Former governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, yesterday, said it is not only the South West and South East that are agitating for self-determination alleging the northern part of the country is also preparing to exit the country going by their body language.
The elder statesman said while the South West and South East were more vocal in demanding for Oduduwa Republic and Biafra Republic, the North had been working silently for the possibility of Arewa Republic.
He made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in his house at Bodija, Ibadan after he observed the Eid-el-Fitr prayer at the University of Ibadan Central Mosque.
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Answering a question on agitation for self-determination in the country, Ladoja said: ‘Let us start with tolerance. At certain level, people will be talking, but we only know the beginning of a war, not the end. Nobody will remember how the war in Syria started and it is still on for years. And everything they built is being destroyed. So, I think we have to do it softly. We have started democracy. We are not happy with the way it is going.
‘But even Quran says there will be time when God will give you good leaders; there will be time when the leaders that you are given by God are not as good because He wants you people to see the difference. We should assume that this too will pass. It started six years ago. In another two years, it will go.
‘If you are saying because of that you want to go or you don’t want to go, who even tells you that the North is not even getting ready to go? Let us look at it, people in the South are talking too much, and people up North are acting too much.
‘In Yorubaland, we talk too much. The North is also preparing to leave and they are working at it. Do you think it is a mistake that they are constructing railway to Niger Republic when we have not built railway from Ibadan to Kano, not even Abuja, and they said it is the first place we are going to spend our money?
‘Can’t the refinery in Kaduna be repaired? Why are they saying they would build another refinery in Daura (Katsina State)? And they would be bringing crude oil from Niger Republic to the place. Don’t let us deceive ourselves, maybe a time will come when all of us will sit down together and separate peacefully.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK