A former Minister of
Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, says Nigeria has been destined to fail since its
creation by the British in 1914.
He said the British
created Nigeria such that the ‘poor North’ would continue to rule while the
‘rich South’ will remain oppressed.
Fani-Kayode said this
in a Facebook post on Tuesday titled, “The 9th Earl of Bathrust and the
Nigerian State.”
He said shortly before
independence, the British gave the North permanent rule.
He said, “The Nigeria
that they (British) handed over to us in 1960 was nothing but an unworkable
artificial state and a poisoned chalice. It was destined to fail right from the
outset.
“Worse still, they
handed us that poisoned chalice with a malicious and mischievous intent and
without any recourse to our people in terms of any form of a national
referendum.”
Fani-Kayode, said what
the British did in Nigeria was replicated in other countries like India and
Sudan, adding that those countries had since divided having woken up
politically.
He said it was
regrettable that Nigerians had failed to take their destinies into their own
hands.
He added, “The British
did the same thing in varying degrees when they left virtually each and every
one of their other third world colonies. The most obvious cases, however, were
Nigeria, Sudan, India and the nation that was formerly known as Malaya.
“Every one of these
four countries had monumental problems with sustaining their unity after
independence and all of them, with the exception of Nigeria, were compelled to
breakup into smaller entities before they could bring out the best in
themselves as a people and fully exercise their human potential.
“Consequently, India
broke up into three and became India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the Sudan broke
into two and became Southern Sudan and the Sudan and Malaya broke into two and
became Malaysia and Singapore. Nigeria has yet to find the courage and
fortitude to go that far and whether we will eventually break up or not remains
to be seen.”
Fani-Kayode said if the
terms of the ‘marriage’ between the North and the South were not reviewed,
there could be further crisis.
He added, “The result
of the amalgamation was predictable. It was either the ‘poor husband’ (the
North) would fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘rich wife’ (the South) or
the ‘rich wife’ would fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘poor husband’.
And we are right in the middle of that struggle for mutual subjugation till
today.”
The Peoples Democratic
Party chieftain said the only way to address the “unfair” arrangement was a
complete devolution of powers. He said Nigeria must embrace true federalism.
- Punch
Fani u re a liar,u re not God
ReplyDelete