The Ndi-Igbo Royal Heritage (NIROH), an Igbo socio-cultural organization has called for moral rebirth and value reorientation among the younger generation of Igbos.
Dr. Paul Okoye, President General, Ndi Igbo Royal Heritage Worldwide made the call at a news conference in Awka on Friday, ahead of the 2022 Igbo Unity Celebration.
Okoye said the weeklong event was to bring to the fore, some of the values which the Igbo people were known for including industry, respect, and alliance that had been lost.
The group decried the rising level of insecurity and unemployment in the region as a result of poor political leadership and lack of coordination among the states.
The group said it was unfortunate that the Igbo people had refused to tow the political leadership style of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, M.I. Okpara, and Sam Mbakwe under whose era the Eastern region witnessed the most economic and political progress without oil.
He said the unity celebration was to reinvent the legacies of these leaders and their impacts on society and present them as models for the current generation.
“In spite of the fact that we are entrepreneurial, and hardworking with massive investments across the country, we still have high levels of insecurity and unemployment here. What went wrong?
“How did state creation divide us more instead of bringing development closer to the people?
“The sad reality is that our youths graduate and migrate to other places to look for jobs or establish a business, our people cannot invest at home because the enabling environment is not here, we have come to highlight these issues,” he said.
Okoye said the week-long event would commence with a peace Marathon from Ogidi to Awka on Nov. 29.
Conference on Zik’s legacies where his political life and gains of the time would be reviewed as a model that could be adopted as model for leaders in the Southeast.
He said there would be football matches among the five Southeast states on Dec. 2, a Unity Day celebration on Dec. 3, and Church thanksgiving on Dec. 4.
The Presidential General said the celebration would be an annual event and rotated among the states.
He said the event would be chaired by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu while Chief Arthur Eze, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, and Gen Ike Nwachukwu would be some of the guests expected to grace the occasion.
