Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that the agitation for a Biafra State by MASSOB and the IPOB group is born in error, ignorance and frustration, describing it as a hopeless and futile exercise.The internationally respected former president said this was the first time he is baring his mind and speaking in-depth about the Biafra agitation, apart from “a few words of warning he mustered”.Speaking at the Nextier Development Discourse titled “Nigeria and the Biafra Agitation,” at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua centre in Abuja, Obasanjo said he has always been cautious about getting himself into any debate relating to Biafra because the agitation was born out of the personal ambitions.Obasanjo who stressed that he would never be a party to any debate about disintegrating Nigeria said: “I am very cautious getting myself into any debate orconversation concerning MASSOB, its many hydra-formed iterations and its resurgent Biafra agitation.“I had taken this position because I suspected that the agitation was born in error and ignorance and out of the personal frustration of many of the frontline demagogues of this new nightmare and their supporters and sympathizers.I also believed that at best, the agitation was at regional level and that no inadvertent helping hand should be lent toit to make it national.”Making reference to his book titled, “My Command” he said if the elders abdicate their responsibility to the immaturity and unrealistic idealism and frustration of the young, it will no doubt lead to disaster.He said, “That to me, substantially explains the misfortune of most of the resurgent Biafra agitators. They need to be understood because lack of understanding with its appropriate remedy will drive them further into the hands of opportunists who will thrive on their desperation and frustration, turning itinto criminality and extremism.”
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