We survived 30-month civil war, food blockade won’t affect Igbo – Ohanaeze

Raphael Ede, Enugu

THE apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Wednesday, said the food blockade to the south by some northern groups would not affect the South-East.

It recalled that the region survived 30 months of food blockade by the Federal Government during the civil war, adding that the food blockade was no big deal.

A spokesman for the group, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, who spoke to our correspondent in an interview, said there was no need for the blockade abinitio.

He said, “On the other hand, they have been the aggressors. They have been the predators. The north has been creating problems in various ways. For them to begin to protest and issue threats of food blockade is astonishing.

“However, there is nothing they bring from the north that we do not have in the south. There’s nothing in the north that we do not cultivate and nurture in the south. Is it the cow? Is it the goat? Is it the garden egg? Is it yam? Of course the south is so versatile with fertile land all over the place to produce anything.”

Ogbonnia noted that the food blockade would open a new vista for Ndigbo.

“We are only waiting for the first rain. By the time the first rain comes, all these things they imported from the north, we’ll mass produce them. By June, October and November this year, you will see food everywhere in the south.

“So they are helping us to look inward. If three years in Biafra the South-East didn’t die, is it now only one month that we will die? So, I will only say that it is a good development to help the South-East look inward and South-West to look inward also,” he added.

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