Middle Belt Forum warns Hausa-Fulani's that it will not join them in an Arewa Republic should Nigeria split

FORMER information minister Professor Jerry Gana has warned hardline Hausa-Fulani secessionists that in the event of Nigeria ever being broken up the Middle Belt will not join them in an Arewa Republic.

Over recent months, the Nigerian polity has been severely heated up amid calls for the recreation of the defunct Republic of Biafra by Igbos in southeast Nigeria. This led to a group of Arewa youth associations giving all Igbos living in northern Nigeria an ultimatum to leave the region buy October 1, saying they too are tired of co-existing with them in a united Nigeria.

Amid the heated political atmosphere, Professor Gana the current national president of the Middle Belt Forum, told northerners preaching division that if Nigeria breaks, the minorities in the Middle Belt will not follow them. Speaking while delivering a sermon at St Matthew’s Church, Maitama, in Abuja yesterday, the former minister, who was the guest preacher, lambasted the Coalition of Arewa Youth Groups for issuing a quit notice to Igbo living in the north.

Professor Gana said: “They think when it comes to break-up, we will go along with the north but we have already told them that if they allow this country to break up, we are not going with them. We are staying where we are, so, just take notice, that if it comes to that, we will tell you that you are Arewa and we are Middle-Belters.

“We love Nigeria and it was changed to a federal system because of the minorities so that we can have a place. We love Nigeria but in the unlikely event that people want to go their way, the Arewa in the Sahel will go but we will remain here in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

He also slammed a former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University and the spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, for supporting the quit notice issued by the northern youths. Professor Gana said nobody had the right to dictate to a citizen of Nigeria where he could live.

“One of them, who also spoke is a former vice-chancellor but I thank God he didn’t sign my certificate as my own was signed by Professor Ishaya Audu. How can a man of that stature, of that status, of that level of leadership, says he supports the youths in Kaduna to give to other legitimate citizens, an order to go?

“In this country, there are no second-class citizens as we are all first class. We are all sons and daughters of this land and that was why I decided to call a conference of all the minorities from 14 states and we had to state in clear words that the quit notice was totally unconstitutional,” Professor Gana added.

He stated that  the way forward was for the federal government to embrace restructuring as the solution to the nation’s challenges or the nation would die. Professor Gana, who said even former presidents were beginning to support restructuring, advised the All Progressives Congress-led federal government to entertain dialogue and debate.