Nigeria due for retirement – Obidigbo

Elderstatesman, Dr Chike Obidigbo, has reacted to comments by northern leader, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, that Nigeria’s amalgamation instrument has expired and that the country should consider going their separate ways. The former ABU VC during an interview had stated: “We have not been able to build a country according to this edict. The British say […]

Elderstatesman, Dr Chike Obidigbo, has reacted to comments by northern leader, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, that Nigeria’s amalgamation instrument has expired and that the country should consider going their separate ways.

The former ABU VC during an interview had stated: “We have not been able to build a country according to this edict. The British say if we fail after 100 years, we should go our separate ways…We have to look at ourselves and see whether we have strived enough to build a nation before and after independence.

“At this time, there is no need to be sentimental about it. We cannot really build a country the way it is now. If we could not achieve any form of consensus, then we should go our separate ways.”

In a statement, Obidigbo, who is the president of Osisioma Foundation, said comments by Abdullahi shows that Nigeria is due for retirement.

The statement said: “I totally agree with the erudite Prof, but I will still plead to be allowed to hold onto my personal belief that Nigeria is far too big for one black person to rule profitably and successfully.

“My argument has been that we black Africans lack the detailed exposure, mental capacity, integrity and objective mind to preside over the affairs of such huge geographical contraption made up of people with diverse socio-political and cultural backgrounds.

“ As the hardship protest showed that the marriage between Tinubu’s Southwest foot soldiers and the North has broken down, efforts to unite the South began as a safeguard to the Northern political insurrection.

“But sadly, the support of Southeast, which was denied consideration in 2023 after the North and Southwest’s repeated access to the Presidency, is now being courted or vilified for not taking active part in the hardship protest.

“Now that Prof. Ango Abdullahi says the north is ready for a split of Nigeria, I wish to thank him for waking up to the reality of the times, barely 14 months after the north left the Presidency.

“The spokesman for the northern think tank, has suddenly realised that the veritable index that Nigeria is ripe for Balkanisation is that other Nigerians may have realised the futility of continued bandwagon.

“Based on this new thinking in the north, I wish to support the challenge posed by the internationally-acclaimed Prof. Ango Abdullahi that Nigerians should come together to discuss how to share what remains as assets and liabilities of the expired amalgam, Nigeria.”

It continued: “It is obvious that the north is pained that Tinubu may have tricked them into supporting his ambition to be President, even when they knew that it was actually the turn of either South East or South South to become President in 2023.

“I call on my old friend, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to, as a matter of urgency, convene a meeting of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities to oversee the review of the 1914 amalgamation edict instead of trying to put life back into a dead horse.”