By Femi Fani-Kayode
On June 27th 2017 in Daura, Katsina State one Tanko
Abdullahi and one Mohammed Shehu, after a meeting of the Arewa Youth Council,
issued the following statement. They said,
“We are very much aware that all the attacks against
President Muhammadu Buhari were planted in the media by the Yoruba and spread
by southerners generally just to discredit the north in order to pave way for
their son, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to become President.
But their plans will fail insha Allah. We shall resist every
of such plans and ensure by all means possible, that the north completes its
eight-year tenure and possibly even continue after then, and that the federal
structure of Nigeria as it currently is, is not tampered with by secession
mongers and their collaborators.
Having given power to the Yoruba on a platter of gold in
1999 as a way of compensating them for the June 12 saga, it is quite worrisome
and unfortunate that they have lived up to their legendary reputation of
backstabbing and betrayal by supporting the divisive calls for restructuring or
dismemberment of the nation against the will and desire of the north.
We gave the late Chief MKO Abiola the mandate in 1993 but
shortly after that, as it is with the Yoruba as a culture, they immediately
started circling around Abiola plotting on how to emasculate the north and
strip us of every access we had to the politics and economy of this nation.
They had also raised a secret army of their elites to carry
out these sinister plans against the north if Abiola eventually became
President. It was this army that was unleashed on the nation in the guise of
NADECO during the June 12 impasse.
May we remind the Yoruba that without the willingness and
magnanimity of the north, there was no way Abiola could have purportedly won that
election, and that all the Yoruba have now as assets in the south west,
especially Lagos, were given to them by our leaders out of our own usual
magnanimity.
However, time and time again, the Yoruba have always turned
their back on us whenever their support is needed. They have chosen to pitch
tent with the Igbo this time around just to spite us, but we shall not succumb
to their antics”.
Their words are laced with hate, fuelled by ignorance,
filled with contempt, propelled by hubristic pride and garnished with the
arrogance of Atilla the Hun: indeed they have spoken like the true almajiris
that they are.
Meanwhile let us look at the facts.
12 million children are out of school in Nigeria. Out of the
12 million, 10 million are from the north whilst Kano state alone has 3 million
beggars.
Nigeria has the highest number of young girls suffering from
Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) in the world. And 90 per cent of those young girls
are from the north.
According to the UNDP 72 per cent of northern Nigerians are
living below the poverty line.
According to UNICEF if Nigeria were to ever break up the
core north would be the poorest and most barren place on the African continent.
According to Nasir El Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna state in
northern Nigeria, if the north-western zone of the country were to ever find
itself on its own it would be poorer and more ravaged by war than Afghanistan.
According to the World Terror Index Boko Haram and the
Fulani militias are the first and fourth “most deadly terrorist organisations
in the world” respectively and they both come from northern Nigeria.
According to UNESCO 65 million Nigerians, which represents
50 per cent of the total population!) are stark illiterates and 55 million of
them are from the north.
According to UNICEF the heartland and base of pedophiia,
child sex, child slavery and child marriage on the African continent is
northern Nigeria.
According to President Donald Trump of the United States of
America “northern Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places for Christians to
live in the world” and “Christians are murdered there in their thousands every
year whilst Churches are blown up and burnt down”.
According to CNN “the bastion of radical Islam, Islamic
terror and Islamic fundamentalism in Africa is northern Nigeria”.
According to Governor Yari of Zamfara state in north western
Nigeria the north has been afflicted with all manner of diseases and epidemics,
including meningitis, as a consequence of their many sins against Allah.
According to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo the northern
states “have the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the country,
the lowest rate of child enrolment in schools, the highest number of unemployed
young people, the highest levels of poverty and faces the challenge of
inter-ethic and inter-religious conflict including the Boko Haram terrorism.”
All these daunting challenges, disturbing facts and alarming
statistics and instead of putting their house in order the Arewa Youth
Coalition not only threaten the Igbo with mass murder and genocide and order
them to leave the north by October 1st but they have also gone a step further
by insulting the Yoruba and accused us of being “serial traitors” and of
“trying to impose Osinbajo on Nigeria as President”.
This is the same Osinbajo that has bent over backwards to
appease them, that has taken all their insults and provocations and that has
resolved to accept the fact that he is more a co-ordinator of government
affairs than an Acting President.
I really do wonder what these young northerners really want?
They issue quit notices to fellow Nigerians and they are
still going about freely and with AK47 and daggers stained with the blood of
their innocent compatriots.
They issue statements insulting their compatriots by calling
them ungrateful backstabbers even after stabbing and butchering them to death .
They tell the world that Yoruba Muslims are not real Muslims
and that they will never allow them to lead in prayers in the mosque.
I ask again what do these young northerners really want?
Do they really believe that the rest of us are interested in
THEIR Nigeria anymore? To many the unity of Nigeria is not sacrosanct and
neither do we insist on it at the cost of our lives, our future, our
self-respect and our dignity.
This position has been confirmed and re-affirmed by the
General Alani Akinrinade-led Yoruba Assembly, the Odua People’s Congress, the
Odua Liberation Movement and Afenifere itself.
We may love Nigeria but we are not prepared to sacrifice our
liberty on the alter as a sacrifice to her gods and neither are we prepared to
be treated like animals or a people that have no history or do not know where
they are coming from. The Yoruba culture and race are irresistable and
irrepressable.
The influence and power of the ancient Yoruba empire and
people stretches from South America, the Carribean, West Africa, various parts
of western Europe and other parts of the world till today.
We come from an ancient lineage of empire and tradition
which is thousands of years old and which pre-dates Christianity and Islam. We
are well-educated, focused and strong.
We have never been conquered in battle and we have never
lost a war to a foreign aggressor or usurper. We are slow to anger but
irresistable in battle.
We are a proud and noble race from an illustrious and royal
heritage: se bow to no other. That is who and what we are.
If Nigeria remaining one means that we must live as slaves
and serfs whilst the north laud it over us and insult us every day then we say
let her break and let us go our separate ways before we kill each other.
It is only in this country that those with a blood-lust, the
perverted, the depraved, the lazy, the parasitic, the barren, the poor and the
dieseased insist on leading and ruling over the peace-loving, the sane, the
wholesome, the righteous, the generous, the kind, the accomodating, the
hard-working, the productive, the prosperous and the healthy.
In view of these racist, divisive and provocative rantings
and sentiments from the northern youths (which in my view have the tacit
support and backing of their traditional rulers, political elite, trusted
leaders and reverred elders) those of us from other parts of the country must
wake up, smell the coffee, get our act together and rise up to the challenge
and to the occassion.
This is the time for men and women of valour and strength to
step up to the plate and redeem the honor of their kith and kin. This is the
time to say “enough is enough!” (TO BE CONTINUED).
Credit: Femi Fani-Kayode
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