- Declares N’Delta Avengers worse than Boko Haram
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.”
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