By Yusuf Adua
The Pure Heart Islamic Foundation of Nigeria, PHF, has slammed the ongoing call and planned protest for the Oduduwa Republic on Oct 1st led by some personalities as wrong and harmful.
The agitations for Oodua Republic by a fraction of the Yorubas in the six Southwestern states of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos were described as flagrant failure and deception.
The Pure Heart Islamic Foundation, one of the leading Islamic organizations in Nigeria in a release signed by its Acting National Coordinator, Mallam AbdulGaniy Dhikrullah on Tuesday likened the purported call for secession to ‘cutting off the head as a result of severe headache’.
He said Nigeria unarguably is facing a plethora of challenges which do not exclude ethnic crises, wanton killings, insurgency, and corruption, yet the solution doesn’t lie in fanning the ember of discord, tribalism, division and sham.
Mallam Dhikrullah enunciated that it will not be counterfactual to state that some mischievous elements, locally or Internationally are behind this misleading drive.
He therefore highlighted peaceful and legitimate ways to press home demands.
These include carrying all stakeholders along; traditional rulers, federal and state lawmakers, religious leaders, etc with a view to coming up with a position paper, submitting proposals on how to provide jobs for the teeming youths, demanding total fulfilment in the areas of free, qualitative and affordable education, improved health care system and power supply.
The foundation, according to Mallam Dhikrullah believes staunchly that clamouring for secession after 60 years of confederation and nationhood is not only suicidal but groundless, absurd and irrational.
PHF thus demanded that the Federal Government through her intelligent forces fish out the sponsors of this call locally and their international donors, articulating that any worthwhile agitation must be devoid of secession.
His statement reads, ” The ongoing call and of course, contemplated protest/rally in support of Oodua Republic on October 1 is a despicable approach that can engender more harm. This call is tantamount to cutting off the head because of headache.
” When we are saving a race, must we put the entire nation into another ballyhoo and turmoil? Those who beat the drum of separation in the past failed, the same way this will fail.
“The relative peace being enjoyed in Yorubaland can’t be sacrificed for whimsical gains driven by a fragment. We throw our weight behind the majority voice that says NO TO OODUA REPUBLIC, NO TO OCTOBER 1 SECESSION RALLY, YES TO ONE INDIVISIBLE HARMONIOUS NIGERIA”.
