President Buhari declared that the nation must not wage war once more in the name of separatist agitation while former state chairmen of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) were present in the audience.
What you should know: There are currently significant separatist activities taking place in the nation, with some people from the southeast wanting to establish a Biafra sovereign nation and others from the southwest demanding the establishment of a Yoruba nation.
In the words of President Buhari, "The Federal Republic of Nigeria is our primary goal. Humans are what we are. Although we have our shortcomings, I can assure you that we have a strong sense of patriotism.
“We have gone through all the troubles from 15th of January 1966 to date. You know what I mean by this, we have killed a million of ourselves in order to keep this country together.
“I don’t think there can be any practical experience more than that. We are Nigerians. God willing, we remain Nigerians and Nigeria will remain one.”
Separatist agenda: Nigerian separatist movements seek state secession, or the withdrawal of one or more states from the multinational Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In Nigeria, separatist movements include:
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its arm wing the Eastern Security Network who support the independence of the Republic of Biafra by mostly Igbo people from the eastern part of the country. They are allied with the Anglophone Cameroonian independence movement.
The Oduduwa Republic, a Yoruba secessionist movement,
The Arewa Republic, in the North of the country,
The Niger Delta Republic, supported by the Niger Delta Liberation Front and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, leading to the 2016 Niger Delta conflict.
How strong are these movements?: As of 2021, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations, only a minority of the Igbo and the Yoruba support separatism.
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