TO NIGERIAN MEN AND WOMEN

Nigerans, Nigerians. Many of my country men and women are acting foolish even though they are not. Today some of the ignorants in Igboland want to form a baseless Biafra. Some of the misguided ones in Yorubaland want to breakout to form Odudualand? Some of the myopic ones in Hausaland want to form Yan Arewa? Maybe I should be spearheading a move for Edo-Afemailand as a bonafide Edo man. Wake up all of you. Think, think and think. Where is South-Sudan today in the comity of nations. Both Sudan and South-Sudan are weakened by their separation. Where is Lituania, Maldova etc of former USSR. Apart from Ukraine and the big Russia the other countries carved out of former USSR are now more or less in oblivion. No economic or political power whatsoever. No military force to be reckoned with. Brothers and sisters, we the youth should wake up to the realities of the fact that our politicians are dividing us along ethnic and religious fault lines. We should not allow these old politicians define our future and togetherness for us. We should be united and move this great country to the great height it deserves. No one can take away recognition from the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria but we have other ethnic groups too so they should not be forgotten in the equation of things. The Igbos are good in technical-knowhow, given. The Hausas are good in Political-knowhow, given. The Yorubas are good in Economic-know how, given. But don't you think these attributes can be found in mixed quantities in other ethnic groups? Another angle, who says there is no crude oil in the North? Please do not be deceived, because there is crude oil in the North, only that your passed governments were too busy stealing to enrich themselves that they do not even bother to spend funds in further explorations. Please educate yourselves on Geography and topography. If Niger can discover oil, then the North with its Chad basin and Niger-Benue trough must definitely boast of oil if exploration is carried out. Then what other commodity would Niger-Delta people rely on to punish the North with on the event of separation? The Hausas have varieties of food and farm produces than any other region in Nigeria all year round achieved mainly through the use of irrigation which we southerners are very lazy to operate. More so, they rear animals for the use of the whole country. However, the fact that the he Igbos do not have enough arable lands due mainly to gully erosion and abundance of unusable clay soil does not necessarily mean that they we all die without food from the North because they can always trade-off their technical produce for food. The fact the Yoruba can not trade like the Igbos and Hausas does not also mean that they can not adapt even if it is to learn in the hard way. However we are all better off together than separated. Let me give you guys a short story: Sometime back, there was Bendel state. Suddenly two states were created; Edo and Delta. It happened that Delta state has far more crude oil than Edo state. Immediately the Delta students back then in school then started looking for any given opportunity to abuse the Edo students with the fact that they are poor and have little or no oil in their state. Imagine that. People that used to be brothers and sisters in school started hating each other because one side of the divide has been justly or unjustly favored, sentimentally or otherwise by IBB to have more crude oil than the other. This shows that had it been that Edo and Delta were one country of it own the Delta people would probably had asked for their own separate country. Nonsensical, as far as I am concerned. So brothers and sisters, I tell you today that if Nigeria is divided all sides will suffer and they will all regret it before they start picking themselves up from the rubbish they would find themselves in. I tell you that River state and Cross river state would most probably not want to be under Biafra. Even the Deltans will find it difficult to accept for the Igbo people to rule them with their "oil". Edo people will find it difficult to accept to be a minority under Yoruba rule. Plateau, Benue and Kogi may not want to be under the core Hausa-Fulani people. The Fulanis will always want to show the Hausas that they are superior even after Northerns are separated. Sokoto may not want Kano to be ahead politically in a Northern country. There may be war of supremacy between Emir of Kano and Emir of Kazaure. The Oyo people may not want the Ogun people to be superior to them due to historical reasons. Etc, etc. There may be more than 15 countries out of Nigeria after the initial South and North divided. Then countries like Cameroon and Niger that have been laying in wait for such opportunity will pounce and devour you all. Be wise. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Nigeria must and should always remain as one for the goodness of everyone and all of us. Thank you.

GANI MOMOH