Aloy Ejimakor, the lawyer for Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has called for an apology from Northern leaders to Kanu. His statement came after Ango Abdullahi, a spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), remarked that Nigeria’s unity needs to be re-negotiated because the country “expired” a decade ago.
Ejimakor pointed out that Abdullahi’s comment aligns with Kanu’s long-held belief that Nigeria is no longer viable. He argued that the North should now recognize Kanu’s views and apologize for dismissing them in the past.
This remark from Abdullahi has added fuel to the ongoing debate about Nigeria’s future, with many questioning whether the country can continue in its current form. The situation has sparked more conversations about the unity of Nigeria and whether it is time for serious changes.
According to Ejimakor: “Earlier today (12th November 2024), I noticed that several news outlets quoted the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Prof. Ango Abdullahi as having proclaimed that Nigeria “expired” 10 years ago or in 2014. They even added that Nigeria as a nation should, for this reason, be “renegotiated”.
“To me, this landmark proclamation is a significant departure from what was the stance of the North and even the Buhari-led Federal Government when, some years ago, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made the same proclamation in an epic broadcast on Radio Biafra.
“To be sure, Mazi Kanu’s position then, just as the North has now conceded, was that the legal instrument upon which Nigeria was founded in 1914 has a fixed duration of one hundred years, which expired in 2014.
“It will be recalled that this very broadcast was one of the major reasons Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was then charged with the offence of secession, which was later escalated to incitement of terrorism for which he was renditioned and remains in incarceration for over three years, awaiting some trial.
“So, one might ask: Now that the North has said the same thing for which Mazi Kanu was arrested, renditioned, detained and charged to court, is it not time for the Federal Government and even the North to show some contrition by apologizing to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or acknowledging that he was right all along?”.
