North Dragging Nigeria Backwards Since 1960 – Yoruba Elders

Dr. Kunle Olajide, Secretary General of the Yoruba Council of Elders, says the Northern region of Nigeria has been dragging the country down since independence.

Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom as a sovereign state on October 1, 1960.

Olajide said this on Thursday in reaction to a statement credited to Ibrahim Coomassie, chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF).

Coomasie had days back claimed Nigeria could not survive without the North.

But speaking at the first memorial lecture of Nathaniel Abimbola organised by the Osun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Olajide said the North is home to numerous negative indices of quality of life.

Abimbola, who was a reporter with the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, died in an accident along the Ife-Ibadan Expressway last year.

“The newspapers reported the Arewa Consultative Forum as saying that Nigeria cannot survive without the north. Whatever was meant by that statement credited to the ACF chairman remains to be understood,” Olajide said.

“Illiteracy rate is highest in the north and the number of out-of-school children is highest in the north. The poverty index in the north is high while the twin evil bedeviling the North is feudalism and religious fatalism.

“It will not be out of place to say the north has in fact been dragging Nigeria down since independence. All sorts of mischievous phrases were coined by the very tiny political/military elite of the north to give undue advantage to the north.”

Speaking further Olajide said the North staged-managed the military coup which removed President Shehu Shagari from power on December 31, 1983. He said the northern oligarch feared that there could be revolution in the country and they allegedly planned the coup with the military in order to ensure that power remained in the North.

The YCE secretary stated that the late Obafemi Awolowo spent the greater part of his political career and his resources struggling to liberate the people in the north, but feudalism and religious fatalism frustrated his efforts.

“Let me assure Alhaji Coomassie that much as we want a fair and egalitarian Nigerian society, it is not at all costs,” he said.

“The rest of Nigeria will survive, flourish and join the league of first world countries within two decades if the north exits.

“If it desires to leave Nigeria, join me in saying goodbye to the exiting north, I wish them a safe journey into the desert.”