“Poor husband’ (North) would subjugate n kill the ‘rich wife’ (South)” – Femi Kayode

Fani Kayode said “the Nigeria that they (British) handed over to us in 1960 was nothing but an unworkable artificial state and a poisoned chalice. It was destined to fail right from the outset.

The former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has said the amalgamation of southern protectorate and northern protectorate in 1914 by the British to form Nigeria was a calculated move to ensure that the ‘poor North’ would continue to rule while and oppress the ‘rich South’.

“The result of the amalgamation was predictable. It was either the ‘poor husband’ (the North) would fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘rich wife’ (the South) or the ‘rich wife’ would fully subjugate and eventually kill the ‘poor husband’. And we are right in the middle of that struggle for mutual subjugation till today.”

“Worse still, they handed us that poisoned chalice with a malicious and mischievous intent and without any recourse to our people in terms of any form of a national referendum.”

He said with the creation, Nigeria is destined to fail since what the British did in Nigeria was replicated in other countries like India and Sudan, adding that those countries had since divided having woken up politically.

“The British did the same thing in varying degrees when they left virtually each and every one of their other third world colonies. The most obvious cases, however, were Nigeria, Sudan, India and the nation that was formerly known as Malaya.

“Every one of these four countries had monumental problems with sustaining their unity after independence and all of them, with the exception of Nigeria, were compelled to breakup into smaller entities before they could bring out the best in themselves as a people and fully exercise their human potential.

“Consequently, India broke up into three and became India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the Sudan broke into two and became Southern Sudan and the Sudan and Malaya broke into two and became Malaysia and Singapore. Nigeria has yet to find the courage and fortitude to go that far and whether we will eventually break up or not remains to be seen.”

He advised that Nigeria must return to true federalism if it must address the “unfair” arrangement.

He recently urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse his recent appointments or be ready to face the consequences of not doing so.