Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday dismissed the current agitation for the resurrection of the Biafra secessionist agenda as a hopeless and 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.
He advised Nigerians especially the people of the South- East, not to take the secessionist agitation or agitators seriously as doing so would only lead to disaster.According to him, Biafra as a secession issue is dead and nobody should tread that path. He, however, said he considers the current agitation as more of a cry for attention, amelioration and improvement of socio- economic conditions and situations, especially of the youth in Nigeria in general, but in the South East in particular.
The retired army general- turned-politician said, “No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror or war will ever agitate for more war.” Obasanjo said, “Biafra agitation as a means of calling for secession or severance from Nigeria is a hopeless and futile exercise on which nobody in seriousness should embark.
“However, I see it as a symbol of desperation, despair and frustration of the youth being expressed by them for all to hear and redress in the South East and elsewhere in the county. But Biafra, never again! And we must avoid the coalition of the unwilling but forced by circumstances.”
He explained that the country currently had enough problems, saying, “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.”
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