TheCable

Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, frontline politician and businessman, says the Igbo do not wish to secede from Nigeria “because they have invested in the country more than the Hausas and Yorubas”.

According to PUNCH, he said this in Imo state while speaking at a national unity summit organised by Arewa Ambassadors Congress of Nigeria in partnership with Youth Assembly of Nigeria.

Describing the Igbo as major stakeholders in the country, Iwuanyanwu said they would not be party to any move to divide it.

He said the Igbo want to be one Nigeria in fairness.

Faulting the federal government over the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Iwuanyanwu said “Biafra is not about secession”.

“He (Kanu) only expressed his view. No arm was found in his possession. We are Biafrans and we are not ashamed to say it,” he said.

“Igbo have invested more in Nigeria than Arewa and Oduduwa. We want to be one Nigeria in fairness.

“Biafra is not about secession. It is a name of a particular people in Nigeria from the south-east. Therefore, it is not an offence to say that I am a Biafran.

“There was no victor, no vanquished after the civil war. I am impressed with Yakubu Gowon because he implemented all the agreements reached at the end of the civil war. Igbo were not deprived at the end of the civil war.”

Iwuanyanwu also accused the federal government of marginalising the Igbo “simply because the zone voted en masse for the peoples Democratic Party in the last presidential election.”

He, therefore, challenged the youth in the country to always “shun tribal and religious sentiments” and work for the growth of the Nigeria.