Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has asserted that no ethnic group should be punished for secessionist tendencies, as every region in Nigeria has, at one time or another, contemplated breaking away.
He spoke on Tuesday while hosting members of the League of Northern Democrats, led by former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He said: “I think all of us in Nigeria have to rethink. It bleeds my heart when people say because the Igbos had carried out secession, an Igbo man cannot be the president of Nigeria. I say what nonsense? There is no section of Nigeria that has not planned secession.”
The former president argued that the foundational problem plaguing Nigeria is regionalism, pointing out that it has deepened the divide among Nigerians and delayed the country’s progress.
Obasanjo went on to question the emphasis on regional leadership and called for a shift in mindset towards national unity
