Why agitation for self-determination is gaining momentum — Afenifere

Yoruba pan socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has said the agitation for self-determination by secessionists is gaining ground because of refusal by Federal Government to heed calls for restructuring.

It said Southern Leaders, Middle Belt Forum, the Arewa Consultative Forum and Northern Elders Forum have reached a national consensus on the imperative and inevitability of restructuring.

General Secretary of Afenifere, Chief Sola Ebiseni, said the recent statement of Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, on issues of restructuring and secession was unfortunate.

Ebiseni said Garba soiled the image of his principal on how insensitive President  Muhammadu Buhari could be in the face of undeniable national calamity.

He argued the “continuity” comment of President Buhari was uninspiring and insensitive.

He said Nigerians have looked beyond President Buhari on salvaging what is left of the country.

The Afenifere scribe stated the people did not bother to submit further memoranda to the National Assembly on restructuring because the lawmakers could not be judges in their own cases.

According to the statement: “If the National Assembly has no courage to look into the reports of the 2014 National Conference and of the El-Rufai True Federalism Committee of the Ruling party, no such exercise by the National Assembly is worthwhile.

“Buhari and his government needs be reminded that the call for a conference of the people to take back their country, even with an elected government and parliament in place, is neither unknown nor new to history. India is a federation like Nigeria.

“Buhari is neither as popular, politically suave nor as respected as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

“Our small western neighbour, Republic of Benin, under the elected government of President Mathew Kerekou commissioned a National Conference in 1990 which recommendations birthed a new constitution of the people which has since endured.

“Those nations are not even threatened with such level of failure as the Nigerian State is today.

“Garba Shehu is at liberty to give whatever warped interpretation he feels like giving the statement of the Leader of Afenifere which unambiguously showed that the refusal of the government to give heed to the calls for restructuring, of which the Afenifere is the foremost champion, is the fertile ground for self-determination and secessionist agitations.

“Those who feel firmly rooted in their positions may wish to take the counsel of elders that the contest for the ring on the finger of the dreaded Oracle may not spare the finger itself in the fullness of time.” (The Nation)