A professor of International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State, Professor Williams Fawole, has warned Nigerians against a repeat of the civil war and the aftermath of the June 12, 1993 general elections that claimed many lives across the country.
He said it would be insensitive for Nigerians, especially the elite, to continue to make same mistakes all the time, adding that it was unthinkable to propose a brake up of Nigeria.
Fawole, who disclosed this in a papers entitled ‘Understanding Nigerian Federalism: Origin, Trajectory, Dynamics and Travails,’ presented at a media workshop organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission in Ibadan, said the hotbeds of sub-national agitations for break-up of Nigeria necessitated the need for negotiation of the country’s existence.
Fawole, who was the guest speaker at the programme, said, “I am convinced that Nigeria needs to be negotiated along the lines that promote unity, equity and justice for the benefit of its diverse people, not for the purpose of break-up, for it is better for all Nigerians to hang together so that none will hang separately.
“It is not for nothing that different parts of Nigeria are on the boil as hotbeds of sub-national agitations, and there is no point pretending that all is well with the country.”
Fawole noted that the existence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which had existed for about 400 years as a single country, came up for negotiation recently through a referendum by Scotland.
He said Canada, another former British colony, had separatist agitations, whilst Spain was currently “grappling with Basque and Catalonian nationalism.
“In what ways is Nigeria, another multinational conglomerate state different form these other countries?” he asked.
