Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has urged the Federal Government to employ more diplomacy in handling the agitation for the Republic of Biafra.
Soyinka said statements like “Nigeria is indivisible”, “This won’t happen under my watch,” “Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable” would not help matters.
The Nobel laureate spoke in an interview on Channels Television programme, Channels Books’ Club.
Agitation for the Republic of Biafra gained more traction recently following the arrest of Director of outlawed Biafra Radio, Nnamdi Kanu.
The protesters had taken over the Niger Bridge, Onitsha, Anambra State blocking traffic and it took the intervention of security agents before they could be dislodged, leaving some persons dead in its wake.
Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to approach the agitation in a more diplomatic way, pointing out that he had said earlier that Biafra cannot be defeated.
According to him, ”Once an idea has taken off, you may defeat those behind it in a war but that does not mean the end of the idea.”
But he lamented that he had been misunderstood at the time.
He said the attitude of the government should be to sit down with the those leading the renewed agitation and ask: “What can we do to make the Igbo feel part of the country, what can we do to make them to feel that they belong and not alienated.
“This is what we are ready to push for in the overall governance content of the country. It is not to be carrying on that this will not happen under my watch; Nigeria is indivisible, Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable, he stated”
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The best system for Nigeria is Confederation. Our federal system is more or less a unitary govt. We are too divided for this kind of govt. Weaken the centre and strengthen the regions. Don’t we have England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as United Kingdom? Until our system is changed agitations will continue to spring up here and there. As JD would say “We are what we are”
To be fair to the Igbos, I think they have a right to ask for what they see as an unfair treatment in the scheme of things in Nigeria since the end of the Civil war.