Prof. Banji Akintoye, elder statesman and an associate of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, has raised concerns that Nigeria may break up any time soon.
Akintoye, 82, who is as a chieftain of the Southern Leaders Forum; said he was unhappy because he never expected Nigeria to be this bad; having being on the paths of greatness and big-time prosperity.
He said Nigeria could only be great again when people who rule the nation would at last let go of their own hidden agenda and let the country develop.
He told Punch that, “As long as they (leaders) keep this petty born-to-rule idea and continue to distort and manipulate things in order to achieve that purpose, my fear is that it will not work. I hope that they will change. I hope that Nigeria will be revived. I hope that Nigeria will still fulfill its destiny in black Africa. I fear in fact that Nigeria will break up.
“Let us abolish the accumulation of power and resource control which the military did. Let us give each group of Nigerian the power, resources and ability to manage their own affairs so that we can again become a country given to productivity and prosperity and not a country indolently sharing money.”
It is too late to cry over spilt milk. Had the Yoruba of South West stood their ground and refused to join the Hausa Fulani against, Biafra in 1966, the war would not have started; had the Ijaw, Ibibio, Ogoni fully supported Ndi Igbo without abominable sabotage , the war would not have been lost. Now everybody wants to go it ethnically including the backbone of Hausa Fulani emirate kingdoms, the middle belters, yet I strongly believe that Nigerian unity must not be dashed overboard on the alter of easy way out. But it is as importand today as yesterday, to all to come out boldly for RECONSTRUCTION, SO THAT OUR OWN CHILDREN WILL NOT CAST BLAME ON US FOR COWARDICE. The AREWA group will easily understand that the game is up and they too need other Nigerians to make their own progress. We should not run away from a task that must be done. Let there be 6 or 8 regional federating political groups that should work as the former 4 regions before the civil war. Current states must revert to Provinces and run by provincial assemblies overseeing local governments. We may not need any further constitutional conventions. Each constituent region should be meet before October 1, 2017 to map out their provinces and local governments. Buhari should remain president until the finalization of the New Nigeria, and conduct elections at all levels of government before October 1, 2018 People should accept this simple restructuring skeleton or forget about Nigeria, after which units and regions can come together assuming any name.