Shocking: We’re in Marriage as a Nation, We Must Remain Together - Osibanjo reacts

John Shiklam in Kaduna, Ademola Babalola in
Ibadan, Hammed Shittu in Ilorin, Onitsha Ibrahim
Shuaibu in Kano, and Jeff Amechi Agbodo
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo saturday likened
the country to a marriage, saying like most
married couples Nigerians have had their ups
and downs, but what is of the utmost
importance is the dedication of everyone in the
relationship to the success of the union.
Osinbajo spoke in Ibadan at the wedding
reception for the daughter of former interim
national chairman of All Progressives Congress,
Chief Bisi Akande. The vice president
counselled the new couple, Wuraola and her
husband, Dr Olawale Solabi, to uphold the tenets
of the marriage institution, and said divorce was
not an acceptable option.
Osinbajo’s advice came against a background of
rising ethnic tensions following an order on
Tuesday by a previously unknown coalition of
youth groups in the North, telling Igbos resident
in the region to leave before October 1 or get
ready to be forced to quit. Reiterating their
position saturday, in the same Kaduna venue of
their earlier meeting, the groups alleged that the
Igbo had already carved out a country for
themselves and should, thus, be allowed to go.
Addressing the newly married couple, the acting
president said, “Today is a special one for Wale
and Wura. Marriage is a very large institution
that requires a lot of prayers.
“It is the same marriage that nations go
through. Our nation has been in marriage for a
while now. Sometimes there are quarrels within
that marriage. Sometimes there is
disagreement. What is important is that you
must remain together. You must remain united.”
Equally speaking on the bourgeoning sectional
pressures, Saraki said, “The senate must stand
clearly to defend one Nigeria. There is no room
for division and we must live by example. We
are not afraid of anybody…
“We must rise up to make a statement on what
is happening. We will be failing if we do not do
something that will reassure the people on the
need for one Nigeria. We are greater being
together than going our separate ways.”
Ajimobi, who chaired the occasion, said, “The
only way to succeed in marriage is to run your
home with the fear of God. Never oppress your
wife because she is a weaker sex. Be nice and
good to her always. And you will enjoy peace
and be greatly blessed.”
Dignitaries at the wedding ceremony included
Senate President Bukola Saraki and the
governors of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi; Ogun
State, Ibikunle Amosun; Ondo State, Oluwarotimi
Akeredolu; Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola; and
Jigawa State, Muhammad Badaru. Others were
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Minister
of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed; and Minister of Health, Professor
Isaac Adewole.
Also present were former governors of Ekiti and
Osun states, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Mr.
Segun Oni, respectively. APC Deputy National
Chairman, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, the party’s
National Secretary, Hon. Mada Buni, National
Vice Chairman (South-west), Chief Pius
Akinyelure, and former chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, were also at the wedding..
Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha was
represented by Mr. Steve Azimozi, and the first
lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, was represented by
Alhaji Mohammed Aliu.
Meanwhile, certain individuals in the North,
including the spokesman of the Northern Elders
Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, have voiced
their support for the action of the northern
youths. Second Republic Deputy Senate
President, Alhaji Mamman Danmusa, yesterday
aligned himself with the position of the youth
groups against the Igbo. Danmusa said, “Igbos
are ungrateful people because they are
everywhere in the North. They operate their
businesses and have landed property in the
North, but, unfortunately, they are still not
grateful to northerners.”
But some elder statesmen from the North who
spoke with THISDAY saturday dissociated
themselves from the anti-Igbo pronouncements
of the northern youths and their backers. Vice
chairman of NEF, Chief Paul Unongo,
condemned the quit order issued Igbos and said
Abdullahi’s support for such “nonsense” was his
personal opinion and not that of the forum.
Unongo regretted the Nigerian Civil War in which
over three million people died and said Nigeria
could not afford another war.
According to him, “Anybody, including the so-
called Arewa youth groups pretending to be
sponsored by some elders in Nigeria, who saw
this horrendous war and went through the
iniquities and hardship of the war and is still
provoking war is talking nonsense.
“We cannot support a proposition by young men
who didn’t see the war, neither do we support
what Nnamdi Kanu is doing. The NEF cannot
and will not support an ultimatum given to any
Nigerian residing in any part of Nigeria.
“Abdullahi’s statement is a private and personal
view. The Northern Elders Forum cannot take
that position. We support the Igbo to live
anywhere in the North, including my village. I
want more of them to come and establish their
businesses in my village.”
Leader of the Northern Elders Council, Alhaji
Tanko Yakasai, spoke in a similar vein. Yakasai
said, “My position is that nobody in Nigeria can
restrict the right of any other citizen to move
anywhere or reside anywhere.
“Even the laws that some state assemblies are
making, restricting the movement of Fulani
herdsmen, are unconstitutional. Anybody who
said Nigerians should not live in any part of the
country is violating the provision of the
constitution.
“We belong to two different groups diametrically
opposed to one another in terms of ideology.
We are opposed to one another all along right
from the beginning.
“We are for Nigeria’s unity; they (NEF) are
against Nigeria’s unity. I have been in support of
Nigerian unity since 1963. I was sent to jail in
1963 on account of my support for the unity of
Nigeria.”
The Northern States Christian Elders Forum and
Northern Youth Council of Nigeria have also
denounced the anti-Igbo pronouncements by
some northern youths. Spokesman of NOSCEF,
Mr. Sunday Oibe, told THISDAY, “It is
unfortunate that somebody who is supposed to
be an elder is associating himself with
miscreants,” referring to Abdullahi.
Oibe stated, “No right thinking Nigeria will be
talking about division. Agreed that people can
voice out their feelings over issues that affect
them, but to order Nigerians out of another part
of Nigeria is condemnable.
