By Wale Sokunbi
President Muhammadu Buhari has of late been speaking up on the renewed agitation for the realization ofBiafra by our
brothers and sisters in the eastern part of the country. The president, who had
for some time been reticent on the troubling topic and had earlier said that
the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, would
not be released because he could jump bail, has become more eloquent on this
topic of late.
During a visit to
the palace of the Emir of Katsina, in his home state of Katsina on Monday,
Buhari used the agitation for the independent state of Biafra as a peg to make
pronouncements on the indivisibility of Nigeria .
President Muhammadu Buhari has of late been speaking up on the renewed agitation for the realization of
*Buhari |
Toeing the path of
all other past presidents of the country, he was unequivocal on the need to
retain the country as one indivisible entity. As many notable Nigerians have
said before him, he also affirmed that the continuing existence of Nigeria as one
country is not negotiable. He explained that Nigeria is a strong and united
country because some people laid down their lives for it, but some people who
were not born during the civil war are agitating for the division of the
country.
He, however, took
his convictions on the subject a bit further with his strong affirmation that
“there will be no Biafra ” under his government.
He was also
reported in many organs of the mass media to have vowed to use all the
resources at his disposal to crush any agitation for the division of Nigeria .
According to the president, the country fought a civil war which claimed the
lives of over two million people in order to be united and it would be better
for the entire country to commit mass suicide than to allow the campaign for Biafra to succeed. As he put it: “For Nigeria to divide now, it is better
for all of us to jump into the sea and get drowned.”
The frustration of
President Buhari with the many winds blowing against Nigeria ’s continued existence as
one country is understandable. Even the Movement for the Actualisation of the
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), through Mr. Osondu Okwaraeke who was
identified as the Central Director of the Biafran Red Cross, also on Monday in
Onitsha, listed the attacks of herdsmen on parts of Southern Nigeria, the Boko
Haram attacks in the North East, the Niger Delta militants’ attacks on oil
installations and the agitation for Biafra, as signs that Nigeria is on the
verge of a break up.