eritvnews: Hausa/Fulani's Are Hypocrites, Buhari Creating Tension For Refusing To Implement Confab Recommendations

Senator Femi Okurounmu has yet dropped another bombshell as the call to restructure Nigeria is on the ascending order of magnitude.

The fiery Senator , a frontline leader in the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere has warned that unless the country is restructured Nigeria will cease to exist.

He decried the antics being employed by the Hausa-Fulani to hold onto power when every tribe is a stakeholder in the Nigerian project.

In this interview below with Nigerian Tribune he called attention to the resolutions reached in the 2014 confab which he said if implemented would provide a lasting solution to the myriad of problems plaguing Nigeria.

Below are some of the highlights of the interview:

Excerpts: 

Some northern elders under the aegis of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) met in Kano and in the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, some issues were raised, one of which is that the renewed clamour for restructuring of the country’s political and economic machinery is creating unnecessary tension in the polity. What do you make of this?

They are hypocrites. What is creating tension in the polity is the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the recommendations of the 2014 national conference. The conference met the yearnings and aspirations of the majority of Nigerians who want and clamour for restructuring. At the conference, Nigerians were gathered from across the country and they made a resolution towards the restructuring of the country. The North was there fully represented and they did not object to the resolutions. They were co-signatories to the resolutions at the conference. As long as they do not restructure the country, Nigeria is going to break up. There is no way we can continue to run Nigeria the way it is now without restructuring it.  Without restructuring, the Hausa-Fulani power oligarchy will continue to be overlords over the rest of us. They were made overlords by the British and they want to continue to be overlords over us. But it can’t remain so. We are equal stakeholders in Nigeria. Our constitution, system of government must all reflect that. Until we do this, Nigeria will cease to exist.

Some stakeholders in the Nigerian project may not share your view that the country will disintegrate. The threat of break-up has been on for so many years and yet the country is still intact as a single entity. Many have even said repeatedly that the unity of the country is not negotiable.

It is the North, the Hausa/Fulani people, who say the unity of the country is not negotiable. When they get power, they tell us that the unity of the country is not negotiable. But if at any time power slips from their hand, they are ready to break the country up themselves. If people from other sections of the country have power, the North does not care about unity. They are hypocrites.

They also made a strong declaration in their communiqué that the North is conscious of its rights and obligations and will discharge and defend same without reservations. These are very strong words. Don’t you think so?

Just as the North is ready to discharge and defend its rights and obligations, the rest of us are also conscious of our rights under the Nigerian citizenship and we are also ready to enforce and defend our rights. It is because those of us in the Southern part of the country have been too liberal, too accommodating, too permissive and docile and too lethargic that the North has been taking advantage of us. Let those of us in the South throw away all docility, lethargy and be determined to enforce our own rights to ensure we are equal citizens of this country. Unless we do this, there is not going to be any country called Nigeria. They are entitled to enforce their own rights as well. We are more determined to enforce our rights.