The Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide, on Friday, said the Southeast must unite and dialogue with the Western and Southern parts of the country.
The body said dialoguing with other regions was the only way the Igbos could get anything from Nigeria.
In a statement signed and forwarded to DAILY POST, Amb Tony Chiemelu Obizoba, the Director-General Strategic Planning and Implementations of Ohanaeze, said the Southeast must stop threatening other tribes and regions.
Obizoba cautioned those making derogatory remarks about other regions and attributing them to Ohanaeze to desist.
He said, “Having been through the many discrepancies resulting from the cacophony of voices and which has had adverse effects on the fortunes of the race, we are hereby making it clear to Nigerians and constituted authorities in the country that the only legitimate body that can speak on behalf of Ndi Igbo in terms of matters of importance is the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide being the one registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and so recognised by law to do so.
“We also must seize this opportunity to dissociate ourselves as Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide from those divisive comments such as threatening the sovereignty of Nigeria, other tribes and regions should Igbo not get what it desires in the project called Nigeria on the time they are specifying, mainly 2023 elections.
“Our position on the forthcoming general elections is that Ndi Igbo, if they need any position, should build bridges and consult widely within the various divides, not asking anybody that has declared interest to drop his interest and wait for Ndi Igbo to come and present its candidate.
“We urge our people that if we must have a stake in the project called Nigeria, then we have to begin to build bridges with immediate effect. We have to build a wider consultation from the stakeholders of Ndigbo.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is urging all stakeholders to unite as one, dialogue and consult widely with the North and West to be able to establish their presence and cordial relationship before talking of attaining any certain position.
“So, we are not going to play along with the other group of people calling themselves Ohanaeze Ndigbo and who are asking those that have declared interest to run for the presidential seat to drop their ambition.
“From the foregoing, we notice that people are battling from all angles to hijack this Ohanaeze Ndigbo for their own selfish interests and this is happening especially from the illegitimate groups and some of the few governors trying to outshine the legitimate body that is Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide. We will, however, not allow them to do so, whoever intends to do business with Igbo should know that transacting with such illegitimate groups means being on one’s own.
“As for us, we will continue to urge our leaders to build bridges and consult widely with the various divides to be able to discuss, if actually, we want this project Nigeria to succeed. This is because you cannot talk of the Nigeria project and then you say you don’t want to talk to the North or the West. It means you are just talking to yourselves, it is not done. A paradigm shift now is a must.”
