Split Nigeria: Gaddafi’s comment should be re-examined –Peter Akinola
From FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja
Tuesday , March 23, 2010


Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
Amid calls for the head of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi for advising that Nigeria be split into two to forestall further bloodshed, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and outgoing Primate of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Peter Akinola yesterday cautioned against dismissing the comments with a mere wave of the hands.

He said that the import of the statement be examined critically.
Against the background of disturbances in parts of the country over time and the attendant impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, the religious leader said that the comments credited to Gaddafi were indeed “divine.”

The comments by the Libyan leader had attracted condemnations from different quarters with all concluding that the Libyan strongman must be insane to have given such advice to Nigeria.
Akinola who is due for retirement in the next 72 hours was speaking at a farewell media parley in Abuja during which he formally introduced his would-be successor, Most Reverend Nicholas Dikeriehi Orogodo Okoh. He explained that he, just like other people, had dismissed Gaddafi’s comment as one coming from an undesirable quarter.

However, on deep reflection over it for a week, he discovered that the comment deserved a second thought.
He said, initially I dismissed him, thinking he was only being true-to-type, because he is the kind of person who could say such thing. After a week of pondering over the whole thing, I said to myself, may be the man should not just be dismissed. Perhaps what he has said is divine in the sense that it would serve as a wake up call to Nigerian stakeholders to find ways of finding lasting solutions to the issues at stake.
Pointing out that Nigerian Authorities should ignore the messenger but take the message serious, Akinola argued that although the Libyan leader was not a friend of Nigeria, the import of his comment should not be lost on all.

According to him, what Gaddafi meant was that the time has come for Nigeria to sit and discuss her continued existence as one country under one God. “Why should some people be referring to Muslim North and Christian South, which is not true. There is no part of the North that you won’t find Christians, and there is no part of the South that you won’t find Muslims and Christians co-habit.
Alluding to the inability of government and law enforcement agencies to bring to book perpetrators of disturbances ever since, the religious leader wondered why government or the Police have never brought anyone to book since the Kafanchan crisis in 1988. “Where are the murderers and arsonists that caused mayhem in all the crises we have been having in this country. We need to come together and discuss the terms of our staying together if we want to be honest with ourselves.


“I support one Nigeria, but we have to discuss our continued existence as a nation. If Nigeria should burn, nobody will be spared. The time is ripe and due for discussion to settle Nigeria’s unity, that is what Gaddafi’s statement portends. If Hausa-Fulani can do their business in the South unmolested, Kola and Ugochukwu should be able to do their businesses in Kaduna or Jos unmolested, and if molested, then government and the police have a duty to fish out the perpetrators and deal with them decisively.”




http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/mar/23/national-23-03-2010-24.htm

Of course it should be 're-examined.' There is no need to dismiss a possible solution to the many problems plaguing Nigeria.

All options should be on the table.

I think AKINOLA JASPER should have his head cross-examined.

Must he wait till Gaddafi calls nigeria to order before he learns how to spoke out against injustices?


All these Yoruba Prophets makes me laff.

Radical times call for radical measures.