SAN FRANCISCO, May 25, (THEWILL) – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that engaging in dialogue with those agitating for an independent state of Biafra is a sure way to resolving the issue.

Speaking on Thursday in Abuja at the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the Nigeria-Biafra war, Obasanjo said Nigerians must treat the country with care declaring that the country’s fundamental problem was that it had lacked national leaders.

“I think, we should even appeal to those saying they want to go, we should not tell them to go, we should make them understand that there is enough cake to share,” he declared.

“We should massage Nigeria just like in a love relationship.

“We never had a national leader. Our leaders at the beginning were mindful of their regions. That is our problem till today,” he said.

“I have maintained that the young officers who struck in 1966 were naive but there were some element of nationalism in some of them. Be that as it may, it set us back.

“The language used in the war did not help matters, the people on the Biafra side called us vandals and we called them rebels.

“We thought we would end the war in three months, but it took us 30 months, and the federal side nearly lost it.

“Civil war is more difficult than fighting in a foreign land because we are fighting to unite.

“Some of the people agitating for Biafra today were not even born then. They don’t know what it entails.”