2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said he condemns any acts of violence or illegality committed by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or any other agitator, but insists that such issues must be addressed through dialogue, not force.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE NEWS on Monday, Obi said that he criticises “every single act that is wrong, whether it’s in the East, West, South,” but emphasised that agitation, whether regional or ideological, is a natural part of any society, and the solution must be found through constructive engagement.
When confronted with the fact that people have called him weak, saying he is not hard on IPOB, he stressed that his position has always been to pursue national unity through peaceful means, and that criminalising dissent or treating agitations as warfare only deepens division.
“I’m hard on everybody. I remember what I said during the campaign until today. Any agitator, I will discuss with. There’s nothing wrong in agitation, whether it’s urban movement, whether it’s modern movement, any movement, I’ll sit down and discuss with. It is important because you dialogue with people. Even in my house, people agitate.
“Why don’t you dialogue with them? I have children who say, oh, I don’t want to do this, daddy. And I say, okay, give me your time. Let’s talk. Why are we sitting and talking with people? Let’s sit down and talk. And then we have exhausted the reason. And if we don’t, and that’s it. So it’s a question of, like I told you, we’ve been radical in our approach, and we thought that bad behaviour and radicality makes you powerful. No. You actually kill the system.
“Good behaviour has become weakness. Good character has become weakness… If I go into a place where people are shouting and beating people, I’m a strong person.”
Obi also weighed in on recent political unrest in Rivers State, he said that Nigeria has not shown any sign of being a democratic country, and the nail was driven into the coffin by the declaration of the state of emergency in the state.
“You cannot, under any circumstances, solve a problem in a democratic setting by going against the rules. You can’t even solve any problem by going against the rules. There’s a process,” he said.
He insisted that political conflicts, no matter how severe, must be resolved within democratic and legal frameworks, not through authoritarian measures.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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