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 a 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.
Source Punch
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