Professor Ango Abdullahi
Northern leaders yesterday spurned agitators for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), where they intend to determine the continued co-existence of the regions.
They said the region has nothing to lose if the country breaks up and the North goes its own way.
The regional leaders said the North has not gained anything from the present arrangement of the country and would not be hurt by any break-up.
The northern leaders, under the aegis of the Arewa Elders’ Forum (AEF), said though they could survive in a divided Nigeria, they would not be the cause of the break-up.
A leader of the new group and a former Special Adviser to former-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Food Security, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, told the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), monitored in Kaduna, that the North has always been on its own and could survive without the oil resources from the South.
The former Vice-Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, was reacting to calls from southern leaders for the convocation of an SNC.
He said some people are hiding under the agitation to show that they are tired of staying in a united Nigeria.
Abdullahi said: “We know this is an old call, because it has been on for over 20 years. They have been saying the corporate existence of the country and the federal system is faulty. They are keen on sitting down to discuss what kind of arrangement would be conducive for Nigerian. Some people are hiding under the guise of this agitation to show that they are tired of staying in a united Nigeria.
“Therefore, we have resolved that we are not going to be the cause of Nigeria’s break-up. But if others decide that the country should be divided, we would not say no, because there is nothing we are getting from the current arrangement that other sections of the country are not getting.
“If they insist, why do we not sit down and talk? If in the end everybody agrees that Nigeria should should break up, let it be.”
He said the North has always been on its own because the poor in the region have always been on their own.
Abdullahi said: “The poor feed themselves from what they cultivate in the farms and feed Nigeria up till tomorrow. It is possible that all northerners could return to what their forefathers did through agriculture, with which proceeds they built the North and Nigeria.
“The land is still there and the water. Our forefathers built all the factories, the textiles, the oil mills in Kano from agricultural proceeds. God has given us fertile land. So, if we return to what we have, we would not lack. We will surely stand on our own, no matter the situation this country finds itself.”
He lamented the state of insecurity in the country and reiterated their resolve to work towards the continued existence of the nation.
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