Tinubu vs Ndume: How Kwara Identity Problem Can Be Solved
- Ali Ndume's criticism of President Bola Tinubu's appointment, where he described the appointees as Yoruba rather than southerners and northerners, has been condemned
- Oladotun Hassan, the president general of the Yoruba Council Worldwide, said presidential appointment has never been criticised using tribal tags
- Hassan then called for the creation of more regions based on tribe, and each of them should be named after the tribe that occupied it
The recent criticism of President Bola Tinubu's appointment by Borno South Senator Ali Ndume has continued to generate reactions from concerned Nigerians.
Ndume's criticism followed the appointment of Bayo Ojulari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). Ojulari, who is from Kwara, a north-central state, was described as a Yoruba man by Ndume, rather than a northerner.
Source: Twitter
Hassan reacted to Ndume's attack on Tinubu
Reacting to Ndume's claim, Oladotun Hassan, the president general of the Yoruba Council Worldwide, in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, described the senator's comment as tribal, adding that such words have never been used to describe a presidential appointment.
Hassan then called for the creation of more regions in Nigeria, and that each region should be named after the tribe that occupied it to solve the identity problem identified with some non-Hausa/Fulani tribe categorised as northerners, such as the people of Kwara. He maintained that the southern, northern region was a creation of the colonial master and further extended by the military.
His statement read:
"We need to realign our people correctly. If only the federal government can realign states and get things right, then we can be able to form new regional blocs, whereby each bloc will be named after their ancestral identity, not Southwest, South South, Southeast. Let the Igbos know themselves as Igbos, let the Yoruba know themselves as Yoruba, let the Hausa know themselves as Hausa, let the middle belt know themselves rightly.
Source: Twitter
"We cannot be describing ourselves primarily on the premise of regional nomenclature of North Central, whereby those from Kwara state have always been described as north and when Senator Ndume wanted to describe Ojulari, he described him as a Yorùbá clan, but when they wanted to nominate people for Northern interest and Northern agenda, it is then they remember who is pure North, who is Hausa Fulani, those are the creation that has led us to where we are as a race today.
"For us to really mention rightly, I don't think there is a need for us to now start fighting ourselves. For the federal government to get it right, this constitution must be restructured in alliance with the nomenclature of every region. There is nothing wrong. The usage of English words to describe our region is alien. Because we have never been south, any west or any north.
"How did the North pick up the word North, and how did the South pick up the word South, if not for the description of the white man? So, the white man juxtaposed and placed us where we are. We only have two protectorates, and over time, we have the protectorates; there was nothing like south-south, southwest and southeast. Everything was south and one north. It was within the advent of the military in the first republic that brought us to this, the military has always been the determinant of state creation."
PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy!
Source: Legit.ng
