Echoes of the civil war reverberated at the National Conference yesterday, as delegates from the South-East zone renewed their demand for N2.4 trillion reparation and compensation “for atrocities and injustices committed against Ndigbo in Nigeria over a long period.”
The renewed call for reparation came as delegates went into intense lobby over how the proposed National Intervention Fund will be shared among the six geopolitical zones.
In an amendment to the proposed National Intervention Fund, the South-East delegates said the former Eastern Region and part of the former Mid-West Region which makes up the present South-East and South-South zones were theatre of war, which devastated the two regions and brought untold hardship to their people.
“The case of the South-East, which bore the full brunt of the civil war for 30 months, is particularly tragic. Most of it remained a wasteland, despite former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s declaration of the three ‘Rs’: Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation.”
In a document entitled “Atrocities and Injustices against Ndigbo: Ohaneze Demands for Reparation,” which was circulated with the amendment to the proposed National Intervention Fund, the delegates said it was incalculable to put a price on the death of millions of Igbos who were killed in the civil war and other occasions.
“The Federal Government should pay N400 billion each to the five states of the South-East as compensation to those who lost loved ones, lost properties and those still suffering dislocation today in Nigeria. The same amount should also be paid to the government of Delta State for the benefit of Anioma area of the state.”
They said the Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the country, especially in the North-East zone, had brought up the issues of reparation and reconstruction in whatever guise to the fore and the National Conference, through its Committee on Devolution of Power, had tackled it headlong.
“Since what is good for the geese is good for the gander, the Conference cannot afford to ignore the yearnings of our people to rehabilitate and reconstruct the war divested South-South and South-East zones through the proposed National Intervention Fund or through any other integrated platform or plan available to the Federal Government.”
They lamented that several panels setup by the Federal Government, including the Chukwudife Oputa Panel, had approved reparation for war damages but till date this had not been addressed.
In their prayers, the South-East delegates demanded that, “Since the proposed National Intervention Fund is to address the vexed issues of devastation and upheavals caused by an act of war or by outright war itself, that the South-East and South-South be adequately taken care of by the fund in terms of the physical infrastructure, rehabilitation, development and other losses resulting from the civil war.”