If anyone should know about pro-Biafra agitations and what it portends for the future of the country, former President Olusegun Obasanjo is that person.
This is because he has ruled the country the longest, and also actively participated in fighting the Nigerian Civil War of July 1967 to January 1970.
And the former President has come out to condemn the activities of secessionist groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), who are seeking for the carving out of an independent nation from the present Nigeria.
Speaking while delivering his keynote address at a public forum on Biafra organised by Nextier Advisory on Friday in Abuja, Obasanjo took exception to the drive for the creation of a Biafran state, stating that the idea was born in error and ignorance.
“Biafra as a secession issue is dead, and nobody should follow that way. I see it as a platform rather than a cause,” he said.
Furthermore, the former Army general said it was disheartening that the issue had being commercialised and had become an avenue to extort unsuspecting members of the public.
He wondered how anyone would bother to acquire the Biafra passport “which takes one nowhere”.
This, he said, was one of the ways gullible people were being taken for a ride by people who had made an industry of the agitation.
Obasanjo stressed: “There is the commercialization of the Biafra agitation, which is criminal. For example, the issuance of the so-called Biafra passport which takes one nowhere.
“Biafra agitation is as an industry; a means of making money. Biafra agitation is a hopeless and futile exercise of which nobody should embark on.”
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