Biafra: Secession not solution to your problems – Catholic Bishop tells agitators

The Catholic Bishop of Jalingo Diocese, Bishop Charles Harmawa, has asserted that breaking out of Nigeria is never the solution to marginalisation cry by some regions.

According to him, there was no guarantee that if the agitators finally got their country, the issue of marginalization would not still crop up.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) have been clamouring for the Biafra Republic.

The groups said they were no longer comfortable to be part of Nigeria, which they always described as a zoo.

Speaking with Sun, however, the cleric opined that Nigerian leaders should find a way of addressing the issues of injustices and discrimination.


Harmawa said, “In the first place, people have the right to self determination but there is a procedure towards attaining that.

“Again, I find the argument that Nigerians are group of strange fellows, flimsy because this is not peculiar to Nigeria. There are so many countries in the world that are divided along these lines as Nigeria.

“Why do we still seek international relations while we are so different in our cultural, political and religious affiliations? It is because we are a race and cannot live without one another. So we need to have a rethink on this issue.

“I am well aware of the injustices in all its forms and the level of marginalization in the country and strongly suggest that these issues should be addressed and urgently too, but the solution is not in going our separate ways.

“In any case, there is no guarantee whatsoever that if you are granted independence, you would not have problems in your own country based on differences of clan and other variables.

“The same mismanagement of funds that has crippled the country today is also prevalent at the regional, state and local government levels.”

On the way forward, the Catholic cleric suggested that, “it is not about secession. It shouldn’t be.

“We should be more concerned with how to address the injustices and discrimination, the uneven distribution of resources and others and think more on how we can live together as a country because, like it or not, we are one country and a there is beauty in our diversity.”