Gowon pleads with Biafran agitators to emulate Nnamdi Azikiwe and ditch secessionism

FORMER head of state General Yakubu Gowon has pleaded with agitators campaigning for the recreation of the defunct republic of Biafra to take a cue from ex-president Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and abandon secession in favour of a united Nigeria.

 

Since October last year when Nnamdi Kanu the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) and the director of Radio Biafra was arrested, he supporters have been campaigning for the recreation of the defunct republic that existed between July 1967 and January 1970. Former president Nnamdi Azikiwe was originally a supporter of Biafra but abandoned it in May 1968, joining the campaign for a united Nigeria.

 

Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the presentation of a book titled: Zik: Testimonies To A Great African, General Gowon said those calling for the dismemberment of Nigeria should take a leaf from Dr Azikiwe's book. He reminding them of the unifying role the late first president Dr Azikiwe played during the civil war, despite hailing from the secessionist side.

 

Particularly fuming at the youth, who are in the vanguard of the clamour, General Gowon said they are ignorant of Nigeria’s history, noting that at the end of the war, Igbo youths prayed never to experience the kind of suffering they went through. He noted that what Nigeria needed now is the right political perspective and not self-determination sentiments.

 

Gowon said: “I am particularly touched by the reason the author of the book wrote it at this point of our national history. Now that the revised edition of the book is being presented at a time our youths seem to have forgotten our recent history and the labour of our heroes past, this, for me, is commendable.

 

“I think the point that he is making here is seen as the recent hype of the pro-Biafran spirit. I remember visiting the East Central State at the time, from Enugu, Nsukka, Owerri, Umuahia, Abakaliki and then to Onitsha and being met by children at that time who welcomed us so sincerely and we pray that no Nigerian child should one day suffer what they went through during that civil war."

 

Adding that he was sorry for the things that they went through, General Gowon said it is not by design that these things happened. However, he added that unfortunately, it seems as if we Nigerians never learned from history.