Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked president Muhammadu Buhari has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with the leader of the Biafra separatist movement, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
The elder statesman spoke in an interview with Newsweek.
He said,“I don’t see anything wrong in that [Buhari meeting with Kanu]. I would not object to that; if anything, I would encourage it.”
“I would want to meet Kanu myself and talk to people like him, people of his age, [and ask:] ‘What are your worries?’ Not only from the southeast but from all parts of Nigeria.”
According to Obasanjo, the army’s “heavy boot” response to pro-Biafra sentiment is “not the solution” but adds that the secession craved by IPOB is not the way forward either.
“We need to satisfy the youth in job creation, in wealth creation, in giving them a better, fulfilled life, in giving them hope for the future. There’s no easy way out.”
Obasanjo as Nigeria’s President in 2006 met with Asari Dokubo and other Niger Delta militants in an an effort to end insecurity in the region.
This was, however, after ordering the military to level the town of Odi in Bayelsa state and Zakibiam in Benue state.