By Vincent Kalu and Paul Osuyi, Asaba

President of South East Elders Forum, and former President, Ohanaeze, Dr. Dozie Ikedife; Civil War veteran, Col. Joe Achuzua, and Secretary General, Eastern Consultative Assembly, Evangelist Elliot Uko, have said that Biafra can’t be wished away.

They were reacting to a statement credited to the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, who urged Igbo, and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), to drop the agitation for an independent Biafra and join the quest to restructure Nigeria.

The Ohanaeze boss stated this during a Town Hall meeting, held in Lagos on Thursday.

According to Dr. Ikedife, what Chief Nwodo said was his personal opinion. “It is an important thing to let him know that he is talking about war. Nobody is talking about war. The Supreme Council of the Elders of Indigenous People of Biafra is not talking of war; they are talking of legal process, diplomatic process, dialogue, consultations and discussions. Nobody is talking about war.

“To say, forget Biafra is annoying to many people. If you lost two or three of your children to kwashiorkor, if you lost your husband or wife to air raid during the war, how can somebody legitimately ask you to forget Biafra? If you lost the only house you have in Rivers State that was declared an abandoned property, how can you forget Biafra?

“To tell people to forget wounds inflicted on their psyche, on their economy, on their future is to talk nonsense”, the former Ohanaze boss said.

He queried if actualisation of self-determination means war. “Actualisation of self determination must be by war? The answer is No.

“After all, the United Nations, African nations and by extension, Nigeria, have at one time or the other enacted that, group of indigenous people have right to self-determination. They didn’t say they have the right to war.

“The way Chief Nwodo was emphasizing war is as if that was the only option for self-determination. War is by no way one of the options. Certainly for some us, beyond negotiation, legal process, dialogue and diplomatic processes, there is no question of war; there is no question of even hard words”, Ikedife said.

In the same vein, Biafra veteran, Col. Joe Achuzia (Retd), said that the agitation for Biafra is not a waste of time, insisting, the idea is very much realisable.

Speaking on the phone from Asaba, Achuzia stated that Chief Nwodo only expressed his personal opinion, which he is entitled to.

“That is his opinion, everybody has his or her own opinion. Biafra remains spiritually realisable; I have not changed my mind on that over the years. But when I say that, I am not talking about a Biafra outside Nigeria, what I am talking about is Biafra within Nigeria just like you have areas and others.

“However, Nwodo is a seasoned politician and a well-known technocrat. For him to voice a statement, he must have thought about it. I have implicit confidence that he will not say anything derogatory against our people because we elected him to champion the cause of Igbo,” Achuzia added.

Also, the President, Igbo Youth Movement, Evangelist Uko, said anybody trying to address the agitation for Biafra, who does not wish to address the cause, is wasting time.

According to him, “any president, whosever that wants to solve the problem should first of all address the reason why these youths want to leave Nigeria; why they are tired of Nigeria.

“It is by trying to know the reasons they want to pull out of Nigeria that you can solve the problem, and make them to begin to embrace Nigeria again.

“Telling them to forget Biafra won’t work. I don’t want to single out Chief Nwodo. It is for President Buhari to come down from his high horse and negotiate with these youths, who are agitating to pull out of Nigeria; find out their grouse and begin to address them, instead of mounting platitudes that they should forget Biafra.”

“They say it is Biafra, but you don’t want to listen to them. A sincere leader would invite the youth, listen to them and begin to address the reasons for the agitations. When you refuse to dialogue with them, you refuse to hear their cry, you don’t care about why they want to leave, then that is a symptom of fake leadership.”