The Biafra mission is impossible, says Sani

Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna central at the national assembly, is certain that the ongoing campaign for the creation of Biafra is “not realisable”, but he wants the Nigerian military to desist from using force against the campaigners.

In a statement made available to TheCable on Thursday, Sani described the use of brute force to suppress or crush the Biafra agitators as “intolerable and unacceptable”, saying the nation is still paying the price for the wrong use of force in 2009, which triggered insurgency in the north-east.

“We are a democratic and free country and must guarantee and protect the right of the people to peacefully assemble and to express their opinion without intimidation or harassment.The use of force against peaceful dissent only encourages a violent reaction,” he said.

“Our security forces must at all times learn to balance the security exigencies of the state and the need to uphold our sacred and cherished values of rights and freedoms.We must in no way be forced to abandon our obligations to protect and guarantee the liberty and rights of our citizens in the face of provocations.

“Biafra is not a realizable cause but a new attempt to open healed wounds and undermine the appreciable political, social and economic gains made by the very people whom the cause is erroneously made in their name.”

Sani said Biafra, as a cause, in its present form, can only further demonize the very people it has claimed to represent, and subvert any future national political aspirations of people from the region of claim.

“The integration and, to an extent, even the dominance of people from the south-east in the cultural, social and economic spheres of the nation is self-evident and working well for the good of Igbos and the country, a secessionist agitation that will imperil, upset and subvert this journey to harm and abyss.

“Biafra is an obsolete cause in a new world, and a new nation not in any slightest of thought ready to detach itself from. For over five decades, Igbos, like Japanese, have since transformed and moved away from the status of a defeated people to ones that lead in enterprise, industry and innovation.

“It’s natural for any cause no matter how weird to attract sympathy. However, it will stand no chance of success as long as it is antagonistic to the interest of the larger section of the society.

“I call on the security apparatus of the state to handle the Biafra agitators with civility and caution, and I call on the Biafra agitators to jettison their impossible mission and embrace the reality of the indivisibility, inviolability and indestructibility of the Nigerian state.

“Killing of any peaceful Biafra agitator stands condemned. Any act of intimidation, arson and harassment of Nigerians from other parts of the country living in the south-east by the Biafra agitators stands condemned, too.”