Doyin Okupe, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has said watching members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), waving the Biafran flags while welcoming Nnamdi Kanu, made him shed tears.
He said that the way the IPOB members, particularly youths, waved their flags in Nnamdi Kanu’s compound, shows a people that have been traumatized, in a position of hopelessness.
Okupe was speaking in reaction to the video of IPOB members who visited Nnamdi Kanu in his residence.
“This morning,” he said, “I could not withhold the tears from my eyes when I saw the video of thousands of ibos, mostly youths, waving Biafran Flags and chanting in Nnamdi Kanu’s compound ‘all we are saying is give us Biafra.’
“I cried because I empathised with them and I wondered how we managed to push a people to such a position of hopelessness and despair. I also fearfully wondered if by any act of commission or omission I have played any role in this ignoble act (s).”
The Igbos, under the umbrella of IPOB as well as other groups, have been agitating for the creation of an independent state of Biafra, citing marginalization.