WELCOME ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK, "TO THE RESCUE - the Right to Self Determination, The Pathway to a Genuine Federation of Peoples with No Shared Values."

Thanks to God in heaven that today this four- year work is being unveiled. I welcome you all from Houston Texas, Los Angeles, California, Lagos, Abuja, Aba, Owerri,  Onitsha, Nri, Anambra, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Enugu States, my editors and reviewers (pre- and post-publication).

Permit me to specifically welcome the doyen of political authorship and publishing and democracy activism, East of the Niger,  Dr. Chief Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo, Ikeogu Ndigbo, who many of my friends have continued to complain they neither recently see nor hear from. Ikeogu, Nwadiana Nri you are welcome. To Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) members and its founder and leader, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, I say a special welcome. ADF, today is the only organization I know in today's Nigeria which has courageously shaken off the pervasive malleability of Nigerians, to openly challenge the arbitrariness and lawlessness of the almighty federal government of Nigeria. Example: Several Federal High Courts and Appeal Courts have repeatedly ruled that it is unlawful for the President of Nigeria to deploy the Armed Forces of Nigeria for internal security operations without the authority of the National Assembly. Presidents Obasanjo, Yardua and now, Buhari, have variously deployed them and they have routinely extra-judicially murdered citizens, as if they are rodents.
 For the resent south-East Python Dance deployments and killings in Aba and Umuahia, ADF sued the President and his Army Commanders before an Enugu Federal High Court. I was in court, as a member of ADF, with the leader and other members, as ADF lawyers closed its case this November. Kudos to ADF.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria stopped working with the pogroms of 1966. Nigeria has since then operated unitary systems dressed up as federation with military Ordinances, otherwise branded Federal Constitutions, completely disregarding the inherent rights of the 478 identified ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria to Self Determination entrenched in both Nigerian Laws and international multi-lateral treaties duly ratified by Nigeria.

This book is my humble effort to remind Nigeria, as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson did as far back as 18th Jan. 1918, after World War 1, that politicians and government leaders who ignore the federating peoples' right to Self Determination, do so at the risk of themselves and the federation.

The commotion on RESTRUCTURING in Nigeria, is misdirected. The security and welfare of citizens are the primary purposes of government, but security is precedent. One needs to be alive to be catered for.

Aburi Accord took above into account in conferring the command of the regional units of the Armed Forces on the Regional Governments. Former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, now of blessed memory, expounded on the Aburi Accord in his proposals in the 1998 Abacha Conference. All I did in this work, is to emphasize  that in the restructuring debate, Ndigbo, who are more frequently and indiscriminately extra-judicially murdered  in Nigeria, must on account of the frequent massacre,put the security of Igbo lives and property before any form of marginalization.

You are all welcome. I hope you will find the time spent here worth the while.

OkpalaEzeNri Chukwuemeka Onyesoh,

 The Author,

Enugu.


14th Dec. 2017.