Chidi Samuel || President Mohammed Buhari on Monday during his national broadcast invoked the name of the late Biafra war lord Chief Chukwuemeka Ojukwu to make the case the unity of Nigeria is a settled case.
The disclosure is apparently targeted to members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other separatist groups that have been agitating for an independent state of Biafra.
In his six minute broadcast, the President recalled the two-day meeting he held with the late Biafran leader at his Daura home in 2003 where they both agreed the country must remain one.
President Buhari said, “In the course of my stay in the United Kingdom, I have been kept in daily touch with events at home. Nigerians are robust and lively in discussing their affairs, but I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, especially in the social media have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation. This is a step too far.”
“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 analysed the problems of Nigeria. We both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.”
The President reiterated his long-standing position that every Nigerian has the right to live anywhere in the country in apparent response to the order given to the Igbo by some northern groups to leave the region by October 1.
“Every Nigerian, he said, has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance.”