 The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has alleged that sponsors of violence are increasingly sabotaging the security of the Southeast region. In a statement issued by its national coordinator Emmanuel Omubiko, the group said President Mohammed Buhari should be told that his failure to explore a political solution to release the detained leader of the indigenous people of Biafra, Aipop, Namdi Kanu is an invitation to anarchy and violence in the region. Now, the group also urged that the Southeast people in the federal government at the state level were responsible for President Buhari's failure to honor his promise after meeting with the Igbo elites during which he pledged to consider their plea to release Kanu. Now, joining us to discuss this is Emmanuel Omubiko. He is the national coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria. Mr Omubiko, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. So I'm curious to understand why you presume that the insecurity in the Southeast is somewhat being fueled by elites. I mean, many people have attributed it to so many things. So many people have said is, you know, Aipop, some have said is unknown gunmen. Some have even said that their outsiders were paid to come into the region to cuss mayhem. But why did, you know, the Human Rights Writers Association come up with this idea from? Well, the issue of insecurity in the Southeast is factors responsible are multi-passeted. You cannot perfectly say this exactly is the cause of the problem. All these are the characters that are unleashing this violence in the Southeast. But you can take a little bit of time and analyze news contents and statements that have been made over the past couple of months and years by certain elements in the society. I think that statement, I may be the people who actually treated the statement issue yesterday. I don't think they took their time to really interpret the statement the way we wanted it to be. We didn't actually blame the elites for creating the insecurity in the Southeast. We blame members, what we call members of the deep state, certain individuals who do not want the region to be stable, who do not want security in the Southeast, maybe for their own pecuniary reasons. Some of these people may not even actually be from the Southeast region. Some are actually embedded in the armed security forces because we have come to know that one of the causes of the reason why we seem to have been security all around the country and the reason why they are escalating is because certain persons in government and out of government are benefiting immensely. These people are the people who call them conflict entrepreneurs. They make a lot of cash, a lot of capital out of conflict. So these are the individuals that are actually, you know, you know, sticking up the violence in the Southeast particularly. And what we say is that it is the duty of the political elites from the Southeast region because there are quite a number of people in government from that region of the country. They have not really done sufficient, you know, they have not really shown sufficient commitments to really act. But let me, I mean I'm not holding brief for the governments in the Southeast, but let me just because they're not here to defend themselves. In Emo State recently there was a summit or security meeting which had several governors from the Southeast in that meeting including the Emo State governor. And of course the idea of that meeting was to deal with the situation within the states. Now I'm saying this because you're talking about the body language and the responses. Emo State also seems to be a hotbed and Anambra, I think on Nisha area, we see a lot of these things happening. But can we put this at the feet of those people that you call the deep states, those who you think are benefactors, beneficiaries I beg your pardon, of this, you know, violence that's happening in the Southeast? What about the people themselves that live in these areas? Community policing is supposed to be a thing, it's supposed to be a way of life. We need to also have all hands on deck, shouldn't we, to deal with this issue. So can we only leave this at the doorsteps of the federal government and all the other people you pointed fingers at? Well one thing you will have to know is that the Constitution is quite clear on who has command and control of the security forces in Nigeria. The Constitution itself is not a very perfect document. There has to be some kind of reworking of the Constitution to allow the federal units to have some kind of control over the security of their immediate environment. Because in the Constitution, the governors are actually said to be the chief secret officers of the state. But in actuality, the president is the man who pulls the strings. He's the one that tells the police what they're going to do. He's the one that also commands the armed forces even though the National Assembly has some kind of rules to play, secondary rules to play in terms of deployment of armed security forces. But the president is the person in charge of security of this country. Nobody should shift any plan to wherever. But the reason why people are speaking about the governors not doing quite enough to put the insecurity in their various states to a check is that every state's governor has very juicy allocations. They give to themselves, they carve out and they pocket this huge amount of money that they term to be for security, equally security votes. So in the citizens of this country should ask the governor's question, if you have a large chunk of the budget or even the large chunk of cash that are not even actually budgeted by the state assembly, that you control this huge, humongous amount of money, equally security votes, what are you actually doing with the security votes of your state government? Why is it that, for instance, in Imo State, why is it so much a problem for the governor to actually settle down in a where he's frequently in Abuja, always in Abuja, he seems to be operating the government of Imo State from Abuja. That to me sounds like an Imo problem. That doesn't sound like a Southeast problem. That sounds to me like an Imo State governor problem. I'm not necessarily the problem of the Southeast. I'm going to ask again, what are the people in the Southeast? And I'm not just talking about the people who reside in the Southeast. I'm talking about the people who represent the Southeast at all levels, whether they be in the corporate world, whether they be in the political world, the people who are the kinsmen, the ones, the stakeholders, what are they doing to deal with this issue are all hands on deck. Again, the Ibo's are angling for presidency. They're agitating to be given an opportunity to take their shot at this presidency. But when everybody turns around and looks at the Southeast, I mean, what's coming from there? It doesn't really make, it's not palatable. So why would anybody want to be giving any, but anything, I'm not in any way saying the Southeast should not run. But I'm saying, does this paint a good picture of the people in the Southeast? It even amounts to a fallacy to argue in that format. Because when Muhammad Buhari became the president, what was happening in the North, the entire Northern region was almost in the state of war. And as we speak, the time not, not