Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Sunday declared that both
the renewed agitation for the restoration of Biafra and the ultimatum issued to
Igbo to leave the North are wrong and unlawful activities that deserve to be
dealt with according to the country’s constitutional provisions.
Osinbajo said this at his opening remarks at the meeting
with traditional rulers drawn from each senatorial district of the five
Southeast states, led by Eze Udo 1 of Mgboko Ngwa Amaise in Abia State, Eze
Eberechi Dick, who is also Chairman of Southeast traditional rulers, held at
the Presidential Villa, Abuja during
The parley is in continuation of his consultations with
leaders and traditional rulers from the North and Southeastern regions of the
country, following the escalation of ethnic tensions occasioned by the
agitation for Biafra and the vacation order issued by Northern youths for Igbo
to quit the north.
VP Osinbajo lamented that apart from the legal
indivisibility of the country, too many Nigerians have paid for the continued
unity of the country with their lives, and there has been so much bloodshed to
preserve the unity of the country.
In his opening remarks, Osinbajo said both groups were
clearly violating the Nigerian Constitution, which insists on the sanctity of
the unity of the country and the right of every citizen to reside in any part
of the country he chooses.
He admitted there are grievances to be addressed, and the
only way to make anything right is by doing it right, instead of threatening to
break the law or the country. He insisting that the greatness of any community
lies in its unity.
Osinbajo also explained that government considered the peculiar
role of the traditional rulers in fixing a separate meetings for them.
He said, “In planning these meetings I was conscious that we
should have a separate set of meetings with our traditional rulers because of
the peculiar and the unique positions that they hold especially in their
relationship with those that live in their kingdoms. This was the reason why we
chose to have two separate meetings one with the South East Traditional Rulers
and tomorrow evening I will be having one also with traditional rulers from the
north.
I want to emphasis that it is the unique position that
traditional rulers occupy that is behind separate consultations and we want to
take much advantage of it as much as possible.
“Most of us are aware especially for those who have been
following the consultations, we have worked very hard to ensure that the
representations across the two zones that we are interested in consulting with
initially is as wide as possible and we have tried to inculcate that even in
our traditional rulers today.
“As you are aware there has been agitation from some of our
youths in the south east urging secession, the creation of Biafra. In apparent
response young people in the north states, under the aegis of Arewa youths have
purportedly issued an ultimatum where they have said set a date for the
eviction of persons from south east region who live in the northern states.
“Those agitations, the manner of those agitations, the
method and objective are wrong, unlawful and the violation of the laws of
Nigeria and the constitution of Nigeria. I want to repeat that both the
agitations for secession and the ultimatum to leave the northern states are
wrong and a violation of our constitution.
“Our constitution says in Section Two that Nigeria is one
indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known by the name the
federal republic of Nigeria.
“That is the law of our country. Let us not be in any doubt
about the fact that the federal government is committed to ensuring that our
country remains united.
“And that anyone who violates the law in the manner such as
we are seeing all over the place will be met with the full force of the law.
“And the reason why it is so is because Nigeria’s unity
enough blood has been spilled and many hundreds of thousands of lives have been
lost. Many have paid for the unity of this country with their lives and it will
be wrong of us as men and women of goodwill in this generation to toy with
those sacrifices that have been made.
“This is why men of goodwill in our generation must not
tolerate any tendency that drags us in the direction of yet another civil
conflict.
“But we must be sensitive to the reasons why there are
agitations by the various young men across the various zones of this country.
Many have to do with perceived marginalization, some have argued safety in the
different zones have been compromised. But I want to say the only way to make
things right is to do things right. And it will be wrong of us to approach even
our grievances by threatening to disobey the laws or by threatening the
integrity of our nation,” he said.
By Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
