A delegate to the National Conference and Chairman of the committee that laid the framework, Senator Femi Okurounmu, has declared that Nigeria’s breakup is inevitable.
While giving his reasons, the former lawmaker said it is not compulsory that Nigeria will remain as one nation, noting that the northern region has been oppressing other regions since independence.
Reacting to a recent statement credited to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria where he was quoted as saying that his country will not allow Nigeria to tear apart, Senator Okorounmu said that the Britain is the major problem of Nigeria.
According to him, Nigerians are now fed up with the British-forced marriage of different entities in the country.
He told Sun, “It is possible for Nigeria to break up, we can’t continue this way and expect people to remain silent. As long as we don’t have equity, fairness and justice in the polity, if Nigeria wants to break, let it be so.
“Forget whatever the British High Commissioner was quoted as saying. It’s even these British that are the architects of Nigeria’s problems. The British caused most of our problems.
“On the eve of independence in 1959, the British colonialists rigged the pre-independence election to hand over power to a Northern political party, the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, and since then the North has been oppressing other parts of the country, especially the South.
“For the past 57 years of independence, the North has been oppressing other geo-political zones. But for how long will this injustice last, and for how long will other Nigerians continue to tolerate the north’s dominance and oppression?
“One thing I know for sure now is that many Nigerians are tired of this British-forced marriage of different entities and nations called Nigeria, and this is why some are clamouring for self determination. Again, as long as we fail to restructure, the possibility of Nigeria breaking up is a reality.
“It is not even compulsory that we must remain as one nation, especially if one region is bent on keeping others backward. We need to return to a true practice of federalism, as it was in the First Republic. The North is dragging Nigeria backward.
“The current unitary system we are practising which the Northern military leaders foisted on Nigeria is dragging us backward. We should return to true federalism as enshrined in our independence constitution.”
