Igbo group threatens to sue British govt.
As the country marks 100 years of its existence, Nigerians have urged the federal government to brace up for future challenges and to work harder to ensure a prosperous nation.
They urged government at all levels and stakeholders to work together in addressing the myriad of problems facing the country.
Some Nigerians, who spoke in separate interviews to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday, called on the government to address the issues critical in the drive to move the nation forward rather than dwell in the past.
"We must sincerely as a people forge stronger bonds as we strive to build a united and prosperous country," Dr Shola Adeyanju, a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) said.
Adeyanju, who is of the Department of Mass Communication, said there was need for change in behavior among the citizenry.
According to him, rather than waste energy and resources on the centenary, the government should project into the future by mobilising the nation's resources in laying a solid foundation for the next 100 years for the rapid growth of the nation.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, Mr Ganiyu Subairu, said even though the country had experienced scores of challenges, there was still a lot to celebrate in "our experiment in building a united and prosperous nation.''He said the journey of the next 100 years which began today would set a better developmental agenda for the country, taking into consideration the country's past experience."
The Executive Director, Centre on Ageing, Development and Rights of Older Persons (CADROP), Ibadan, Mr. Yinka Ajomole, said that the idea of celebrating the country 100 years was ill-conceived.
Ajomole premised this on the poor living standard of the citizenry, adding that though Nigeria might not have met the global millennium development goals on all parameters, the country had made remarkable progress.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Igbo Security Council (SISC) has declared that the historic amalgamation was a flaw.
The group therefore threatened to drag the British Government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague, Netherland, over the 'forced' amalgamation to demand the sum of £100 trillion as compensation for destabilizing Nigeria.
National President of SISC, Chief Bobby Ukadike, who said this while addressing a world press conference yesterday in Abuja, described the 1914 amalgamation as fraudulent saying the colonial master forced ethnic nationalities together without their consent.
"This resolution made the British government to instruct Lord Lugard who was a British working as manager in the Royal Niger Company situated in the Niger Delta area to quickly gather the people together and form a government."Lugard quickly called the North and the South including the Colony of Lagos and merged everybody together in the name of amalgamation, and we call it a flawed amalgamation because the people's consent was not sought," he said.
Ukadike observed that there was no referendum held before the entity called Nigeria was pronounced, attributing the myriads of political challenges faced by the country to the 'forced marriage'."This is the reason why we have killings everywhere in Nigeria because the people are dissatisfied with the amalgamation.
It is the amalgamation that had brought Boko Haram insurgency and other dangerous groups terrorising Nigeria today. Nigeria is bleeding, Africa is weeping, but the world is relaxed," he added.
Ukadike accused the British government for being behind bloody conflicts recorded in the country's history as a result of the incompatible marriage union that the different people of Nigeria found themselves."I am calling on the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to pay 100 percent attention to Nigeria, because Britain caused what is happening in Nigeria today. The British government should be held responsible for the emergence of Boko Haram and other killer organization in Nigeria.
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