•Embattled IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
National Chairman of the Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has urged Igbo people and Biafran agitators to abandon strategies that could plunge the South-East into further economic and human devastation and instead deploy their numerical strength to achieve political power through the 2027 general elections.
Okorie, in a strongly worded appeal to freedom fighters and Biafran agitators, said the demand for self-determination or a separate Biafran state remained an inalienable political aspiration, but warned that the time had come to fundamentally review the strategies and methods being used to pursue the objective.
He argued that decades of agitation had produced enormous collateral damage and economic costs without delivering the desired political outcome, insisting that electoral participation could provide a more potent weapon for the Igbo than confrontation, reports Daily Independent.
Okorie signed the statement yesterday, in his capacity as National Chairman of the Igbo Agenda Dialogue.
According to him, the renewed Biafran struggle has passed through several phases since the emergence of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in 1999 and the subsequent rise of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from 2012.
Okorie said the proliferation of groups pursuing similar objectives over the past 27 years had made it imperative for the Igbo to reassess their approach to self-determination, freedom and political relevance.
He pointed to political developments in other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, arguing that demands for constitutional and territorial changes could be pursued through political initiatives rather than violence.
The IAD chairman also revisited Kanu’s controversial transfer from Kenya to Nigeria, describing the development as an extraordinary rendition that had continued to fuel anger among sections of the Igbo population at home and abroad.
Kanu was arrested in Kenya in 2021 and subsequently brought to Nigeria, where he has remained at the centre of a prolonged legal battle over charges brought against him by the federal government.
Okorie said repeated appeals by prominent Igbo leaders and other Nigerian statesmen for a political resolution of Kanu’s case had yielded no meaningful result.
He recalled that the late President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, had sought an audience with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to explore a political settlement but, according to him, the initiative received no favourable response.
He further cited the position of the current President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, who has reportedly described Kanu’s continued incarceration as a broader reflection of the Igbo predicament.
But Okorie said the 2027 general election presented the Igbo with an opportunity to transform political frustration into electoral power.
With Nigeria expected to head to the polls in about four months, he urged the Igbo to mobilise massively and participate actively in the elections rather than withdraw from the democratic process.
He claimed that the Igbo population and its geographical spread across Nigeria constituted a formidable electoral force which, if strategically deployed, could significantly reshape the country’s political equation.
“In Nigerian democracy, population and spread are the most potent force for political power and relevance,” Okorie stated.
He maintained that the Igbo could use their votes to demand political concessions and secure their interests “without firing a shot.”
Okorie therefore appealed to Igbo voters to make the 2027 election a decisive political statement, particularly over the continued detention of Kanu and other individuals he described as Igbo political prisoners.
“I appeal to our people in the name of God to deploy the advantage the Almighty God has so graciously granted us and make a resounding political statement and secure the unconditional release of our son Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his colleagues,” he said.
He also appealed to Igbo communities in the diaspora to use their social-media networks and personal contacts to encourage eligible voters in Nigeria to participate massively in the elections.
Okorie warned against any campaign designed to discourage Igbo voters from exercising their franchise, arguing that such a move would undermine the political objective of securing greater relevance and bargaining power for the region.
He declared that political mobilisation, rather than violence, offered the Igbo a potentially decisive route to achieving their demands within Nigeria’s democratic framework.
