That Nigeria is a deeply divided society with several lines of social divisions and bases of group identification is not in contention. This line of division reflects on the number of ethnic and regional groups that make up the country. However, the tendency of the elite to manipulate the multifaceted identities during political competitions has given rise to regular conflicts and instabilities in Nigeria, just like the country is presently experiencing.
Even though, with the obvious balance of power, whereby no one region is able to dominate the entire political system; the North having supremacy over the executive, the Southwest and Southeast dominating the bureaucracy, commercial and financial systems, it does not stop the mutual fear among the dominating elites. While the North fears that Yoruba of Southwest and Igbo of Southeast would dominate the economy and state institutions, the two other groups are concerned that the more populous North would have upper hand in major electoral contests.
Meanwhile, the continued crisis of leadership in Nigeria and the perceived refusal of the North to not want to yield power has continued to be a formidable challenge to other regions, even political scientists from certain quarters. Based on the foregoing, Nigerians from outside the Northern region were approached to air their views on how to ensure power exchanges hands ahead of the 2023 general election. Excerpts…
Zara Joe
Seriously, just talks or protest won’t work, they’ve been put to test so many times and they don’t seem to work … And I can’t say War because it would only add to everyone’s problem; so I’d just suggest we cut off all interactions or whatever relations we have with the northerners, they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the southern, western and eastern states and we should also not move close to their states .. We’ll see if they’ll not come back begging or not.
Roy
Yorubas betray themselves, Hausas are so united when it comes to government, a retired army general granted a Channel interview some days ago and what he said about the Yorubas is so disgusting, he exposed some dirty secrets of the top Yoruba leaders. He said the northerners are not the ones who refused to hand over government to MKO Abiola. Top six Yoruba leaders then backstabbed and asked the president then not to hand over the government to him. He said that when the Hausas/Fulani are nominated for any post, they don’t kill themselves because of the post but rather will support themselves till when another chance of positions is open and the one that already occupies a post will support those that they want to appoint. He said the Yorubas are not like that, he said whenever the Hausas want to destroy the relationship among the top Yoruba leaders, they give them a huge amount of money and they will nominate more than 10 Yoruba leaders for a post and this will destroy their unity because of their greed and selfish interests. This is why the Hausas/Fulanis have been ruling for even before Nigeria’s independence. He said they are always united and they don’t condemn their own people. The Yorubas always betray themselves whenever there’s is a post or when a huge money is given to them. Look at Awolowo, some prominent Yorubas vowed that he would never be president and one of them was MKO Abiola. Look at Abiola too, some prominent Yorubas never allowed him to become the president even after winning the free and fair election. Yorubas always betray themselves, they can never unite like the Hausas/Fulanis and this is why they will remain the Hausas’ slaves as long as they don’t unite. Take Pantamin issue as an example, before Nigerians revealed his affair with the Boko Haram, United States had already denied him of entering their country because their analysis showed that he’s a Boko Haram commander. He’s a serving minister and the Hausas supported him even when Nigerians are clamouring for his resignation but if he is a Yoruba man, the Yorubas would have betrayed him and asked him to resign or they would petition him and get him removed.
Yoruba are the problems of themselves.
They betray and backstab.
Adenrele
Let me tell you one thing you don’t understand about Yoruba people, they are people of intelligence and great people. That’s why it seems they don’t cooperate with themselves, do you want to compare us with the Hausas?
See the level of poverty that is affecting the Northerners because of their level of education and development. Yorubas are not like that, when there are groups of great people with great minds, there would always be differences. Personally, I do not see that as something bad, we are the most united tribe in Nigeria and we are very accommodating.
Ballow
The Yorubas caused all this mess, they handed the power directly to the Hausas because they are greedy and they know that if the Igbos had the power, they would have used it to get what they wanted and that is BIAFRA.
Hamadtijani
To be honest with one another, the Northerners always support themselves in everything they do even if it is good or bad.
Omah Simo
To be sincere, I do not want Nigeria to break in anyway but since independence, the northerners have been ruling this country and nothing is working. I will really like the Igbos to rule even at least once, let us see whether God will use them to vindicate us (Nigeria). God bless Nigeria…
Anonymous
Stop voting for the Fulanis.
Olasubulumi olayinka Samuel
Divide the country.
Moshood Olawale
Yorubas and Igbos will have to break away from the country and the northerners would not have access to the wealth and power they are controlling at present. Breaking away from the country would allow easy and rapid development for the two tribes.
Njoku Kingsley
Actually, the only option for the Yorubas and the Igbos is to secede because staying together with the Hausas/Fulanis has not brought any meaningful development to the two tribes. The North is just exploiting other tribes and we have become slaves to the North. By just looking at the map of Nigeria, you see how majority of the land belongs to the north, majority of the top national positions in the country(legislative, executive or judiciary seats) are being held by the northerners including major military positions. Also, majority of oil wells in the country are owned by the northerners. This personalization of power started from the colonial rule where the British made more contact and trade relationship with the northerners. It got intensified with the first coup that occurred in Nigeria where top northern political elites including the then prime minister Alhaji Tafawa Balewa were killed. This coup made the northerners feel the Igbos were trying to take power for themselves. This led to another coup where they killed more than 30,000 Igbos. The consistent hatred and killings of the Igbos after the 2nd coup made Igbos secede and declare a nation of their own ‘Biafra’. This resulted in the civil war which lasted for almost three years.
