Buhari Issues New Message To Yoruba Nation And Biafra Agitators 

President Buhari declared that the nation must not wage war once more in the name of the separatist movement.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

On August 9, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari addressed separatist groups, sending the message that Nigeria will remain one country.

President Buhari declared that the nation must not wage war once more in the name of the separatist movement when former state chairmen of the disbanded Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) were present in the audience.

Separatist movements are prominent at the moment, with some people from the southeast wanting to establish a Biafra sovereign nation and others from the southwest demanding the establishment of a Yoruba nation.

“Our main objective is the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are human beings. We have our weaknesses, but I can assure you that the patriotism in us is hard-earned,” Buhari said.

“We have gone through all the troubles from 15th of January 1966 to date. Do you know what I mean by this, we have killed a million of ourselves in order to keep this country together.

“I don’t think there can be any practical experience more than that. We are Nigerians. God willing, we remain Nigerians and Nigeria will remain one.”

The goal of Nigeria’s secessionist movements is the expulsion of one or more states from the multinational Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Separatist movements in Nigeria include:

1. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its arm wing the Eastern Security Network support the independence of the Republic of Biafra by mostly Igbo people from the eastern part of the country. They are allied with the Anglophone Cameroonian independence movement.
2. The Oduduwa Republic, a Yoruba secessionist movement,
3. The Arewa Republic, in the North of the country,
4. The Niger Delta Republic, supported by the Niger Delta Liberation Front and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, led to the 2016 Niger Delta conflict.

Only a small portion of the Igbo and Yoruba are separatists as of 2021, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations.