Nigerian leaders to British envoy: You can’t dictate to us

CHAIRMAN of the presidential Committee that prepared the agenda of the 2014 National Conference, Senator Femi Okurounmu, the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere and a former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr Chris Ekpeyong, have flayed the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright for saying Nigeria must remain one.

They spoke separately against the report credited to the High Commissioner in a lecture delivered in Kogi State, on Thursday that the UK was comfortable with the status quo in Nigeria.

Okurounmu, who was also a delegate to the 2014 conference expressed reservations on the comment of the UK envoy saying Nigeria’s breakup was inevitable it should fail to address the genuine agitations of the constituent units.

He said there was no compelling reason for the country to remain as one nation, because, according to him, the northern region has been oppressing other regions since independence.

Okorounmu said that the Britain constituted a major problem of Nigeria, stating that Nigerians were fed up with the British-forced marriage of different entities in the country.

“It is possible for Nigeria to break up, we can’t continue this way and expect people to remain silent. As long as we don’t have equity, fairness and justice in the polity, if Nigeria wants to break, let it be so.

“Forget whatever the British High Commissioner was quoted as saying. It’s even these British that are the architects of Nigeria’s problems. The British caused most of our problems.

“On the eve of independence in 1959, the British colonialists rigged the pre-independence election to hand over power to a Northern political party, the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, and since then the North has been oppressing other parts of the country, especially the South.

“For the past 57 years of independence, the North has been oppressing other geopolitical zones. But for how long will this injustice last, and for how long will other Nigerians continue to tolerate the North’s dominance and oppression?

“The current unitary system we are practising, which the Northern military leaders foisted on Nigeria is dragging us backward. We should return to true federalism as enshrined in our independence constitution,” Okurounmu said.

On its part, Afenifere said it was committed to the unity of the country on the condition that it was restructured, contending that what the British “coupled” and called Nigeria could no longer work.

Spokesperson of the group, Mr Yinka Odumakin, gave this position, said: “Definitely, it is not the Nigeria that the British created when Lugard said he has found a Northern husband for a southern lady of means.

“It was a marriage based on exploitation and that is what the British handed over at Independence and that is what the British High Commissioner is still talking about.

“If Britain is sincere, all they should support is that Nigeria should restructure, devolve powers and let every section of Nigeria live their lives in any part of Nigeria and be in happiness,” Odumakin said.

Also reacting, Dr Ekpenyong said: “Sustainable peace in Nigeria could only be achieved through equitable distribution of wealth under the practice of true, fiscal federalism.”

According to him, “unity in diversity” would only be sustained when the polity is restructured and the component units allowed to harness their resources and develop at their own pace.

He pointed at the hate culture that has given rise to ethno-religious killings in Southern Kaduna, herdsmen clashes in Benue and several parts of Nigeria, adding that “all these were signs that all is not well in the country”.

Although he saw strength in the number, Ekpenyong argued that deep-seated ethnic and religious hatred only work to undermine the development which a harmonious population can achieve.

He pointed at China and India, noting that those countries have been able to relegate ethnic and religious issues to the background and explore the strength in the population for the development of their countries and their people.