– Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo have called for Nigeria’s restructuring.
– Both groups criticize former Minister of Education, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, over his call for component units in Nigeria to go their separate ways
– Afenifere says Abdullahi’s statement show he is unpatriotic
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere and Igbo pan-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, have berated a former Minister of Education and member of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, over his call for component units in Nigeria to go their separate ways.
Abdullahi on Tuesday, August 30, said Nigerians have found it difficult to live together in peace, hence, the need for the country to break up.
Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo have called for Nigeria’s restructuring even as they berated a former Minister of Education, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, over his call for component units in Nigeria to go their separate ways.
But according to Afenifere, Abdullahi’s statement show he is unpatriotic, The Punch reports.
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Chief Sehinde Arogbofa, the secretary-general of the group, said there was no need for the country to break up before its problem could be resolved.
Arogbofa called for the restructuring of the country so that every component would be able to live according to its own wealth. This was supported by Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of the group.
Odumakin told Abdullahi, a former education minister, that the Yoruba were not afraid of the country breaking up.
Arogbofa said: “Our country does not need to break up. What the country needs now is restructuring, not break-up. We don’t want the country to break, we want it restructured.
“We want the country to be restructured so that every component would be able to live according to its own wealth.
“If they (North) want to go away, that is their own headache. We are not afraid to stay alone but we are not supporting that. I don’t think that is the solution to our problem.”
In his reaction, Odumakin said the Yoruba were not scared of the disintegration of Nigeria.
He said: “Prof Abdullahi cannot scare anybody with breakup (of Nigeria); not those of us who have sacrificed the blood of our people over the years to sustain the unity of Nigeria. We have gone through so many frustrations over the years but we keep asking for a restructured country based on justice.
“But if our demand for restructuring is what is now leading to the breakup threat, let them bring it on.
“There are 50 million Yoruba in Nigeria, which makes it bigger than 20 nations in the United Nations. We obviously do not need Prof Ango Abdullahi in the mix to be able to manage ourselves.
“Many countries came out of the USSR without a shot fired. If his opinion is popular in his corner of the country, we can hold a conference in a day and everybody answers his father’s name. For now, we are calling for Aburi because Abuja has become a drag.”
On his part, Isiguzoro, president of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, believes that only restructuring and implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference would avert the breakup of the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari advised on Nigeria’s restructuring
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately initiating moves for the restructuring of the country into six federating regions.
Isiguzoro said: “If the President fails to restructure the country, if he fails to look into the 2014 confab report, then I sincerely believe that what Ango Abdullahi said is very possible.
“Nigeria’s unity is negotiable; it should be subjected to periodic review.
“At the constitutional conference, all the stakeholders, all the various component units came together, they sat down and said ‘this is the best way to restructure Nigeria’.
“The answer to the problems in the polity is the implementation of the 2014 confab report.
“We want to believe that in his wisdom as a former military Head of State, and now, a democratically-elected civilian President, Buhari should know that Nigeria needs to be restructured.
“I believe what Ango Abdullahi expressed is a sentiment that is prevalent in the North because it is becoming glaring to the North that Nigeria can break up.”
However, Muhammad Ibrahim, the publicity secretary of the North Arewa Consultative Forum, said the group does not have any reaction to what Abdullahi said.
Ibrahim saidf: “I have not read it (what Abdullahi said). Even if I read it, I won’t comment on that. In short, no comment!”
Abdullahi, a former special adviser on food security under former president Olusegun Obasanjo, had criticised those that said Nigeria can never divide and insist it was possible for regions to go their separate ways.
He said: “There’s nothing wrong with that. So many countries have gone through that before. So I don’t believe in all these emotion and sentiments that Nigeria is indissoluble.
“There’s nothing like indissolubility in any country. Take Britain, they’ve been a model for 1,000 years of democracy and then a year or two ago, Scotland that had been in the United Kingdom for about 350 years opted to go for a referendum to get out, same problem with Ireland. Soviet Union was only a super power many years ago. Today, there are 12 or 13 countries there.
“So what is so special about Nigeria? If we find truly that we cannot develop and guarantee the welfare of our people as a nation and the solution is to go our separate ways, why not? So you see this is the thing we have to always discuss at all times honestly.”
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The presidency has vehemently kicked against the call from different segments of the Nigerian society that the country should be restructured.
Recently, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the vice president, said restructuring was not the solution to these challenges. He believes what matters is true governance.
But Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former vice president, and other groups in the country do not believe this.
The Niger Delta Avengers, the Indigenous People of Biafra and other agitating groups are all fighting for either restructuring or full secession from Nigeria.
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