Nigeria needs US intervention now - Igbo leaders of Thought invites

The Igbo intelligentsia, Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, have resolved that Nigeria need the urgent international intervention, particularly from the United States of America, USA.

They said that there is impending anarchy in the country replica of the the political crisis that was prelude to genocide and the civil war in Nigeria.

The ILT also called on the U.S. to pressure Nigerian leaders into a long-delayed national restructuring, returning security powers to states and regions, an arrangement the Nigerian military agreed to in the Aburi Accord of 1967; adding that the country has no alternative to restructuring if the country must survive.

They said that the matter is urgent and scathing, warning that Nigeria has drifted dangerously toward a full-scale collapse reminiscent of the horrors that preceded the 1960s genocide against the Igbo.

Speaking in Enugu after their meeting, the Igbo leaders produced a communique was signed by the President, Professor Elochukwu Amucheazi and Secretary , Professor Jerry Chukwuokolo.

The ILT noted that there was escalating wave of killings, mass abductions, which the government inaction has pushed the country to the brink and now requires immediate international intervention, particularly from the United States.

The leaders said that they could no longer “sit and watch a tethered goat give birth,” insisting that Nigeria’s descent into bloodshed mirrors the tragic Operation Wetie and the “wild, wild West” that unleashed pogroms against the Igbo, six decades ago.

The group lamented that Nigeria has deteriorated to the point where terrorists control territories, impose taxes, sack communities, shut down schools, and abduct civilians with impunity, even military officers.

Citing recent major attacks, the Igbo leaders recounted the killing of two soldiers and abduction of a Brigadier General; the subsequent abduction and killing of Brigadier-General Uba; the kidnapping of 25 female students in Kebbi and the reported killings across multiple states captured in a recent Intersociety report, which documented 101 Christian deaths in just 14 days

ILT said these incidents, along with the shutting down of federal schools and the exodus of some leaders abroad, raise the question: “Is there still a government in Nigeria?”

The group condemned what it described as shameful attempts by some powerful Nigerians to trivialize or politicize the genocide against Christian communities in the Middle Belt and South.

They said that, “It is appalling that some highly placed Nigerians are playing politics with a matter that threatens the survival of the country."

ILT accused past leaders, particularly the Mohammadu Buhari administration, of enabling the infiltration of armed jihadists into Nigeria, rewarding terrorists with military integration, and refusing to arrest their sponsors, even when foreign governments provided evidence.

The Igbo group openly welcomed U.S. concerns about Nigeria’s worsening security crisis and appealed for immediate assistance, not sanctions.

The group urged President Donald Trump to activate powerful American policy instruments to dismantle terrorist networks and punish their sponsors.

They listed such instruments to include the Global Magnitsky Act

to freeze assets, block SWIFT transactions, revoke visas, and sanction over 100 identified actors involved in killings and the Executive Order 13886

to designate individuals and entities supporting terrorism as terrorists themselves, enabling global seizure of their assets.

These tools, ILT insisted, could “choke the infrastructure of terror” without risking American troops.

On Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the group also rejected the recent life sentence handed to IPOB leader, calling it “unjust, illegal, and politically motivated.”

ILT noted among other things that a Nigerian High Court had earlier declared his arrest unlawful; Kenyan court fined its government for collaborating in his illegal rendition and above all, no appellate court has overturned these earlier rulings.

Calling Kanu’s conviction “sad, indefensible and speculative,” ILT said he has become “a Mandela-like symbol of resistance” and demanded his immediate release, compensation, and rehabilitation.

They also condemned the “genocidal profiling and economic strangulation” of Igbo businesses in Lagos, warning that it aligns with global definitions of ethnic cleansing.

ILT stressed that jihadist terrorism, Fulani expansionism, and anti-Igbo policies are ideologically driven and cannot be defeated by force alone.

“As long as injustice persists against the Igbo, the ideology of Biafra will persist,” the elders declared.

They urged the Federal Government to initiate serious ethno-regional dialogue to eliminate the root causes of extremism and agitation.

The group further decried what it called coordinated efforts by “soulless, unpatriotic Nigerians” to blame the Igbo for Nigeria’s current crisis.

ILT praised former military president Ibrahim Babangida for acknowledging in his new book that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup, warning that the dangerous lies of the past must not be repeated.

The group declared that the U.S. must not hesitate to intervene physically, “including invading Nigeria to disperse the numerous bandits now harassing the nation.”

“We cannot watch history repeat itself,” they warned. “We owe it to future generations to halt this slide into genocide and war.”