Obasanjo uses occasion of Festus Okotie-Eboh book launch to declare that Biafra is dead

FORMER president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has poured scorn in agitators campaigning for the recreation of the defunct republic of Biafra warning that such calls for secession are a hopeless and futile exercise and its originators are desperate and exploitative.

 

Speaking yesterday at a book launch in Lagos to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the killing of Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Nigeria's first ever finance minister in the ill-fated coup of January 15, 1966, Chief Obasanjo led a host of former leaders to pay tribute to the Itshekiri chief.  He passed a death verdict on the renewed calls for a sovereign state of Biafra which is currently being pushed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob).

 

Himself a former Nigerian Civil war commander, Chief Obasanjo, said that Biafra as a secession issue was dead and the renewed agitation for it was done in error. He spoke alongside other panellists including former chairman of the Police Service Commission Chief Simon Okeke, Kadaria Ahmed, West Africa Editor of the Africa Report Tolu Ogunlesi and veteran journalist Chido Onumah, who shared his view.

 

According to Chief Obasanjo, the agitation was a cry for the Igbos to be noticed and that it was not bad for the Igbos to use such to get more from the Nigerian state but without violence and disruption of public order. He also said that he would rather entertain requests for dialogue, debate and discussion on how the country could get it right from its bad steps in governance but not secession of an entity.

 

Chief Obasanjo added: “Biafra as a secession issue is dead and nobody should follow that way. It can again only lead to disaster. However, I see this resurgent Biafra agitation not for secession or creation of an independent entity from Nigeria but as a cry for attention, amelioration and improvement of socio-economic conditions especially of the youth in Nigeria in general but in the southeast in particular.

 

"It is a call by the youth of that region for transformation and I see it as a platform rather than a cause. They need to be understood because a lack of understanding with its appropriate remedy will drive them further into the hands of demagogues and opportunists who will thrive on their desperation and frustration, turning it into criminality and extremism against their parents, community leaders and elders, regional leaders and elders and against national unity, ethos and values."

 

Furthermore, Chief Obasanjo counselled President Muhammadu Buhari to maintain a statesmanship posture in his management of the country’s affairs. He called on Nigerians to learn the lessons from the death of Chief Okotie-Eboh and ensure that it never happens again.

 

“The solution is first for the leaders and elders in the southeast to caution realism and sanity among the youth and for the president to prove that Nigeria is his constituency. He should act like God who gives rain to the good and bad, the just and the unjust in the world equally as the world belongs to God in totality.

 

“The solutions lie in education, awareness-raising, youth acquisition of skills, youth empowerment and youth employment. Above all things, good governance at all levels is the key solution," Chief Obasanjo said.