2023: I’ll Rresolve IPOB, Other Agitators Issues Through Dialogue If Elected – Obi

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has said that if given the mandate to preside over Nigeria’s affairs come 2023, he would resolve outstanding agitations by various groups including the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), using dialogue.

Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, said this in response to questions on a political programme on the Media Trust Group, owners of the Daily Trust titles and Trust TV in Abuja, on Thursday, about his plans to address the nation’s insecurity.

Insecurity has worsened across Nigeria since 2015 with the current administration appearing increasingly overwhelmed.

However, Obi who promised to approach the challenge separately, said, “I have said it times without number, Nigeria does not have more agitation than Brazil, if you want I will show you countries that have had agitations in the past, whether it is Brazil, Mexico, whether it is this.

“In our South East, it is a simple thing, I will dialogue, I will discuss, it is a democracy, and in a democracy, you govern by consensus. If anybody says he is not happy, you call him and you sit him down and discuss with him.

“People agitate in my house, my wife, and my children.

“If you say to me you have lived with your wife all through and you people have never quarreled, then you are not married. You disagree and settle it – that is agitation.”

Speaking on his approach to governance if elected, Obi said, “I will govern by listening to the people. I will visit every state in Nigeria. We have a huge land in the North that if properly invested and cultivated, will change Nigeria.

“The more I pull people out of poverty, the more I reduce agitation, the more I reduce criminality. What you are seeing in Nigeria today is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years and all I want to do is to be seen to be that man who changed this country called Nigeria.”

IPOB is a Nigerian separatist organisation that has as its main objective, the restoration of an independent state of Biafra made up of states in the old Eastern Region in today’s South-East and South-South geo-political zones.

Founded in 2012, by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a British-Nigerian known for his advocacy of the contemporary Biafran independence movement, the group was designated a terrorist organisation in 2017 under the Nigerian Terrorism Act and subsequently, Kanu was arrested and taken to court over terrorism-related offences.

Members of the group have been accused of killing security operatives, politicians, traditional rulers and ordinary citizens who do not share their ideals.

Its members were also accused of destroying symbols of authority like police stations and INEC offices, among others.

In the same vein, the Boko Haram/ISWAP fighters agitating for the creation of an Islamic State in line with their strict interpretation of the Muslim Sharia Law have been raging war against the Nigerian state for over a decade.

In the South West, a separate group is agitating for the creation of a separate Yoruba nation. Oil thieves in the Niger Delta region have been waging an economic war on the nation while bandits in the North West have been having a field day  kidnapping people for ransom and killing those who resist.