President shuns South-East security summit

President Buhari was absent at the South-East security summit which held at the Enugu State Government House on Thursday, December 22, 2016, reports say.

There are indications that Buhari’s absence is connected to a statement issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), warning the President not to come to the South-East.

The Chairman of the South-East Security and Economic Summit, Prof. Barth Nnaji expressed surprise that the President was not at the summit.

Also, a former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku commented on Buhari’s absence, adding that he wished the President was at the event to hear what he had to say.

Anyaoku said “I was going to start by saluting the representative of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but I have not been told of such a person.”

He also said “I had hoped that Mr. President would be here to hear me.

“Like Cato, the Roman senator who always ended his speeches by calling for the destruction of Carthage until his call was heeded, I will restate my assertion that if the Nigerian federation is restructured to have less federating units, this country will achieve greater stability and faster pace of development, and there will no longer be a need for the Federal Government to bailout many of the non-viable 36 states.”

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Nnaji also thanked former President Olusegun Obasanjo for attending the event as the distinguished guest of honour.

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of declaring war on Igbos.