West, the casino state where the president comes from, he cannot, if you remove the soldiers, if you remove the DSS, if you remove the police that secure the president, he cannot go to Casino state and drive on the streets of Casino. Because let me tell you, the other time, a few days ago, almost 75 or 77-year-old man had to sell his roof. He dismantled the roof of his house in order to raise 100,000 Naira. And he has to pay to pass, who took his own list on the way and we're demanding 100,000 Naira in Casino. And I'm telling you that the instability, the health in the North, did not stop the North from producing the president of Nigeria. If you're being in that way, then the North should never ever, ever rule Nigeria. So that is not even an issue. And the insecurity you have in the Southeast, basically, as we said, insecurity is being instigated by elements embedded in the federal government. Because let me tell you, people are saying you picked up somebody, Namdikano, he went to Kenya, the circumstances of his arrest, nobody has told anybody how he was actually apprehended, who did the apprehension. The Kenyan government is saying, we don't know anything about the arrest of Namdikano. The government is saying, we caught him in Kenya. How did you catch him? How did you bring him back? And there are a few allegations about renditions, illegal abductions and the rest of them. And people are suggesting political solutions to the problems. Whether you like it or not, the agitation that some of these young boys and young girls in that part of the country have been doing is because of the marginalization, because of this kind of attitude of a lot of Nigerians, say, why do we have to allow the Igbo to become president of Nigeria? Why shouldn't the Igbo become the president of Nigeria? Look, let me tell you, if not for mathematical crimes that they commit at the federal level, if the census figures are to be compiled scientifically, Igbo's are about the largest population of this country that you have. It's not part of this country where you will not have people from the south. Are you serious? I want to believe that you're just trying to make a case here, that the Igbo's might be the largest. Are you serious? Statistically? Of course. Igbo's are the largest. It was a lot in terms of population, because if you look at the demography of this country, if you look at the settlements, if you, where you stay, how many wives does an Igbo man marry? How many wives does the average Igbo man marry? Well, nobody has. There's no God that says the Igbo man marries. We're talking numbers here. So, indulge me. How many wives does the average Igbo man marry, compared to the man in the northeast, the northwest? You can marry as much as many wives. No, no, no. We're doing numbers. Let's do the numbers. We're talking about population and doubling numbers here. So, I just wanted to take you up on that, but you're not going to answer me. Finally, what do you think? The population count for the number of wives you have. You may even have 10 wives. If none of them has a child, that does not count to the population. You may have just one wife who will have 12 children. My mother. I just gave, I just used that as, I just used that as, you know, an example. I am telling you that you can have 10 wives, and those 10 wives do not have a single child, but you can have a wife who will have like 12 children. My own mother had 12 children. She is the only wife of my late father. You understand? So, the number of wives you have does not count in the number of children you have. This is, this is the same kind of arguments that nothing else are doing, saying how many of them are actually even marrying four wives to start with? The president, how many wives does he have? He had just one wife, most, not an elite, not one and a wife. We'll have to, we'll have to have another census to be able to clarify this statistic. But finally, going forward, because with these conversations when we have them, we need to also find a solution. What is the solution to the problem in the Southeast as we speak now? Because I saw governors come together, but is there a unifying force that wants to really put an end to this? Whether it means phishing out those you say are in the federal government masterminding these or the sponsors of these evil attacks within the Southeast, what is the way forward? By the way forward, you have even answered the question. The way forward is that the elites from that part of the country, whether you are in government, whether you are out of government, like some of those who have never been in government for some time, those of us who are outside the government who represent the commoners, whether you are a member of the commoner, whether you are in the diaspora, it is your responsibility as an equal person, as somebody from that part of the region, to contribute your position regarding how to resolve this situation in the Southeast. And the basic element that can bring about stability and peace in the region is for the president to release Nambi Karno from detention. Because it is not an offense that somebody sit down somewhere in London and somebody begins to throw jibes at anybody. The governor of Katana State, I mean, Nambi Karno didn't do half of what the governor of Katana State has done, the kind of abuses he has been abusing, different kinds of people abusing. Do you understand? Abusing whoever cares in the south of Nigeria. We have to go. The gumi of a man has abused virtually everybody, abused the army, abused everybody, and has been fraternizing with terrorists. Nobody has arrested him. So why do we have to carry out this kind of selective, you know, just, you know, I read a man, you just kept him in detention and said, because he was based in London and he was abusing. Well, we have to go. Unfortunately, we have to go. I would love to have this conversation some other time, but we appreciate your thoughts and your comments. We're hoping that peace comes to the southeast very soon. It will. Thank you. Well, thank you, everybody, for staying with us. We hope you enjoyed this show. But before we go, we went to the streets to find out people's reactions to the former governor of Lagos's recent throwing his hat into the ring and declaring his intent to run for presidency. And that's all we have for you on Post-Politics. I'm Mary Ann Ako and I'll see you tomorrow. It's majority that can carry the vote. Not only me. Well, if Tunibu should run for the president, I don't think anybody needs votes. There's going to be an issue, most especially legal states, which I know. It's the capital that I know. Capital that I know thing. No option for him to run, man. Still seeing people, seeing old leaders, you know. He's still going to take us back. So we just want to move forward. There's a lot of youth that can rule the state and that can make things happen better. There are at least a lot of youth. Tunibu has ruled Lagos state. I mean, I believe in my own opinion, I believe he wants to go up there again, but it's older, Tunibu is older already. Let the youth, at least one of the youth should rule laws and let's see how the difference between the youth and the adult. Yes, I mean, Tunibu can run for presidency. It's from Nigeria. So we have everybody's rights to run. So the power depends on you. If you like, you can vote for him if you like.