BEVERLY HILLS, September 15, (THEWILL) – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), before the ongoing crisis gets out of hand.
THEWILL recalls that Nigerian security forces have clashed with IPOB members since Sunday in Abia state, where Kanu is currently living, as IPOB accused the military of surrounding Kanu’s house and killing several of his supporters, while the military denied the allegations saying IPOB activists had pelted patrol vehicles with stones.
However, speaking in an interview with Newsweek on Friday, Obasanjo declared that the army’s “heavy boot” response to the pro-Biafra sentiment is “not the solution” but added that the secession craved by IPOB is not the way forward either.
“I don’t see anything wrong in that (Buhari meeting with Kanu). I would not object to that; if anything, I would encourage it,” he said.
“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.
“We need to satisfy the youth in job creation, in wealth creation, in giving them a better, fulfilled life, in giving them hope for the future. There’s no easy way out.”
