From Jude Owuamanam, Managing Editor, Northern Operations
JOS (Sundiata Post) -The national leadership of the Middle Belt Youth Council has described the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as one of the most misunderstood Nigerians in recent times.
The youths said this is because many people failed to understand his concept of Biafra.
Speaking at a press briefing at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre in Jos, Plateau State on Friday, the youths said that what Kanu was agitating for was simply a just and equitable country where every citizen is given their due share irrespective of where they come from.
In the text of the briefing signed by representatives of the youths from Southern Bauchi, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Gombe, Taraba, Kwara, Adamawa, Southern Borno, Kogi, Southern Kebbi, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and read by their president, Mr. Emmanuel Zopmal, the youths said that Kanu’s concept of Biafra is an egalitarian society where equal rights and justice reign supreme.
Zopmal said, “Nnamdi Kanu is perhaps one of the most misunderstood Nigerians in living memory. This is because we don’t seem to understand what he is fighting for. Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for the oppressed in Nigeria and he is using Biafra as metaphor for an ideal society where everybody is seen to be equal.
He said that the youths in the Middle Belt aligned with the statement credited to Kanu that he would only abandon his agitations if the country is restructured.
The Middle Belt Youth Council president chastised the Federal government for not paying attention to the agitations from the various parts of country, but instead pandering to the whims of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy.
He said: “Firstly, the Nigerian government has been so insensitive to the security threats of our people over the years. Ever since the killings of our people started by Fulani herdsmen, the Federal Government of Nigeria has never set up a special security committee to find a way of addressing this threat to our existence. It only focuses its attention on oil and gas revenue base in the South and fulfills the political demands of the Arewas at all times”.
The youths said that in this regard the Federal Government has shown high level of discrimination against the Middle Belt people.
While lending their support to the calls for restructuring, the youths said: “We wish to remind our good friends in the South that they should remain focused on the fight for restructuring other than any cosmetic surgery to our national problem.”
They urged the government to set up a Special Expert Security Committee to include communities in the Middle Belt to put an end to the menace of Fulani herdsmen.
They also chided the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on his assertion that rats and rodents took over the president’ s office while he was away on medication, saying that Nigeria is not a zoological garden where animals live in a State House.
While also disagreeing with President Muhamadu Buhari that Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable, the youths said that Nigeria has come to a cross-road where it’s unity must be a subject of negotiation, adding, “It’s better we define our terms of existence in unity by national consensus than imposition, which will only degenerate into serious national problem.”