As calls for secession – Biafra Republic – in South-East Nigeria lingers, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra says Igbos, as savvy itinerant traders, need Nigeria just as the country needs Igbo people.

“As an itinerant people, we cannot be an intolerant people,” Mr Soludo said while speaking at the 2023 South-East Summit on Economy and Security held in Owerri, Imo State capital, on Thursday.

“We need not just ourselves, we need Nigeria. Ndigbo needs Nigeria, and Nigeria needs Ndigbo. Ndigbo needs Africa and the world, and the World and Africa need Ndigbo.

“We need the partnership of everybody, partnership of the rest of the country, partnership of the diaspora and partnership with the international community,” Mr Soludo said.

Mr Soludo’s stance comes amid lingering agitation for the Biafra Republic, rekindled by Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.

The call for secession, which formerly was mere protests, snowballed into an armed struggle in the region after Nigerian soldiers under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime opened live rounds on IPOB protesters, killing over 150 in 2016.

The Buhari regime also extradited Mr Kanu from Kenya in 2021, leaving him to languish in detention despite court orders granting him bail.

Since then, the South-East has experienced unrest, as armed militias declare a sit-at-home order, disrupting commercial and educational activities in the region.

But speaking further, the Anambra governor said the region can thrive regardless of insecurity challenges.

“I have heard the speeches given, books of lamentations. It is very good to lament, but I would rather like to see a glass as half full than half empty,” said Mr Soludo.

“The South-East is ready for business; the South-East is ripe for business, and we must all believe in our ability to turn things around and get the South-East going again.

“That must be the outcome of this particular summit. We can lament about insecurity and so on; this is not the most insecure place in the world; other places are thriving despite their own insecurity,” Mr Soludo stated.