The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has condemned the ultimatum given by some Northern youths to the Igbos living in the North to leave the region, saying: “Such reckless pronouncement could only come from a group of irresponsible and jobless youths.”
The Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement issued on Sunday that Fayose chided the Northern youths for making such pronouncement at a time Nigerians needed to join hands together for the development of the nation.
Governor Fayose, who also condemned the Northern elders who openly endorsed the action of the youths, appealed to the Igbo people of the South East to remain calm even in the face of provocation, noting: “Nigeria is greater than any set of people.”
The governor, who lamented that Nigeria was now more divided than ever before, said: “Rather than giving open support to the youths, the northern elders should have supported the Northern States governors in condemning the youths and calling for their arrest.”
He chided the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government on its inability to foster unity among Nigerians, citing the handling of the Fulani herdsmen menace as a pointer to the federal government’s nonchalant attitude to serious national issues bordering on the oneness of the country.
Fayose said: “I have said it times without number that Nigeria is now more divided than ever in the last two years.
“The APC led administration has allowed this country to fall apart. Have you ever seen a country where the president will openly categorize its citizens’ access to government patronage into 97 per cent of those who voted for him and and five per cent of those who didn’t?
“It is for unguarded utterances and actions like these that our unity as a country is no longer like before.”
Fayose advised President Muhammadu Buhari and his henchmen to live up to expectations and ensure a more united Nigeria in order to avoid an embattled future for the unborn children.
Fayose said: “We must go back and chart a way forward. We must talk on how we want to live together. Nigeria is drifting and it is not in our interest.”