Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday dismissed the current agitation for the resurrection of Biafra as a futile exercise.
Obasanjo said this while presenting a paper entitled: “Resurgent Biafra Agitation: Born in Error, Ignorance and Frustration,” at a public discussion on Biafra, organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja.
H e advised Nigerians, especially the people of the South-East, not to take the agitators serious as doing so would only lead to disaster.
He described Biafra as a dead issue.
He, however, said he considered the current agitation as more of a cry for attention, amelioration and improvement of socio-economic conditions and situations, especially of the youths in Nigeria, particularly those in the South-East.
“No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror or war will ever agitate for more war.”
“ Nigeria cannot afford to go from Boko Haram insurgency to any other insurgency under any guise. And on no account should we wittingly or unwittingly allow this to happen again.”
The former President said the solution to the current agitation would be achieved by collaborative efforts between genuine leaders and elders in the South-East and a purpose – driven leadership at all levels of governance.
He explained that as a nation, Nigerians must all consider youth education, welfare, well-being, empowerment and employment as a lifelong collective duty, obligation and responsibility.
Obasanjo noted that although the youths have the rights to express their frustrations, such rights do not include embarking on wanton and wicked acts of destruction of property and wares of marketers, which he said would worsen the situation and even worsen the situation of such citizens.
He noted the efforts of various groups formed with the intention of putting pressure on the then military administration of General Sani Abacha to hand over power to a civilian government.
He said, “Not long ago, in the South-West, there was a problem of Oodua Peoples Congress, which was created to frustrate Abacha’s self-perpetuation ambition; so were the Egbesu and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra initially. Later, Arewa (Consultative Forum) and the OPC joined them.
“ Different approaches — political, economic and social – — were devised to deal with their menace when OPC became a Frankenstein.
“One of such approaches that worked so well was to encourage them to form vigilantes, guards and protection groups, formally and legally.
“They were hired and paid, thereby leaving the menace perpetrated through informality to the good and gainful employment through the formal. The emerging economic situation at the time also helped.”
The ex-Nigerian leader also expressed sadness that the Biafra agitation has also become an industry for those looking for money by hook or crook, particularly from sympathisers abroad. He described the commercialisation and exploitation of the Biafra as obscene to the point of criminality .
He wondered how else one could explain the issuance of “the so-called Biafran passport that takes anyone nowhere and for which unwary people are being charged exorbitant prices. Obasanjo said some leaders were even seen as supporting the agitation secretly as a means of extracting more from the government at the centre.
He noted that while that alone may not be an unusual strategy, it must not be carried too far.
