Former Aviation minister and chieftain of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Femi Fani-Kayode on Wednesday threatened to move a motion for the separation of southwest states of Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Lagos from the Nigerian federation.
“On August 2nd 1958 my father, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule. If the Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda continues I shall move the motion for Oduduwa’s independence from Nigerian colonial rule,” Fani-Kayode tweeted.
Fani-Kayode, a staunch critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was not the first person to link the rising wave of insecurity in the country to the alleged Islamisation and Fulanisation agenda being foisted on Nigeria by President Buhari.
In May, former president Olusegun Obasanjo made the allegation but did not call for the secession of any parts of the federation from Nigeria. Obasanjo said Nigeria’s challenge has moved beyond “an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as,” Obasanjo said.
“It is now West African Fulanisation, African Islamisation and global organized crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.”
Obasanjo’s claim was backed by notable bodies in the country including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka who hardly agrees with the former president.
“However, everybody knows that my relationship with Obasanjo is not too cordial but at the same time, we should be very careful not to be dismissive. If there is a substance, the language must be put aside for a moment,” Soyinka said.
“This country is undergoing a horrendous descent into the abyss. The perfect picture of Africa is what we must continue to uphold in view as leaders have used the word ‘unity’ to destroy our people.”
Former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja added his voice to the controversy, saying nobody can Islamise Nigeria, because doing so will be difficult. Ladoja stated this while addressing journalists at his Ondo Street, Bodija, Ibadan home as his Sallah message.
He said: “In Nigeria, we should be thanking God because religion is not an issue or our problem until recently. No government can eradicate any religion. We are too close to one another for that to happen. You cannot force anybody to convert to another religion.
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