A Chieftain of the Arewa consultative forum, Mohammed Abdulrahman has criticized and faulted the call for Nigeria’s breakup, saying that “it is a treasonable offence to call for seccession.”
He went on to say that the Igbos are using seccession as a trick to galvanize support to clinch the Presidency come 2019. Below are some excerpts from his interview with The Punch media outlet:
Below are some excerpts from his interview with The Punch:
Do you think Nigeria’ s sovereignty is negotiable ?
No. I don’ t think the sovereignty or unity of this country is negotiable . Every time there is agitation by a section of the country or a group of people, I don ’t think we should bring up the issue of whether Nigeria should remain one united country or not. As a people, no matter our differences, we have become united in our diversity .
It is only natural for issues of disagreement to come up from time to time. Having said that , we must understand that there is a fundamental reason we are all made to be part of this great country called Nigeria . To my mind, the people agitating for independence or break – up of the country are illiterates and are misinformed.
They don ’t understand the realities of the time. It is my conviction that Nnamdi Kanu is being sponsored by some irresponsible political elites. They are the ones egging him on. But to what end? Let me tell you , the Igbo are only trying to be relevant; they are only trying to get back into Nigeria’s mainstream political space .
There is nothing more to that . Among such efforts to get back into the mainstream is to have the presidency. What I see that Nnamdi Kanu and his Igbo alike are doing is to blackmail Nigeria into submitting the presidency to them . The question I will ask them is: Can you have this presidency by blackmail? You need to examine their logic very well and you can discern their real motive concerning this issue .
At a point, the Igbo said they wanted the presidency and now they are saying they don’t want to be part of Nigeria . How can they want or have the presidency when they don’ t want to be part of the country ? They want one of their own to be president they call a zoo ? Is that reasonable? Or , does that show sincerity? I think the way they have been going about their agitation is irresponsible.
Their tactics are wrong and crude . I think Igbo hooligans are behind current agitation for an independent state of Biafra .
Do you think that secession should be an option in the country ’ s drive for restructuring ?
How can that be ? We were brought together as diverse people for a reason .
Have you seen any country that has secession as an option in its constitution when there is a crisis ? It is a treasonable offence to call for secession. There is nothing like that in our constitution . We have said it several times that Nigeria is indissoluble. We are destined to be the giant of Africa and together we can all be stronger .m ex
