Tejiri Ebikeme

An Oil & Gas Business Mogul, Mr. Larry Otu, has expressed deep worry over insecurity in the  country and called for the split of the country now. 

Dr. Larry Otu

President Goodluck Jonathan had said on Monday, January 26, 2015 in Jos during a campaign rally that the task of keeping Nigeria one, despite the security challenges, remained one of his priorities if re-elected on February 14. But the activist/business man in an interview in Warri, Delta State, said the activities of Boko Haram in the North East part of the country were getting out of hand, lamenting that those killed so far in attacks by Boko Haram were more than those who lost their lives in the Nigerian Civil War. 

While appreciating the efforts of President Jonathan to defend Nigeria’s unity, the Larry Otu stated that “From the way things are going, it is clear that the 1914 amalgamation is not working; it has brought more curses that blessings to Nigerians.” He added, “When you look at how those from the North are behaving since President Jonathan came on board, it is clear that they do not want the unity of the country and if they want to separate, they should be allowed to go. The time has therefore come for all Nigerians to sit down and discuss how we can split the country peacefully.” According to him, the tension being generated across the country as aresult of the February general elections, if not well managed would lead to chaos and advised that “This our (North and South) forced marriage of 1914 should be looked into again critically, it is not working and no point deceiving ourselves hence I’m advocating that we should split the country now.” 

“The North does not want the South to rule and South does not want the North to rule. So why don’t you divide and rule yourselves. But then there are still other small divides – we have little tribes, who would want to rule themselves and split into smaller elements/countries, which is okay. 
Take a look at Brunei for example, the entire Brunei are not more than 400,000 people, but their economy is strong. So if the Urhobos that have a population of over 800,000 people, which is twice the population of Brunei decide to have their own country, it is okay”. So if you break this country into smaller nations there will be peaceful co-existence, so that is my position. 

From the look of things now, If Jonathan wins there will be uprising in the North, if Buhari wins there will be crisis in the South,” the business man said. He also stated “Look at the threat from the ex-militants from the South, they are saying that if Jonathan loses there will be war and the North is also spoiling for war. So how do you marry a country where both sides are spoiling for war if their candidate loses the election? How do you unite them?

In his words, “Delta  State is for all of us and since the creation of the state, the people from Delta North have not been given the opportunity to produce a governor for the state and it is only proper now that the North should be  allowed to produce the next governor for the state and that is why as an  Urhobo man, I am pleading with my elder brothers – Chief Ogboru and Olorogun Emerhor to collapse their structures into that of Senator Okowa of PDP and rally round him to emerge as our next Governor. The governorship position will certainly come back to us again in Delta Central, so for now we should allow the North to produce our next Governor for equity and fair play.” The Urhobos came together and had the Uwviamuge Declaration saying Urhobos must produce the Governor in 2015. That is a small mindset of a people already causing a divide. But they forgot that in 1999, an Urhobo man in the person of Chief James Ibori from Delta Central emerged Governor and later Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan from Delta South took over from Chief Ibori, it is just proper now for equity and fairness that it should be given to Delta North. Then the process will start all over again. If you recall in 1999, Delta North supported Chief Ibori. So I am telling the Urhobos to wait for their turn because this is not their time, the Urhobo governorship candidates should support Senator Okowa now.”