Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a former Special Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, has chided Igbos agitating for their own country, Biafra.
He said it amounted to playing to the gallery if the same people clamouring to be on their own, still live and do business in other states of Nigeria, which they are seeking to exit.
Yakasai, who recently commented on IPOB and MASSOB leaders , noted that even if Biafra is achieved, “everybody is aware that the major ethnic groups in Nigeria are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The day there is no Nigeria, the Igbo will have no alternative than to relocate to their states.”
“The reality is that the three major ethnic groups, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, need Nigeria. Every one of them needs Nigeria”, he told Daily Trust.
“In Yoruba land, Most of the industries are located in the South-West, mainly in Lagos, some in Ogun and some in Ibadan. According to a letter written by the late General Adeyinka Adebayo, the industries in Oyo are owned by Lebanese and Indians, but 70 per cent of the industries located in Lagos State are owned by Igbo.
“So the industries that are manufacturing goods in the South-West and some in the Eastern Region have the whole of Nigeria as their market, a market of about 200 million people. If there is no Nigeria, there would not be that market and what would be the consequences of lack of market?
“First, the goods cannot be sold, there will be no production and there will be unemployment, and the people that are employed in industries located in the South-West are largely Yoruba. The day there is no Nigeria, there will be massive unemployment in the South-West.
“This is apart from the food and livestock they are getting from the North. If there is no Nigeria, they will not get them, and if they are going to import, it will take time and will be costly. By nature, they cannot grow livestock and some food items in their area. The geographical situation in South-West is different from that of the North; the animals they are growing do not enough meat and milk, unlike the ones in the North.
“For the Igbo, at present there is no village where there is a flourishing market where you cannot have the Igbo conducting their own businesses. And they are living in peace; nobody is harassing them. They live within thousands of other ethnic groups and nobody is attacking them.
“It is a well known fact that the business of building materials is surrendered to Igbo people, as well as electrical appliances, fittings and spare parts. Commuter transportation; those luxury buses that are plying our roads from one state to another are owned by the Igbo.
“Two, we need the current oil revenue. In Nigeria, only six states can survive with the oil revenue they are getting. There are four oil bearing states that cannot survive with the quantity of oil located in their areas.
“These states are Abia, Imo, Ondo and Edo, they have oil, but it is not as much as they could rely on for survival. But Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom and one other state can survive with the oil located in their respective areas.
“So, during the first Biafran agitation Ojukwu entered agreement with France whereby he gave concession for the entire oil and gas resources in the Biafran region. If Biafra succeeded, there was no way the Niger Delta people could claim ownership of oil and gas located in their areas.
“Three, the North also needs education. Today, in most of our universities the lecturers are mostly from the South – even the students. We need education and we cannot get it without teachers, so we need Nigeria to get teachers from southern part of the country to come and teach us.
“Four, we need the technical know-how the South has. So we need them for that.
“Five, we also need the South for investment. The only northerners that have huge investments are three – Aliko Dangote, T. Y Danjuma and Alhaji Abdulsamad Isyaka Rabi’u. But if you go to the South you will get thousands of them with huge capital.
“The Igbo, unfortunately, are lacking in diplomacy. This is the weakness of the Igbo and that is what the Yoruba are capitalising on to manipulate their way of thinking.
“During the first declaration of Biafra, it was a public knowledge that when Gowon sent Awolowo to persuade Ojukwu not to embark on secession, they met on the River Niger bridge and discussed.
“Later on, the media said that according to unofficial report, Awolowo assured Ojukwu that if they seceded, the West would also secede. When he came out, he declared publicly that if by any act of commission or omission the East was allowed to go, the West would follow.
“This is the public announcement he made and the record is there, which means the West would also secede from the rest of Nigeria. The Igbo believed in him and Ojukwu told all the Igbo to go back to their respective areas.
“At that time, the Igbo were holding various positions in government, but they all left. When they came back after the civil war, they found that the Yoruba had occupied their positions, and till today, they have not regained such positions, and they will never regain them”
