is due to the fact that it is not about interacting with the traders. Their lives can still be in danger when you engage them and they return to the market.
The traders are merely victims, as I have stated. The reason is not them. Address the underlying cause of that insecurity. AK-47s are used by some individuals. They are recognized. Who said that they are unknown? They are recognized. Who knew that America’s jets had spotted the militants’ lodgings in Nigeria? I recall that once they arrived and used a single hit to eliminate some of them in Sokoto State, they sent fighter jets into the air to declare that they had reclaimed the Sambisa Forest, which they had been unable to do so for roughly 15 years. “We know where these people are,” said a single man. Therefore, you cannot claim that we are unaware of those problematic Igbo lands. I lack the intelligence resources and capabilities that our governors possess. They are therefore familiar with them. Furthermore, these are primarily not herdsmen; they are not Fulanis. These are our girls and boys.
Do you favor the continued deployment of Nigerian troops and other security personnel to guarantee that normalcy returns to the area, even in the face of the relative calm?
We have witnessed the harm that Nigerian soldiers and other Federal Government security forces have perpetrated in the past and now. By installing toll gates everywhere and extorting money from our people, they are the ones who have made matters worse. The military will see an opportunity to virtually clear a whole hamlet when these individuals attack a single station or barrier. Therefore, the war that threatens Nigeria in the north should be confronted by the Nigerian security forces. One factor is the Igbo people’s reputation for having strong local security measures. Reaching out to these individuals to help them stop being aggressive and loud is another factor. They are not threatened by you. You sit down and talk to them. They will explain the reasons behind their actions. But there’s nothing you can do about the crooks among them. Some people among them actually think of themselves as freedom fighters. Get these out of the way, and you’ll be able to identify crooks and deal with them accordingly. Dealing with such individuals is necessary because you can bargain with those who are fighting for freedom and you can identify them when you interact with them. You do not negotiate with someone who is already a criminal.
However, do you believe that the merchants in Anambra, for example, were correct to consistently close their stores, and what do you believe to be their main concerns?
The traders had legitimate concerns, and the governors had no business intimidating them. at the past, the traders at the Onitsha Main Market had lost their lives and their goods, which should have been preserved. The problem with that market, as I refer to it and must emphasize its position in all of West Africa, is not just that it is killing the individuals who have gone there to conduct business. These enigmatic individuals have the ability to burn one stall on fire within the market, causing damage worth trillions of Naira. This is because, if you visit the market and see what is there, you would realize that the Igbo people, not just Anambra, have their hearts there. Therefore, a governor like Governor Soludo, who ought to be focusing on ways to boost internally generated revenue—of which commercial activity is the main source—will not turn around and seek to harm people and their businesses as though that were the only solution to the sit-at-home problem. No sane Igbo person would be content to stay at home. Igbo individuals are not lazy. Despite their aversion to extending their weekend till Monday, they are doing so due to the threats. He assembled his team, but they were unable to resolve the issue. Rather, they made matters worse. There is no doubt that the traders are not staying at home because of Nnamdi Kanu; rather, they are doing so for their own protection because they are always in danger and have no one to defend them from those thugs. Everyone was aware of that. They are not breaking the law because they wish to close their company. The fact that businesses will shut down on Sundays is already causing enough suffering. Since the majority of us are Christians, Sunday is a day for worshiping God. Some people also utilize it to relax and get ready for Monday. They are now compelled to conduct their daily lives at home on Mondays. According to the Nigerian Constitution, the government’s primary duty is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens; but, they now accuse the victims of their wars. I hope they take action at last and make sure this problem is put to rest.43
Hon. Dr. Philip “Okanga” Agbese, a transformative leader in Enone. Discover his achievements, community projects, and vision for 2027
