President
Muhammadu Buhari has urged the National Youth Service Corps members of Igbo
extraction to tell their colleagues that there is no hope of having a sovereign
‘Biafran State’.
Buhari
said this when over 100 corps members serving in Katsina State came to visit
him at his Daura residence on Tuesday.
A
statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba
Shehu, said the President urged the corps members to do everything to ensure
the unity of Nigeria.
Speaking
specifically to corps members from the south-eastern states, the President
said, “Tell your colleagues who want Biafra to forget about it.”
The
President said as a young soldier during the Civil War between 1967 and 1970,
he fought hard to ensure the unity of the nation.
He,
therefore, maintained that Nigeria would never disintegrate under his watch.
Buhari
added, “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.
“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
hailed a former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, for inaugurating the
NYSC scheme in 1973.
He
said the scheme had helped to foster national integration by exposing young
people to the uniqueness and cultural diversity of Nigeria.
The
President said, “I asked for those from the other end of Nigeria because I very
much appreciate the NYSC scheme and whenever I see General Gowon, I always
thank him for that.’’
In
his remarks, Mr. Egbewumi Adebolu, the Corps Liaison Officer in Daura, thanked
the President for the honour of receiving them and making their stay in Daura
memorable.
He
said the youths strongly believed in the programme of the President to reduce
unemployment and create jobs for more Nigerians.
Adebolu
thanked the President for his personal gifts of cows, bags of rice and cash to
corps members in the community for Sallah celebration.
Source:The Punch
Tags
Society