The Chairman, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, says the north is ready for the restructuring of the Nigerian nation to make it more viable.
He spoke in an interview published by Vanguard, saying it was no longer true that Northern leaders were against restructuring.
The former Vice-Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria said that Nigeria should jettison the present presidential “unitary” system of government and return to the parliamentary “federal” system that was bequeathed by the British in consultation with Nigerian founding fathers in 1960.
Ango Abdullahi said that the parliamentary system, with the nation made up of regions, was working and the regions were viable until the military struck in 1966.
According to him, the military’s decision to impose a unitary system of government and subsequent creation of states created more division and negatively altered the nation’s development trajectory.
Read Also: “I’ll impose lockdown in January – Wike laments rising COVID-19 cases
Asked if his support for restructuring was popular among the northern elite, Ango Abdullahi said, “Well, you have to point out who are those political leaders that are not at home with these views because people hide behind some of these excuses because if there is a forum today and seriously determined that the Nigerian state requires a rehash, I am sure you would find people from all over the country who are ready, who are willing, who are up to the task of doing this.
“I give you an example of my group, the Northern Elders Forum. The forum has advocated this for the past three to four years. Before I even became its leader, our late leader, Maitama Sule, who was a federal commissioner under Azikiwe and Abubakar was agreeable to the need for Nigeria to really take another look at itself.
“These broken up units, the states and local governments that they said would bring unity, I tell you that even as a journalist if you want to be sincere, you would agree with me that state and local government creation in Nigeria has brought more division than it has brought people together because under the old system, you could perhaps move from your state (Kogi) to pick up a job in Kano but now you cannot move from Kogi to Kwara (formerly one state) to pick up a job because these so-called units have brought more divisions than unity and have brought about more wastage of our limited resources.
“We are a consuming state now rather than a productive state. So, I can assure you that the North, at least from my own perspective and the perspectives of many groups in the North here, is ready to engage in serious discussions as to how to reshape the Nigerian state to something that is better for not only now but also for the future generations that will be coming behind us.”
Read Also: Trump Signs $900 Billion COVID-19 Relief Package
Insincerity is as abhoring as terrorism. When you change from a previous political stance or position to a new one, and if you want to be considered as serious minded, you owe yourself and the audience the duty of not only acknowledging that you now have a different view, you are obliged to explain the reasons for your change of position and you must be convincing, that is very sincere, very honest.
Ango Abdulahi (and in fact, his group) is on records on several occasions opposing restructuring. He is on record on several occasions spewing fire and brimstone on Igbos for calling for a change in badly tilted system of Nigeria’ governance. There’s no gainsaying that the Nigerian system was fraudulently tikted to favour the Fulani, your people and the Fulani alone.
Need anyone remind the professor that the current meltdown in everything Nigeria; Nigeria’s economy, Nigeria’s security, Nigeria’s judiciary and social sanity, Nigeria’s political order, etc, etc, are all due to Fulani outright ARROGANCE in dealing with the majority of the Nigerian people notwithstanding the fact that your people, the Fulani make up a mere 3% (or thereabouts) of the population of Nigeria. Where people call for dialogue, you call for war. Fulani founded and still fund 6 to 7 terrorist groups to ensure that the majority of Nigerians are hammered into submission to Fulani supremacy. It would be wise for you to realise that there is so much distrust for the Fulani in Nigeria. It has come to that point that most Nigerians would not even touch GOLD IF IT COMES FROM FULANI. The component parts of Nigeria no longer wish to have anything to do with the Fulani.
Restructuring Nigeria is therefore out of order for the majority of indigenous Nigerians who no longer wish to be called Nigerians.
The Middle Belt is yet to take a definite decision but we hear that they may be called Kwararafa Republic. Oduduwa and Biafra are already out as independent Republics but just awaiting formalization.
To be sure that the fate Fulani reserved for the indigenous peoples of Nigeria does not become the lot of the Fulani, you had better begun discussion on the peaceful dissolution of Nigeria.