By Yemi Adeleye
Lagos – A member of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Jude Idimogu, on Tuesday said the unity of Nigeria was non-negotiable, but insisted on restructuring of the country.
Idimogu (Oshodi/Isolo II-APC), an Igbo, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos in reaction to the quit notice by Arewa youths to Igbos to leave the North.
He said that the ultimatum was a joke as the country belonged to all, and urged the Igbos to continue their legitimate businesses in every part of the country.
He said, “I don’t believe in Biafra; I believe in one single, unified Nigeria because that is the only thing that will pay all of us.
“My position remains that we are one Nigeria and all Igbos wherever they are should continue to work for the unity of the country.
“Nigeria belongs to all of us and we are all stakeholders in this country.
“The eviction notice is not possible. We should be talking about forging ahead in unity, not ethnicity or divisions.
“However, there must be sincerity in the governance of Nigeria, in the wealth and position sharing. That should be the point, not clamour for Biafra.
“It will not help, let’s talk about issues of resource control.”
Idimogu, who warned against heating up the polity, stressed that Nigeria belonged to Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and other tribes.
“It is not that there are not issues for agitations, but we can solve them on a roundtable with sincerity. No region can stand without help of others.
“We have equal right in this entity called Nigeria. We must come together; break up can never help our situation.
“I married a Yoruba woman and I am a member of the Lagos Assembly as an Igbo man.
“Many Igbos also married from the north and other places; it is better for us to stay together,” he added.
He said that the best that could happen in the country was restructuring where each region would control the resource in the region to foster peace and unity.
Idimogu, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to take a look at the 2014 National Conference report.
According to him, the government should consider and implement useful areas of the report that can move the country forward.
He urged royal fathers and opinion leaders to intensity efforts at the unification of the country.
Also speaking, another lawmaker, Mr Segun Olulade, representing Epe II Constituency, told NAN that the notice to Igbos in the north could throw the country into chaos and undermine its unity.
Olulade said that the agitation by Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) for self-determination did not warrant Northern youths’ order to Igbos to leave their territory.
He said, “This situation if not nipped in the bud, is capable of engendering total breakdown of law and order.
“Such ultimatum is against the Constitution and anything that is against the Constitution is also against the principle of a united Nigeria as our nation.’’
He appealed to the Arewa youths to consider the peaceful Igbo community in the north as brothers, having co-existed for many years as members of same family.
“Our belief in the unity of Nigeria as a great nation with promising future is non-negotiable. We believe that Nigeria must first be made great before any region begins to ask for secession.
“Any region that cannot stay united under an existing Nigeria can hardly run as a sovereign nation if granted leave.
“Nigeria is going through a trying period that any region calling for a break is only calling for the nation to be torn apart, and that is anarchy and treasonable,” the legislator said.
He expressed hope in the future of Nigeria as a united great country that would lead Africa to reputable status before the world.
NAN recalls that a coalition of Northern youth groups in “The Kaduna Declaration” on June 6, 2017, gave all Igbos residing in northern Nigeria until October to relocate to their places of origin.
The coalition also directed northerners residing in the eastern part of the country to return to the north during the period.