Nigeria doomed if voice of 70 percent is neglected – Professor Banji Akintoye
Emmanuel Ukudolo I Wednesday, April 04, 2018
According to him, the peoples of the four zones of the South, Middle Belt constitute at least 70 percent of the total population of Nigeria, their coming together over restructuring has greatly elevated the status of the demand for restructuring. In fact, it has turned the demand for restructuring into a mighty force that cannot continue to be resisted in the politics of Nigeria. If the voices of 70 of the citizens of the citizens of any country will not be respected in the affairs of their country, it is not difficult to imagine what kind of future the country is likely to have”, the retired professor said.
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – A stakeholder from Benue State has alleged that more civilians died in the hand of Air Force jet bombers than those killed by Fulani Herdsmen in the series of attack on Benue State.
A major stakeholder in Benue, Garuba Emadokun, spoke at the First Conference of Southern and Middle Belt People, following recent calls by General T.Y Danjuma retd that Nigerians should rise up in self defence or die if they wait for the agencies of the federal government(police, military, secret service) for protection.
“Those killed by the Nigerian army outnumber those killed by Fulani Herdsmen in Adamawa when Air Force bombers were used against the people”, he said, and called on the people to rise up and resist the rampaging attackers.
“We must come together to resist the Fulani Herdsmen, otherwise we will perish”, he said and that the people of the South and Middle Belt have no option but to act now before it is too late.
Emadokun who said there are 405 grazing reserves in the north with only two in Oyo, said one of the ways to end the carnage and bring about peace in Nigeria is to go modern by embracing cattle ranching against nomadic cattle rearing, self-determination and restructuring of the country.
In his lecture entitled “ The destiny of the Southern and Middle Belt People”, Professor Banji Akintoye, a former senator noted that the implication of Danjuma’s warning are unambiguous.
“Your families back home have a right to live, to work so as to earn a living, and, if they can, to have some pleasures of life. It is your duty to ensure that they will have the freedom and the security to do all these things unmolested”, he said.
According to him, the peoples of the four zones of the South, Middle Belt constitute at least 70 percent of the total population of Nigeria, their coming together over restructuring has greatly elevated the status of the demand for restructuring.
“In fact, it has turned the demand for restructuring into a mighty force that cannot continue to be resisted in the politics of Nigeria. If the voices of 70 of the citizens of the citizens of any country will not be respected in the affairs of their country, it is not difficult to imagine what kind of future the country is likely to have”, the retired professor said.
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FULANI HEGEMONY
He explained that as preparation for independence were on the way, the British government realised that since their economy was in shambles as a result of World War II and with Nigeria boasting of one of the largest oil reserve, the most strategic resources of the industrial world, the British were determined to have easy access to the Nigeria’s economy after independence.
“The best way to do this was to install the Fulani as rulers over independent Nigeria. It did not matter to the British that the Fulani were the least educated among the people of Nigeria, least desirous of modern country”, he asserted.
He explained that since independence, the Fulanis have doggedly evolved a hegemonic ideology which posits that they alone, among hundreds of Nigeria’s nationalities, will rule Nigeria, adding that their hegemonic push has succeeded greatly in the years since independence, resulting today in almost exclusive Fulani hold on the nigerian federal establishment, military, and security agencies – in a Nigeria that has ceased to be a federation, a Nigeria that has been distorted into a unitary state, he explained. Read Organise yourself into pride of lions to resist pack of wolf
“In the past few years, the Fulani have advanced their hagemonic ideology to include justification of the use of force – massacres of the people and destruction of the means of livelihood – for subduing and suppressing the other peoples of Nigeria”, he said.
