Don’t let Nigeria become another Yugoslavia, Ajayi cautions Buhari

Elder statesman Sir Olaniwun Ajayi has
warned President Muhammadu Buhari
against taking steps that could cause the
country to go the way of the former
Yugoslavia, a balkan confederation that
violently split up in the 90s into smaller
nation-states over ethnic conflicts.
Ajayi, a political associate of the late
nationalist leader Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, while reacting to the on-going
agitation in the Niger Delta and Eastern
Region, said the President should not
reject the persistent calls for the
restructuring of Nigeria by well meaning
Nigerians across the south.
“Yugoslavia has about 6, 7, 8
nationalities. They’ve done all they could
to make sure that every nation in that
country went his own way, but their
leaders said no all the time up to the
time of Josep Broz Tito in 1980.”
The nonagenarian lawyer noted that
between 1980 and 1990 Yugoslavia tried
to stave off disintegration, until tensions
came to a boil in 1991, when the
state began its split into Croatia (1991),
Slovenia (1991) Macedonia (1991),
Serbia (2006), Bosnia and Herzegovina
(1992), Kosovo (2008), and Montenegro
(2006).
He noted that Nigeria should be ran along
the existing six geo-political zones and
let every zone develop in accordance
with its own pace.
“We are not a one monolithic country.
We are a federation of different nations
as a result of our nature, from the point
of view of our ethnic nationality, our
languages, culture. And if we are so
different we should be managed
according to our nature and culture.”
He pointed out that there was no way
the president or any leader could think he
could force a multiethnic country like
Nigeria to live same way, saying the
ideology and ways of life of Fulani and
Igbo are not the same as that of the
Yoruba and Kanuri, for instance.