Pan-Yoruba
socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, has faulted the claim by Arewa
Consultative Forum on the reports of the 2014 national conference.
The
group particularly asked the ACF to “stop peddling the funny claim of the North
being 80 per cent of Nigeria in land mass and with a higher population” because
the “fallacies have been laid to rest.”
A
statement on Sunday by the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka
Odumakin, said, “All the over 600 resolutions taken at the conference were by
consensus as delegates never had to vote once. The only issues that remained
contentious were the percentages of increase in derivation, the minerals
development fund and the disaster reliefs fund.
“The
point of disagreement was when some Arewa delegates insisted that they would
only agree to the five per cent increase in derivation and same for mineral
resources development all over Nigeria on the condition that the five per cent
earmarked for disaster intervention fund should be only for areas where Boko
Haram are operating, while other delegates frowned on making Boko Haram a
derivation item.
“The
compromise struck was to refer the items to the president for a technical
committee harmonization.”
Afenifere
added that the allegation “laced with the usual feudal arrogance, outright
misinformation, atavistic obfuscation and delusory myopia” would have been
ignored “were it not that falsehood repeated time and again may start to wear
the garb of truth.”
It
said, “Let us from the outset make it clear that the unitary order, which the
House of Arewa, has used to limit the flourishing of the component units of
Nigeria for decades, has now entered a terminal crisis with shrinking receipt
from oil and like a one-legged man dancing “skelewu”, will sure hit the ground
even if he has all the stage to himself.
“And
when the fall comes, ACF and co-travelers would wish we had done the needful.
They should therefore perish the thought that Afenifere is cajoling them to
allow a restructured Nigeria.”
Afenifere
said it was amused that ACF was still peddling the claim of controlling 80 per
cent of Nigeria because it had thought the fallacies have been laid to rest in
2014 after some of their delegates had taunted their co-conferees from the
South “with map of Nigeria drawn at the back of their babanriga showing the
North as 80 per cent of Nigeria.”
Odumakin
recalled that during the national confab, delegates were unanimous that the
figures of all the censuses held in Nigeria till date had not been credible due
to hegemonic interferences with what should have just been an exercise to
provide scientific data to aid planning and development.
It was
also agreed that the natural boundaries of the North and the South are
Rivers Niger and Benue “but the British drew artificial boundaries to
favour the North and punish the South for agitating for independence.”
Afenifere
also queried why the North would be using the issue of bigger land mass, which
was allegedly cornered to its advantage, to harvest revenue from the central
purse instead of cultivating it.
The
delegates, it said, also resolved that if the higher population claim were
true, “why would a man say his neighbors should not send their children to the
best schools because they have to cater for his own children who are more than
theirs?
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