The Arewa Youth Coalition
has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari over his insistence that the
unity of the country is non-negotiable.
The group urged the government
to conduct a referendum to provide an exit door for those who did not
want to be part of Nigeria.
Buhari, who returned on Saturday, after 103 days in
London, for medical treatment, said in a nationawide broadcast on Monday
that the country was better off staying together.
But rising from a town hall meeting for the North East
geopolitical zone, yesterday, the coalition disagreed with him on the
non-negotiability of the unity of the country.
National Chairman of the coalition, Alhaji Yerima Shettima
told newsmen in Gombe, yesterday, that Nigeria should create an exit
door for the Biafra agitators by convening a referendum.
“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.
“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,” Shettima said.
The Arewa youth coalition chairman, however, said he was
optimistic that with a referendum, the Igbo people would chose to remain
part of Nigeria.
“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,” he said.
He explained that the meeting in Gombe was continuation of
the coalition’s resolution to go round the geopolitical zones in the
north to sensitise the people and discuss with them with a view at
arriving at decisions. The North West and North Central meeting had earlier held in Kano and Nasarawa, respectively.
Shedding light on the October 1 quit notice issued to
Igbo, Shettima lamented that the group’s message in the Kaduna
Declaration was misunderstood.