The National President of Igbo Women Assembly, IWA Nneka Chimezie has identified the brazen marginalization of the Igbo in Nigeria as seen in delayed promotions of officers in the military as the key factor responsible for the conspicuous and worrisome poor interests being recorded in military recruitment among Igbo youths.
Responding to a recent statement credited to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa about security situation in the South East, Mrs Chimezie made it clear v that the Igbo have been marginalized in key appointments in the military as well neglected in key promotions even when they have qualified officers.
She further noted that the zone is yet to produce the President of the country since the 1966 Coup that claimed the life of General Aguiyi Ironsi, a situation that has distanced the Youths from believing in the country.
“They have been denied their rightful promotion especially those in the security agencies. And that’s part of the reasons Igbo youths are loosing interest in military recruitments.
” They have refused to join the military and even the police because they hardly get promoted unlike their colleagues from other tribes. In other federal establishments, the story is the same. The quota of the South East is always shortchanged.
“So, these are the things these children are protesting. When they graduate from school like their fellow youths from other tribes, they don’t get equal opportunities for employment. That’s what they are protesting because they believe that they are not included in the Nigeria structure. They feel unjustly excluded”, she alleged.
The Igbo Women Assembly President who pointed out that Igbo youths want inclusion and full integration into the Nigeria system, declared that Igbo Women would no longer shy away from the plight of their children.
She used the opportunity to kick against the high number of security check points on roads in the South East, that have allegedly led to high level of extortion of motorists and even passengers.
She, however, urged the Federal government to engage the members of Indigenous People of Biafra , IPOB in a dialogue to listen to their grievances, saying that if repentant Boko Haram members were released and given amnesty, there was nothing wrong in engaging IPOB in dialogue instead of designating them as terrorists.
