In unequivocal address to Eastern groups agitating for the renegotiation of the Nigerian unity and calling for a separatist State of Biafra, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the late Igbo leader, Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu, believed in the need to keep Nigeria undivided, and that he also shares the same view.
Since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, there have been calls from various segments of the country, asking for renegotiation of Nigerian nationhood.
In a six-minute address to the nation on Monday morning, the President decried the call for the dismemberment of Nigeria, describing the agitators as “irresponsible elements.”
Going the memory lane, Buhari recalled a 2003 conversation he had with the pardoned late Biafran leader, Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu, on the unity of the nation, noting that they “both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.”
Buhari said, “In 2003 after I joined partisan politics, the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu came and stayed as my guest in my hometown Daura. Over two days we discussed in great depth till late into the night and analyzed the problems of Nigeria. We both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.
“Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable. We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood.
“Every Nigerian has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance.
“I believe the very vast majority of Nigerians share this view.
“This is not to deny that there are legitimate concerns. Every group has a grievance. But the beauty and attraction of a federation is that it allows different groups to air their grievances and work out a mode of co-existence.”
Source: The Punch
