Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said the succession of Biafra from Nigeria is not the solution to the challenges confronting the country.
Osinbajo, who was the keynote speaker at the anniversary conference on the Nigeria-Biafra civil war titled: ‘Memory and nation-building Biafra: 50 years after, a sober reflection,’ which held in Abuja on Thursday, declared that the country is greater together than apart.
The conference was organised by the Yar’Adua Foundation in collaboration with the Ford Foundation and other organisations, to commemorate the 50th year anniversary of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war that consumed about three million people.
He said the affinities and friendships across the country are a reminder that unity under President Muhammadu Buhari is possible in Nigeria.
Osinbajo stated that Nigerians should be wise to learn from the history of the civil war and desist from “beating the drums” of another wasteful civil war.
According to him, experience is a harsh teacher. The Acting President said he lost friends and an aunt during the civil war.
“I was 10 years old when my friend in primary school then, Emeka, left school one afternoon. He said his parents said they had to go back to East, war was about to start.
‘’I never saw Emeka again. My aunty, Bunmi, was married to a gentleman from Enugu, I cannot recall his name.
But I recall the evening when my parents tried to persuade her and her husband not to leave for the East. She did, we never saw her again,” he said.
While he alluded to the fact that nothing was wrong in discussing the basis for the nation’s togetherness, he urged Nigerians to take advantage of the nation’s diversity to build a more virile and great nation.
Osinbajo said: “The truth is that the spilling of blood in dispute is hardly ever worth the losses. Of the fallouts of bitter wars is the anger that can so easily be rekindled by those who for good or ill want to resuscitate the fire.
Today, some are suggesting that we must go back to the ethnic nationalities from which Nigeria was formed. They say that secession is the answer to the charges of marginalization.
They argue that separation from the Nigerian State will ultimately result in successful smaller States. They argue eloquently, I might add, that Nigeria is a colonial contraption that cannot endure.
“This is also the sum and substance of the agitation for Biafra. The campaign is often bitter and vitriolic, and has sometimes degenerated to fatal violence. Brothers and sisters, permit me to differ and to suggest that we’re greater together than apart.
“No country is perfect. Around the world, we have seen and continued to see expressions of intra-national discontent. Indeed, not many Nigerians seem to know that the oft-quoted line about Nigeria being a “mere geographical expression” originally applied to Italy.
‘’It was the German statesman, Klemens von Metternich, who dismissively summed up Italy as a mere geographical expression exactly a century before Nigeria came into being as a country. From Spain to Belgium to the United Kingdom and even the United States of America, you will find many today who will venture to make similar arguments about their countries. But they have remained together.
“The truth is that many, if not most nations of the world, are made up of different people and cultures and beliefs and religions, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance. Nations are indeed made up of many nations. The most successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure of secession, but who through thick and thin forge unity in diversity.
Nigeria is no different; we are, not three, but more like 300 or so ethnic groups within the same geographical space, presented with a great opportunity to combine all our strengths into a nation that is truly, to borrow an expression, more than the sum of its parts.
“Clearly, our strength is in our diversity, that we are greater together than apart. Imagine for a moment that an enterprising young man from Aba had to apply for a visa to travel to Kano to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, or that a young woman from Abeokuta had to fill immigration forms and await a verdict in order to attend her best friend’s wedding in Umuahia.
Nigeria would be a much less colourful, much less interesting space, were that the case. Our frustrations with some who speak a different dialect or belong to a different religion must not drive us to forget many of the same tribe and faith of our adversaries who have shown true affection for us.”
