Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo met with leaders of thought and traditional leaders from South east Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
Prof. Osinbajo first met with some group last week over the agitation for a Biafra and ejection of Igbos from the Nothern part of the country.
Here are things the Acting President told the leaders on Sunday:
– There has been agitation from some of our youths in the South-East urging secession, the creation of Biafra. In apparent response, young people in the North, under the aegis of Arewa youths have purportedly issued an ultimatum where they have set a date for the eviction of persons from South-East region who live in the Northern states.
The manner of those agitations, the method and objectives are wrong, unlawful and the violation of the laws of Nigeria and the constitution of Nigeria. I want to repeat that both the agitations for secession and the ultimatum to leave the Northern states are wrong and a violation of our constitution.
– Our constitution says in Section 2 that Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known by the name the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that is the law of our country.
Let us not be in any doubt about the fact that the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that our country remains united.
– And that anyone who violates the law in the manner such as we are seeing all over the place will be met with the full force of the law.
– And the reason why it is so, is because Nigeria’s unity is one for which enough blood has been spilled and many hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. Many have paid for the unity of this country with their lives and it will be wrong of us as men and women of goodwill in this generation to toy with those sacrifices that have been made.
– This is the reason why men and women of goodwill in our generation must not tolerate any tendency that drags us in the direction of yet another civil conflict.
But we must be sensitive to the reasons why there are agitations by the various young men and in fact several others across the various zones of this country. Many have to do with perceived marginalization, some have argued, safety in the different zones have been compromised in various ways.
– But I want to say the only way to make things right is to do things right. And it will be wrong of us to approach even our grievances by threatening to disobey the laws or by threatening the integrity of our nation.
– What the Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to do is ensuring we listen to all the reasons, the various suggestions, the various agitations, and the reasons for those agitations and to ensure that we do justice by all persons regardless of where you are from in this country. That is the commitment of Federal Government which I am able to make to you today.
– Our greatness lies in our being together and I believe very strongly that as our royal fathers, you will ensure the message is clear to all, that the greatness of any people lies in their ability to work together despite our differences, despite the types of offense that have been caused between each other, the greatness of any community lies in unity.
– I trust that you, our royal fathers, will give us the right directional advice to ensure that our country remains together.
