How I’d deal with IPOB if elected president – kwankwaso

Kwankwaso said he would dialogue with the members of the IPOB, and armed groups “to restore peace in Nigeria” if elected as president.

Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, added he was open to dialogue with armed militant groups and that he would partner with the international community to ensure there’s regional peace.

“It’s not just to have peace in Nigeria, if you have peace in Nigeria and her neighbours do not have peace, then we will have issues. That is why we are looking beyond the local peace,” Kwankwaso said.

IPOB is a nationalist separatist group in Nigeria that aims to restore the Republic of Biafra, a country which seceded from Nigeria prior to the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) and later re-joined Nigeria after its defeat by the Nigerian military. IPOB and its arm wing the Eastern Security Network are populated with Southeastern believers. They are also allied with the Anglophone Cameroonian independence movement.

About Biafra: Biafra was established on 30 May 1967 by Igbo military officer C. Odumegwu Ojukwu. Biafra was a response to series of ethnic tensions and military coups after Nigerian independence in 1960 that culminated in the 1966 massacres of Igbo people and other southeastern ethnic groups living in northern Nigeria.

The Nigerian Civil War our parents talk about: The military of Nigeria proceeded to invade Biafra shortly after its secession, resulting in the start of the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War).

How the Nigerian Civil War ended: After two-and-a-half years of war, during which almost two million Biafran civilians (three-quarters of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government, Biafran forces under Nigeria’s motto of “No-victor, No-vanquished” surrendered to the Nigerian Federal Military Government (FMG).