A former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd) has said it would be wrong to treat Biafra agitators as hoodlums.
He stated this while drawing comparison between the agitation being led by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu and the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, the leader of the Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
Wiwa, he said went about his own in an intellectual way with his writings which attracted the sympathy from many Nigerians and the international community, a cause which he was executed for along with others in 1995 by the Abacha military government.
He drew this comparison while reacting to the present handling of the ongoing agitation by the Federal Government.
All in all, he warned that those agitating for Biafra should not be treated as hoodlums adding that there is a reason for the ongoing agitation and it is the root cause of the problems that has to be addressed.
His words: “It is usually treasonable to take up arms against one’s country – even to have violent demonstrations. But, one must keep asking oneself: why?
“Why would a normal person, especially from the educated class, participate in anything that would be either illegal or dangerous?
“It is not good for us to look at these people (pro-Biafra agitators) as just hoodlums. We know how Isaac Adaka Boro was treated.
“It is not good for us to look at these people (pro-Biafra agitators) as just hoodlums. We know how Isaac Adaka Boro was treated.
“He didn’t have military knowledge. If he did, Nigeria would have been a different place today. So, eventually he died.
“The next charge was led by an intellectual (Ken Saro-Wiwa) and it’s not different from what these boys (pro-Biafra agitators) are doing now and asking for – except that he put his own in a very intellectual context and tried to make us reason with him.
“What did we do? The government hanged him, hoping his ideas would die with him in the noose. That’s where we still are today.
“Therefore, whether Nnamdi Kanu embarked on his agitation the right or the wrong way, the question is: what prompted such agitation?
“Why would anybody keep talking about Biafra after the carnage, the wanton destruction of lives and properties and the psychological trauma brought upon Nigerians, not just people from the East?
“I don’t have the mind to condemn the Indigenous People of Biafra, the (Niger Delta) Avengers, and other groups. Who created the situation for these people to think differently from us?” Akinrinade said.
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