North not afraid of Nigeria’s break up – Junaid (1)

By CHARLES KUMOLU & GBENGA OKE …Says; ‘We’re ready for National Conference’ Russian trained medical doctor and political radical, Dr. Junaid Mohammed was a member of the second republic House of Representatives and subsequently, the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC where he has claimed to have had one Dr. Goodluck Jonathan under his supervision. Known for his verbal explosions during the second republic, Dr. Junaidu had for long been unusually quiet. Well that is until his return to the fray where he has plunged head-on into the battle of the Nigeria question. Dr. Junaidu was the convener of the Northern group of professionals, politicians and policy experts that few weeks ago positioned the North for a debate on the Nigeria question. In this interview with Vanguard, he responds in his own distinctive way to the issues of Nigeria’s federalism that have recently dogged the polity. Excerpts:

HOW did the tension in the polity get to this state? The situation in the country should be seen from the position that a human being is a rational animal because God made it possible for us to learn from our mistakes and other people’s mistakes. It is always better to learn from other people’s mistake because when you learn from your mistake, you learn the hard way. It was an American Philosopher George Santayana, who said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. continued