Reno Omokri, a former presidential spokesperson, has cautioned that President Bola Tinubu’s planned move to declare a state of emergency in the South East will worsen the security situation of the region.
In a statement posted on his twitter account on Monday, Omokri issued this warning and suggested that well-known Nigerians should persuade President Tinubu to ensure that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, is released under the condition that he will stop using violence to advance his cause.
“I am not sure the request for President Tinubu to declare a state of emergency in the Southeast will achieve the desired results. In my opinion, it will only aggravate issues. Let’s look at the challenge holistically instead. Why are there sit-at-homes in the Southeast? It is due to the continued incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu. Now, Nnamdi Kanu himself was a response to former President Buhari’s attitude towards the Southeast. He considered the region a “dot in a circle” and shortchanged them because “constituents, for example, that gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.” But Buhari is gone, and that class of 1966 mentality, which fought the civil war, is no longer in control of Nigeria’s affairs,” Omokri wrote.
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“There has been a change of guard. What lovers of Nigeria ought to do to bring peace to the Southeast is to convince President Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu on the condition that Mr Kanu will give up violence as a means of pursuing his agenda, and that he would promote any political or social policy he has peacefully and democratically. With Muhammadu Buhari out of the picture, I am not sure Mr Kanu will reject such conditions. And if he is freed, the sit-at-homes will die a natural death,” he added.
According to the former presidential spokesperson, releasing the group’s leader will be “a less expensive way to resolve the crisis,” and fewer people will die as a result.
Additionally, he cautioned that if a state of emergency is declared and soldiers and other security forces are deployed in the Southeast, it will result in conflicts with Mr. Kanu’s supporters, who are not cowards, and recreate and entrench the kind of environment that initially gave rise to Nnamdi Kanu and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra movement.
“ The state of emergency will be a massive public relations success for IPOB, and recruitment into the group will increase, along with anti Nigeria sentiments amongst moderate Southeasterners. But if, instead, President Tinubu sets up a Southeast Development Commission, and spends the money he would have used to send soldiers into the zone to ensure the rapid infrastructural development of the Southeast, not only will he reduce anti Nigeria sentiment amongst the Igbos to the barest minimum, even he can expect massive votes from that region in future elections. It is not every time that force and state of emergency works,” Omokri added.
On Sunday, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo sociocultural organisation urged President Bola Tinubu to issue a state of emergence regarding the Southeast’s sit-at-home order.
Ohanaeze asserted that announcing a state of emergency would send a clear message to the Southeast governors, who would then be under pressure to come up with a long-term solution to the order.
Recall that gunmen alleged to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have continued to enforce the sit-at-home order on Mondays as a result of the President Bola Tinubu-led government’s refusal to release the IPOB’s leader, who was imprisoned by the previous Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
However, following the federal government’s refusal to free Mr. Kanu, the group’s faction leader, Simon Ekpa has threatened to enforce the Monday sit-at-home order in Lagos.
