Recalling Evangelist Elliot Uko reaction to Obasanjo comment on Biafra calling Biafran’s agitators miscrant and criminals.
He faulted Obasanjo of making such careless statement which may intense the existing aggression of Biafrans. He also stated that Obasanjo is helping Nigeria, insteady he is deceiving the entire citizems of the country.
In His Statement; “For Obasanjo to say that is tragic. I don’t know whether he’s deliberately being mischievous because he should know that the agitation for Biafra is a potential threat, a big time-bomb, not just for the territorial integrity of Nigeria but also for peace in the entire West Africa. Any crisis in Nigeria will reverberate all over the West African sub-region. The refugee problem alone will cripple the economies of all the West African nations. No amount of peace-keeping forces from the United Nations will keep peace in Nigeria because of it’s size and population. That is why it must be avoided at all cost.
“The Biafran issue is not about Ralph Uwazurike, Nnamdi Kanu or any individual. I formed my first organization, as a teenager, Igbo Youth Congress, at Delimina Restaurant, 12 Adelabu, in Uwani, Enugu in 1981, 34 years ago. And I know that the most emotional and easiest formula to spark interest and followership among Igbo Youths is the dream to re-live Biafra Republic. They find it so attractive because they believe that not only is Nigeria drawing them backwards but also that they will never get justice in Nigeria due to the envy and hatred of some ethnic groups towards Ndigbo.
At one of our meetings, in the early 80s, we took a vote, and over 80 per cent of the youths voted that we should take up arms to fight for Biafra, 34 years ago.
“Again, in Lagos, we were holding monthly meetings in my apartment at 36 Ajakaiye Street, Ikeja, 10 years later, in 1991, we took a vote, and over 90 per cent voted that we should take up arms and fight for Biafra. I’ve been organizing seminars and dealing with Igbo youth for decades, I know that the option of Biafra is so attractive, and it’s a reality. It’s not about Uwazurike and Kanu. In fact, those characters are merely taking advantage of a fact that is on ground, that Nigeria has been unfair to Ndigbo, to the extent that the new generation finds it unacceptable. So, the demand for Biafra is real. They are not miscreants. They are contributing their own money, fighting for what they believe in.
The people who are agitating for Biafra are in their millions. To kill them, you need to hire professional soldiers from across the world to help in killing them. And when you kill them, you have a problem of where to pack their corpses. If you want to imprison them, Buhari will have to build at least 500 to 600 new large prisons, each with a capacity of holding 7,000 to 10,000 inmates. Where will the funds to build enough prisons to contain the 7 to 8 million angry youths who are agitating for Biafra come from?
Obasanjo was deliberately misleading Nigerians. For Obasanjo to say that the millions of Ndigbo, spread all over the world, are miscreants and should be ignored is really pathetic. Our fault lines are deepening in Nigeria. The online stories express only hate and spread ethnic hatred.
The younger generation of Ndigbo are bitter about the structure of Nigeria. They believe that the structure is skewed against them, in politics, in education, in the provision of social infrastructure, and the agitation for Biafra is real.”
What is your comment on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent statement that the people agitating for Biafra are criminals, miscreants and scammers?