BY Fredrick Nwabufo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the “Biafra secession issue” as dead, advising that no Nigerian should give vent to the agitation.
Obasanjo made the statement while delivering his keynote address at a public discussion on Biafra organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja on Friday.
“Biafra as a secession issue is dead, and nobody should follow that way. I see it as a platform rather than a cause,” he said.
The former president, who said that he was cautious of getting into a debate on Biafra, said: “The agitation was born in error and ignorance.”
He said the agitation had become commercialised, an industry through which some people made money from gullible people.
He cited the issuance of the Biafran passport, “which takes one nowhere”, by a certain group as an example of some people making industry out of the agitation.
“There is the commercialisation of the Biafran agitation, which is criminal – for example, the issuance of so-called Biafran passport which takes on nowhere,” Obasanjo said.
“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.”
The former president also described the Biafran agitation as a cry by the Igbo to be noticed, but he added that it was not a bad idea if the Igbo were using the agitation as a platform to get more from Nigeria.
“If you want to use the agitation as a means to get more from the national cake, that is okay,” he said.
“But not the break up of Nigeria. I will not be part of any discussion to break up Nigeria.”
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