The Arewa Consultative Forum has kicked against calls for the break up of Nigeria.
The ACF said Nigeria had experienced war before and does not want a repeat of the bloodshed.
The ACF National Publicity, Emmanuel Yawe, stated this in an interview with TheNation, adding that it was in the best interest of every component part of the country to stick together.
He said, “Nigeria is a free country and everyone is entitled to his opinion. ACF does not believe in secession and we don’t want to engage in an argument with those who believe in secession; there is no meeting point, we believe in one Nigeria. They don’t, so how can we engage them?
“We don’t want secession, they want it, so let them go ahead with it. But, I don’t know how they want to achieve it. It is very difficult to break away without war and we don’t want war.
“Because we know it is going to be a messy affair dividing Nigeria, it is going to lead to bloodshed, we don’t want it.
“We have experienced war before, we don’t want it again. The suffering, human waste, material waste are not our desire.
“So, we don’t want secession and we don’t want to argue with people who want to break up the country. We want the country to remain as one,” he said,
On the allegation that the secession agitators were sponsored to bully the President out of office, the ACF Publicity Secretary said, “We don’t know anything about it. Buhari’s government has so many critics; people criticise him for different things and different reasons. They have their reasons for criticising him.
“I’m not sure it is only the people calling for secession that are criticising him. Some people criticise him for his economic plan, some criticise him for his appointments, some criticise him for his security records and all of that. So, we don’t see criticising him as blackmailing him. Even ACF criticizes him and we have our own reasons for doing so.
“No government is perfect. Therefore, if you are in government and you see people who are criticising you as blackmailing you, it is unfortunate.”