Arewa youths disagree with President’s call for a united Nigeria

chika ebuzor

August 23, 2017 8:48 AM

The group also called on the Federal Government to hold a referendum so that those who want to be on their own can go.

The Arewa Youth Coalition has disagreed with President Buhari’s comment saying that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable.

Buhari, in his speech on Monday, August 21, 2017, said that it is better for Nigerians to live together than apart.

According to Daily Post, the leader of the Northern youths, Alhaji Yerima Shettima said Buhari should have taken time before making his speech.

Shettima also said “The president just came back from his medical vocation. In normal circumstances, one should have expected him to take some time to have a clear review of situations in the country after spending 103 days abroad.

“His statement is a welcome development to some extent because there are issues; the unity of the country is being threatened. I think the focus of the president was basically on the threat to our national unity and those were the key issues he spoke about. In addition, that we would no longer tolerate anybody undermining the security of the country.

Certainly, agreed, it should be that way as he felt. But I feel also that on the side of international law to which Nigeria is signatory, it is expected that government must create an exit door for those who feel they want to leave through a referendum and as stipulated in the 1999 constitution.

“It would not augur well if we insist on living with people who do not want to be part of the country and they keep threatening the unity of the country. It may even appear to the international community like a mockery.”

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“If the government is up and doing, let us abide by the demands of the international law by creating an exit door for those agitating for self determination.

“Certainly, the IPOB cannot be said to be speaking for the South-East because they are less than ten percent of the Igbo communities who are willing to remain in Nigeria.”

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) also said that it does not agree with President Buhari’s comment on the unity of Nigeria.

chika ebuzor