National President of Indigenous Igbo Youth, Chief John Echefu has dismissed the Biafra De facto Customary Government recently announced by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the leader of Igbo youth group said the former Niger Delta militant was seeking relevance to position himself for political negotiation I 2023 election.
Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo recently declared himself leader of Biafra De facto Customary Government. What is your view?
Asari Dokubo is seeking attention and I don’t think any right-thinking person will take him seriously. This is just about 2023 election. He wants to use Biafra to position himself for political negotiations, but he didn’t realise that people are wiser by the day. Didn’t you read the statement from the Presidency on him? The Presidency dismissed him outright as a joker because he represents nobody. The only person they are afraid of is Kanu. Asari and his cohorts don’t have a base. The best thing for him to do is to resolve and join Nnamdi Kanu in this struggle than this playing to the gallery that he has adopted, which will not take him far.
If he claims to be on ground, let him declare a sit-at-home and see who will obey him. Kanu is the only man that can order sit- at – home and it will be obeyed by the Igbo, not only in Igbo land but also in the diaspora. When it comes to Biafra, Asari is a nobody and a nonstarter. Biafra, I know. Nnamdi Kanu I know, but who is Asari Dokubo? The Presidency is afraid of Nnamdi Kanu that is why they sponsor some Igbo saboteurs against him. Kanu is our leader and there is no going back.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
Nigeria is hanging on a precarious cliff, and what I have been saying in the past three years is almost coming to pass. I have maintained that if the present government does not amend and begin to see Nigeria as one and continues to see Nigeria as a nation of unequal citizens, then the country is headed for a break up. This President Muhammadu Buhari government has succeeded in creating two Nigerias – senior Nigeria and junior Nigeria. Look at the situation in the North; Boko Haram is still ravaging the North-East. In the North-West, bandits have grounded the region with its exploits of kidnapping of students from schools, sacking of villages. Then in the North Central, the herdsmen that have been classified as the fourth most terrorist group in the world, which the Federal Government seems to be pampering, have unsettled the region and gradually marching down south. But mark my word, they are going to meet their waterloo in the south, and any attempt by the government to give them immunity will be met with backlashes.
The Federal Government knows what they are doing and what are doing knows them. Sheikh Gumi is moving freely around in various forests to negotiate with bandits, which means he knows where the bandits are. Ironically, we are told that the security forces don’t know where these criminals are hiding. The Nigeria Army remains to an extent an institution that has not fallen to the whims of religious extremists, but Gumi told the bandits recently that members of the soldiers killing them are Christians and not Muslims. This means he is encouraging them to declare war on Christians and Christian communities both in the North and South. What did the Federal Government do over this felonious statement? They said nothing, except the military that much later came out to issue a warning statement. If a southerner had made the same statement, the person would have been a guest to the DSS or the police. Do you see why I said this present government has succeeded in polarizing the country on religious and ethnic lines, and the country is hanging on the cliff?
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an unarmed, freedom-fighting group was declared a terror group by the Federal Government and soldiers were unleashed on them, leading to the death of many of them, but the bandits and the herdsmen that are killing, kidnapping, raping and destroying villages are allowed to have a field day. Have you heard of any herdsmen arrested over murder? They will go to your farms with their cows and destroy your crops and even attack you, but when you defend yourself or attack back, the security agencies come after you. The leaders of Miyetti Allah groups have owned up to the killings and destruction of communities, but they have not even been questioned, let alone arrested. They go about freely, but any community that attacks back, the police, DSS will come after them and even arrest their traditional rulers. This kind of injustice cannot stand forever. This tells you that the country is on the brink, and we should pray and tell the government to do what will make the country not to collapse on everybody.
South-East governors are opposed to the establishment of the Eastern Security Network (ESN). What do you make of it?
The Eastern Security Network is a child of necessity and an idea who time came at the right time. The Indigenous Igbo Youth was the first group in Igbo land to endorse ESN when it was established. Look at how the Fulani herdsmen are killing our people on daily basis and destroying their farms, but nobody is saying anything. The government is not concerned; our governors remain aloof, the security agencies look the other way. The herdsmen are on a conquest mission drawn many decades ago by their forefathers. They want to come to our place to establish their fiefdom. It cannot stand. ESN is the answer to the prayers by our mothers who can no longer go to their farms for the fear of being killed or raped.