Igbo want presidency, not Biafra, says Iwuanyanwu

Chidiebube Okeoma

Politician and businessman, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop treating the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kalu, as a hero.

Iwuanyanwu advised President Buhari not to treat the IPOB leader as an important personality by keeping him in detention for months but to quickly try him in court.

Iwuanyanwu, who spoke on Friday at the National Executive Council meeting of the Nigerian Union of journalists in Owerri, the Imo state capital, said Igbo desired to produce the president of the country and not to separate from it.

He said, “Igbo people are majority tribe in Nigeria. We are everywhere and doing greatly.”

He urged the President to quickly summon a meeting of elders in the country in order to find a permanent solution to the Niger Delta problems and insurgency.

Iwuanyanwu also berated the Niger Delta militants for blowing up oil pipelines, describing the act as stupidity capable of hindering the progress in the region.

Also, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, who spoke at the event, said the country’s unity was non-negotiable.

The governor vowed to do everything to keep the country as one.

Okorocha said, “I see myself as an unusual Nigerian. While Igbo parents gave birth to me, I was born in the North, went to school there and even married in the North there. I was empowered by the West. For me, there is no better place to call our own than Nigeria. We must do everything possible to protect the country from those who seek its downfall.”

On his part, National President of NUJ, Mr. Waheed Odusile, said the union was happy with the ongoing war against graft, urging the Federal Government to allow journalists practise without restriction.