The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, has advised the South-East people to use dialogue and peaceful means to tackle the recent imprisonment of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Ojukwu gave the advice at the 14th edition of the Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Day Celebration held at the Ojukwu Memorial Library, Owerri, on Wednesday.
She said though the court of first instance had sentenced Kanu to imprisonment, all hope was not lost, saying with dialogue and peaceful means, Nnamdi Kanu could be released from the Sokoto Correctional Centre.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ojukwu Annual Memorial Day was instituted by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the founder of the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
The event is usually attended by some Igbo people across the five states of the South-East and beyond.
Mrs Ojukwu in her address called for a minute’s silence for the late BBC journalist, Mr Frederick Forsyth, whom she said resigned from her job to cover all things that happened during the 1967 to 1970 Biafra and Nigeria civil war.
According to her, Nnamdi Kanu is in the prison; we should not get angry, and it is not an issue to use knives, guns 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 and ask them the way forward to ensure that Kanu is freed from the prison.
“Also, all of us should come together and plan 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 said.
She added that the people of the South-East should imitate other zones and learn to solve any of their challenges through dialogue and peaceful ways.
The minister expressed dissatisfaction that the majority of the Igbo children these days don’t speak the Igbo language, as their parents don’t even teach them how to speak their language.
She advised Igbo parents to teach their children how to speak the Igbo language, saying that mother tongue has a huge impact on the upbringing of children.
She expressed dissatisfaction that even during the Nigerian civil war, Igbo people were not killing themselves or kidnapping people for ransom, adding that what is happening in the zone presently is strange.
She urged the youths to be patient and embrace peace and dialogue, as that was the best way to achieve progress and peacefulness in life.
She said 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.
Ojukwu decried the low business activities being witnessed in the zone now due to the Monday sit-at-home, adding that this was as a result of insecurity in the area.
She explained that since killing and kidnapping became common in the zone, socio-economic activities had gone down, noting that investors are now investing in other zones.
“Before, foreigners such as those from Cameroon, Ghana, and Togo, among others, were coming to invest in the South-East, but since insecurity started, many of the investors, both foreigners and local, have withdrawn from the area.”
Chief Ugwunna Ajaelu, who was the chairman of the occasion, called on South-East people to be patient and adopt diplomatic measures on the issue of Nnamdi Kanu’s imprisonment.
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that he is released in no distant time.” (NAN)
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