The Southeast should forget the agitation for Biafra, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said yesterday.

The Igbo should work towards the restructuring of Nigeria, their apex socio-cultural organisation said.

“We should forget Biafra and insist on restructuring. There is no Igbo person that is happy with the situation of things in Nigeria. We must seek peaceful ways of resolving the issues,” Ohanaeze President John Nwodo said.

He spoke in Umuahis during the inauguration of the state and local government executives of the Abia State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Nwodo said elders warned Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu against the manner he was going about his agitation for Biafra, but he did not listen.

To the Ohanaeze leader, restoration of Biafra was a tall order, given the constitutional roadblocks which, he said, will not be in the overall interest of Ndigbo in their socio-economic and political relationships with other Nigerians.

He said while youths were justified in expressing their anger at Ndigbo’s marginalisation in national affairs, Nwodo said they should moderate their actions and words. Hate speeches would not resolve any problem, Nwodo said.

The Ohaneze leader spoke of how elders told Kanu and his other IPOB members to tone down their words and desist from denigrating people and groups.

He also said Kanu was told that his insistence on Biafra and boycott of the November 18 election in Anambra State were not acceptable to Ndigbo, hence he should abandon his rigid position and join in the quest for restructuring.

Nwodo justified the proscription of IPOB the Governors Forum, explaining that what the state chief executives did was to stop IPOB from engaging in its public activities that could spark fatal clashes with security agencies.

Source: http://thenationonlineng.net