Don’t Drag Us Into Break-up Debate, Kogi, Kwara Leaders Tell North
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The controversy stirred by Dr. Junaid Mohammed on possible break up of Nigeria is yet to die down. Leaders of Kogi and Kwara, two Middle Belt states the Second Republic legislator threatened to drag along with the North have reacted. Group Political Editor BOLADE OMONIJO, EMMANUEL OLADESU and ADEKUNLE JIMOH present their angry responses:

THE political and social elite of Kogi and Kwara states are angry that a section of the North is threatening to hold them as bargain in the event that Nigeria disintegrates. Perhaps taking a cue from Karl Meier’s contention that “this house has fallen” and the foreign prediction that the country can only last a few years given the current sociological pressure, Junaid Mohammed told a Sunday newspaper that the North was not afraid of a break up. He, however, added that this would only be allowed if Kogi and Kwara states were ceded to the North.

But, furious at the sheer thought, David Jemibewon, a retired Major General, fired three questions in one minute: “On whose mandate is he talking? Whose interest is he representing? Who authorised him?”

Jemibewon, a founding member and leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hails from Kogi State. He found it insulting that Mohammed could conceivably be speaking for the people of Kogi and Kwara states.

The former military governor of the defunct Western State who reacted on the phone, said Mohammed lacked the mandate of his people in Kogi to speak on such a sensitive issue.

He added: “If it’s his personal view, which I cannot query, there is no problem. But if he claims to be speaking on behalf of the North, who gave him the mandate?

“I don’t think he represents my interest until he gets my mandate. If he has been authorised, I don’t have the right to query him. But who authorised him?”

Jemibewon was too angry to continue with the interview. But Rotimi Obadofin, another Kogi politician would not want to contemplate such a development. He said Mohammed was wallowing in self-deception and self-delusion, pointing out that the two states would not go with the North, if there is a break-up.

He said: “If the country should disintegrate at the end of the day, which is most likely, Kwara and Kogi are returning to the West, and this is not negotiable. It is inconceivable that Yoruba of Kwara and Kogi will be part of the North. The boundary is clear. We are Yoruba. There is no boundary between Yoruba of Kogi and Kwara. The contiguity is there.

“We have the same culture, language and environment. We till the same land and drink water from the same source. We have the same blood. So, on the contrary, our location is far apart from Hausa/Fulaniland; thousands of miles apart. We don’t speak the same language. We don’t have the same culture. We don’t share the same boundary. In  fact, we have absolutely nothing in common. It is easier to integrate Europeans with the Hausa/Fulani than to integrate Kwara and Kogi with them.”

The deputy governorship candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria in the state, Hon. Henry Ojuola, would not speak for the whole state. He said: “I am a Yoruba man from Kogi West. I got the mandate to represent my people in the House of Assembly, so I know what my people want. I know their interests, culture, political culture, behaviour and aspiration. I do not pray that Nigeria breaks and I don’t think that any patriot should work for the disintegration of his country.

“However, should we get to that point, certainly my people in the five local government areas in Kogi West will go with our kith and kin in the West. We share the same language and culture and would feel more comfortable with them. Junaid Mohammed cannot speak for us. Who is he to decide for our people? How can he from Kano do that?”

On the other two senatorial districts of the state, Ojuola said he was not in position to speak for them. His words: “I cannot speak for the Ebira and Igala. But, I know that we share a lot with the Ebira. Remember that we share affinity in old Kwara State. We understand one another.”

There were indications yesterday that leaders of various groups in the state who felt stung by the Junaid Mohammed interview held a meeting during the week to consider how to officially react to the statement. While some of the leaders dismissed it as a non-issue and the opinion of one man, others said he could be speaking for an entrenched Northern interest group and should, therefore, elicit appropriate responses.

A former House of Representatives member from Ebiraland said, “Junaid should not be dignified with response. I have followed his outbursts since the Second Republic and he derives pleasure in avoidable and unnecessary controversy. I will not want to speak on the issue. I am an Ebira from Kogi State. Beyond that, I am a Nigerian. That’s all. No more. I do not know if there is a North today. The only one that I know died many years ago.” He, however, refused to be identified.

