Biafra Agitators are Famished and Innocent – Christopher Okoli

Nigeria-America based Investment Advisor, Christopher Okoli, is a man who doesn’t shy away from saying the truth to the conscience of Nigerian leaders. As a leader of thought on issues regarding the economy, haven been an economic adviser in the United States for numerous years, Mr. Okoli can adequately analyse trends and predict the next economic curve.In this second part of this interview, he spoke on the ranging controversy over the call for Biafra, the Nigerian economy, Buhari’s war on corruption, amongst others. Excerpts:What would you call some Nigerians who are now agitating for state of Biafra? I call them unemployed, brilliant, normal, famished and innocent Nigerians who are victims of bad governance in a dysfunctional country. Secondly, it is not advisable to tell a man “what can you do, or you cannot do anything” because such comments will always activate the deadly beat in any man. Suffice to say that such a call for Biafra or potential subsequent calls from other ethnic groups should not have come up now, because the government is facing the worst financial and economic challenges in the history of the country. Nigerians for over fifty (50) years watched as political and military cabals joined their forces with Mr.Corruption and misappropriated the country’s resources; today, Nigerians must make some sacrifices for the atonement of the sins of their political and military cabals before moving the country forward. The same political class that instigated and plunged the peaceful country into civil war in 1967 are now using whatever they can lay their hands on to hide their sins and run away from being probe by President Muhammadu Buhari. Let the masses be warned.Do you think that Nigerian government should negotiate with such groups like Boko Haram and Biafra agitators? That should be a judgmental call on the path of the government, but if I am part of the government, I would definitely advice against engaging in another battle, because the battle of economic nightmares and chronic corruption would soon get very intense. Nigerians should not go to sleep yet, because corruption will soon fight back, and when that time comes, if Nigerians are not adequately ready to withstand the piercing arrows of political confusion and manipulations, then the entire country will be plunged into another political darkness that might destroy the shaky unity of the country.Nigerians can only survive the impending fierce attacks from the corrupt political class, with adequate mental preparations of the economic hardship that the masses must go through before the Promised Land, anything less, is just a make-believe wishful illusion.Can you please explain what you mean by making sacrifices for atonement of sins? Who said that freedom is free! It can never be possible because freedom can never be free and just like many other things in our global village today. Anything you hear the phrase “free” please be very careful because it is either there is a hidden catch, or that you are the product. So if Nigerians desire a good country, they can never just pray such a country into existence without making some substantial sacrifices.Do you know that Bad Followership breeds Bad Governance and Good Followership breeds Good Governance? The religious divide and non-receptive ethnic orientation of Nigerians created huge opportunities for exploitive tendencies by the political and military cabals in the destruction of the country.What do you really mean by bad followership and bad governance; can Nigerians do anything about it? Think of any functional systems of governments that are working in our global village today, they all have one thing in common, which is Good Followership. My definition of good followership in this Answers to Questions vol.2 episode is simply the ability of groups of people in a particular geographical location being actively involved in the governance of their area. When the masses are willing to engage their leaders in governance (bad policies must be protested while good policies must be commended and adhered to), such group of people can only produce quality good leaders.What is obtainable in Nigeria for the past 50 years has purely been bad followership with ethnic, monetary-induced and selfish interests of followers, such mindsets are very difficult in building any nation; until the unity of once peaceful country is re-negotiated “common interest” might remain elusive and the country will continue to wander in the state of chronic confusion.