Let Nigeria Allow Biafra Go If They Want To Go - Junaid Mohammed

Dr Junaid Mohammed, convener of the Coali­tion of Northern Politi­cians, Academics, Profession­als and Businessmen, has called on Nigerians to allow Igbos to go, if they want to, saying that they need Nige­ria more than Nigeria needs Igbos.

Speaking in an explosive interview with Sunday Sun, the Kano-based Russian-trained medical doctor turned politician, who described the Igbos as persons who could not be trusted with power and certain key positions in the country, however, said: “…I insist they should be heard and be allowed to secede, provided they are peaceful.” Excerpts:

Looking at the dimension the agitation for the sovereign State of Biafra has taken, should Nigerians and Nigeria allow the Igbos go or not?

Yes.

My understanding is that in every society, people will have to be per­suaded, to see the benefit of living together. But where that fails, I think people should be allowed to go their separate ways in peace. Now, this question should have been answered earlier, before the independence or even immediately after the Igbo coup of 1966.

Directly, through their own ac­tions, they organised a tribal coup in which political, business and even traditional leaders of other tribes, other than their own tribe were eliminated, leaving their own leaders intact. That shows who they are. However, I am one of those who believe that Nigeria is a very impor­tant project not only for Nigerians, but to the entire black race. So it will be a disaster if black people cannot live together in peace. There was a consensus within the generality of Nigerians that Nigeria has to be saved, Nigeria has to be preserved and in doing so you have to use minimum violence. It has to be used through persuasion for those people who don’t understand the essence of our being together.

Now, unfortunately since 1970 when the war ended, and up till date, it has become a pattern of many Nigerians to want to agitate and use the agitation to threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria as a whole and people are saying, ‘look, anybody that thinks they can stay on their own, let them go. Let everyone go in separate ways.’ So, anybody who thinks Nigeria owes its corporate existence to them, should simply go.

Do you see the Boko Haram insurgency too, in the same light?

You mean those miscreants? Their idea that you can create an Islamic state within the Nigerian state is simply silly. If they have had any form of education, they would have understood that. The only solution in the case of Boko Haram is to simply decimate them, they can be subdued and perhaps, remove the useless propaganda, especially among the girls and young men they have been recruiting as conveyors of terrorist bombs and what have you.

Now the country should from henceforth after demolishing Boko Haram terrorism, fight poverty and see that the country has meaningful development. Most of the Boko Ha­ram terrorists are illiterate in terms of education; illiterate in terms of Islamic education. They have tried so far to articulate a political agenda, what is it exactly they want, you don’t want. But even before Boko Haram, the miscreants in the South- South had done so too, though they have not quite succeeded but at least they were able to extract through blackmail and through violence certain political concessions from the Jonathan administration. The Jonathan presidency was simply a concession to blackmail.

Next to the Boko Haram is the South-east terrorists, who have been on but very soon they are going to be demolished, like it is being done to Boko Haram.

Why are you referring to the South-East agitators as terrorists?

Now, tell me what they are, if they are not terrorists? What is the differ­ence between what they are doing and what Boko Haram terrorists did or are still doing? As far as I am concerned, they are one and same thing.

But what do you make of the Igbos agenda?

The Igbos are simply coming with new agenda, they want certain posi­tions, they want certain ministries, which if not given to them they are saying there will be violence, there will be Biafra again, there will be this or that. And the agitation was not in form of dialogue, instead they have used violence and they have decided who is a friend and who is enemy.

They believe that all those who are not Igbos are enemies and all those who don’t belong to their Christianity denomination also are enemies and they have even gone to the extent, which of course, the Boko Haram started, bombing places of worship, they attacked a mosque in Port Harcourt and I think they did that in Aba and lately, they have gone to cause chaos in Onitsha which is a very unfortunate situation. So you can see the dimension this has taken. There we are.

So should the Igbos go?

Now I don’t believe I’m quali­fied to make a pronouncement on whether the Igbos should go or to be allowed to go or not. The generality of Nigerians must decide that. But I want to give the benefit of my own experience. One, as a result of change in government, they have the belief they must have Secretary to the Government of the Federa­tion, SGF, they must be given some key ministries and they have also decided that in 2019 an Igbo man must be president.

Do you think that is fea­sible?

It will be difficult for Igbos to be satisfied because I don’t believe they have even begun to conceptualize what it means to submit themselves. If they continue like this, I don’t see how we can have an Igbo leader within next 20 years, which means that what we are shying away from confronting now is something we have to confront somewhere down the line. If we don’t confront this agi­tation now, we will certainly at some point have to confront it, so that if they insist they don’t want to be with us, fine, and then we will move on.

I think some of the people who write in the newspapers about the agitation are ignorant of Nigeria’s history because virtually everyone is supporting what they have been doing or saying what they are de­manding is right and forgetting about the fact that we are in a democracy. They have refused to pay attention to all the histories and have continued to make a lot of noise about the past government, which is six months behind us.