Owerri (Nigeria): 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 advised the 14th edition of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Day Celebration held at Ojukwu Memorial Library, Owerri, on Wednesday.
She said, though the court of first instance had sentenced Kanu to imprisonment, all hope is not lost, saying that with dialogue and peaceful means, Nnamdi Kanu could be released from the Sokoto Correctional Centre.
Ojukwu’s annual memorial day was instituted by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the founder of Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASOB).
The event is usually attended by Igbo people from across the five South-Eastern states 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 her job to cover all things that happened during the 1967 to 1970 Biafran and Nigerian civil war.
According to her, Nnamdi Kanu is in prison, we should not get angry, and it is not an issue to use knives, guns or fighting ourselves 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 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 said.
She added that the people of the South-East should emulate other zones and learn to address their challenges through dialogue and peaceful means.
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 Igbo, saying that the mother tongue has a profound impact on children’s upbringing.
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 these were the best ways to achieve progress and peace in life.
She said that after the civil war, her late husband, Ojukwu, was in exile for many years, but that, through peaceful means and dialogue, the late former President Shehu Shagari granted him an unconditional pardon.
Ojukwu decried the low business activity in the zone now due to the Monday stay-at-home order, adding that this was 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 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, the chairman of the occasion, called on South-Easterners to be patient and adopt diplomatic measures regarding Nnamdi Kanu’s imprisonment.
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that he is released in no distant time.
