Presidential aspirant Kingsley Moghalu said earlier today that President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to dialogue with members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the secessionist group in the South-East as a way to de-escalating the security situation in the region. The former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said this was one of his recommendations to the president in order to end the tense security situation in the region.

Although such claims cannot be independently verified unless they are made by the president’s media officers, if it is true, it adds feathers to Moghalu’s cap, given the fact that this has been a yearning for many people concerned with the situation in the South East, the erstwhile most peaceful geopolitical zone in the country now competing with northern zones for the most madness by the minute. However, such news making headlines just about a month after a new security strategy was approved for the South East by the president.

The issue is not in the drafting of a strategy to deal with security challenges peculiar to regions, but it raises questions about the way the said strategy was shrouded in secrecy. It is very understandable to maintain the element of surprise and prevent the unsanctioned dissemination of classified information to the public which would find its way to the “enemy” (especially given how Igbo and Yoruba officers in the military have come under suspicions from the leadership of having sympathies for the separatist Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and Oduduwa (Yoruba) Nation), but it is also important to mention that the uproar that greeted such a meeting when it was held still has not died which would put such dialogue–as Moghalu has alleged–under serious doubts especially as to the federal government’s sincerity. As a matter of fact, the meeting that was convened in Aso Rock on 11th May had the attendance of the president, the vice president, the chief of staff, as well as the heads of all security agencies in the country. Not a single one of those persons were from the South East. The closest to the South-East a member of that meeting was from, was Leo Irabor, the chief of defence staff who himself is from Delta state.

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