… backs Buhari on Kanu, Igboho
FG’s action inhuman – Afenifere, S’East group
“The North has enough resources. We are not afraid, we have enough resources and we can stand alone. This oil has made us lazy and it is as if without oil, we are all going to perish. No, we are not”
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR AND MAYOWA SAMUEL
The North has told those pushing for a break-up of Nigeria and insinuating that northerners are benefitting from the current structure that it has ample resources to stand alone.
The top stakeholders in the North said secessionists should not take the seeming calm in the North on the issue of self-determination to mean northerners were afraid of “standing outside Nigeria”.
The umbrella body of all socio-cultural and political groups in the North, Arewa Consultative Forum, said it would not support a break-up of Nigeria, owing mainly to the fact that its leaders fought for one Nigeria, adding that oil had only made the region and others lazy.
“The North has enough resources. We are not afraid, we have enough resources and we can stand alone. This oil has made us lazy and it is as if without oil, we are all going to perish. No, we are not,” Publicity Secretary of ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, said in an exclusive interview with The Point.
He stressed, “We are not afraid at all. In the North, we were as good as a country before colonial conquest. If you look at the Sokoto Caliphate, how big it was, it even extended to some areas that were carved out of Nigeria. The North was as big as a country. It is not a question of being afraid, no. And you would discover that without the oil, Nigeria was a better-managed place. The oil has in fact aggravated our problems. Without the oil, each of the regions was sweating and they were competing with one another. The oil has caused us much more problems.
“It was when the oil came with its easy money that everybody became lazy. At the end of every month, everybody is waiting for allocation. Nobody was waiting for allocation in those days. How do you get allocation when you have to produce your agricultural products before you earn a living? The North was earning very well from agricultural products – the Groundnut Pyramids; the East was earning very well, so also was the West.”
“If it comes to the very worst, we go back to the working country that we were. We were much more productive than we are now,” the ACF maintained.
‘WHY WE’RE NOT AGITATING’
The ACF hinged its belief in one Nigeria on the position of its leaders.
The Spokesperson stated, “We in the ACF are guided by the fact that our leaders in the ACF are those who fought for one Nigeria. Our Chairman, Board of Patrons is Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who led the fight to keep Nigeria one. We have the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Shehu Malami and so on. All our leaders are people who, in one way or another, contributed to the efforts to keep Nigeria one.
“Heads of State like Babangida, Buhari and so on, they fought during the civil war, on the federal side, to keep Nigeria one. So, when we have such people leading us, you cannot just wake up and start calling for a break-up of Nigeria. They will not be happy with us because they believe in one Nigeria.”
He added, “Secondly, we know the experience this country went through. We do not believe that you can sit on a dining table or on a conference table and share out Nigeria, hitch-free, and everyone goes his way. The way Nigeria has integrated, it will be very difficult to break up peacefully.
“There will certainly be a war; we have gone through this war before and we know we did not gain anything from it. The negative consequences are still with us; we are just trying to resolve them. So, why would you put yourself inside that kind of situation again?”
The ACF, however, noted that there were some young members who felt the North was receiving “too much insults” from some Nigerians, and kicking against the position of peace, but added that each time the notion came up, the elders cautioned and guided them.
“Not that we don’t have people who might have that position too. We have some young, hot-headed members in the North who feel that we are receiving too much insults, especially those abroad. They keep asking why we are tolerating all these things. They say ‘these people don’t like us, they have contempt for us,’” Yawe added.
KANU, IGBOHO
On the recent arrests of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, the ACF said the Federal Government was in order.
It disagreed with the notion that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was treating criminals from the North with kid gloves and molesting those agitating for self-determination in the South.
According to the Forum, Buhari has also dealt decisively with those considered to have broken the law in the North and should not be expected to overlook any move that will plunge the nation into war again.
Yawe said, “The people in the Villa would be in a position to answer that question. But when you look at people like Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention for how many years now, I don’t think on that score, he (Buhari) is being selective.
“There are northerners who have broken the law and he has taken on them. Look at the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, you know how many years he spent in detention. And then the bombings in the North East and even the North West, I don’t think he has been selective.”
He did not, however, forget to point out that northern leaders were not impressed with the way the President had handled the security situation in the North, saying the consensus was that it should have been better handled.
“We in the ACF have always said that he (Buhari) should have done better than what he did. But when somebody comes out and calls for a break-up of the country, and then you consider what we went through when Biafra tried to break away, I don’t think the Federal Government should spare such a person,” the ACF spokesperson said.
“What we have always said is that in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho, they should not take extra-judicial measures in handling them; they should follow the rule of law. They should go strictly by the law. When Nnamdi Kanu was arrested, that was our position, and now that Igboho is also there, that is our position. Once they follow the law, if they have broken the law, they should be punished. If they have not broken the law, they are assumed to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law,” he added.
“We are not afraid at all. In the North, we were as good as a country before colonial conquest. If you look at the Sokoto Caliphate, how big it was, it even extended to some areas that were carved out of Nigeria”
FG’S HANDLING OF IGBOHO’S CASE INHUMAN – AYO ADEBANJO
Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo, has, however, faulted the Federal Government’s treatment of Igboho’s case, describing it as inhuman.
He said, “It was very cruel, inhuman and oppressive. How can you go and waylay somebody in the dead of the night because you want to arrest him? You destroy his properties and kill people there. It’s only in a totalitarian government that that can be done; everything being done is anti-democracy.
“It only shows we are in a totalitarian regime. Everything that Buhari has been doing shows that he is going toward totalitarian rule. The National Assembly is amending the electoral law to remove the only thing that guarantees free election. What impunity. We can only pray to God to save us.”
‘FG UNFAIR TO KANU’
An Onitsha-based human rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, also said that the Nigerian government had not been fair in the manner it handled the case of the leader of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the group, Emeka Umeagbalasi, argued that Kanu had not committed any offence in the face of the law and that the Constitution of Nigeria presumed him innocent until he was judicially found guilty.
“Nnamdi Kanu has not committed any offence. Section 36 of the Constitution makes it very clear. He is presumed innocent until he is judicially found guilty and that’s the law. Whatever anybody is saying is an assumption and the Constitution is not written on assumption. No matter how the Nigerian Government tries to paint it, it can’t bend the law,” he said.
Umeagbalasi accused the Federal Government of turning blind eyes to banditry, killings, kidnappings and other crimes being perpetrated in the North, saying the President Buhari-led administration had been invoking age-long hatred by treating Kanu unfairly.
The group said, “This administration always likes to invoke age-long hatred and that has been a problem. This Government doesn’t want to move the country forward by understanding the multiplicity of the ethnic and religious composition and the need to move the country forward along that line. That has been the reason for the retardation of growth and national cohesion. That applies to the case of Nnamdi Kanu.
“Nnamdi Kanu has not committed any offence. Section 36 of the Constitution makes it very clear. He is presumed innocent until he is judicially found guilty and that’s the law. Whatever anybody is saying is an assumption and the Constitution is not written on assumption
“
“In a situation where there are killings, abductions, shooting down of war planes, burning of armored cars in other parts of the country and even the killing of Generals, nothing is being done. Recently, a General was shot dead along Lokoja and the Federal Government has not made a statement on that but if that General had been shot dead in the East, I bet you, that area or that particular community where that General was shot dead would have been razed by now.
“This government seems to be incorrigible. If it is a government that wants to move the country forward, you apply the law evenly. Nobody is encouraging people to fall foul of the law but if somebody is in conflict with the law in Northern Nigeria, and somebody is also in conflict with the law in Southern part of the country, the principle of law of the country demands that both of them should be given same treatment.”
