Chief Chekwas Okorie (middle) answering questions during the press conference, flanked by the IAD’s Executive Secretary, Jonathan Elendu (L) and Hon. Freedom Okwuchukwu, Chairman, Mobilization Committee of IAD.
By Tony Adibe
A non-partisan group – Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD) has said it has big plans for Ndiigbo to enable them “take their destiny in their own hands” in the Nigeria’s next political dispensation, hence it will in April 2026, convene the “first ever Igbo Political Summit.”
The proposed April summit will produce a charter that would be like the historic and famous Ahiara Declaration made by General Emeka Ojukwu in Ahiara Mbaise (now in present Imo State) during the peak of Nigeria-Biafra War over 56 years ago, NewsBits learnt. The Ahiara Declaration encapsulated the political philosophy of the defunct Biafra Republic that was akin to communism.
The Convener/ National Chairman of IAD, Chief Chekwas Okorie who made the disclosure at a press conference on Wednesday in Enugu, said that the Summit, which will take place in Enugu, “will unveil the first ever Igbo Political Charter”.
Okorie, who restated his resignation from partisan politics, however, explained that as a non-partisan organisation, part of IAD’s agenda is to mount a “robust campaign to persuade every true Igbo person with the voters’ card to actively participate in all democratic processes wherever they reside.”
He said that IAD would also “mount a robust and sustained political education of our people to appreciate and accept that we can restore our relevance and respect in the country’s democratic space without begging anybody to do for us what God has already given us the power to do for ourselves.”
The IAD’s convener said he regretted that during the 2023 general elections, the INEC published record showed that less than “11.5 million eligible voters in the southeast Zone registered”, while actually only about 2.2 million voters participated in the Presidential Election in the zone, “showing that approximately 9.3 million registered voters refused to participate in the process.”
He said: “These smacks of self-inflicted surrender and abandonment of our letter inalienable sovereign rights. This is unacceptable. This must change.”
While bemoaning the apathy among the Igbo to participate in the electoral process, Okorie said that IAD would mobilse Ndigbo so that before the 2027 general elections, over 20 million people will register to vote.
“The South East geopolitical zone should return an impressive figure of at least 20 million registered voters before the 2027 general election,” Okorie stressed.
He said that they will reach out to the people to shun their indifference to participate actively in the political process. “We have undertaken to reach out and constructively engage our aggrieved young men and women to persuade them on the benefits of deploying democratic tools to achieve our legitimate objectives and aspirations in Nigeria,” according to him.
Okorie, who alleged that Ndigbo have been marginalised since after the Civil War as the General Yakubu Gowon-led military Federal Government failed to implement one bit of the declaration of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, known as 3Rs, thereby forcing the people especially the youths to lose confidence while some took to agitation for a separate state from Nigeria.
Therefore, as part of efforts to broker peace and reconciliation, Okorie called on President Tinubu to effect the release of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who was given life jail by Justice Omotosho.
“We appeal to President Bola Tinubu to collaborate with us in this noble and patriotic venture by ordering the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other prisoners of conscience as a new year gesture to the Igbo people,” he pleaded.
Okorie, who fielded questions from journalists, said that the adoption/endorsement of President Tinubu for 2027 presidential election by SouthEast Governors and some Igbo leaders amounted to a miscalculation, claiming that “they were not thinking properly and were misguided.”
“Igbo leaders were not thinking properly by adopting President Tinubu as sole candidate for 2027. Tinubu is so knowledgeable in politics that he will never take those people serious. I have known him, Tinubu too well,” Okorie said, adding that a politician of Tinubu’s calibre who is versed in politics will not pay much heed to the avowed adoption.
According to him, “when the time comes, the people will know who to vote for”, urging the Igbo to come out en masse for the forthcoming voter registration and do the needful.
