Following the arrest of the Radio Biafra director and the recent agitation for a free and sovereign state of the Republic of Biafra, an elder statesman and former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, has condemned the moves which he described as threat to Nigeria’s unity.
General Gowon made this statement recently in reaction to the resent protests by some youths in various states over a secession bid adding that with Biafra, it is finished, Vanguard reports.
According to the general who was the head of state during the Nigerian civil war, Nigerians have put behind them the bad memories of the 1967 civil war.
READ ALSO: Radio Biafra Director Granted Bail
He said that those behind these protests on Biafra do not have inkling about what the Biafra war cost Nigerians in the three years.
Gowon queried if those agitating for the independence of a Biafra nation want Nigeria to go to another war.
The general expressed hope that such would not happen adding that those involved in the campaign were being driven by just a few people and that majority of the Igbo people do not share the same view.
He said: “It is only them, the few that are there but the majority of the Igbo people that I know are not with them.”
The elder statement agreed with the fact that the protesters have the right to express their feelings but noted that with Biafra it is finished.
He said: “let them say their views, yes it democracy but let s make sure they can express their wishes and desires but let them remember with Biafra it is finished. It is not a threat.
“All I did is not as a result of hatred against the Igbos but on the principle of keeping Nigeria one and this is all we are trying to do and that was why at the end of the war in other to see that there is no heard feeling we used the term no victor no vanquished
“I have said if there is anything of this sort anywhere in any part of the country just like the problem of Boko Haram we should deal with it; Nigeria should deal with it in a matured way.”
He stressed that keeping Nigeria one was what Odumegwu Ojukwu also stood for.
Meanwhile Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers state, issued a stern warning to protesters who disrupted social and economic activities in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, October 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment