Q: Southerners are angry that you attempted to rewrite history by saying that money from the North was used to develop the South. Why are you trying to rewrite history?

A: I am not rewriting history. My teacher in Barewa College has compiled the economic status of Nigeria from 1914 to 1960 and if you care to find that document, you will find what the financial relationships were between the Federal and the regional governments and how funds were moving from one part of the country to the other. That is one. You can look for it, you will get it. I can also tell you that the resources of the North were the basic sources of infrastructural development in this country, talking about the railway, the ports and so on and so forth. There is no question about that one. Also without doubt, the resources of the North were used for the exploitation of oil. You go and ask the first Minister of Mines, Power and Steel Resource (that was in charge of the oil portfolio in the First Republic), who is the longest serving up till date, Maitama Sule, he served as minister for six years. Shell asked him, this money that you are taking from the North, is it an investment or a loan? And our leaders at the time said the money belonged to a part of Nigeria and one day, the whole of Nigeria would benefit from it. So you see when some stupid comments keep coming from people who really did nothing about oil industry development and so on, I call oil money idle money. This is money that Nigerians have not worked for. The development of a country is not dependent on idle funds, which oil money is. You have to work for things and that is why from northern Nigeria where farmers are toiling to feed the country, they send goods outside the country and so on. Up till 1974, the foreign exchange of this country was dependent on exports of agricultural products, mostly from the North. So if people are not quite literate about the history of Nigeria, they should please go and read a lot more and they will be able to understand what I am saying.

Q: Are you denying the fact that Nigeria made money from other regions like the South-West, which had cocoa and the Mid-Western Region that had palm oil and so on?

A: Of course, I agree. We agree! We agree! But all the same, the colonial masters that were running the affairs of the country had records and how funds were used to balance the budgets of the various regions and how the North played a major role in balancing budgets of even governments in the southern part of the country. Records are available; you go and check them. It was up till 1974 when commercial exports of crude oil began to really take over from agricultural exports; that is why I’m referring to 1974. And you go and check the speeches of Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.) in his last year in office and so on, when the oil exports began to manifest. For example, during the civil war, this country didn’t borrow a kobo to prosecute the war for three years under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a ‘veteran person’, who knew how to manage small resources.

https://www.google.com/amp/punchng.com/no-one-has-told-me-i-committed-a-crime-we-have-freedom-of-speech-prof-ango-abdullahi/amp/

tout

Tell' em