BIAFRA: Former NBA President Proffer Solutions
A former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Chief Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) has proffered solutions on how to resolve the ongoing Biafra agitations in some parts of Nigeria.
By Jerrywright Ukwu
Naij, December 20, 2015
According to him: ”The first and urgent task of this committee will be to work on a Bill for an Act of the Union of Peoples and Nationalities of Nigeria. The bill must resolve the Nigerian fault lines and contradictions. We may consider adopting a new name the‘Union of Nigeria’.”
Asked to clarify if he is asking the government to grant amnesty to Biafra agitators, Agbakoba said: ”If that is what needs to be done, yes, because in putting down insurrection you consider certain realities. Oil price at that time has dropped by almost 50 percent and therefore you have to recognize that the insurgents have a lot of power and they knew it.”
He continued: ”In negotiation, you’ve got to look at the balance of power. Boko Haram has a lot of power. If Boko Haram transforms into an international movement, we’ll have a new crisis that we can’t deal with. We haven’t gotten to that point.
”So, it makes sense to consider whether settlement helps the process. I don’t know if that would help, but if I were to take that decision and I know that financial settlement can help the process I would do that and that’s what Yar’Adua did and it worked perfectly.”
Abgakoba warned that if Nigeria go through the type of witnessed in Biafra today, the country will cease to exist. He added that if it would take some billions of naira, that the elite are stealing anyway, to resolve the problem,then the government should go ahead and do it.
Meanwhile Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has called on religious leaders in Nigeria to appeal to those agitating for a republic of Biafra to let peace reign in the region.
He made the statement on Wednesday, December 9 in Abuja stressing the important role of the Nigerian clergy in this respect.
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