North can survive if Nigeria divides —Arewa elders

Posted by admin Arewa House, Latest Politics Thursday, April 19th, 2012

A body of elders in the North, who met under the aegis of Arewa Elders Forum (AEF), has told southerners who are agitating for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) that the North can survive if the country divides.

The elders also lamented insecurity in the country and reiterated their resolve to work towards the continued existence of the nation.

Speaking in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a chieftain of the forum and aide of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Ango Abdullahi, said once the northerners returned to the farm just like their forefathers, they could survive in a divided Nigeria.

“We know this is an old call; it’s been long for over 20 years, they have been saying this corporate existence of the country, that the federal system is faulty.

“They are keen in sitting down to discuss what kind of arrangement would be conducive for Nigerians… This is an old call and it is not a new thing, … some people are hiding under the guise of this agitation to show that they are tired of staying in a united Nigeria,” he said.

Professor Abdullahi said northerners would not cause Nigeria’s break-up, adding that “if, however, others decided that the country be divided and they insisted that Nigeria break up, we won’t say no, because we realised there is nothing we are getting in the current arrangement that other sections of the country are not getting.”

On whether the North could be able to stand on its own when the country eventually breaks up, Abdullahi said the North had always been on its own, adding that “it is possible if all northerners would return to what their forefathers did through agriculture, with which proceeds they built the North and Nigeria as a whole.”

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