A renowned lawyer and politician has spoken on the need why the Igbos and Nigeria as a whole must avoid another second civil war.
Second Republic politician and Anambra State Chairman of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP, Chief Guy Ikokwu in an interview with Vanguard, has urged the Federal Government to release without delay the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu if he does not want the country to embark on another second civil war.
He said that the continued incarceration is not in the best interest of the country. Ikokwu, a lawyer of over 50 years and a chieftain of the defunct National Democratic Coalition, NADECO also mentioned some of the reasons why people are agitating in Nigeria. He said the leaders have failed Nigerians by refusing to restructure the country, which he argued is hindering the nation’s socio-economic growth.
He said: "Generally speaking and in line with what Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was the first leader of Biafra said, our people should not go for a second civil war. It is in public domain. It is on Youtube and video. Anybody can play it and listen to what he said.
"In saying that, he said history should be a lesson not only for Nigeria but also for Igbo people and that the grave implications of a civil war are such that the initiators do not normally know where it would end and who and who would suffer. In the first civil war, the majority of those who suffered were the innocent people. More than a million people died and they were not the ones who started the war or were fighting the war.
"He said a second civil is not in the best interest of Nigeria, that Nigeria should learn its own lesson and understand that the Igbo always add value to anywhere they go. To any situation they are called upon, they add value. They never go anywhere to deteriorate the existing situation.
"Not only that they are so flexible that they can change their culture – language and dressing that they and the natives will almost look alike; that the main thing Nigeria should do is to restructure the country into fiscal federalism as our founding fathers – Herbert Macauley, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Dennis Osadebey, MI Okpara , etc, who agitated and got. They fought for a federal structure and this is embedded in our national anthem – in diversity we stand, there is unity in diversity.
"The issue of Radio Biafra is not treasonable. Radio Biafra is digital instrument registered in United Kingdom or America. It is not the first time. Professor Wole Soyinka had Radio Kudirat, done abroad and broadcasting to Nigeria. NADECO endorsed such foreign radios by Nigerians. It is a matter of freedom of information. If Kanu is guilty of treason on account of Radio Biafra then millions of Nigerians are guilty of treason in the social media because it is a digital matter now. You take your smart phone and say whatever you like – good, bad, rubbish, exemplary, etc."