FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the Biafra agitation as ‘dead’ and ‘hopeless.’
Obasanjo further said the movement had been commercialised and had become a platform rather than a cause, adding that the agitators also suffer from the error of misreading the history of Nigeria or not reading it at all.
The former president made the comments while delivering his keynote address at a public discussion on Biafra organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja, yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has declared that it would embark on what it tagged “mother of all protests and demonstrations” from Monday next week to press for the release of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu .
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has declared that it would embark on what it tagged “mother of all protests and demonstrations” from Monday next week to press for the release of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu .
According to the group, the protest would involve civil disobedience to be carried out in all parts of Nigeria and beyond.
Obasanjo said: “Biafra as a secession issue is dead, and nobody should follow that way. I see it as a platform rather than a cause.
“The agitation was born in error and ignorance. There is the commercialisation of the Biafran agitation, which is criminal, for example, the issuance of so-called Biafran passport, which takes one nowhere and for which unwary people are being charged exorbitant prices.
“Biafra agitation is as an industry; a means of making money. Biafra agitation is a hopeless and futile exercise of which nobody should embark on,” he said.
According to him, the solution is for leaders and elders in the South-East to caution realism and sanity among the youth and for the President to prove that Nigeria is his constituency.
He said the President 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.
“We must neither allow evil to find work for our youth nor to fill their unoccupied minds with satanic ideas, thoughts, decisions and actions. The way to achieve this is to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
“At the community, state and national levels, conducive environment and conditions must be created for promotion of private sector entrepreneurs and investors, both local and foreign, to make our different areas as irresistible for investment, job creation and wealth generation destinations as possible.”
Obasanjo added that the welfare and well being of the citizenry with equity, justice and fairness must be the main pre-occupation of government at all levels.
In a statement released by MASSOB after its meeting at Okwe, Okigwe, Imo State signed by Samuel Edeson and Ibem Ugwuoke Ibem, National Director of Information and National Secretary, respectively, the group said the protest would continue until government releases Kanu.
source: ngr.
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