If Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa can stand as separate countries, what about the minority groups—Obasanjo 

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has described 2023 as the year that will either bring about the emergence of a new federation or make the country slide into dissolution.

Speaking on Wednesday when he hosted members of the Tiv Professionals Group at his Penthouse residence within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) premises in Abeokuta, the former president urged the nation’s leaders to ensure that the year 2023 is a watershed in Nigeria.

He noted that all efforts must be geared towards ensuring that 2023 marks the beginning of a new Nigeria, warning that if the feeling of rot in the system continues, the nation will be slide into dissolution. He warned those beating the drums of war to desist from such, adding that they do not have the interest of the minority ethnic groups at heart.

Obasanjo said: “I do believe that whatever else we do, we have to make the year 2023 a watershed for Nigeria. The year 2023 should give us the beginning of emergence of a new federation or feeling that the rot continues, and then, we are going to be sliding into dissolution. God forbid.

“If the Yoruba can stand as a country, if the Igbo can stand as a country, if the Hausa/Fulani can stand as a country, if the major tribes decide to break up from the country, where do you want the minority ethnic groups to stand? That, many Nigerians don’t know about, unfortunately. “Where do we want those minority groups to stand?

Wherever they stand, now they are by virtue of Nigeria’s present situation a little bit protected. But if Nigeria breaks up and they are in a smaller country, they will be oppressed. They will always be exterminated. Are we thinking of that?

“I believe that if we will get it right in Nigeria, any leader must look at Nigeria with the prism of the diversity of Nigeria.  For as long as you look at Nigeria with the prism of your ethnic group, then you aren’t going anywhere; either your ethnic group or religious group. “But is there hope? There is hope.”