Northerners are fewer than southerners, Unless you count their cows – Fani-Kayode

Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, has again faulted another claim Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, allegedly made during a recent event in Kaduna.

El-Rufai was quoted to have said at the event, “Our (northern) demographic superiority gives us (northerners) a powerful tool.”

But responding, Fani-Kayode said the governor’s demographic claim was false.

In a tweet on his official Twitter handle on Wednesday, the former minister replied El-Rufai:

“The north has no demographic superiority. To say it does is false. It is a fallacy. It is a delusion. Unless you count the cows northerners are fewer than southerners. If the South comes together the match is over.”

He also responded to another alleged claim by the Kaduna State governor, where he was quoted to have said, “We (the North) are generally considered to be more honest and less corrupt than other Nigerians.”

But Fani-Kayode faulting the governor wrote: “Northerners are perceived to be more corrupt than southerners and Middle Belters. The ethos of hard work, honesty, prudence, fiscal discipline and transparency is alien to the North

“To the northerner Govt. and access to Govt. funds is everything. Without access to such funds they would perish. Southerners and Middle Belters do not need to steal Govt. money to survive and neither are they fatalists. They work hard for their money and they dream big knowing that the harder they work the further they are likely to go. Unlike southern and Middle Belt leaders, northern leaders have always found it difficult to make a distinction between private funds and public funds. To the northern leader the two are one and the same.”

Denying that he was attacking the North because he hates people from the region, the former minster said, “Someone said I hate the North. This is false. I do not hate the north: I love the north as I do the south and MB and I want to make it a better place. I will however say this: any notable northern leader that attacks the south will get a response from me. For that I have no apology.”