Buhari Using Old Fashioned Approach - Ijaw Youth Council Reacts to President's 'Non-negotiable' Comment

In a statement released on Thursday by Eric Omare, the spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the group has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable is an 'old fashioned approach to the resolution of national problems'.

The group said it was in the interest of all Nigerians to renegotiate the future unity of the country, as many Nigerians want a nation that reflects a true federal state and allows people to grow at their own pace.

I was reported yesterday that the president who was addresing a delegation that paid him a visit at the presidential villa after the Eid el Fitr celebrations, reiterated his determination to keep Nigeria as one, saying that the nation’s unity is non-negotiable.

“I assure them of the saying by Gen Gowon that to keep Nigeria is a task that must be done. In those days, we never thought of oil, all we were concerned of is one Nigeria. So, please pass this to the militants that one Nigeria is not negotiable and they had better accept. Nigerian constitution is clear as to what they should get and I assure them there will be justice,” the president was quoted as saying.

According to Premium Times, the IYC said in the statement that President Buhari was toeing an old-fashioned way of resolving national problems by merely quoting former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, adding that the circumstances of the present day Nigeria demands a renegotiation of the future unity and existence of Nigeria.

“This demand is not peculiar to the Niger Delta region but cut across all parts of the country. For Nigeria to make progress President Buhari should dump his old fashioned approach to the unity of Nigeria and face the reality of the present day situation.

“Nigeria as presently constituted is suffocating and the federating ethnic nationalities can no longer bear the suffocating effect of the defective structure which hampers the development of the country.

“Nigerians want a country that is united on mutually agreed terms and not the present defective structure.

“The IYC calls on President Buhari to wake up and face the reality of the situation and stop relying on outdated notion of Nigeria’s unity. Nigerians demand for renegotiation,” the group said.