Eze Uwadiegwu Ogbonnaya
Time to assist Haitians, as traditional ruler appeals to Ndigbo
[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]
A prominent traditional ruler in Abia State has called on the Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide and Government of the five South East states to urgently mobilize humanitarian aid to the earthquake devastated Republic of Haiti in the Caribbean.
His Royal Highness Eze Uwadiegwu Ogbonnaya, the Traditional Ruler of Umuanyi Autonomous Community, Uturu in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State, made the call in a statement he issued in Umuahia.
Eze Ogbonnaya who is the Chairman of Isuikwuato Traditional Rulers Advisory Council said rushing humanitarian assistance to the distressed people of Haiti would be reciprocating the kind gesture of the first free black nation in the world to Ndigbo during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.
“Now is the time for the Igbo people of Nigeria at home and in the Diaspora to remember their kiths and kin of the Republic of Haiti rated to be one of the poorest countries in the world,” said Eze Ogbonnaya a veteran journalist and Historian.
Haiti was struck by 7.2 magnitude earthquake which killed about 1, 300 people on Saturday, August 13, 2021. The strong earthquake also destroyed 13, 000 homes after leveling many houses.
The latest earthquake was the second to hit the poor Caribbean nation in the last 11 years. The first, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, occurred in January 2010 and left over 250, 000 people dead during the regime of former President Peter Aristetide, a Roman Catholic Clergy.
Going down memory lane, Eze Ogbonnaya explained that the nation of Haiti, peopled by descendants of freed Igbo slaves in the former French territory, became the first black free country in the world when in 1830, the people, in the true Igbo spirit against injustice and humiliation, overthrew their French Colonial Masters.
Eze Ogbonnaya further revealed that it was this Igbo spirit that made the island black nation of Haiti to accord diplomatic recognition to the defunct Biafra in 1969, following the footsteps of Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Gabon.
“Apart from recognizing the defunct Republic of Biafra, the poor island nation also mobilized relief materials for the starving millions of people flown in by the legendary Swedish Humanitarian pilot, Count Von Rosen during the administration of late President Jean Claude Duvalier (Papa Doc). The pilot first flew into the defunct Republic with his MINICON Swedish jet plane at the age of 67 in 1969,” Eze Ogbonnaya said.
According to him, Rosen continued with the dare-devil risk of flying relief materials into the Biafran enclave from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince and Malabo (Santa Isabel), the capital of the former Spanish territory of Equatorial Guinea (Fernanda Po) with the late President Francisco Macias Nguema Biyogo as Head of State.
He noted that the Republic of Haiti, after Papa Doc Senior, and his son, Papa Doc Junior, has been ravaged by political instability and poverty. He also recalled that the poor handling of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti was one of the causes of the ouster of President Peter Aristetide after massive public demonstration, while the incumbent President, Jovonel Moïse, was assassinated by an armed gang at his private residence last July.
He added that the latest earthquake triggered off a wave of mass immigration to Mexico and the State of Texas in the United States of America, for which 13, 000 of them have been declared illegal immigrants by the President Joe Bidden administration and deported to Haiti.
Eze Ogbonnaya, a pioneer staff of the defunct Concord Newspapers owned by late Chief Moshood Abiola and Defence Editor, therefore called on the Ohaneze Ndigbo to lead Ndigbo to reciprocate the good done to the Igbo during the Nigeria-Biafra war by their kits and kin of Haiti.
Apart from assisting Haiti, Eze Uwadiegwu also wants Ohaneze Ndigbo leaders and other Igbo leaders to go on a condolence visit to the people of Zambia over the death of former President Kenneth Kaunda who died at the ripe age of 97 not long ago.
