Northerners with no education are the ones ruling Nigeria – Afenifere leader, Okunrounmu

A leader of Afenifere, Senator Femi Okurounmu, has said that Nigeria is being ruled by Northerners, whom he described as having almost little or no education.


Okurounmu, while speaking on the nation’s 21 years of uninterrupted democracy, expressed displeasure that many Southern youths who graduated from the university with good grades are roaming the streets with no jobs, saying Northerners are the ones getting employed.

“In terms of development, Nigeria has been going very slippery downhill since 1999. Poverty has been increasing at an alarming rate. The level of youth unemployment is more than 50%. Every day, we start new universities, but the products of these universities, what jobs have we prepared for them? Most of them graduated without jobs; they have their certificates. The parents struggled and struggled so they make it through universities, because we so much value education in our own part of the country. But after the struggle of the parents, the children come out with the grades, they begin to roam the streets jobless. And most of the jobless youths in Nigeria are southerners because they don’t give much value to education in the North.




"If a Southerner goes to school with a Northerner. If the Southerner gets a first class and the Northerner barely pushes through just to graduate. If they apply for a job, the Northerner will be given the job and within a few years, he will become the boss.

“The Northerners with almost little or no education are the ones ruling the country in every facet. In every part of the country, they are in charge. All the so-called highly educated Southerners are roaming about without jobs. To find fulfillment, they must find their way out of the country. Nigeria is no longer a place where Yoruba sons and daughters who are educated can live and find fulfillment; they have to go out of the country.”

Okurounmu who spoke on an Abeokuta radio station on Saturday, accused Hausas and Fulanis of plans to dominate other parts of the country, saying “we now live like slaves in own country.”



According to him, May 29 is an insult to the Yoruba people for it was the day when the Western regional government of the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was truncated.

He alleged that power was handed over to the Yorubas in 1999 so that the Northerners could have full hegemonic rule over the country.

“To make May 29 Democracy Day was an insult on the Yorubas. In fact, it was a mockery of the Yorubas by The Hausa/Fulani hegemony who handed over power in 1999. I said it was an insult on the Yorubas because I could remember in history, May 29 is an inglorious day in Yoruba history. It is a day that Yorubas should be always sad of. It is a day that democracy was truncated in the former Western region. May 29, 1962, was the day the Western House of Assembly was dissolved by the then Federal Government under Tafawa Balewa. When a state of emergency was declared throughout the Western region. It was the day Awolowo was restricted and taken to Lekki and other Action Group leaders were detained. So celebrating May 29 as Democracy Day is contradictory.



“Another point is that the whole June 12 struggle was a resistance by the Yorubas to the fact that the hegemonic North wanted to perpetuate their rule and ascendancy over the whole Nigeria. They wanted to have hegemonic rule in perpetuity over Nigeria. Which is one of the reasons why MKO Abiola’s election was annulled and which is one of the reasons why the Yorubas resisted that annulment because the Yorubas believe what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

“The Fulani cannot insist that they must rule Nigeria forever. Unfortunately, the so-called democracy that they handed over to us was a prelude to continue Fulani domination. As you can see, those who are observant can see that under the cover of this COVID-19 lockdown, truckloads of Fulani youths are being transported to every part of the South. Huge trucks loaded with able-bodied Fulani youths, sometimes with arms, in fact many times with arms; because a lot of them have been intercepted and caught with arms in their trucks, going to various places in the south. Within a short period of their coming, they disappear into the hinterland; either they disappear into the towns or to the villages. A lot of people believe they are preparing for Jihad to truly take over the whole country. These are the things that have been happening. This is all the truth of the democracy that was handed over to us since 1999. May 29 was an insult upon the Yorubas. It has aided complete domination by the Fulanis to the extent that many of us now feel like slaves in our own country,” Okurounmu revealed.