Senate President Godswill Akpabio has urged the people of the South East to continue to maintain peace in the country and guide the youth appropriately to shun armed struggle against the Nigerian government.
Akpabio made the appeal at the weekend while at the funeral of the former Administrative Secretary of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), Sir Albert Nnamani, who was buried on Saturday in his hometown of Ikem in Enugu State.
In a statement from his media office, Akpabio said that development is feasible only in an atmosphere of peace and urged the Ndigbo to watch over the youth with a view to guiding them appropriately.
The President of the Senate said: “For Ndigbo, l want to plead with you to continue to maintain the peace and watch the youth of today. They don’t understand politics. They don’t understand development. You can only have development in an area of peace.
“A situation whereby you try to wrestle power and try to assert independence through armed struggle from the Federal Government will fail. The state power will always overwhelm you.
“We are prepared as a parliament to make the right laws, to tinker with the Act, to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in order for Ndigbo to have, at least, an additional state. So that they will also be equal to the other zones of the country. So, for this, is the promise that we make and we stand by that.
“The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very eager to right the wrongs of the past. That is why even in terms of appointment, he has done his best to ensure that Ndigbo is not marginalised. But everything you want should be negotiated.
“I’m saying this to underscore the fact that through peaceful means and negotiation, we shall get our right of place in Nigeria. I want this to happen in your lifetime. May we not lose our youth because of wrong politics and wrong advice. May we not lose our youth because of disaffection and people misleading them.
“We need solid base in Ndigbo land. I am not happy that the economy of Onitsha and Nigeria is affected by the so-called sit-at-home. It has affected your economy so badly.
“Ndigbo are known for nothing but enterprise. When we came out from the war, all your accounts were frozen. If you have two million pounds, they gave you three pounds. What will you do with three pounds?
“So when l was given an award in 2010 by Silverbird. I saw all the gladiators seated together. Then I asked them: how come the so-called three Rs – Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction – that Reconstruction happened in other areas of the country where the war was not fought.
“But in the area of the South-South and South East where Biafra war was fought, there was no reconstruction. They only tried reconciliation and rehabilitation. That R (Reconstruction) was missing.”
Akpabio, who noted that Nigerian past leaders at the event were not comfortable with his speech, however, ended his speech by saying it was time for Nigeria to do justice and prayed “that justice shall be done to Ndigbo in our lifetime in Jesus name.”
Akpabio paid glowing tribute to the former OMPADEC administrator who was buried, stressing that “as administrative secretary of the former OMPADEC, he discharged his duty with dignity and with candour and he set the tone for the development of the Niger Delta region.”
He said, “Before his ascension into that position, many used to say that so much is being promised the people of the Niger Delta and that all the promises were in the pipeline. After a while, our people started breaking the pipelines in order to bring out the Federal Government’s promises. But those things are now things of the past.”
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