In A Break-Up Of Nigeria, the North Could Survive Says Prof. Ango Abdullahi

Following a closed door meeting of the Northern Elders Forum, former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi said today that even if Nigeria splits and is dismembered, the North of the country could survive. The former VC was speaking with the BBC Hausa Section in Abuja and was translated from Hausa by a foreign university that offers Hausa vernacular as an academic course. In the full interview, the VC said: “We are not new to the plots and antics that have been going on for more than two decades. Some southerners are saying that our federal structure is faulty and full of unbalances and biases. But there are others who are calling for restructuring and there are some of them using this to say they are through with being in Nigeria. “What we discussed is, we will never be part of any sinister moves to divide this country. But the southerners that are propounding dividing the country should know that it is also not something that the north will not want. We can be on our own; we have not seen what the north is eating that the south is not eating. He continued: “That the north is keeping quite doesn’t mean we don’t know what we are doing. We want peace and unity but no one can intimidate us, let Nigeria be divided, who is afraid if it is divided? We have nothing to lose, and have been on our own for long. We are on our own and not at the mercy of other people. Our masses have been on their own, eating and surviving and not at the expense of the south. "We have been feeding ourselves and entire Nigeria with our agriculture base, in the past and up to tomorrow. Our lands have not vanished and natural resources under it, both tapped and untapped. We have all agricultural bases as inheritance from our fathers. And our lands are intact. All the factories and the rest are from the inputs and if we go back to what God blessed the north with. "We will not in any way lose, because God has blessed us, and those that don’t have what we have are surviving not to talk of us. We are standing on our own and we have all it takes to stand on our own, like we have been standing independently. Don't want to imagine division of nigeria oh, just the thought alone scares me. Thank to .