Elder statesman, Chike Obidigbo, has described as very remarkable, the story that the north is now ready for Nigeria’s division into its constituent parts.
Recall that a highly respected and distinguished northern leader, Prof Ango Abdullahi, had recently said that Nigeria’s amalgamation instrument has expired and that the country should consider going their separate ways.
Obidigbo said this statement showed that history beckons for a separate homeland for Igbo in the light of renewed antagonism against them by powerful elements in both the North and Southwest.
He further pointed out that the recent nationwide protest organised by youths of this country brought back the same old worries that have always bedevilled Nigeria, thereby exposing the nation’s pretentious patriotism.
According to him, those in authority can only be pretending that what he described as Nigeria’s forced union is not a time bomb that threatens to blow up at the slightest provocation if we fail to act in a civilized manner to settle this undying rift amicably
“So, I was tickled few days ago by the opinions shared by the acknowledged and vocal northern elder and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi,” he said in a statement he personally signed and made available to the media on Monday.
He said for this to come barely a few days after a Yoruba group announced the decision to start a protest to chase Igbo away from Lagos State and Southwest with neither strong cautions nor arrest made, shows that Nigeria is due for retirement.
“Permit me to say that Prof. Abdullahi merely repeated what many have been saying for a long time,” he added.
“I totally agree with the erudite Prof, but I will still plead to be allowed to hold onto my personal belief that Nigeria is far too big for one black person to rule profitably and successfully.
“My argument has been that we black Africans lack the detailed exposure, mental capacity, integrity and objective mind to preside over the affairs of such huge geographical contraption made up of people with diverse socio-political and cultural backgrounds.
“The hardship protest has therefore exposed the fault lines such that even the two-nation-in-one delineation could no longer survive, despite the recent attempts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his supporters to belatedly interpret his Emi lokan mandate as the turn of the South.
“As the hardship protest showed that the marriage between Tinubu’s Southwest foot soldiers and the North has broken down, efforts to unite the South began as a safeguard to the Northern political insurrection.
“But sadly, the support of Southeast, which was denied consideration in 2023 after the North and Southwest’s repeated access to the Presidency, is now being courted or vilified for not taking active part in the hardship protest.
“Now that Prof. Ango Abdullahi says the north is ready for a split of Nigeria, I wish to thank him for waking up to the reality of the times, barely 14 months after the north left the Presidency.
“The spokesman for the northern think tank, has suddenly realised that the veritable index that Nigeria is ripe for Balkanisation is that other Nigerians may have realised the futility of continued bandwagon.
“Based on this new thinking in the north, I wish to support the challenge posed by the internationally-acclaimed Prof. Ango Abdullahi that Nigerians should come together to discuss how to share what remains as assets and liabilities of the expired amalgam, Nigeria.
“We, as Igbo have been experiencing marginalisation until it matured into total exclusion and demonization of everything Igbo. It is therefore interesting that the north is complaining merely fourteen months after being out of power.”
He said the conspiracy and selfish exclusion of the Igbo have come back to hurt what it describes as the British contraption called Nigeria so much so that the Fulanis, who are holding the country in trust for Britain, have started clamouring for the right thing to be done for sake of administrative efficiency and good governance.
“It is obvious that the north is pained that Tinubu may have tricked them into supporting his ambition to be President, even when they knew that it was actually the turn of either South East or South South to become President in 2023.
“It is possible that some of the northern leaders were blinded by either greed or hatred for Igbo, to support Southwest to become President again after the zone had enjoyed 16 cumulative years as President and Vice President, leaving Igbo totally out of the political equation.
“Some Northwest governors that supported Southwest to produce President Tinubu, may have felt disappointed when Senator Kashim Shettima was nominated as Presidential running mate and Vice President, which in my opinion, helped to balance political opportunity between Northwest and Northeast.
“It is therefore unfortunate that till date, those leaders have not seen the political wisdom or patriotic need for Southeast to pair with Northeast after the Northwest and Southwest had just served out eight years.”