“Our forefathers fought and laid their lives to
build a nation called Nigeria. There is no section
of this country that can go it alone. The so-
called North they are talking about cannot stand
alone without the South-west, South-south, the
Middle Belt, and the South-east, and vice visa.”
He added, “The Igbo have contributed
tremendously to bring development to the
North. Outside government, the Igbo as a nation
has brought development to the North. Those
jobless youths, who made them the
spokespersons of the North?
“I call on the Igbo leaders not to respond to this
form of reckless and irresponsible statements.”
NYCN called for the arrest of Abdullahi, a
former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria. At a news conference in
Kaduna, the president of NYCN, Isah Abubakar,
said, “NYCN wants to use this medium to
dissociate itself from the anti-Nigeria agenda.
We are not happy with the development in all its
ramifications.
“We are calling on the federal government to
extend its arrest order to Professor Ango
Abdullahi and other people who must have
sponsored the perpetrators of such a huge
inciting statement capable of throwing the
country into another civil unrest while the
country is yet to fully recover from the previous
one several decades after.”
Former Nigerian Permanent Representative to
the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari,
warned that the current tensions were
reminiscent of the conditions that prevailed
before the civil war in 1967. Gambari called for
proactive steps by governments, political
leaders, and traditional rulers to stem the
apparent slide into crisis.
“This nonsense must stop. It must stop because
Nigeria cannot afford it,” Gambari, who is also
the Chancellor of Kwara State University,
Malete, said yesterday at the fifth convocation
of the eight-year-old institution held at Malete in
Moro local government council of the state.
He said, “We cannot afford it because it is
distractive. At a time when we seek to
reposition our country for stronger national
cohesion and economic resurgence, to play our
destined role in Africa and the world, we do not
need this distraction…
“We cannot afford it because it hurts our image
in the region, in Africa and around the world.
What investor, donor or ally would confidently
associate with a country under threat of
disintegration, confusion or instability? None! If
we are to leverage on our considerable
economic potential and human capital, we have
no choice but to demonstrate to the world that
we are a viable destination and ally. Our size
and diversity should, therefore, be taken as
advantages that help us to build a great
economy with huge political influences.”
Gambari added, “It worries me that some of our
compatriots seem to have forgotten so soon the
great prize we paid fighting the civil war; lives
were lost, properties were destroyed and nation
building was stunted.
“I appeal to our leaders, political, traditional,
religious, and business, to not only speak out
against the negative developments, but also to
take immediate positive action to bring an end
to them. Otherwise, their actions could be
interpreted as collusion with the forces of
division and violence.”
For now, the Indigenous People of Biafra has
urged Igbos in the North to return to their native
land. Media and publicity secretary of IPOB, Mr.
Emma Powerful, in a statement yesterday
satirically thanked the northerners for
vindicating the group’s standpoint on the need
for a referendum to decide the status of the
country’s component ethnic nationalities.
The statement read, “Biafrans in general also
wish to thank these vocal northerners for at
least having the courtesy to issue advance
warning this time before embarking on their
routine massacre of Igbos and other Biafrans
living in northern Nigeria; unlike what their
fathers did in 1966 when death, destruction and
mayhem were unleashed upon unsuspecting
innocent civilian populations from the South
comprising of mostly Igbo men, women and
children.
“Igbo massacre in northern Nigeria has occurred
so many times that it has almost become some
sort of an annual sporting activity for blood
thirsty northern youths. That is why we are
particularly grateful to Arewa youths and elders
for having the decency to give us prior notice
before the slaughter commences.
“We promise to adhere to your warning to leave
northern Nigeria because a word is enough for
the wise. Biafrans and other southerners should
start packing their properties to come down to
the South. We also advice the northern youths
and their elders to keep it on because all they
have done is exercise their right to free speech,
which is not a crime under any law known to
man. We are, therefore, against those calling for
the arrest of these Arewa youths and their
elders.”
IPOB said the notion that the enormous
investments of Igbos in the North and other
parts of Nigeria would be an impediment to the
achievement of the Biafran dream was
misplaced.
Meanwhile, the founder of One Love Family, Sat
Guru Maharaji, has said that the Sultan of
Sokoto and leader of Muslims in Nigeria, Alhaji
Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, was the only
northern leader who could stop the October 1
eviction notice served Igbos residing in the
North. Though the northern states’ governors
and some figures from the region have spoken
out against the so-called quit notice, Guru
Maharaji said the Sultan, and not the governors,
had the influence and authority to rein in the
youth of the region.
Speaking to newsmen in Ibadan on the threat by
some northern youths against Igbos and the
surreptitious support by a section of the
region’s elders, Guru, who was marking the 24th
anniversary of his organisation in Nigeria, said,
“The call by the northern groups must not be
treated lightly at all because they represent the
northern rulers and the issue must be visited
with all sense of duty, treated swiftly and made
to have regard for life and the rule of law.
“Those involved must be persuaded to withdraw
their statements and warned to desist from
such acts of terrorising people and threatening
social coherence and the peace of the land.
“Such threat coming during the Ramadan
fasting time goes a long way to prove that these
people are under heavy manipulation to
destabilise the government of President
Muhammadu Buhari, like other rebel and
secessionist leaders all over the world tried to
destabilise their countries.
“I am, therefore, asking the Sultan of Sokoto to
intervene and make a categorical statement for
the withdrawal of that quit order within two
weeks (14days) from the date of this press
conference to show that His Eminence, Sultan
of Sokoto, truly believes in one Nigeria and that
a leader in his capacity should not allow
disgruntled people in the area to cause trouble.”