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updated 10:20 AM UTC, Dec 13, 2023

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo Meet With State Governors

Unic Press UK: Nigeria’s acting president, Yemi Osinbajo has tasked the state governors on the importance of ensuring that the populace in their respective states’ eschew hate speeches and avoid all forms of divisive action that threaten the unity of Nigeria.

The acting president said:

“We must not allow the careless use of words, careless expressions that may degenerate into crisis. We are a people that like to talk and we express ourselves loudly but it is expected for us to recognise that it is those same words that can cause conflagration, that can unfortunately lead to calamity.

“We must be careful of how we express ourselves. What we have seen in recent times is that some of the languages used have tended to degenerate badly and I think that we must begin to speak up against some of these things and ensure that we protect our democracy and our nation from the hands of rhetorics that may just divide us.

“From all of the consultations we have had, all agreed on certain issues. We agreed that Nigeria’s unity should not be taken for granted. No one wants to see us go done the path of bloodshed or war.”

Osinbajo spoke to the governors’ during a meeting on Wednesday, the 21st June 2016, in the presidential villa, which was tweeted by his special adviser on media and publicity Laolu Akande.

Osinbajo’s parley with the governors’ is perhaps a further reaction by the presidency to the widespread tensions that followed the quit notice served on the Igbo people by a coalition of northern groups that met in Kaduna this month, June.

Tensions remain high in Nigeria given the number of quit notices so far. After the one that was issued by a coalition of northern groups, some of the Niger Delta militant groups parleyed last week in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and called on all northerners to quit the oil-rich Niger Delta before October 1, 2017.

A few days’ ago, the coalition of groups of northern Nigeria that started the troubles reiterated its stance in a letter to the acting president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo. In the letter, they expressed their support of independence aspiration of the Biafran people as overwhelmingly agitated by the people of the south-east and south-south region of Nigeria. Among other things inked in the letter, the group which had issued a 3-month quit notice to the Igbo people in the northern part of Nigeria, said:

“We therefore demand that the only enduring solution to this scourge that is being visited on the nation is complete separation of the states presently agitating for Biafra from the Federal Republic of Nigeria through a peaceful political process by: 1. Taking steps to facilitate the actualization of the Biafran nation in line with the principle of self-determination as an integral part of contemporary customary international law. The principle of self-determination has, since world war II become a part of the United Nations Charter which states in Article 1(2)… We submit that this protocol envisages that people of any nation have the right to self-determination, and although the Charter did not categorically impose direct legal obligations on member States; it implies that member States allow agitating or minority groups to self-govern as much as possible. Aware that the right of self-determination in international law is the legal right for a “people” that allows them to attain a certain degree of autonomy from a sovereign state through a legitimate political process, we strongly demand for a referendum to take place in a politically sane atmosphere where all parties will have a democratic voice over their future and the future of the nation.”

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