 14 fear dead in the southeast, including four policemen, many injured, ghosts destroyed, and the set-at-home order observed across the southeastern states. We've invited Mr. Chris Wokobia, a public affairs analyst to discuss this. Good morning, Mr. Wokobia. Good morning. Now, the events of yesterday across southeastern Nigeria, especially regarding the violence, could that have been avoided? Quick, wait up, please. Yes, I am asking you if the violence and bloodshed witnessed across the southeast yesterday because of the set-at-home order could have been avoided. Clearly, yes. I think that the program that I thought of and they are programmatic in the country where hunger, poverty, and joblessness is prevalent. When you declare a set-at-home on a Monday morning, which is the first working day of the week, then you have a problem on your hands. And then let me also say that we who preach and who are saying that the time has come for us to move our country away from separatist tendencies to dialogue and not a convention, we believe that the time for equity, justice, and fairness is now. But we believe that we're rather Georgia than World War and you cannot wake up and you laterally ask the whole South is to shut down on a Monday morning. Don't forget that the South is done as a basically business people really earnings. And then when you wake up and say that you must stay at home on a Monday morning, it becomes very difficult. And then don't forget also that we had once said that the younger brother of the leader of I-POP had said that the set-at was holding again. Another segment of I-POP says it must hold. And then obviously with the conflicting information you will have people who step out to work. You will have people who out of ego must seek to enforce the sit tight order. And that's actually what led to the crisis and the conflict and the bloodletting in the South East yesterday. All right, Mr. Ogobi, I want us to, from your perspective, understand where these ideas come from. Who imagined that a set-at-home order might be able to urge or force the government's hand into releasing Namdi Kanu. And what does this say about the thinking that goes on with the I-POP and their decisions generally? Let me say clearly that oftentimes people get too emotional, emotive, and they lose sight of the realities that we have on our hands. Forcing a government to release Namdi Kanu is almost an impossibility. Dialoging with the government, engaging with the government is more plausible. And I think that leading the people of the South East the way of confrontation will not help the costs of I-POP and the justice, equity, and fairness that we seek in Nigeria. What we must begin to do is to understand that even the greatest wars and the malicious conflicts often ends at the table of dialogue. So those who converse Biafra should understand that nobody wants to go back to 1966, 67, 68, 69, and 70, when young people refused to understand the profit of peaceful engagement, took a nation to war, and about three million lives were lost. Nobody wants to go back there again. And so I think that what O'Hanezi and some of us are doing by engaging the government and engaging leaders of the government in making them understand that if you like, the right to self-determination is constitutional. The right to determination is recognized by United Nations. What government must do for the mental issues of nationhood? That is why some of us also are saying that we must resolve the cheating issues of this nation. We must address fundamental issues of justice, equity, and fairness. But to begin to threaten the Nigerian state to overall the nation, what I thought is doing and the strategy of Ipog is uncomplementary, reprehensible, and lump-nable. I think that the time has come for all those who sympathize with Marzin Namdekano and the Ipog tendency to understand that it is better to dialogue and engage with government. That way we can get whatever we want peacefully. OK, Mr. O'Hanezi, that's exactly where I was going because we've heard people say that based on how they've interacted with people from the Southeast, they know that these people actually support the cause of Ipog and Namdekano. So when we look at the Citadum order yesterday, the fact that commercial banks were short, schools were short, marketplaces, motor parks, and all of that, would you say that was motivated by fear or sympathy for Ipog and Namdekano? I didn't get a part, well, but if I can go around it, I think that action that commercial banks and businesses they shut down is overreaching the rights of Ipog to protest. You cannot decree that businessplaces shut down because you have a problem with government. You don't have that right. You cannot declare public holiday. You cannot force a sit-in or a sit-out on the people who are not with you. Ipog is a movement. It's not a government. Ipog is a movement. It cannot force people to obey its instructions. And I think that's where those who celebrate what happened in the Southeast yesterday are very wrong. There are people who believe in the need for justice, equity, and fairness within Nigeria. There are people, and I think, and I said this without fear of where we lost critiques, that those who support the call for restructuring, the call for addressing the fundamental issues of state within a Nigerian nation are more in number. So I think that those who are over-excited about these issues, about separatism, should do everything because people's businesses across this country may be jeopardized if they continue this way. And I simply do not think that Ipog is acting rightly and acting within the confines of the law. All right. Mr. Awokobi, I want us to speak on two final things, I think, before we go. The first one would be for those who say, well, you mentioned dialogue and jaw-jaw instead of war, war, but what about those who say, well, dialogue hasn't worked obviously because they've been in dialogue for a long time and they've seen that the government does not, in any way, listen to anything that has to do with dialogue and they would maybe also refer to the formation of terror groups in different parts of the country as a failure of the government to have a listening ear to the concerns of the people. So respond to those who say that dialogue hasn't worked and that's why the Ipog is taking the current route that it's taking. And then second, does all of this also show failure of leadership from Mohanez and Ibo to the Ibo political leadership across the Southeast? Let me see the last part of your question. Mohanez is doing his best. You cannot force a force. If you force it also to the water, you cannot force it to drink. Mohanez has done his best within the past few years to articulate a proper call for justice, equity, and fairness within the Nigerian federation. I remember how well and effectively Chief John Mordo led that organization. Now let me say clearly that as you and I thought, what is important is that those who are emotive and emotional regarding the extent and the effect that dialogue will have in the call for justice, equity, and fairness in Nigeria are overtaken by emotions. You know, dialogue is the way to go. Remember the struggle for human rights in America. Remember the two major characters who led their four boys within America. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. I remember why Martin Luther King Jr. stands tall and taller involved. Talked about the need for dialogue as a way to go. Remember the story of Mahatma Mohada's Gandhi and the struggle for liberation of India from British control. Remember the struggle of Madiba who threw away incontroversies with the spear of the nation, violence for peaceful engagement. After 27 years in prison, he came out tops. He became the president of the Free South Africa. What am I trying to say? The path to dialogue and freedom is almost always smoother, better, and it leaves the initial without the bile of hate. What we saw in 1967 and 1970 is what we're still seeing today. All right. Pooch. Chris Wonkobiya, thank you very much for your time, for speaking with us this morning. And we, of course, wish you a great day ahead. Looking forward to another conversation with you. Thank you. I guess that's it for today. You're beautiful to say the 10th of August, 2021. Still about the second, the conversation we had before now regarding vaccine hesitancy, just to remind Nigerians that the vaccination program have been postponed until August 16th. And that, yes, you should be encouraged to go ahead and take those vaccine doses if you haven't because, you know, they run out fast. That's by the fact that there's a vaccine hesitancy. Some parts of population say that, you know, because of all the controversies, all the theories, they do not want to take the vaccine. But you need to also understand that vaccines are running out fast and that you need to protect yourself because there's a Delta variant. Exactly, we don't even have enough, exactly. There's a Delta variant. Holy God knows how much this virus will continue to mutate and even get worse. So it's important to take those vaccines and protect yourself. Absolutely. If you've had your first dose, you know, check out, I think it's written on the card. They give you, you know, the date for your second dose. So if it falls around this period, then you should go get your second dose of the vaccine. My name is Aneta Felix. Thank you for joining us this morning on the breakfast. And I am Osauge Ogbawan.