Plans have been concluded to hold the first international colloquium on Igbo Question in Nigeria where the challenges confronting the Ndigbo would be discussed.
The three-day event scheduled to hold in Enugu from March 11, is organised by the pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation and 16 pan-Igbo organisations across the globe.
Briefing newsmen in Enugu, the chairman, Planning Committee of the Colloquium, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, said the event would examine the historical roots of contemporary Igbo predicament over which all and sundry in Igbo land had groaned year after year.
He said the forum would consider the impact of the Biafra experience on the Igbo nation, presently, as well as provide a platform for Igbo intelligentsia to commune collectively over the economic, political and socio-cultural challenges facing the Igbo nation both in Nigeria and in the world.
Nwala said: “It will examine ways and means of overcoming the contemporary Igbo predicament so that her citizens can live a life of dignity, co-exist and at peace with their neighbor, capable of protecting their collective and individual interests, apply their God-given talents and endowments for the betterment of themselves and the entire human race, do honour to the spirits of their ancestors and their God without let or hindrance.”
Speaking on the theme: “Igbo Question in Nigeria; Before, During and After Biafra,” Nwala said with the emergence of Islamic insurgencies in Nigeria and the campaign to Islamise Nigeria, the Igbo have been the major victims in the Boko Haram attacks on churches, markets, motor parks and other public institutions.
“The Igbo nation incurred the wrath of the British colonial authorities because her citizens led the struggle for emancipation of Nigeria from colonial rule.
