By Enyeribe Ejiogu

Charismatic Roman Catholic priest and Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Fr. Ejike Mbaka, has advised Southeast youths to stop believing that the Igbo are hated in Nigeria.

Mbaka, in a three-minute video clip released online by the ministry, said that the youths southeast had for too long been held in bondage with a delusional message that incited the children of the poor to engage in civil disobedience.

His words: “Please don’t let anybody tell you again that Igbo are hated in Nigeria, and we continue to believe such nonsense. The poor youths are encouraged to engage in civil disobedience in the name of agitating for the restoration of Biafra.”

While acknowledging that there was nothing really wrong in pushing for the restoration of Biafra, he, however, stated that the notable sons of Igbo land should be at the forefront of the struggle.

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‘Those people who say that restoration of Biafra is what we want, they should come out in the open and pursue the struggle. The struggle must involve the crème of the Igbo. These are the people that should be at the head of the protest. Then the poor would follow behind the leaders. It is not the children of the poor that should be at the forefront.

“If we are to pursue the Biafra struggle, then the distinguished personalities in Igbo land should be at the forefront. I am talking about people like Dr Alex Ekwueme, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Peter Obi, Emeka Offor, Andy Uba, and some other Igbo elite.

“It is not proper to send our very young men that are still trying to find their feet in business to the streets for pro-Biafra protests, and they get killed by security forces. Where are the Igbo elite? All of them have hidden in Abuja or gone overseas.

“We don’t want a leader that who will sit back and sacrifice the young sons of the poor by inciting them to go out to protest and get killed by security forces.

“It is the young people who have no money to invest in trading that are incited to go out to the street to protest. The people who should be talking about for Igbo about Biafra are certainly not these young men parading on the streets in name protest,” Mbaka said.