Buhari to Igbo NYSC members, tell your people to forget Biafra

President Muhammadu Buhari has sent South-East National Youth Service Corps members serving in Katsina State to tell their colleagues to forget the issue of Biafra.

He said this before over 100 corps members serving in the state who came to visit him at his Daura residence on Tuesday and was made known in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu.

The President, while asking the corps members to do everything to ensure the unity of Nigeria, specifically told Igbo NYSC members “Tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it.”

He said having fought hard as a young soldier during the Civil War between 1967 and 1970, to ensure the unity of the nation, that Nigeria would never disintegrate under his watch.

“As a military commander, I walked from Degem, a border town between the North and the East, to the border between Cameroun and Nigeria. I walked on my foot for most of the 30 months that we fought the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War, in which at least two million Nigerians were killed.

“We were made by our leaders to go and fight Biafra not because of money or oil, because oil was not a critical factor then, but because of one Nigeria.

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“Thus, if leaderships at various levels failed, it was not the fault of the rest of Nigerians who had no quarrel with one another. So, please tell your colleagues that we must be together to build this country. It is big enough for us and potentially big enough in terms of resources.

“Those who work hard will earn a respectable living. I have seen this country, I fought for this country and I will continue to work for the unity of this country,” Buhari said.

Buhari, who lauded former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, for establishing the NYSC scheme in 1973, added that the scheme had helped to bring about national integration through exposing young people to the uniqueness and cultural diversity of Nigeria.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

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