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It’s ‘Flimsy’ To Say Nigeria’s Unity Is Non-Negotiable, Southern Leaders Tackle Buhari

The Southern Leaders Forum (SLF) has described as ‘flimsy’, the statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable.

The southern leaders’ reaction comes on the heels of claims by President Buhari that he and late Igbo leader, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, had agreed that the country remains indivisible.

However, in a statement on Wednesday, the southern leaders, whose members comprise Edwin Clark, Albert Horsefall, John Nwodo, Joe Irukwu, Reuben Fasoranti, and Ayo Adebanjo amongst others, told Buhari that “there is nothing finally settled in its life.”

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The statement reads in part:

“The claim that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable is not tenable. Every country is in a daily dialogue and there is nothing finally settled in its life. Stable nations are still fine-tuning details of the architecture of their existence. How much more Nigeria that has yet to attain nationhood? If we are settled as a nation, we will not be dealing with the many crises of nation-building that are afflicting us today, which have made it extremely difficult to squarely face issues of growth and development.

“The British negotiated to put the various ethnic groups together. All the constitutional conferences held in the years before independence were negotiations. When the North walked out of the parliament in 1953 after Chief Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for independence, it took negotiations to bring them back into the union after an eight-point agenda, which was mainly about confederation.

“While the composition of the national assembly is clearly jigged and indeed one of the bodies to be restructured, the national council of state is not open to Nigerians. If any discourse is to take place on constitutional changes within the democratic framework, Mr. President is the one who has the responsibility to initiate the process.

“The meeting between the two of them could not have been a Sovereign National Conference whose decisions cannot be reviewed. We agree with their conclusion that we should remain united, but that does not foreclose discussions of the terms and conditions of the union,” the forum said.

Albert Horsefallanthony enahoroAYO ADEBANJOChukwuemeka OjukwuEDWIN CLARKJoe Irukwujohn nwodoMUHAMMADU BUHARIReuben FasorantiSLFSouthern Leaders ForumSovereign National Conference
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