Convene national dialogue to quell agitations for self determination, Igbo leader tells FG

By Ola Ajayi – Ibadan

A leader of Igbo community in Oyo State, Dr. Alex Anozie has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a national dialogue to address various agitations for separation by major ethnic groups in Oyo in the country.

He made the call when speaking with newsmen in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

If the FG can take the bold step, he said, all unnecessary tension building up across the country would subside.

”I can assure you that if security and peace is guaranteed again, all those agitations will fizzle out. If all these killings every day, raping of our women, banditry and kidnapping should stop today, most of these agitators will change their minds.”

”Even these agitators, you might be surprised that they love Nigeria more than any other person. But they are forced to do what they are doing because of the impunity going on in the country“, he said.

”I think it is high time the government should humble itself and gather everybody together. What is the way out? No shame there. But, if it continues to flex muscles and say no, I can’t tolerate this, this is my government, things will continue to get worse on daily basis.”

“Is it not better to say my brothers from the East come, my brothers from the West, South and North, come let us talk. If restructuring is the way out, that will bring peace and continuity of the unity of the country, we go for restructuring. If referendum will bring peace, we go for referendum; whatever we can do peacefully to remain united we do it”.

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”But if eventually, some people are insisting they want to go away, instead of killing ourselves, we can sit at a round table and sort things out. After we have sat and we now see that the only way out is for Nigeria to disintegrate, let it be done peacefully. But, that is not my first choice. My first choice is a Nigeria where every tribe in the country lives and property is secured and equity, justice and fairplay will be on the front burner. ”

”You are talking of peace and unity and you see people entering to other people’s land, killing and raping their women and the government that should be protecting them is not doing so any more and you want them to keep quiet and continue to die. And you are shouting peace and unity deceitfully. That is the cause of insecurity in the Southeast. It is reactionary.”

”People are trying to defend themselves. Some people can come together and say, let us gang up and protect our people; let us defend our people. They may be unknown. Someone may be tempted to think that all these attacks on security men, collecting of their weapons may be a way for them to gather weapons because whenever they attack or shoot security men, they go away with their weapons”.

” So, it might be a way to gather weapons for their own use. It may be so or it may not be so. So, the insecurity in the Southeast is not something palatable for one to hear and it’s not only in the Southeast, it’s all over the country now. And everybody is worried.

Certainly, it’s not the Nigeria we worked for, this is not the Nigeria we are expecting to see, a country where we all should be living peacefully, with one love and united people”.

” You don’t need to go far to know that this is the cause of agitation in the country. People have seen that there is no more security of lives and property. Or should anybody say there is security in the country, no one should deceive us any longer. We are not happy about the situation in the country. We want to see a peaceful Nigeria, where you can live in any part of the country without bloodshed. A country where people of all tribes, all religions should live peacefully”.

”But, when you see and hear that foreigners have flooded the country with weapons killing and raping the women and government cannot address the problem. Even, some people might be telling you that government is aware of their presence here, they may be wrong or right. You know, it’s very disturbing, I have never witnessed that since I was born here in Nigeria. I am over 70 years now. We never had it so bad“, he concluded.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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