BY Tony Edike
ENUGU—SIXTEEN Igbo groups rose from a meeting in Enugu Monday endorsing Senator Uche Chukwumerije’s epistle to Ndigbo as the authentic roadmap for Ndigbo as the Igbo race pursues self-discovery and political salvation.

The Chukwumerije epistle, titled Wake up call: Path to Igbo Self-Realisation, delivered at the recent 2011 Igbo Day celebration at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has been generally hailed by Ndigbo at home and abroad as an honest and patriotic agenda-setting document for the Igbo race.

The groups, which met at the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Secretariat GRA, Enugu, agreed to work together, assisting each other and co-operating as a team to build synergy to move Igboland forward.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, President of IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, said Ndigbo was in dire straits at the moment because of decades of marginalisation and deliberate efforts by past regimes in the country to divide and hold down Ndigbo.

Uko said Igbo were surprised that such a beautiful document could come from a serving PDP senator, urging Ndigbo to be guided by Chukwumerije’s admonition in their pursuit for political relevance.

He announced the setting up of five committees to articulate and aggregate various shades of opinion from Igbo traders, civil servants, the clergy, traditional rulers and Igbo in the diaspora.

The committees are those of mobilisation, enlightenment, strategy, finance and integration and they are expected to brief the groups’ general meeting scheduled for December this year.