‘I Don’t Believe In Biafra Through The Barrels Of The Gun’ – Governor Ikpeazu

The governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, believes that violence is not the best approach to create an independent Biafra nation and that there are better ways to go about such agitation.

When Ikpeazu spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics about his experiences during the Nigerian Civil War, he mentioned this.

“I don’t believe in Biafra through the barrels of the gun because I saw a little bit of the Civil War and I don’t want that kind of thing and I don’t see the prospects of that venture and I don’t want anything that will be suicidal,” the governor said during the show.

The proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, which has been in the forefront of recent agitations for the creation of a nation, issued a sit-at-home order in the southeast, but the governor claimed he does not recognize the group and dismissed the order.

“As far as we are concerned in Abia, there is nothing like IPOB,” Ikpeazu said but admitted that “it is difficult to proscribe an ideology.”

While pushing for national justice and equity, the Abia governor claimed that some of Nigerians’ grievances are valid and should be addressed.

“If Biafra is a metaphor for agitation against injustice in any way, then there is Biafra in the heart of every Nigerian,” he added, just as he called on the citizens to project things that unite the nation.

The governor, who noted that Margaret Ekpo, a late women’s rights pioneer and social mobilizer, was a councilor in Abia State and that someone from Kano State was previously a mayor in Enugu State, bemoaned Nigeria’s growing division.

“Why are we not taking steps to build bridges? Rather we are emphasizing things that divide us – ethnicity, religion – all those things that divide us,” the governor said.