Spokesman of Arewa Consultative Forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi has expressed the North’s readiness to debate whether Nigeria should remain as a country or not.
The ACF chieftain stated that some Nigerians believe the regions making up the country were mistakenly put together by the British colonialists.
Abdullahi told ThisDay that: “The issue of restructuring, of course, is a subject that we’re ready to discuss with anyone. The issue of the country and its existence is also an issue that we’re prepared to discuss with anyone who questions the very basic need for having the country as it is now; because there are some people who are arguing along those lines that Nigeria, ab initio, had been mistakenly put together by the British. Although some clergymen say it is God; it’s not God. It is the creation of the colonial masters.”
He also claimed that many members of Boko Haram terrorists were graduates and PhD holders, arguing that the primary cause of the group’s emergence was not its hatred for Western education.
“The Boko Haram phenomenon has nothing to do with Western education. It has never been the basis of its coming into existence. Many of the members of Boko Haram are graduates; many active members of Boko Haram are graduates. Also, I can tell you that some of them are PhD holders. So, it has got nothing to do with Western education,” the elder statesman said
Abdullahi stated further that the collapse of the country’s socio-economic structures, rather than aversion for Western education, was what inspired the insurgency, pointing out that a number of the terrorist group’s leaders were from Kogi State.
He maintained: “It has more to do with the manner in which the socio-economic structures of the country are being managed. The areas where there is easy recruitment of Boko Haram members are the poorest areas of this country –North-east. But it might interest you to know that quite a number of the active leadership of Boko Haram is from Kogi State. It has nothing to do with Western education; in fact, many of the Boko Haram members are more educated than those who claim to have had Western education. “The crisis of Boko Haram –either the current type or the future type of Boko Haram –that this country will end up having must be related to our willingness to manage this country so that we avoid all those ingredients that cause disaffection, anger, and distrust.”
In addition, he warned that a “new” Boko Haram will emerge if the nation’s resources was continued to be mismanaged by the leaders.
“Seeing people affluently mismanaging our resources to the detriment of the majority that are wallowing in abject poverty; this is what will breed either new Boko Haram or a new version (of extremists) in the future unless something is done about it.
“The level of unemployment of graduates in this country is frightening and this is a recruiting ground for the banditry we’re witnessing in our society today,” he said.
It depends on the type of education one receives. If the education does not make one creative as it should, then such a person is like a robot. What Prof Ango Abdullahi should be concerned about is the type of education we impart our youths. Nigeria with tremendous mineral resources, abundance of rain and sunshine, any person with at least secondary school education, nay with university degree should be able to be innovative, entrepreneurial to create job for himself and others. Almost all the electronic gadgets one sees in the Nigerian market ranging from torchlight, batteries, radios, phones, etc. which Nigerians clamour for are produced by secondary school leavers in China. It is unfortunate that most of our university and polytechnic graduates prefer to sit at home waiting for government jobs instead of going out to use the knowledge they have acquired to produce goods and services for their economic and social needs.