By Kayode Emola
Last week Monday, the Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar III, during the meeting of the National Council of Traditional Rulers in Nigeria (NCTRN) stated that nothing will cause the breakup of the country. I wish it were easier said than done that just a mere statement by the Sultan can keep Nigeria as one.
The statement by the Sultan confirms our position as self-determination activists that the only pathway for Nigeria is dissolution. It also points to the fact that those still clamouring for restructuring or regionalism are on a wild goose chase. The Fulani are scared and rightly so for their future in the eventual breakup of Nigeria.
If history has taught us anything, it is that no matter how strong an empire is, it will one day give way to the emergence of another. Russia today did not expect that over fifteen countries would come out of the old Soviet Union. Yugoslavia never expected that Slovenia and Croatia would break the union. Likewise, the Rajapaksa’s family of Sri Lanka never expected the people to force them out of power in 2022.
My message to the Sultan is, don’t be too overconfident that Nigeria can never break upevery day. Rather, advice the government of Nigeria and the Fulani killing machine that everyday may be for the thief, but one day will be for the owner.
When Nigerians finally wake from their slumber, I am sure that no force on earth can stop their advancement to the seat of power. When God said it was time for the Israelites to come out of Egypt, not even the Pharaoh and his people could stop the mass exodus of the Jewish people out of Egypt.
I want to call on all our Yoruba people to know that Nigeria was not created as a country to benefit us. Therefore, trying to do everything within our power to keep it as one is only playing into the hands of the Fulani and British people who want to continue to have unfettered access to our natural resources.
If we continue to think that we can outsmart the Fulani politicians and their hegemony because one of our own is the president of Nigeria. Then we are of most people on earth miserable. Everyone in Nigeria knows that the current Nigeria is unsustainable, and even outsiders know it.
The introduction of taxes for everyone by the president is a way of the government saying there is nothing left to run this country so everyone must contribute in keeping this false amalgam going. However, it may be the straw that will finally break the Camel’s back when you ask people who have given their all, including their dignity, to give what they don’t have.
Currently, Nigeria is at a breaking point; if not, the Sultan will not be saying that Nigeria cannot break up. I believe the Sultan was not making that statement from a position of strength; rather, he was making that statement from a position of fear as he and his fellow Fulani caliphate are seeing the handwriting on the wall.
The Fulani elites have thought that no one in the world can question their audacity and what they have turned Nigeria into. However, they are seeing that the pressure from within and outside the country is beginning to reveal the fundamental flaws in Nigeria.
The fact that some top military officers were arrested last week for a coup plot also shows that Nigeria is living on borrowed time. My take is that if the Sultan believes that Nigeria can never break up, he doesn’t need a forum of traditional rulers to announce it. The traditional rulers present in that meeting are not his subjects, and he therefore does not have the authority to impose his own desires on them.
It is clearly the desire of the Sultan for Nigeria not to break up; however, the reality is different. Nigeria’s foundation dictates that the country be dissolved with immediate effect. If not, a day will come when even the politicians will look for a hiding place, but none will be available. I pray and hope that the politicians of Nigeria will do the right thing so that posterity will judge them favourably.