A former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, may ride on his popularity to contest in the 2019 election.
Kwankwaso (APC, representing Kano Central in the Senate), also admonished South-East leaders to do more in dissociating themselves from Biafra agitation to prove they are truly for Nigeria’s unity.
He said: ”My understanding of the situation is that the people agitating in the South-East feel that they are better if they are given independence as Biafrans. All what they are saying, going by what we read in the newspapers, is the need for more appointments, more development and so on.
”If you look at appointments, you are just talking of a link, a very small aspect of a very big chain. To me, for one part of the country to be talking of secession because of appointments, is going too far, and soon people start agitation for many reasons.
”May be this is what they are saying and something else may be in their minds. For those of us who have been in politics for some time, at least 25 years, and going by my personal experience across the country and beyond, you see, some people may start agitation because of their own personal interest.
”Some of them are politicians who want to start politicking and everybody has gotten his way of starting it. Before 1992, when I was a civil servant, I started politics through self-help, group activities and that was how I galvanised my constituency and local government.
”As I’m studying the body language, I wouldn’t be surprised, if the young man (Nnamdi Kanu) who is making this agitation, decides to contest election in the next political dispensation. That’s how so many of them started, they mobilise and, at the end of the day, they become heroes and champions and they will start championing their personal interest.
”We love them in Kano as they are very hard working people. The South-East leaders should come out to condemn the agitation by these Igbo young men for Biafra; maybe because they are afraid of the young men or because of possible attacks, they kept quiet.
”To keep quiet will not help anybody and that’s not the way to go. The way to go is for the elders to come out and say the right thing at the right time”, the Senator told Vanguard.
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