2023: I’ll Have A Dialogue With IPOB, Others – Peter Obi

I’ll Have A Dialogue With IPOB, Others – Peter Obi

Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has said he would dialogue with the members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and other agitators to restore peace in the country if elected president come February 25, 2023.

Obi, a former governor of Anambra State stated this while responding to questions on insecurity in the country at the corporate headquarters of the Media Trust Group (MTG). IPOB is a separatist organisation in Nigeria, which claims that its main aim is to restore an independent state of Biafra in the old Eastern Region of the country, comprising mainly today’s South-East and South-South regions.

The group was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu, a British-Nigerian known for his advocacy of the contemporary Biafran independence movement.

It was designated a terrorist organisation in 2017 under the Nigerian Terrorism Act and subsequently, Kanu was arrested and taken to court over terrorism-related offences.

The group had been accused of killing security operatives, politicians, traditional rulers and ordinary citizens. Its members were also fingered in the destruction of symbols of authority like police stations and INEC offices, among others.

In other parts of the country, the Boko Haram/ISWAP fighters have been raging war against the Nigerian state for over 13 years while activities of militants occasioned by oil theft have denied Nigeria the opportunity to benefit from its oil wealth. In the North West, bandits have been terrorising the people of the geopolitical zone.

‘My approach will be different’

While answering questions after his visit to Media Trust, Obi said, “I have said it times without number, Nigeria does not have more agitation than Brazil, if you want I will show you countries that have had agitations in the past, whether it is Brazil, Mexico, whether it is this.

“In our South East, it is a simple thing, I will dialogue, I will discuss, it is a democracy, and in a democracy, you govern by consensus. If anybody says he is not happy, you call him and you sit him down and discuss with him.

“People agitate in my house, my wife, my children. If you say to me you have lived with your wife all through and you people have never quarrelled, then you are not married. You disagree and settle it – that is agitation.”

If elected, Obi said he would govern by consensus and listen to all for smooth administration of the country.

“I will govern by listening to the people. I will visit every state in Nigeria. We have a huge land in the North that if properly invested and cultivated, will change Nigeria. The more I pull people out of poverty, the more I reduce agitation, the more I reduce criminality. What you are seeing in Nigeria today is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years and all I want to do is to be seen to be that man who changed this country called Nigeria,” he said.