Igbo plan U.S. summit to chart future ahead of 2019

Ndigbo in Diaspora is to chart a course for the ethnic group ahead of happenings in 2019 at its yearly convention to be organised by the World Igbo Congress (WIC) in Nashville, Tennessee, United States from August 30 to September 3, 2018.

Chairman, Board of Directors of the apex global ethnic body, Professor, Anthony Ejiofor, told The Guardian in an interview that the gathering was all about providing solutions to the danger, real and imagined, facing the ethnic nationality in Nigeria as well as preserving lives and charting the future of Igboland.

According to him, the convention would serve as a platform to reflect on the tragedy facing the Igbo nation and brainstorm on the way forward, especially the “looming political suicide where Nigeria’s structural tripod may exist without Ndigbo in contemplation.”

He went on: “Can Ndigbo objectively talk about socio-economic empowerment when our masses back home are already devastated by hunger, poverty, disease, ignorance, unemployment, with the consequent stampede to premature graves? The plight of Igbo rural populace is lamentable.

“For the already bruised and battered Ndigbo to limp high, the past must wake up in the present.

The statement of purpose and programme of action of the congress must be devoid of all romantic pretensions and idealistic delusions.

It is not the wringing of our hands nor the gnashing of teeth that will provide the vehicle for Ndigbo’s re-orientation and regeneration, but the mapping out of immediate relevant strategies and workable blueprints to herald a new dawn.”

According to WIC’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Basil Onwukwe, events in Nigeria raise concern, especially the killings.