What is your view on the method adopted by the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, for the actualisation of Biafra?
Nnamdi Kalu is going about the struggle for the actualisation of Biafra Republic wrongfully and I think it is because he has never experienced what war is. I am from the Igala speaking part of the country; we are very close to the Igbos. During the 1967 civil war, because we were closed to the Igbos, our schools have to be closed down throughout the period. They were attacking our villages because we were close. They knew the terrain; they were attacking our people on the farm. For three years, we didn’t go to school. I think it is only somebody who did not experience what war is that will now be clamouring for what Kanu is clamouring for. See the example of Southern Sudan; no country has ever broken up peacefully.
I am of the view that no sensible person should support Kanu. Equally, no sensible person should support the Arewa youths, who had given the Igbos quit notice. Fortunately, the Arewa youths have withdrawn their quit notice. The constitution and even God has put us together; you can’t tell anybody to go his way. Even those who are saying that the coming together of Nigeria is a mistake are making mistake themselves because they are faulting God who had brought us together. It is like when your head is too big for your neck to carry, there is just nothing you can do than to tolerate it. We need to tolerate one another. Don’t tell me it because of our population; what about the United States of America (USA)? One state in the US is almost half the size of Nigeria and they are still together. What about the Chinese? The population of China is about 1. 2 billion and they have too many different languages and cultures more than us. Kanu should be brought to book.
The Federal Government has applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja for the revocation of the bail granted the IPOB leader for allegedly violating the bail conditions. Don’t you think this action will worsen issues, considering the recent happening in the South East?
It would not worsen anything. The principle of the law is that justice should be done, no matter what it will cost. Can one single person cause another war for Nigeria? We will not allow one single person to bring us back to 1967. Who is he? If you look at it well, he has breached all the conditions of his bail. So, the Federal Government has rightly applied for his bail to be revoked.
Do you see the utterances of Kanu as constituting hate speech, in view of the recent pronouncement by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that hate speech will be considered as an act of terrorism?
His utterances not only constitute what I call hate speech, if actualised, it can be also taken before the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) because it can create genocide. It is terrible. You know this hate speech thing, if you say something that will cause some people to hate the other people, to attack some other people, that is treason. It has an attempt of genocide and nobody should tolerate that in this country. It is not said that you have no right to talk. You have the right to criticise the government; you have the right to talk. But you don’t have the right to incite people against other people, with a view to formenting trouble, with a view to making the country to go into war.
As a senior member of the Bar, what do you think is the way forward to get out of the crisis created in the struggle for the actualisation of Biafra?
The only way forward is that we must be able to tolerate one another. We should not allow politicians to divide us on any line of religious or tribal sentiment. Anybody who tells you that people are doing this because of religion or tribal sentiment is lying. It is all politics. Even Kanu himself is just trying to have relevance and that is just that. We should never allow that.
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