16th January, 2023
Peter Obi, Labour Party’s presidential candidate in Nigeria’s forthcoming presidential election says he will dialogue with all agitators, including the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) if elected president.
Obi was questioned by reporters after his Chatham House briefing to unveil his agenda for Nigeria. He was asked why he had not categorically condemned the activities of IPOB by a reporter.
He said he condemned all agitators, but said he would dialogue with them on the way forward.
According to him, “Just yesterday I spoke about Biafra being ended 53 years ago, I condemned all agitators but in condemning them, you have to look at what brought about this agitations all over the place.
“Not only IPOB, we have Yoruba nation movement, we have all such. When you have created this massive level of poverty, where 63 percent of your population is poor, you are going to create all sorts of problems.
“I was speaking to a British minister this morning, I said we have about 40 percent unemployment, and we have about 60 percent youth unemployment. Young people in their productive age doing nothing, if you have 15 percent of unemployment today in Britain, you are going to have massive agitation, nobody will be able to leave his house.
“So what you are seeing is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years which will be solved by good governance, when people start seeing justice, fairness and inclusive governance and people doing the right thing, all those things will start reversing itself and that is what me and Datti are offering.
“I will talk and discuss with all agitators, there is nothing wrong in that, people are agitating even in my house and I talked with them,” he stated.