The apex socio-cultural youth body in Igbo land, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, on Thursday, said Igbo youth will not be sacrificed again for the North, in the name of army recruits or officers, to fight Boko Haram and other insurgents in the zone.
The Igbo youth group, which said the move by the Nigerian Army to recruit new intakes to allegedly end insurgency in the Northern part of the country, was a welcome development, however, added that such exercise should be reserved for youth in the North.
The group alleged that youths of Southern Nigeria were sidelined in the recent recruitment exercise of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which favoured the Northern youths more, saying the Nigerian Army should take the message of its forthcoming recruitment, to the North.
In a statement signed by the group’s President-General, Okechukwu Isigusoro and Secretary General, Okwu Nnabuike, the youth alleged that Igbo youths were being made to join the army by its authorities, for them to be killed and sacrificed in the battlefield.
It also employed the army leadership to reserve the said recruitment for the Northern youth, adding that youths of the South-East geo-political zone were prepared to take up the opportunities that abound in Community Policing, which the South-East Governors’ Forum was spearheading.
Nigerian Army team led by its Director of Army Recruitment, Resettlement and Reserve, Brig-Gen Emmanuel Akpan, on Wednesday, came to Ebonyi State and appealed to youths of the state to join the army.
Akpan had said the army of today was no longer meant for school dropouts and never-do-well but was meant for young men who were capable of undergoing special training to tackle the challenges of modern warfare.
The statement read in part,
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, received the recent pronouncement of Nigerian Army Recruitment exercise through Brig- Gen. Emmanuel Akpan, Director of Army Recruitment, Resettlement and Reserve that the Army is willing to recruit Nigerian Youths for the only purpose of defeating Boko Haram insurgents in the North East.
“It is a good development but such recruitment should be reserved only for Northern Youths as Igbo youths are not comfortable with such recruitment. The recent NNPC recruitment did not favour the Southern Nigeria youth, but the Northern youths were favoured highly. They should also be given the army recruitment for free. We are suspicious and we query the rationale behind such pronouncement for the obnoxious recruitment in the South-East, rather in the Northeast.
“Let the Miyetti Allah and Arewa Youths be recruited massively and if the intention was targeted on Igbo youths, by choosing South-East as the venue to announce the recruitment exercise, such agenda is dead on arrival, as Igbo youths are only available for agricultural and economic recruitment.
“We want Igbo youths to be engaged in Community Policing or regional arrangements. There are various recruitment exercise going on in various states in the South-East regards to engaging youths to tackle insecurity challenges in the South-East.“
