E.R.R

E.R.R

Wednesday, April 18, 2012


"LET NIGERIA DIVIDE"-SAYS ANGO ABDULLAHI OF NORTHERN ELDER'S FORUM

Written by Alaba Johnson (reporter for NaijaPundit) on 18 April 2012.
Northern leaders have called their southern counterparts’ bluff, insisting that the North will survive in the event of a break-up of Nigeria.
The call for a review of the national revenue formula by the Northern Governors’ Forum and their Southern Governors’ Forum counterparts’ demand for fiscal federalism and resource control as well as calls for a national conference by many in the South have escalated tensions in the country.
But the northern leaders, under the auspices of the Arewa Elders Forum on Wednesday, said the North could stand on its own in a divided Nigeria.

Apparently frustrated by their inability to capture political power in Nigeria especially after a disappointing outing at the recently concluded PDP General Convention with outcomes are a pointer to the likely shape of things in 2015, the Northern Elders Forum has lashed out what it termed Southerners calling for the restructuring of the country saying that they are ready for Nigeria's break up.
Rising from a meeting some hours ago, former VC of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi spoke to the BBC Hausa Service on behalf of the Northern Elders Forum and said inter Alia 

“We are not new to the plots and antics that have been going on for more than two decades. Some southerners are saying that our federal structure is faulty and full of unbalances and biases. But there are others who are calling for restructuring and there are some of them using this to say they are through with being in Nigeria.
“What we discussed is, we will never be part of any sinister moves to divide this country. But the southerners that are propounding dividing the country should know that it is also not something that the north will not want. We can be on our own; we have not seen what the north is eating that the south is not eating.
He continued: “That the north is keeping quite doesn’t mean we don’t know what we are doing. We want peace and unity but no one can intimidate us, let Nigeria be divided, who is afraid if it is divided? We have nothing to lose, and have been on our own for long. We are on our own and not at the mercy of other people. Our masses have been on their own, eating and surviving and not at the expense of the south.
"We have been feeding ourselves and entire Nigeria with our agriculture base, in the past and up to tomorrow. Our lands have not vanished and natural resources under it, both tapped and untapped. We have all agricultural bases as inheritance from our fathers. And our lands are intact. All the factories and the rest are from the inputs and if we go back to what God blessed the north with.
"We will not in any way lose, because God has blessed us, and those that don’t have what we have are surviving not to talk of us. We are standing on our own and we have all it takes to stand on our own, like we have been standing independently.

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