The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, has urged the South-East people to use dialogue and peaceful means to address the recent imprisonment of Nnamdi Kanu.
Ojukwu made the remarks at the 14th edition of the Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Day Celebration held at the Ojukwu Memorial Library, Owerri, Imo State, on Wednesday.
She noted that although the court of first instance had sentenced Kanu to imprisonment, “all hope are not lost,” adding that through dialogue and peaceful methods, Nnamdi Kanu could be released from the Sokoto Correctional Centre.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ojukwu’s annual memorial day was instituted by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the founder of the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASOB).
The event is usually attended by Igbo people from the five South-East states and beyond.
During her address, Mrs. Ojukwu called for a minute of silence for the late BBC journalist, Mr. Frederick Forsyth, “who resigned her job to cover all things that happened during the 1967 to 1970 Biafra and Nigeria civil war.”
She said, “Nnamdi Kanu is in the prison, we should not get angry and it is not issue to use knives, gun or fighting ourselves in order to solve it.
“This coming Christmas, all of us should endeavour to meet with our National Assembly members and our governors, ask them the way forward to ensure that Kanu is freed from the prison.
“Also, all of us should come together, plan ourselves on how to use peaceful means to settle this matter, we should plan how to meet with President Bola Tinubu and amicably resolve this matter.”
She added that the people of the South-East should emulate other zones and learn to solve their challenges “through dialogue and peaceful ways.”
Ojukwu also expressed concern over the declining use of the Igbo language among children, noting that “mother tongue has huge impact in the upbringing of children,” and urged parents to teach their children the language.
She further decried current insecurity in the zone, noting that “even during the Nigeria civil war, Igbo people were not killing themselves or kidnapping people for ransom,” adding that the current situation is “strange.”
She encouraged youths to be patient and embrace peace and dialogue as “the best way to achieve progress and peaceful life.”
Ojukwu recalled that after the civil war, her late husband, Ojukwu, was in exile for many years, but “with peaceful means and dialogue, the late former President Shehu Shagari was able to grant him unconditional pardon.”
She also highlighted the negative economic impact of insecurity, stating, “Before foreigners such as Cameroon, Ghana, Togo among others were coming to invest in the South-East, but since insecurity started many of the investors both foreigners and local had withdrawn from the area.”
Chief Ugwunna Ajaelu, chairman of the occasion, called on South-East people to be patient and adopt diplomatic measures regarding Nnamdi Kanu’s imprisonment, stressing that “all hands must be on deck to ensure that he is released in no distant time.”
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