Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has described agitations for a breakaway state of Biafra in the country’s southeast as a “cry for attention,” Nigeria’s Premium Times reported.

Thousands of Nigerians have taken part in demonstrations in recent months, calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, a prominent pro-Biafran activist, from detention and demanding independence for a region in southeast Nigeria historically known as Biafra.

Kanu, who is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, has been detained by the Nigerian authorities since October 2015 and is being held on charges including treason. The London-based activist is also the director of Radio Biafra, an underground outlet that broadcasts pro-Biafran material.

Nigerian military officer Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared an independent region called Biafra in southeast Nigeria in 1967, sparking a three-year civil war with the Nigerian military in which more than one million people died. Nigeria celebrated its Armed Forces Day on Friday, marking the 46th anniversary of the surrender of Biafran troops to the country’s military on January 15, 1970.

Speaking on Friday at an Armed Forces Day event in Abuja, Obasanjo dismissed the issue of whether Biafra could once again secede from Nigeria as “dead,” but added that he saw the revival in pro-Biafran sentiment as a sign of dissatisfaction among people in Nigeria’s southeast.

“I see this resurgent Biafra agitation not for secession or creation of an independent entity from Nigeria but as a cry for attention, amelioration and improvement of socio-economic conditions and situation especially of the youth in Nigeria in general, but in the southeast in particular,” said Obasanjo, who served as president of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007 and fought in the Nigerian military during the Biafran civil war.

Southeast Nigeria is home to a largely Christian population comprised mainly of members of the Igbo ethnic group. Igbos made up the majority of the historical state of Biafra and have viewed Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who hails from the northern state of Katsina, with suspicion. Voters in southeast Nigeria overwhelmingly backed former president Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential elections, which were eventually won by Buhari.

Despite Obasanjo’s claims, a July 2014 report by the World Bank found that poverty rates in southern Nigeria were significantly lower in the south of the country than the north. The southeast had a poverty rate of 28.8 percent compared to 50.2 percent in the northeast, which has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency.

Source: http://europe.newsweek.com/biafra-protests-cry-attention-former-nigerian-president-416913?rm=eu

attention seekers

look at this one

What stops the rest of Nigeria from backing an Igbo man to become the next president so that there can be true unity? Nigerians did it for the Yorubas when we all backed Obasanjo even when Yorubas rejected him at the polls.

Nigerians did it for the SS by backing Jonathan so why not for the Igbos?

Then give them the attention afterall, we did it for mko abiola and Obasanjo emerged and peace reigned, now if an Igbo presidency could be a way to heal Nigeria then let's do it for peace and tranquillity, four or eight years is not much. But unfortunately it is this same obj that said he will put a major tribe like igbo to minority status. This igbos who also voted massively for him obj, and I call it betrayal in highest order. Many northerners and even some yourobas have also seen igbo presidency as a way to national healing.

Dominique, Lalasticlala and Oga Seun.

ChristStriker:
What stops the rest of Nigeria from backing an Igbo man to become the next president so that there can be true unity? Nigerians did it for the Yorubas when we all backed Obasanjo even when Yorubas rejected him at the polls.

Nigerians did it for the SS by backing Jonathan so why not for the Igbos?

Nigeria is not the problem of igbos.

When ojukwu contested for president under APGA then, how many votes did he get even from the igbos?

Ijaya123:


Nigeria is not the problem of igbos.

When ojukwu contested for president under APGA then, how many votes did he get even from the igbos?

How many votes did Obasanjo get from the Yorubas too? yet other Nigerians gathered and made him president, Igbos should get the same treatment.

Nigerians don't need Igbo votes to make an Igbo man president just like we never needed Yoruba votes to make Obasanjo president.

I hope you understand now.

ChristStriker:


How many votes did Obasanjo get from the Yorubas too? yet other Nigerians gathered and made him president, Igbos should get the same treatment.

Nigerians don't need Igbo votes to make an Igbo man president just like we never needed Yoruba votes to make Obasanjo president.

I hope you understand now.

What is the total electoral value of the igbos?

One the other hand, they should rather court and lobby other regions instead of abusing and referring to them as being in the zoo.

na mumu him be, see his ugily face

Ijaya123:


What is the total electoral value of the igbos?

One the other hand, they should rather court and lobby other regions instead of abusing and referring to them as being in the zoo.

You did not address the spirit of my post.

ChristStriker:


You did not address the spirit of my post.

The east will never rule. Only by proxy - see the case of Johnathan. Nnamdi Kanu has put a nail in the coffin.

The only way the east might rule would be inter-marriage. Unfortunately, the east do not inter marry as much as they used to. It would have to be an ibo + west or ibo + northern

I doubt anyone would still trust the east with power, as a result, power by inter marriage would still be feasible only through proxy. Where the president is either ethnic group in Nigeria excluding ibo and the female is frm the east.

LoveDecay:


The east will never rule. Only by proxy - see the case of Johnathan. Nnamdi Kanu has put a nail in the coffin.

The only way the east might rule would be inter-marriage. Unfortunately, the east do not inter marry as much as they used to. It would have to be an ibo + west or ibo + northern

I doubt anyone would still trust the east with power, as a result, power by inter marriage would still be feasible only through proxy. Where the president is either ethnic group in Nigeria excluding ibo and the female is frm the east.

This matter is simple, why keep the easterners in a country where they cannot aspire to rule?

Let them go! Conduct a Un referendum and allow these easterners go!

I wonder how men like this OBJ sleep at night