TIME TO DECLARE ODUDUWA REPUBLIC IS NOW.JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR ODUDUWA REPUBLIC NOW Diran Apatas sunday message Welcome to Arewa Republic LAST Wednesday, hundreds of youths, indigenes and citizens of the Arewa North, went on a protest demonstration in the city of Kano. They were acting under the auspices of a well-known organization, Arewa Youth Development Foundation. They were making a very historic demand – namely, that Nigeria should be dissolved. According to one report, a prepared speech jointly signed by their National President (Barrister Aliyu Usman) and Secretary General, urged Northerners to “rise and support agitation for peaceful dissolution of this union called Nigeria for every region to go its own way.” And they demanded that the dissolution should take place now. To that end, they urged that, in the next two weeks, all Northerners residing in the South should return home to the North, and all Southerners residing in the North should return to the South. They urged all “artisans, students, public and private sector servants, traders, business holders currently operating, residing or intending to do so in any part of Nigeria to relocate back home within the next two weeks”. In the same vein they advised non-Northerners residing in any part of the North to leave - - - “to make room for accommodating our Northern brothers who would be returning home”. I have no doubt at all that this protest demonstration by the Arewa youths is one of the most important events in the context of Nigeria’s present situation. And the following are the explanations for that importance. Dissatisfaction with Nigeria is at its highest. Nigerians are tired of living in “absolute poverty” in a country as naturally rich as Nigeria; tired of living in hopelessness; tired of having their lives brutalized by powerfully entrenched corruption; tired of living in endless and essentially irresoluble conflicts; tired of continuing to live in the insecurity generated by crimes, governmental impunity, political crookedness, election rigging, and the violence that these provoke; and scared of unpredictable and sudden mass death from terrorism. Most Nigerians would, today, welcome what somebody has called a “goodbye-to-allreferendum”. The manifestations of this alienation are clear and strongin most parts of Nigeria. In the Igbo Southeast, various popular groups hold demonstrations and engage in other acts from time to time, in Nigeria and abroad, to demand a separate country of Biafra. A Biafra Foundation, made up of Igbo intellectuals and professionals, powerfully demands Biafra and, among other things, runs an international radio to push its demands. In the Yoruba Southwest, many self-determination groups demand a separate Yoruba country (which should include the Yoruba of the Southwest, Kwara and Kogi and the Itsekiri of Delta State). A very powerful and influential Yoruba think-tank organization of intellectuals and professionals, Oodua Foundation, withmembers in countries across the globe, sets itself the goal of a separate Yoruba country – a country of great economy, technology, and prosperity. In the South-south, various strong organizations demand a separate Delta country, and some of these are linked to influential international organizations.In the Northeast, the ancient civilization of the Kanuri people has long been trying to re-awaken itself, and those emotions are probably part of the unspoken motivation for Boko Haram. Some observers believe that the Boko Haram insurgency could, among other things, result in a separate country in what is now the Nigerian Northeast. In the broad Middle Belt, the home of hundreds of peoples, many of the peoples are now showing signs of strength and independence and collaboration – as against their erstwhile tendency to submit to the larger people, the Hausa-Fulani, of Arewa North. In all this, the position of the Arewa North leadership has usually been ambivalent or even ambiguous. In the five months following the January 1966 military coup, when the Military Government of General Ironsi seemed to be pursuing policies that threatened Hausa-Fulani hegemony over Nigeria, the Hausa-Fulani leadership wanted to separate the then Northern Region from Nigeria and set it up as a new country. Popular support was whipped up for this in the North and, unhappily, that started the Araba upsurge, resulting in mass killings of Igbo people resident in the North. Northern officers in the army then carried out a coup in July 1966, with the intension of completing the separation. However, having secured power, the Northern military officers abandoned the idea of separation and, instead, embarked on a programme of systematically and firmly establish Northern control over Nigeria. The central piece in that programme has been to concentrate all power and resource control in Nigeria in the hands of the Federal Government, and to ensure that the Federal Government controls all parts of Nigeria. The entrenched tradition of federal rigging of elections in all parts of Nigeria is a major part of this programme. And so is the deliberate use of corruption to subvert, subdue and weaken the elite of all parts of Nigeria. All these have produced and reinforced most of the diseases that are now threatening to destroy Nigeria. But, as various Nigerian peoples have shown their desire to separate from the very sick country that Nigeria has thus become, the Hausa-Fulani leadership for years posed as special preservers of Nigeria, sometimes even threatening that they would be ready to go towar to keep Nigeria together. This Hausa-Fulani posture continued until some six years ago, when control of the Federal Government passed into the hands of President Jonathan from the South-south in a manner that fairly effectually denied control to the Hausa-Fulani leadership. Since then, significant spokesmen for the Hausa-Fulani have repeatedly voiced the position that the Hausa-Fulani would gladly accept the breaking up of Nigeria if that is what the other peoples of Nigeria desire. Only over a week ago, Professor Ango Abdullahi repeated this in a public interview. It is against this background that the demands of the Arewa Youth Development Foundation must be seen as a historically very important development. Only a few days after Professor Ango Abdullahi spoke for the core of the older Arewa leadership, Arewa’s youth leaderssay that they categorically demand that Nigeria be broken up immediately and peacefully. There is no “ifs” in their demand, no ambivalence or ambiguity. Moreover, the older generation of Arewa leaders cannot free themselves from fixation on the Niger Delta’s oil. They have often said that they would go to war rather that lose the oil. The Arewa youth leaders despise this fixation on the oil. They say the South-south can take its oil away – and that without it they would build their own new country. Finally, and very significantly, these youth leaders are not killing Southerners (as the Araba upsurge did in 1966) or preaching that Southerners be killed. What they propose is, in fact, very constructive – namely, that Northerners and Southerners should return now to their homelands until the dissolution of Nigeria is completed – apparentlymeaningthat those who want to go back and live where they have long lived may do so afterwards. In conclusion, it needs to be emphasized that the “youths” we are talking about here are not immature children. They are mature and responsible citizens, family heads, and competent professionals. These are the owners of the Arewa North’s future, the voices of the immediate future. We must listen to them respectfully – very respectfully. Welcome to Arewa Republic. ALL YORUBAS SHOULD JOIN THE MOVEMENT FOR ODUDUWA REPUBLIC (MORE) NOW.It is time to show the world,that our demands for Oduduwa Republic is real. LikeLike · · Share
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 09:57:13 +0000
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