A member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF)
and former presidential aide, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, yesterday took on those
calling for the restructuring of the country, suggesting that if the amalgamation
of the country by Lord Frederick Lugard in 1914 was a mistake, it would be best
for each region to go their separate ways.
Abdullahi made this known during the launch
of two books by Dr. Hadiza Isa Wada titled, “Boko Haram: The Charade vs.
Reality” and “The Life and Times of Umaru Turakin Bauchi”.
He queried agitators clamouring for the
restructuring of the country from the present quasi-federalism to true fiscal
federalism, or even secession, particularly in the South-south and South-east
geopolitical zones.
According to him, such threats remained
baseless, given that no region is afraid of secession.
Tracing how several other countries had
separated peacefully, Abdullahi argued that contrary to the opinion of some
government officials, Nigeria’s unity was negotiable.
“The batures (Hausa for white people) have
brought us together. They tried what they could before they left in 1960 to see
whether this country could become a political unit that is stable, because
without political stability it is impossible to stabilise any aspect of our
socio-economic development.
“They succeeded up to a point, but they
were very lucky because they had our forefathers and founding fathers who were
honest.
“We might not be one, in terms of language
or in terms of geographical location or in terms of customs or in terms of
history or in terms of religion and so on, but as a people put in one country
our first job is to understand one another.
“Let’s understand one another.
Understanding one another will be the basis for working together. This wish of
being one is Utopian because if you look at examples of other parts of the
world there’s a lot to learn from.
“Take for example India that got
independence in 1948, yet one or two years later Pakistan was created, and in
another one or two years, Bangladesh emerged out of Pakistan, because there was
insufficient basis on which India would stay together in the first place,” he
said.
Abdullahi held the view that Nigeria’s
greatest challenge today is political instability “created unfortunately by
politicians and the Nigerian elite”.
“We are responsible for the conditions
we’re experiencing today and that we have experienced over the years. This is
the basis on which we have made slow or no progress in our development and I
think we can accept this as a fact, or continue to pretend and go round and
round and round in circles and at the end of the day come back to the same
spot.
“What are we hearing? We’re hearing about
the restructuring of Nigeria. We’re hearing about secession, we’re hearing all
sorts of things and who are the promoters of this rhetoric?
“This is coming from the elite of the
country. They’re right to speak their minds, but they should also leave me to
speak my mind when the time is right because we cannot continue, because I
remember in the last four or five years, particularly when we were headed
towards the last elections. We saw all that and then I said it was time.
“If Lugard made a mistake in 1914 let’s
correct it now. Why not? If Nigerians cannot live together and allow peace and
development to reign, then let’s go our separate ways and to our different
places so that we can concentrate and develop our children and grandchildren in
peace.
“There’s nothing wrong with that. So many
countries have gone through that before. So I don’t believe in all these
emotions and sentiments that Nigeria is indissoluble,” he said.
Continuing, Abdullahi said there was
nothing like indissolubility in any country. “Take Great 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 union for about 350 years opted for a referendum to get out;
same problem with Ireland.
“The Soviet Union was a super power many
years ago, today 12 or 13 countries were created from it.
“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, especially if we put into context the
history of Boko Haram,” he noted.
On the terrorist sect, he said the “ragtag
boys” who were fed up with the things happening to them became members of Boko
Haram.
“You ask the question where did Boko Haram
got their sophistication and articulation from? No doubt from external
connections, but external connections can only thrive if they have internal
connections in the country itself.
“But then came robberies and Boko Haram was
blamed, then came in political interference.
“Bombs were also put in churches and
mosques and they were not entirely put by Muslims but by both religions. But
the real offence was people who knew and should have spoken out did not do so.
“Some of us including my teacher and I went
to see (Goodluck) Jonathan to discuss it. Some days later, and we heard there
was going to be some dialogue, but then two weeks later a state of emergency
was declared and Boko Haram was banned.
“So the question is who are you dialoguing
with if you have banned Boko Haram? These are some of the contradictions we
saw, which were clearly political.
“We the northerners were taking the brunt
of it. And those who ought to have said something stayed quiet. It was Murtala
Nyako who came out and said something was going on and before you know it he
was on exile,” he stated.
While condemning the Niger Delta Avengers
as economic terrorists, Abdullahi asked the federal government to deal
decisively with the militia group, in order to end vandalism in the oil region.
Describing the group as “economic
terrorists”, Abudallahi said: “In the Niger Delta, for example, people who come
out openly and say they are avenging something and that they are fighting to
avenge something, they’re worse than Boko Haram.
“So if you (federal government) are not
going to fight the Niger Delta Avengers then stop fighting Boko Haram.”
Also speaking at the event, elder statesman
and the Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Maitama Sule, commended the author of the book,
Dr. Wada, for her painstaking research on the Boko Haram insurgency.
Sule said such work laid out the facts and
would educate readers in various ways.
The reviewers of the book, Dr. Sadiq Abba
of the University of Abuja and Dr. Abubakar Muhammad of Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, pointed out that the thorough research evidenced in the book
on the Islamist sect provided in-depth literature on the study of the Boko
Haram insurgency.
In her remarks, the author said there was
need for the federal government to do more research on Boko Haram, noting: “Our
intelligence needs to concentrate on our neighbouring countries, because that
is where our support should be coming from.
“Boko Haram is coming from different angles
– it has the political angle, religious angle and criminal angle.”
Tags
Politics