TIME TO MAKE PEACE WITH IPOB.
The anambra state elections is no doubt a security nightmare and a major cause for concern for many Nigerians.
Wether we like it or not, the IPOB has become an established ” army of resistance ” for the self determination group in the southeast.
Also we must come to accept that the BIAFRA ideology has come to stay.
Although it is self evident that the major stakeholders of these movements are predominantly youths, the adult themselves share the concerns of these fighting youths even though may prefer a different approach to achieving the same goals.
Unfortunately also, concurrent events in the nation make the counsels of the elders untenable and therefore unacceptable to the warring youths .
The police has deployed 34, 000 officers. We do not know the numbers for the military and civil defence institutions.
To the average citizens in anambra this militarization and over policing though inevitable, can never the less be comforting.
From my own projections nothing less than 50% of normally voting population, purely out of fear and apprehension, will stay in their houses and avoid voting.
If this happen the election itself becomes substantially flawed because a major ingredient of democratic suffrage, “free & fair” will be absent.
While one must of necessity concede to the federal government that it should not normally tolerate or succumb to internal threats to peace and good order, perhaps it’s now time to seek the seemingly elusive peace in the southeast.
I hasyen to call on the federal government at this point of our national history to invite the leadership of IPOB to a peace meeting to listen to the complaints of the youths from the southeast and see how a true solution can be negotiated.
I say this as someone who was part of government when Boko Haram was in its wake or infancy. The presumed might of the federal government made it looked preposterous for the government to call a rag tag group to a negotiating table.
Now after more than 10years, thousands of deaths, human tragedies and millions of internal human displacements, and with billions of dollars down the drain, I am convinced that it was indeed an error not to have negotiated for peace ab initio.
Finally I will like to remind the administration that since the mid 1900s, historically no insurgency , once fully established last less than 12years on the average. Nigeria cannot afford sustain another major internal rebellion for another 10years.