NEF, IPOB, OPC, Afenifere, Others Against Nigeria’s Unity – Balarabe Musa

Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, has said Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) do not want Nigeria to remain united.

Speaking to Vanguard, Musa, a leader of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), described the groups as separatist organizations.

He also accused the groups of using the Ruga initiative controversy to divide Nigeria.

“Whether we like it or not, we have a government in place. That is the reality, and we have to recognise that. I urge the government to be careful, in particular, with these separatists. I made that call several times before,” Balarabe Musa said.

“There are separatists everywhere in Nigeria today — you have them in the North, in terms of Northern Elders Forum; in South-West, we have the OPC, Afenifere; in the South-East, we have IPoB, Ohanaeze and so on.

“They do not believe in Nigeria’s oneness, even those of them who pretend to believe in national unity, they want things done on their terms: Northern Elders, on their terms; Afenifere, on their terms; Ohanaeze and Biafrans agitators, on their terms, whereas it should be on the terms of collective Nigerians. Let me give you an example of this controversy on RUGA.

“The ordinary people from the South, irrespective of what the governors said, irrespective of what the separatists said, made it clear, ‘We are not going to go back to the South; we are going to stay in the North. This is where we belong.’

“It is the same thing with northerners in the South. They dismissed all these separatists calling for them to go back to the North.

“They are telling them, ‘We will not go anywhere! We are going to stay where we are.’

“Some of them have even gone to the extent of saying, ‘Look! My father is Igbo, but my mother is Hausa’ — they have gone to that extent. Now, let us use this to build a solid pan-Nigerian system.”