Soludo backs IPOB as he visits Nnamdi Kanu in prison, says Nigeria more divided now

“It would be recalled how the IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu set up Radio Biafra mainly to preach and broadcast hate thereby inciting division among Nigerian tribes.  Many Igbo leaders had kept mute without clear show of which side between Nigeria and the pro-Biafra agitation they belonged.  Igwe Alex Nwokedi, a partaker in the Odumegwu Ojukwu-led defunct Republic of Biafra, had said the unity of Nigeria was paramount and that what he would always want was President of Nigeria and not President of Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa.”

A former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has said the nation is drifting to a failed state having been in the ‘Red Alert’ position in the global failed state index, adding that  Nigeria has never been more divided than now.

Soludo, who spoke in Abuja on Tuesday at the end of a meeting of some Igbo leaders under the auspices of ‘Nzuko Umunna’, condemned the planned secret trial of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) Nnamdi Kanu and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.

He said the continued detention of Kanu was unacceptable and an abuse of his right to legitimate agitation.

Soludo, believed to be a stakeholder in the Nigeria Project, is about the first figure of Igbo extractions that would come out openly support the anti-Nigeria agitators who carried out in recent times many of the violent activities that Nigerian security agencies had described as criminal and improper way of agitating.

It would be recalled how the IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu set up Radio Biafra mainly to preach and broadcast hate thereby inciting division among Nigerian tribes.  Many Igbo leaders had kept mute without clear show of which side between Nigeria and the pro-Biafra agitation they belonged.  Igwe Alex Nwokedi, a partaker in the Odumegwu Ojukwu-led defunct Republic of Biafra, had said the unity of Nigeria was paramount and that what he would always want was President of Nigeria and not President of Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa.

But Charles Soludo, a former Governor of the Nigeria’s Central Bank has not only pitched his tenth with the “violent” group but also described the effort being made by government at checkmating the excesses of the IPOB, which were generally believed to contribute to recent waves of insecurity in the country, as drifting Nigeria into division and failed state.

Soludo, who was part of a communiqué also signed by others who are  equally beneficiaries of Nigerian nationhood including Prof. Pat Utomi at the end of the meeting of some Igbo leaders in Abuja as part of the outcome of the visit to the IPOB leader Kanu, did not however state clearly what he meant by saying that Nigeria had never been more divided than now and that the nation was drifting towards a failed state citing global index, at a time that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had been globally adjudged to have largely restored, peace stability and normalcy to the nation’s system as it now only works assiduously dealing with the remnants of the security issues namely Boko Haram and Niger Delta militancy.

The former CBN governor, Soludo, said the meeting was part of the outcome of a visit to Kanu and his associates currently in detention at the Kuje prison as part of a worldwide consultation process on the peace and development of Alaigbo/Nigeria.

Others who signed the communique of the meeting read by Soludo are Prof. Pat Utomi, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Chief Law Mefor, Rev. Fr. Jude C, Dr. Udenta Udenta, Ebere Onwudiwe, Chief Emeka Ugwu-Oju, Dr. Ferdinand Agu, Chief Tony Nnadi, Dr. Sam Amadi, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, Collins Ugwu and Chief Andy Wabali.

“Nigeria has never been more divided than now, with the agitations for self-determination becoming more strident and desperate. Most discerning patriots have come to the conclusion that Nigeria as currently structured and governed is unsustainable and drifting to a failed state status. Since 2005, Nigeria has drifted from a rank of 54th position in the global Failed/Fragile State Index to 17th position in 2014 and now to a dangerous 13th position in 2016 (under the ‘Red Alert’ category of countries),” Soludo said.

He quoted Elder statesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi as saying that “Nigeria’s project is not working, after 50 to 60 years the Nigerian project is not working despite everything we went through, constitutional conferences, the country is at a standstill… It is unfortunate we are still where we were more than 50 years after independence and have not been able to move away from where our colonial masters left us.”

“But Charles Soludo, a former Governor of the Nigeria’s Central Bank has not only pitched his tenth with the “violent” group but also described the effort being made by government at checkmating the excesses of the IPOB, which were generally believed to contribute to recent waves of insecurity in the country, as drifting Nigeria into division and failed state.”

Soludo, who could not explicitly linked what he meant by “Nigeria has never been more divided than now” with the open support of him and his colleagues in the Igbo secessionist project, the Ango Abdullahi comment that he quoted and his statement of the nation now drifting dangerously towards a failed state, urged government to obey court order that granted bail to Kanu, saying “A situation where the state refuses to obey clear and legitimate court orders for his release and holds him until it gets a favourable order; moves the goalposts endlessly through endless amendment of the charges against him; and now seeks to try him in secret clearly constitutes circumstances that would fall well short of the constitutional guarantees of due process.”