‘Secession the surest way to Nigeria’s extinction,’ Osinbajo cautions separatist groups

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday reaffirmed the Federal Government’s opposition to the separatist agitations in the country.

Osinbajo, who delivered a keynote address at the 2020 Leadership Conference and Awards organized by the Leadership Newspaper Group in Abuja, said calls for secession by separatist groups in some parts of Nigeria are the surest way to the country’s extinction.

He said: “Often when we explore the concept of national and regional security, there is a tendency to situate the discourse around the machinations of externally generated vulnerabilities and external adversaries.

“So, we argue often that the problem is state fragility in Africa is on account of the colonial origins of her nation-states.

“The notion for example that Nigeria is a hastily and arbitrarily cobbler together, a patchwork of mutually alienated kingdoms and as a result, it has remained plagued by fundamental challenges rooted in its founding.

“Now, this is a popular view but of course, it is not the whole truth. Indeed it is my humble view that the colonial beginnings of African nation-states do not constitute an inimitable obstacle to nation-building that it is often thought to be.

READ ALSO: Secession not solution to Nigeria’s challenges —Gov Ganduje

“After all, colonialism itself was a historic global phenomenon across states from Africa to Asia to Europe and America.

“The chief weakness that we have is a human one. Our political, economic, and religious elite who have so far proved to be socially irresponsible had so far been unable to build institutions.

“We must be able to say to the young men and women who for instance say that secession is the only way or that we should break into little nations and that that is the only way. We must be able to say to them that that is the way to extinction not development.”

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