…Condemns military invasion of the the region
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said there was nothing bad if President Muhammadu Buhari invites and dialogue with the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as a way of fighting a long lasting solution to the current unrest in the East.
The former Nigerian leader said this in an interview with Newsweek magazine published in the United States.
“I don’t see anything wrong in that [Buhari meeting with Kanu]. I would not object to that; if anything, I would encourage it,” Obasanjo said in response to a question on the agitation for Biafra that has become violent with the military called in to quell the situation.
“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.”
Obasanjo said that the response of the army response to the pro-Biafra sentiment is “not the solution,” but adds that the secession craved by IPOB is not the way forward either.
Obasanjo said Nigeria must avoid allowing the current tensions to escalate into another conflict..
“Those who fought in the war in Biafra will not want to fight any other war,” he said. “I have fought one war too many in Nigeria; I don’t want to see another.”