Fiery Enugu-based Catholic priest gave his views today on the current
agitation for the secession of southeast Nigeria from the rest of the
country as the Republic of Biafra.
Addressing a gathering of
Igbos in East London, the controversial cleric said that Igbos should be
the last people seeking to leave Nigeria. He said:
“No Hausa
person owns property in Igboland. No Yoruba person owns property in
Igboland. But 60% of businesses in northern Nigeria are owned by Igbos.
40% of businesses in western Nigeria are owned by Igbos.”
Mbaka
implied that Igbos had the most to lose by the breakup of the country.
He claimed to know about how much Igbos owned across Nigeria because he
was regularly being invited to to say blessings at the opening of new
businesses by Igbos, especially in northern Nigeria. He said:
“Go
to Sabon Gari in Kano and see what Igbos own there”. He added that
Igbos could complain that they were not enough of them in government,
but under former president Goodluck Jonathan, an Igbo was finance
minister, Central Bank governor, and so on.
He went on to
suggest that those Igbos that have been seduced into agitating for
Biafra by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of separatist group Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB) are “the children of the poor”, who in his view, are
not thinking properly about the implications of secession. Mbaka said
those people were being deceived by Kanu.
Mbaka then moved on to
what could happen in an independent Biafra if it ever came to fruition.
He said: “If you think we have trouble in Nigeria now, we will see
trouble in Nigeria. No Anambra man would let an Enugu man be president,
no Imo man would let an Abakaliki man be president”.
He was very
convinced that fault lines between different Igbo communities would come
to the fore if Biafra ever became reality.When challenged on talking
about politics, Mbaka responded that “politics is part of life” and “I
read political science and political philosophy”. He added that
decisions made by politics affect everyone.
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