Economic and business activities operated by Ndigbo across the South-East and other parts of the country are expected to shut down for three hours on Saturday, January 30, as Igbos observe a period of adoration and thanksgiving to God for their survival during the Nigerian civil war, which ended about 55 years ago.
The exercise is part of an event tagged “World Igbo Day of Adoration and Thanksgiving,” being organised by Ohanaeze Ndigbo in collaboration with Igbo religious leaders. The programme is expected to hold simultaneously in churches across Igboland and in Igbo communities outside the region.
Speaking at a press briefing in Enugu, the Archbishop of the Enugu Ecclesiastical Province of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Sosthenus Eze, said the day of prayer and thanksgiving became necessary following the realisation that Ndigbo had not sufficiently expressed gratitude to God for surviving the three-year civil war that began in 1967 and ended in 1970.
According to him, the war was aimed at the total extermination of the Igbo people, but they survived despite the immense hardship and suffering they endured.
“That war was planned to exterminate the Igbo nation completely, but we survived as a race, despite all that we passed through. In response to this, God has been speaking through various people about this. This burden has been shared and agreed upon,” Eze said.
The cleric noted that the challenges faced by the Igbo people did not end with the war, stressing that many lost their properties and were denied their rights in the post-war period.
“We know that it was not only the war that took place. Since the war, the Igbo man has been denied his place. His property was destroyed and his rights denied. Sometimes freedom is not achieved by war. It can be achieved by adoration and praise,” he added.
Archbishop Eze further stated that the existence of the Igbo people was divinely ordained, calling on Nigerians to embrace equity and equal rights for all ethnic groups.
“The existence of the Igbo man is not by accident. God ordained it, and it is for the Nigerian people to allow for equal rights of all,” he said.
He was flanked at the briefing by former Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Obi Onubugu; former Bishop of the Oji River Diocese of the Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Amos Madu; and the Archbishop of the Presbyterian Church, Enugu, Most Rev. Ezichi Ituma, among other religious leaders.
The organisers said the temporary shutdown of businesses is intended to allow Igbo people fully participate in the prayer and thanksgiving session, reaffirming that the Igbo nation would remain eternally grateful to God for His mercies.
Credit: Guardian
