For over a month now, Ipob and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) have been organising protests across Igboland demanding secession. Their protests were sparked by the arrest of Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu who was arrested after arriving from the UK and is now facing terrorism charges.
Since Mr Kanu's arrest, thousands of Igbo youths have been staging marches and demonstrations and several wise old heads have suggested that zoning the presidency to the southeast might douse the tension. However, Ipob has described as political of compensation, the kite being flown by some northern elders that Ndigbo be allowed to clinch the presidential seat in 2019.
Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, said they are not interested in Nigeria’s affairs any longer, adding that those flying the kite of Igbo presidency in 2019 are just trying to distract them. He added that what Ipob wants is to release their leader, Nnamdi Kanu from the detention and for Biafrans to be allowed to go.
Mr Powerful recalled that the politics of compensation was played during the June 12, 1993 saga when the Yorubas were compensated with the Obasanjo presidency in place of MKO Abiola, just as President Buhari was compensated because of the Boko Haram insurgency. Likewise, Dr Goodluck Jonathan came to power on the back of militancy in the Niger Delta by Ijaws.
“If politics of compensation was used to favour Obasanjo in place of the June 12 annulment and was also used to favour Buhari in place insurgency, that is their own cup of tea. However, for us in Ipob, we are not interested in that politics of compensation whereby we are being told that an Igbo man will become Nigeria’s president in 2019 and we will begin to listen to them," Mr Powerful added.
Comments
Post a Comment