Kwara people are no less outraged. Justice Mustapha Akanbi, a retired President of the Court of Appeal, who hails from Ilorin, would not contemplate the break-up of Nigeria. He described whoever is thinking of Nigeria’s disintegration as an enemy of the people and the African continent.

“Those talking about the division of Nigeria are pessimists and enemies of the country”, said the pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC),

Justice Akanbi told The Nation that, “speaking for myself, I don’t want the break-up of the country. I want a united country. I have struggled for pan-Africanism all my life. I have struggled all my life talking of one great Nigeria which all African countries can look up to as a role model. Although we have not been able to give them that satisfaction, I will, till the end of my life, struggle for a united Nigeria.

“I can’t contemplate a situation where Nigeria will be divided into pieces. It is forward ever, backward never. I think those who talk about dividing Nigeria are pessimists. I am an optimist.

Referring to his orientation early in life, Justice Akanbi, who was introduced to pan-Africanism as an admirer of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, said: “Now getting to about 80 years, how can I start talking about the division of Nigeria? I hope it does not happen during my time and I pray that it does not happen in the time of my own children. Throughout my stay in Nigeria, I have seen any Nigerian as a Nigerian, as I have seen him as an African and that is my basic philosophy and that of my family. I daily pray for the greatness of Nigeria and Africa. When Europeans are having the European Union and other countries are united, how can we be talking about Nigeria in small pieces? Once you start that, you are running into deep waters and I hope the whirlwind will not consume us.

“So the question of whether Kwara, Kogi or any of the states will belong to one area, as far as I am concerned, is a non-issue. As a matter of fact, I prefer to be known as Akanbi, the pan-Africanist.”

The Kwara State governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in last year’s poll, Alhaji Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), was optimistic that Nigeria would not be balkanised.

In Belgore’s words: “We don’t think that Nigeria will break up; we certainly hope it will not break up. Our strength as a nation lies in the different peoples working together for a common purpose of development and economic empowerment.

“Poverty and unemployment do not discriminate between north and south. These are ills that are common to both and these are matters that should call for our attention. Rather than talk about break- up, we should not be talking about Nigeria breaking up. instead we should be talking about building a strong and virile nation.”

The possibility of disintegration of Nigeria has come up in debates in recent times, following communal disputes in different parts of the country, the Niger Delta struggle, the campaign for a Sovereign State of Biafra in the South East and the devastating strikes by Boko Haram nihilists in the North.

There are now more strident calls for sovereign national conference, greater autonomy to the federating units and need for regional control of resources as was the case in the First Republic.

This has reportedly and understandably led to unease in the North that believes that it could be at the receiving end if the centre is weakened, leading to the recent call by chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum for a revisit to the derivation formula designed to pacify and placate a devastated Niger Delta.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/39301-don%E2%80%99t-drag-us-into-break-up-debate%2C-kogi%2C-kwara-leaders-tell-north.html

Nice to hear this. Divide and rule no dey work again. I would have been horrified to hear anything different from kwara and kogi elite. Everybody's eyes are open now. This aint the 1960's

why would anyone even think , they can have kwara state or kogi state. are you from kwara or kogi

wonderful

no mind that man

so which is the true map of break up of Nigeria.

I think we know where we are going. But I think the Igbos are still confused over where they are. They dont know if they are niger delta republic or biafra.

people of delta state

musiwa stop it delta state is not going with Benin rep/SW know that now i have evidence to show you,

I remember my father, a Brigadier in the Biafran Army and head of the Biafran Organisation of Freedom Fighters (BOFF) in his uniform. I remember young men relatives, friends, and neighbours – who waved goodbye as they went off to war – and never came back.

  by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

itsekiri film


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FwjO6o5OPU&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMAuueTtSo&feature=related

no

so you see.

how many people must die before change comes