Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in 2023 election, Peter Obi, has asked for support rather than condemnation over his birthday felicitations to former Head of States, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, on his 90th birthday.
Obi called for forgiveness and support as Nigeria should move forward even while acknowledging the events of the past.
The former Anambra State governor shared the explanations for his birthday greetings on X amid the criticism which followed his gesture to the former leader.
“My felicitation with Nigeria’s former military Head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, on his 90th birthday anniversary, which was celebrated by a cross-section of Nigerians, has been received with mixed feelings by some Nigerians, and some have expressed their sentiments publicly, and privately to me.
“I share in some of them, and I feel that as a leader in the vanguard of providing direction for our country to shift base away from all our shortcomings, including the issues that caused our avoidable cruel civil war, I needed to show to the World that the ultimate heroism is forgiving the enemy and moving forward,” Obi said.
Obi opined that he didn’t think it was necessary to drag his supporters known as Obidients to an unhappy past, saying, “Most of my supporters across the country joining me get a new Nigeria were born after the war, and I didn’t feel I should drag them back to the dark side of our history by being unforgiving”.
He argued that Nigeria was moving from its negative past as seen in the country giving the Biafra leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a heroic national burial on 2 March 2012, when he died, coincidentally under his tenure as governor of Anambra State.
He said, “There are various ways human beings can respond to acts of evil, especially one that claimed millions of lives.
“One is the tragedy of revenge, and another offers the hope of forgiveness in an attempt to forget. The latter conforms neatly with the template I adopted in greeting Gen. Gowon at 90 years old.
“Whatever reason I will give for joining the rest of Nigerians to greet General Gowon, may never truly conform with some persons, especially direct victims of the war, but anger, hurt, and bitterness are the commonest responses to cruelty.”
He said this fuels sectarianism, leads to resistance and avoidable blood feuds that is being witnessed across the globe, and even in Nigeria and it does not abate.
“It’s hate that has put our society, blessed by God to be the greatest land in the black World, down, but this hate has to stop.
“Must you greet him? Why didn’t you keep quiet?’ some angrily say to me, but that will still be injurious to our journey to a new Nigeria where all political vices, including but not limited to ethnic, religious, bitterness, and regional segregation, are eliminated.
“Various personal experiences of victims of injustice across the globe who have chosen to put ugly things behind them visibly demonstrate the transformative power of forgiveness in healing personal and collective wounds.
“With these explanations, I like to admonish all those angered by my greetings to the elder statesman to bear with me and join me in this mission to create a country where hate, unforgiving spirit, and other vices will give way for justice,” Obi said.
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