- Northern elders, youths insist on dissolving Nigerian federation
The struggle for the Sovereign State of Biafra has continued to gain more legitimacy in northern Nigeria since the unveiling of the Kaduna Declaration by the Coalition of Northern Youths on Tuesday. Although, the northern youths in Kaduna Declaration ordered Igbo people to vacate the North within three months, the youths coalition recognized the right to self-determination which they also vowed to enforce within their own territory.
The sociology of the Kaduna Declaration vis-à-vis the agitation for Biafra symptomizes that the component segments in the open society are interacting among themselves.
Thus, the Kaduna Declaration typified an obvious endorsement of the Sovereign State of Biafra by the North.
However, the open society is also an amalgam of established Government assigned with the responsibility to maintain law and order within a specified state system. Thus, the Kaduna Declaration can only be enforceable when the decision making machinery of the Nigerian State gives legal approval. Until, this is done, the Kaduna Declaration could be construed as constituting treason which may call the government to duty, otherwise, anarchy looms.
Meanwhile, an elder statesman, Ango Abdullahi, Spokesperson of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF), has contributed to strengthening the legitimization or seeming endorsement of the Sovereign State of Biafra in northern Nigeria. The NEF stalwart had on Friday, declared support for the Coalition of Northern Youth Groups which ordered Igbos to vacate the northern region within three months.
Abdullahi’s resolve is being complemented by the Coalition of Northern Youths which reaffirmed the Kaduna Declaration ordering the Igbos to vacate the North within three months. The Coalition maintained that the vacation order was not a call to violence but to allow them to achieve their ambition of having the country.
Abdulazeez Suleiman, spokesman of the Coalition in a statement issued on Thursday in Kaduna, declared, inter alia: “We wholeheartedly endorse the moves made variously by our leaders to allay those fears and urge people to be peaceful and law-abiding while at the same time, we insist on having the right thing done by allowing the Igbos to have and move to their dream country in accordance with the universal fundamental right to self-determination.
“We restate our determination and commitment to ensuring that the North will never partake in any contrived arrangement that would still have the Biafran Igbo as a component.
“We reiterate our call on Nigerian authorities and recognise international bodies such as the ECOWAS, AU and UN to hasten the initiation of the process for the final actualization of the Biafran nation and with it the excision of the Igbos out of the present federation”.
Moreover, Abdullahi had in Zaria, Kaduna State, berated Northern Governors Forum for disowning the group, an action he described as a “disappointment.”
The NEF spokesperson said it was hypocritical for the Igbos to continue to live in other parts of the country while agitating for Nigeria’s break up.
“I am disappointed in the decision taken by Northern Governors’ Forum disowning and condemning the agitation by these young agile and progressive youth groups.
“Let me ask, these Northern governors, who are they representing; are they representing spirits, ghosts or people of the north?
“Recently, people from the eastern part of this country, specifically Igbo, were busy calling for the Sovereign State of Biafra and from all indication, their leaders including governors are behind them,” Abdullahi had stated.
He asserted that whoever feels Nigeria “is not conducive for him” let him quit, adding that what the northern youth groups did was not a sin.
Abdullahi remarked that when Nnamdi Kanu was released on bail recently, over 100 vehicles escorted him to his residence, including big personalities from the south-west and south-east.
“This is somebody who has been agitating for the breakup of Nigeria but his people were behind him, therefore, I am behind the youths.
“This is because the Northern youths are pushed to the wall, we have been calming them down in any event similar to this,” he declared.
Suleiman had also chided Governors Nasir El Rufai and Kashim Shettima of Kaduna and Borno states, respectively, on their stand against the Coaliton of Northern Youths, saying that the governors were driven by their ambitions to be Vice President.
He lamented that the Coalition was “nauseated” by the comments attributed to El Rufai and Shettima, describing them as “disgruntled northern political power Mongers”.
“We restate that we have never called anybody to violence and that people should discountenance the elements of fear and threat introduced by the distortions of merchants of mischief.
Suleiman observed that despite the “distortion” of their earlier statement, the feedback they got was that their message resonated with “peace-loving Nigerians who have been tormented and menaced by the irredentist proclivities of the Igbos and are overwhelmingly desirous to put an end to it”.
He protested that the Coalition “is particularly disappointed by the treacherous positions assumed by Nasir Ahmed Elrufai and Kashim Shettima who in pursuit of their blind ambition for the Vice Presidency, chose to side with the secessionist Igbos against the interest of peace-loving Nigerians.”
“It appears that characters like El-Rufai have no limit on how low they can fall in their inordinate desire to achieve their long-held dream of power grab at the expense of the peace, well-being and stability of our country.
“We would like to assure El-Rufai and his ilk’s that we shall continue to expose their recalcitrant treachery and opportunistic proclivities. We also assure them that the drive for a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria in which the Igbos are not partners, will be unabated” he declared.