The north since the 2nd coup has developed the mindset that ‘it is their birth-right to rule Nigeria at all times but if we check the records of the northerners’ rule of the nation both during military and civilian rules, we would see that it is characterised by corruption, immense looting of the nation’s funds(most especially during the time of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha). We had poverty, poor infrastructure, unemployment, underdevelopment and all the negative things a nation blessed like Nigeria isn’t supposed to suffer. The statement that Nigeria is ‘the headquarters of poverty in the world’ by the World Bank proves this.
Even during this current Buhari’s administration which is characterised by insecurity and suffering of the masses, the inflation we are having now has never been seen before. The people are crying but no one is hearing, instead their focus is on increasing their bellies with funds meant for the people. They can even collect debt for this purpose.
The best thing for either the Igbos or Yorubas is to secede because the north are suppressing the potentialities of these great people. Majority of the U.S medical doctors are blacks and some of these blacks are Yorubas and most especially Igbos. These are great people who are being limited by greed and corruption of the northerners who own and control about 80% of the nation’s resources.
Akashie Friday Eugene
I want to start by telling us how the North got there…
What other regions see as being totally wrong is where the North capitalised on; that is helping themselves with jobs even if qualified for it or not. It has been happening and won’t stop. That is why it’s very possible to see a lecturer from the North in a federal university who cannot speak good English. In the South West or South East or South South, that will be considered an academic taboo.
A class mate who cannot even construct a simple sentence recently got a job with the federal government. I was the one who wrote her letter of acceptance.
A Yoruba man would likely not help his Yoruba brother get a job unless his brother is qualified for the job but a Hausa/Fulani doesn’t care about your qualification.
For power to leave the North, other regions must change their mindset and start seeing their own as their own.
When Buhari came into power, he sacked more than 80 Army Generals mostly from the South alleging that they supported President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 election.
Recently, many soldiers were dismissed for various reasons and most of them are southerners.
The federal allocation should stop and natural resources should be managed by the states. You need the right platform to do the right thing.
Bello Akanni Sheriffdeen
The Igbos and Yorubas should unite and ignore greed and selfishness. They need to work in harmony, love and truth in order to take power from the Northerners.
Matthew Micheal
What they can do to take back the nation’s affair and wealth is to be united. Secondly, they should participate more in politics and always support their own men for any top political office. Thirdly, we should clamour for restructuring that will favour us and rise up and say no to INJUSTICE!
Abdulrahmon Abiodun
The northerners are united, they show support and love to one another coupled with their act of always putting the interest of their people as their first priority. It’s not a secret that they have the highest population in Nigeria and their leaders always do things to make them happy and satisfied. The power to rule also lies with the happiness of the people, love and unity. If the Yorubas and Igbos can do this, then it’s a matter of when and not how they will be in power again.
Youngmoney
All power belongs to God almighty.
There should be separation before we can be united again.
Oluwaseun Idowu Omotehinse
The only thing we can do is to stop buying food items from them because they believe we can’t survive without them. If we do that, they would sit up. They can’t eat what they have alone, they need to sell them because it will be too much for them and other northerners like them can’t buy all these products from them. If we stop buying their agricultural products and the products continue to perish, they would start to beg us or have a change of attitude.
Another thing is in politics, the Southerners should come together and produce strong and popular candidates to wrestle power from the northerners. With this strategy, power would shift from the north to the south.
Nnamdi Nwoye
I will kindly advise them to mind them own business, shikennna
Babalola Abeeb
We should try to speak with one voice in the south and forge ahead. The North is taking advantage of our greed for money to scatter the southerners. Our leaders from the south should embrace dialogue in order to free the south from the North.
Asein Joel
Addressing this issue is not supposed to be done now but during Obasanjo & Goodluck Jonathan regimes. They should have joined forces and brought out a candidate. But now I think they should bring out a Yoruba as president and Igbo as vice.
Adeshina
We need to stay together and should not betray one another.
Oke Boluwatife
If we realize that one true Nigeria is what we need, that will put a stop to the problems we have. Let all the tribes put all hands on deck to move Nigeria forward.
Flash Idan
The only thing is for both parties to work towards having competent leaders in the coming election.
“Separation is a good idea but it’s not the way forward”
If we want to move forward, we must first learn to get rid of the people who are currently in power and create an awareness to our people not to sell their votes for any reason and not to feel intimidated.
The way forward is “Oneness”.
Anthony Duntoye
I think one key factor is unity, there is a lot that can be achieved through unity. One of the reasons the Fulanis and Hausas have been able to maintain wealth and power is the way they organise themselves. If the Yorubas or Igbos are to move power away from the worth, they need to embrace unity and love among themselves.
Secondly, they need to be more involved in government, one of the reasons the northerners control the country is due to their heavy presence in all parts of government organizations.
I will say the Yorubas and Igbos need more people in the military, our military is being controlled by the north. The Igbos and Yorubas need more able men and women in military if power is to be taken from the north.
Emeaso Bright Chinonyerem
To take power away from the northerners is simple and the Igbos and Yorubas should come together to vote out the Northerner from power. The Igbos and Yorubas should unite and prevent any Fulani or Hausa man from coming to power again. If any Fulani or Hausa man doesn’t rule Nigeria, the Northerners will not have power over Nigeria’s policies again. Another thing is that when a Yoruba or Igbo man rules the country, he should select some northerners to run the government together.
Balogun Al-ameen
The best thing is for the Yorubas, Hausas and Igbos to cooperate together, that’s how Nigeria was formed. United we stand and divided we fall. Dividing or seceding won’t help us in anyway.
