A former Minister of Aviation, Femi
Fani-Kayode, says Nigeria has been destined to fail since its creation
by the British in 1914.
He said the British created Nigeria such
that the ‘poor North’ would continue to rule while the ‘rich South’ will
remain oppressed.
Fani-Kayode said this in a Facebook post on Tuesday titled, “The 9th Earl of Bathrust and the Nigerian State.”
He said shortly before independence, the British gave the North permanent rule.
He said, “The Nigeria that they (British)
handed over to us in 1960 was nothing but an unworkable artificial
state and a poisoned chalice. It was destined to fail right from the
outset.
“Worse
still, they handed us that poisoned chalice with a malicious and
mischievous intent and without any recourse to our people in terms of
any form of a national referendum.”
Fani-Kayode, said what the British did in
Nigeria was replicated in other countries like India and Sudan, adding
that those countries had since divided having woken up politically.
He said it was regrettable that Nigerians had failed to take their destinies into their own hands.
He added, “The British did the same thing
in varying degrees when they left virtually each and every one of their
other third world colonies. The most obvious cases, however, were
Nigeria, Sudan, India and the nation that was formerly known as Malaya.
“Every one of these four countries had
monumental problems with sustaining their unity after independence and
all of them, with the exception of Nigeria, were compelled to breakup
into smaller entities before they could bring out the best in themselves
as a people and fully exercise their human potential.
“Consequently, India broke up into three
and became India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the Sudan broke into two and
became Southern Sudan and the Sudan and Malaya broke into two and became
Malaysia and Singapore. Nigeria has yet to find the courage and
fortitude to go that far and whether we will eventually break up or not
remains to be seen.”
Fani-Kayode said if the terms of the
‘marriage’ between the North and the South were not reviewed, there
could be further crisis.
He added, “The result of the amalgamation
was predictable. It was either the ‘poor husband’ (the North) would
fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘rich wife’ (the South) or the
‘rich wife’ would fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘poor
husband’. And we are right in the middle of that struggle for mutual
subjugation till today.”
The Peoples Democratic Party chieftain
said the only way to address the “unfair” arrangement was a complete
devolution of powers. He said Nigeria must embrace true federalism.
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