— Sultan leads protest to Jonathan
— We’re not scared of secession, says Lamido
Threats earlier made by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to cause the North to boycott the ongoing National Conference was yesterday reawakened, as prominent traditional leaders from the region threatened a walkout.
The Lamido of Adamawa, Dr. Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, made the threat while speaking at the conference’s plenary session yesterday, saying if Nigeria breaks up, he and his kingdom would not be left orphan but would move to the extension of his kingdom in neighbouring Cameroon, where he would not be rejected.
He threatened that if the conference continued “the way” it was going, he might be forced to walk away from it.
The emir accused most of the elder statesmen at the conference of being loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that most of them would not have anywhere to go if the country eventually broke up.
Mustapha angrily deviated from the issue under discussion to express what he called his disappointment at most of the delegates, whom he described as “Mr. President’s loyalists.”
In an interview with Blueprint shortly after the session was adjourned, the emir said he was more of a Cameroonian than a Nigerian.
He said: “My kingdom has been in existence hundreds of years before the so-called existence of Nigeria and the so-called civilised people from the West came and divided us.
“The larger part of my kingdom is now in Cameroon and a part of it is a state named Adamawa state in Cameroon. If you go to Cameroon you can verify that.”
When asked what motivated his view, he said: “My view is about the conduct of this conference. When the president came to inaugurate this conference he delivered an address.
“In that address he specified what he wants us to do and what he advised us not to do.
In his address he specifically mentioned pattern of voting either by consensus or by 75 per cent. And the so-called elder statesmen who can lay down their lives for the president are the same people who are contradicting the president in this conference, introducing something which the president didn’t say in his address, but it is two-third majority.
“Yes, they called themselves Jonathan’s loyalists. Many of them have been shouting their heads off in the media.”
Reacting to the statement, a delegate from Imo state, Prof. Chinedu Nwanju, said the people of the South-east did not have a choice than to believe in the Nigeria project because, according to him, “those of us from South-east Nigeria have no other country.”
He added: “They may not be as committed to the future and wellbeing of a new Nigeria as the rest of us but our duty is to convince them to remain Nigerian totally and not partial Nigerian.
“We have a duty to continue to convince them.
“You know, these things are not new. If you go back to ancestors of this thing before the Independence era, we also had time when people threatened to walk away, so it is not new.”
Meanwhile, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, and other members of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) yesterday had a closed-door meeting with President Jonathan in Abuja over the composition of the conference.
Secretary General of the council, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, told State House correspondents that the delegation expressed concern over imbalance in the composition of the conference.
He said: “Why we came to discuss with the president is to consult with Mr. President. We are happy we consulted with him, and he has given us reasons to re-assure the Muslims that Muslims in Nigeria are not deliberately marginalised and he has asked us to convey the feelings of the government, the genuineness of the government, the fairness of the government to the entire populace.
“That if there are issues that are not as they ought to be, they were not definitely deliberate and we want to believe that Mr. President told us his mind but we also want to believe that it is proper to protest. It is also proper to assume that a leader will always be just even if there are mistakes thereafter.
“We just felt that we must convey the feelings of the Muslims in Nigeria to Mr. President and he has given us his words to re-assure the Muslim community that he is a genuine and committed Christian who will not be unjust to others.”
Asked to explain the issues, Oloyede said: “Those feelings, maybe because you are not a Muslim, if you are a Muslim you will know the feelings of the Muslims presently about the composition of the National Conference.”
Members of the delegation were the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Ibn Garbai; a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, and a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, among others.
