“This agitation for new Biafra came at a time when the Niger Delta people are agitating for resource control, and at the same time, the South-West, who are more interested in brewing trouble in the country, joined forces with them to change the whole issue into restructuring. So there is now a connection between the agitation for restructuring, the realisation of Biafra and resource control.”
Alhaji Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a former Special Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, spoke on why the agitation of Biafra continued to attract attention, why it is impossible for the Igbo to secede and why they will be better off in Nigeria than Biafra, among other things.

Why is the agitation for Biafra gathering momentum in recent times?
Well, the agitation for Biafra started soon after the demise of Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi. So the name is not new. The only difference is that the old Biafra actually was intended to occupy the whole of southern region.
It was a scheme for getting the entire southern Nigeria to break away. The intention was to block the North from access to the sea. If that happened, the North would be starved of many things coming from the port, including fuel and imported items we rely upon. So that was the old Biafra. Because of that, when they were preparing to declare Biafra, southern minorities from the present day Cross River and Akwa Ibom led a delegation to the North to plead with General Hassan Usman Katsina, the then military governor of Northern Nigeria, to plead with the central government not to allow Biafran secession to succeed because, according to them, if it was allowed to succeed, they would remain forever as second class citizens in what would be known as Biafra.
The young men are not agitating for the five Igbo-speaking states to constitute Biafra, rather, they are thinking of the old Eastern Region, with the four minority states, together with five majority Igbo-speaking states. You don’t dismiss idea by a wave of hand. But the practical aspect of it is very difficult because all along there has not been love lost between the Igbo and their minority.
In fact, when Nigeria was to be granted independence and constitutional conference was held in 1957, the minorities in the East complained of oppression and marginalisation by the Igbo. They wanted their interest to be safeguarded in an independent Nigeria. It was agreed that a special arrangement would be made to protect their interest, and it was made with the creation of the Niger Delta Development Authority which was put under the care of Shehu Shagari, who was then the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister. It was decided that the development of the Niger Delta shall not come from the Eastern Region, even though they were located under the old regional government.
I don’t think it is possible for the minority to go into any political association with the Igbo.
This agitation started right from the time of Obasanjo, with Uwazurike as its leader. Now, I think Uwazurike has realised that it is an impossible task to realise their dream; that is why he is more or less quiet. This young man, Nnamdi Kanu, was just a broadcaster. I don’t know whether he was under Uwazurike or on his own, but he was not a leader on his own. He was a broadcaster. I believe he got some of their people in the United States, collected their money and set up a radio station, which I think is being broadcast from America and beamed somewhere in West Africa. The boy became popular after his arrest. I think what they are trying to do is to develop the agitation into a political movement and try to gather support from the Igbo and any of their sympathizers.
This agitation for new Biafra came at a time when the Niger Delta people are agitating for resource control, and at the same time, the South-West, who are more interested in brewing trouble in the country, joined forces with them to change the whole issue into restructuring. So there is now a connection between the agitation for restructuring, the realisation of Biafra and resource control. They started during the 1994/95 constitutional conference, where they were holding regular meetings. At that time, every week, the minority from the East would meet with Igbo, and after that, they would meet with the Yoruba. All these three ideas emanated from former Vice President Alex Ekwueme.
This is the situation now. The issue to be addressed is whether the present Biafra would include the former Eastern Region, whereby the four minority Igbo-speaking states would join forces with five Igbo-speaking states and form new Biafra? That has
