By Jonathan Lois
President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has disclosed that the Igbo nation has the largest deposit of natural gas in Africa, in addition of limestone and other precious minerals buried beneath its earth.
Iwuanyanwu made the disclosure when he received the national leadership of Greater Igbo Forum led by its founder Dr. Obinna Chukelu and President, Lois Jonathan, at his residence in Abuja over the weekend.
The elder statesman said that the Igbo nation has the capacity to become and industrial tiger and pointed out that when he assumed office as the President General of the apex Organisation, he constituted a committee that came out with a report on the economic potential of the Igbo nation and challenges.
He said that he emergence as the leader if Ohanzese was divine because the organisation was already bedevilled with a lot of challenges.
He said: “As an engineer, I work with data so I had to set up a committee to give me facts on Agriculture, education, industries, youth unemployment. When I got the report, I became very happy. When ever I hear good news about Igbos, I feel very happy, the report was very good. The potentials in agriculture in Igboland is enormous. In the industrial potentials, we discovered that God has put a lot of wealth in our soil.
“We used to have a glass factory in Aba and we have a special sand somwehere in Abia, a very special sand and if you just put some chemicals, it becomes glass.
“We had a ceramics factory at Umuahia and we have the raw material, ulo at Okigwe but one of the biggest raw material that we have is limestone for cement and for many years to come, cement will continue to be a source of wealth because there is no substitute for building.
“We have large deposit of limestone in Abia, in Enugu and Ebonyi. Reasearch told me that we have enough lime stone for five cement factories. With five cement factories, we can supply cement to Africa and that is enough to earn us all the foreign exchange.
“We also have oil too in Imo, Abia, Delta, Rivers, Enugu and Anambra but the biggest wealth we have from the report I got is gas. Igbland is sitting on the biggest reserve of gas in Africa and gas has a big potential”.
The Ahaejiejemba said that he is excited to oarnwr with the forum to move the Igbo nation forward.
“I have accepted to partner with you. You must note that your vision is exactly the same vision I have. The vision of Ohaneze was conceived by me when I ran for the presidency.
“In ohanzeze Ndigbo, the membership is automatic, it has no membership fee and there is nothing like membership register. The moment a child is born in Igboland, he is a member of Ohaneze Ndigbo. From that point, Ohaneze is going to protect him or her from any body that tramples on his genuine and legitimate interest”.
Earlier in his remarks, Dr. Chikelu, informed the Ohaneze leader that the aim of the forum is to explore all the critical tenacles the Igbo tribe shares with other tribes in terms of marriage and business relationships to form a common front that will lift the Igbo race from the marginalization it is experiencing from other tribes in Nigeria.
He told the Ohaneze President the Greater Igbo Forum is a child of Ohaneze hence the need to take blessing from the President general of Ohaneze Worldwide.
He said, “What we are actually doing is to give opportunities to all our members. We accept members who are 50 percent Igbo, 25 percent Igbo and 15 percent Igbo. If your mother or grand mother is Igbo, your father or your grandfather, once this blood is around your origin, you can attend our meeting, bring ideas that will brighten the image of an Igbo man”.
He said that the Forum is also into social activites and has a think thank committee made up of professionals that bring up ideas for the good of the Igbo nation.
The president of Greater Igbo Forum Lois Jonathan, in her opening remarks, stressed the capacity of Chief Iwuanyanwu to lead the Igbos. She said that Iwuanynwu has the capacity, experience and rich followership to chart a new course for the Igbo race.
“Greater Igbo Forum is here to register our presence before the leader of Ohaneze. For the past eight years, we have silently done a lot of things: free surgery, scholarships, spelling bee in Igbo language.
“We are here to say that we need your leadership, fatherly love and advice to lead us in the right direction. We want to change the narratives and perception other people have about the Igbos. We are intelligent enough to know what we want and we want a buy in by other tribes through dialogue and strategic alliance” she said.
Also adding his voice is Dr. Emmanuel Zwanbin, research team lead of the forum who has maternal origin in the Igbo land. He said that he was excited to identify with the Igbos and that the gangup against the Igbo race needs to be addressed.
He said: “We are bittered by the narratives and we want to change strategy. We will speak for our ancestry which is the Igbo race and we have the mandate to do so, the Igbos are complaining and we shall talk about it. We want to talk about the good naratives not this story about cessation and we will be delibrate about it. We will not make so much noise, we will push out messages and we will get people to buy it. The last election told us that it is possible”.
Present during the visit were other executive members of Greater Igbo Forum including: the Secretary, Mr. Nicolas Kalu; PRO, Myke Uzendu; Financial Sec, Ms. Gloria; Mrs. Chinyere Amanze, Clark; Mrs. Nkemjika Nwachukwu, member and Barr. Isaac, Legal Adviser.
