Chief Kizito IIjeh, aka Chief is Chief. is community leader and stakeholder, has spoken extensively on pressing issues concerning Igbuzo at present. Excerpt:
Can we meet you Sir?
I am Chief Kizito Osadebe Ijeh, I am from Umuekea Igbuzo.
Sir, let’s talk about the crisis in Igbuzo, between the ICDU diaspora and the Local government Chairman , the person of Chief Innocent Esewezie, What do you have to say about it?
I don’t think there’s any crisis. Why I’m saying, I don’t think there’s crisis is because maybe the people involved, they are not living here, they are not resident here, so they do not know about whatever is going on here, when I saw the publication and i took note that the persons who signed are residents in United Kingdom and USA .One is in Canada. it was glaring that the President-General, who is more like their father, did not sign.
And I wouldn’t expect him to sign because, for whatever issue that has involved Igbuzo, The PG is always involved. Even regarding some of the points they raised. The PG was involved . I couldn’t have said that he is not aware of developments or whatever.
I read where they said that the local government Chairman was taking a unilateral decision on the disbandment of ICP. That decision was just by him. I don’t believe it is true. Because when we are done, I’ll show you the videos I have, where the PG the Uwolo , The Odogwu and I also saw the DPO.
They were all involved in the disbandment and in the new set up that they were arranging.
I saw where they were talking about making sure that whoever comes on board does not belong to cult. And that each person must be identified from his village, that the Warlords will surtee persons from their quarters(Otu). If the Warlords and the PG were not involved in disbandment I see no reason will they will be involved in convoking a fresh one. So I believe that all of them are involved in it. And we wouldn’t use that to now say that there’s a crisis.
Okay, so if the Obuzor in council is involved and then the local government chairman is involved. That means they’re all working in tandem. So we wouldn’t call that crisis. I want to say maybe there’s a communication gap between the PG who superintendents every other branch and other branches outside.
Sir, in the publication, they mentioned two things concerning the Igbuzo youth election and They were accusing the Chairman of Local Government of trying to impose a candidate against the youth. So, what do you have to say sir?
Well, let me use this last ICDU Conference we held this month where our brother, *Pastor Idowu Okeze*, appealed that all stakeholders should sheath their swords and come together so as to give us something away from the past. I align with him. I want to ask that we should urgently convoke a meeting between the Obuzor in Council, the ICDU, and the Chairman of the Council.
The irony is, you see these three that I just called? They meet regularly. Maybe let us say they meet on other issues. Because I know that a few days preceding this conference, they were in a meeting on several other reasons. So I would ask that they should create a special meeting where they would come together and resolve this matter.
I don’t support the local government Chairman to impose anyone on the youths, so with our Royal Majesty Obuzor,
Obuzor should not be seen to be, you know, driving interest into who becomes his number1 youth. It should be allowed. There should be a democratic process through which a new Youth leader will be produced.
Again, while they are doing that, they should make sure they do not give us people with tainted characters. They should give us plain people, people that will come in with respect and then lead the youth.
This is my own perception.
finally sir, what is the way forward with regards to peace in Ibuzo? What is the way forward?
Well, before I talk about the way forward regarding peace in Ibuzo, we have *a clear and present danger* and that is regarding our political future. With the death of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, we are as good as bereft of political leadership. As we speak, our House of Assembly, our next Chairman… we need to really sit down and talk about them. And the only way we can talk about them is if we are all together. Otherwise, the way people are breathing down our necks, we may end up losing House of Assembly, losing Council Chairman, and Ibuzo will, for the first time in our political history, just have nobody representing us. And that is something we must avoid.
As regards the peace you are talking about, I think there is peace. It is just that we are not managing it the way it should be managed.
Because like I said, the Council Chairman, the traditional class, the ICDU, they meet regularly. So if they meet regularly, that means there is peace.
I do not know if there is any other ceremony they need to have, before they will say that there is peace. They are all together.
At the last conference, the Council Chairman was there. The PG ICDU, of course, was there.
On a final note, I want to appeal to our brothers, both home and in the diaspora. We have *so many wars* facing us. In the very recent past, The Obi of Ogwashi-uku has not only been fighting Ezemese, now he wants to collect Admiralty University from Igbuzo and people are not even publishing such.
No, we need to draw back, come together as a community.
Asaba is fighting us, I don’t want to talk about Okpanam, Ogwashi-uku, all these, beaming their lights on Igbuzo. And Igbuzo instead of beaming lights on them, is beaming light on itself.
I think we should stop that. Let’s be mature. Let’s encourage whoever is helping, so the person can help more.
We have Pastor idowo Okeze, he’s helping. We have the local government Chairman, Hon Innocent Esewezie also helping. Let’s protect what we have for this little period that he is there, so that we can see what we can make out of developmental issues with him. And if we have issues that concern how he is handling issues, let’s get to him directly and correct him, rather than going public.
Thank you very much.