Simon Ekpa is a clown, he shouldn't be taken seriously - US-based Nigerian Author

Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa has received knock following his sit-at-home order in the south east.

US-based Nigerian academic and author Dr, Cyril Orji described the factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as a clown.

According to him, Simon Ekpa should not be taken seriously. He said this during an interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90MinutesAfrica on Sunday.

In his recently published book "First Is Last", Dr Orji narrated how he flew back to America because of Simon Ekpa's sit-at-home order.

He recounted how he relocated to Nigeria after his retirement in the US, only to arrive and the self acclaimed Biafra Prime Minister began the sit-at-home.

“When COVID hit and I retired, I sold my house and moved all my things. I returned to Nigeria and moved to Owerri. I didn’t stay three days, and he declared a ten-day sit-at-home. My wife and I rushed out, saying we’re not going to have this,” he said.

Orji noted that Ekpa is destroying the lives of many in the Southeast. He is convinced that Ekpa is being paid to cause trouble in the Igbo land.

He blamed the absence of Igbo leadership, the treatment of Igbo people as second-class citizens within Nigeria as factors that promote the relevance of IPOB.

Orji who was speaking on a passage in his book “First Is Last” regarding Nigeria’s pre-independence negotiations, the former professor was of the opinion that if Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe had toed the path of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Nigeria might have secured its independence as a “confederacy of regions” and the subsequent civil war could have been averted.

“One of the characters in my book suggested that if Zik had the foresight that Sir Ahmadu Bello had, then the entire Aburi Accord would have been unnecessary because Nigeria could have entered independence as a confederacy of regions,” Dr. Orji stated.