FG fuelling secessionist agitations —Akintoye

RENOWNED historian and chairman of the Political Committee of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Professor Banji Akintoye, has maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari had been fuelling secessionist agitations with his words and body language towards those calling for the restructuring of Nigeria.

Akintoye, who spoke bout secessionist agitations in an interview with Sunday Tribune, also noted that the things being said by officials of the Federal Government were creating the impression that “there is hard determination to hold on to the status quo and that is creating anxiety across the country.”

Akintoye’s position on secessionist agitations was, however, in contrast to a statement credited to the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, that the Presidency was not opposed to the calls for restructuring but anything that could balkanise the country.

It will also be recalled that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had set up a committee on restructuring, headed by the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, which had held zonal consultative meetings to collate the views of Nigerians.

But Akintoye maintained that going by President Buhari’s statements that those calling for restructuring were the ones provoking secessionist sentiment in the country, Nigerians were sure that the government was not ready to restructure the country.

“What is generating secessionist agitations is that people are sure that the Federal Government is determined not to change anything, in spite of the fact that they made the promise that they were going to change and do restructuring.”

Akintoye also reacted to the claim by former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, that the Yoruba nation had always had secessionist tendencies, noting that the records were clear that the South-West “has never asked to be allowed to secede from Nigeria,” but that the people have always fought for a better place.

Read The Full Interview:

Restructuring: We must sit; discuss the way forward for Nigeria — Adegbenro