The Igbo World Assembly (IWA), an umbrella of all Igbo-speaking people in the Diaspora, has called for the conduct of a credible census in Nigeria.
The President of the assembly, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze, made the call on Sunday at the IWA Convention and Ohaneze Ndi-igbo Day in Awka.
The theme of the convention was entitled “Achieving sustainable security for Ndi-Igbo”.
Addressing the garthering of Igbos from South-East and South-South geo-political zones, Anakwenze said that Nigeria had been operating on suspected falsified and inflated population figures from the colonial times.
He said that a credible Nigerian census was necessary for fairness and equity for all the citizens.
The president also said there was need to restructure the country to ensure true federalism based on regions or zones by implementing key agreements of the just concluded National Conference.
“We need a Nigeria political structure that is based on equity, fair play, balance and equal access to political power for the good of all Nigerians,” he said.
“The Igbo is the largest ethnic group not only in Nigeria but in Africa, but regrettably, the people had always been short-changed in the scheme of things.
“We need to have elected and appointed federal offices commensurate with the large size of the Ndi-igbo as the largest ethnic group,” the president said.
He said that the organisation would work towards reversing the trend of merginalisation of the community.
The president urged the people to collaborate and co-operate with other ethnic groups, to realise their ambition for national leadership.
Anakwenze, however, commended the National Conference for its “reasonable reforms reached at the conference”.
The President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, a sociao-cultural group, Chief Gary Igariwey, commended members of IWA for attending the occasion from all over the world.
He said that Ohaneze would soon make a categorical statement on its position on the 2015 presidential election.
Igariwey said that the Igbos would always work with other ethnic groups toward realising their interest.
The President of Umuada Igbo Nigeria and in the Diaspora, Dr Kate Ezeokafor, extolled the contributions of the Igbos in the development of Nigeria and Africa.
She called on the Igbos to ensure that their language, which was the pride of the people, did not go into extinct.
Ezeokafor appealed to the people across the country to unite, to be strong enough to tackle their challenges.
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